Julie & Ross

Lovely Bride Julie is a wedding photographer herself, whose own work we've featured countless times on RMW so it's a real treat to share her intimate London wedding with you all today. Naturally Julie chose one of the industries finest photographers, Miss Gen, to capture her wedding day. Julie & Ross held their civil ceremony at Chelsea Town Hall, followed by a stylish pizza and fizz party at the family home in Kensington. The sun shone down on this gorgeous part of London and the whole celebration just looked really relaxed, fun and happy. Enjoy this one lovelies, you're going to love it!

Our Story

Julie the Bride: We met at my best friends wedding in 2013, I was a bridesmaids and Ross was a 'working guest' making a wedding video for the bride and groom (he makes documentaries for a living) and were engaged for a year before we got married! We were getting married in Italy but planned to do the legal portion of the day in London where we both live and work. It was most important to us that we kept the day small and intimate, we didn’t want to have two weddings but also didn’t want the civil ceremony day to go uncelebrated!

The Ceremony

I was going to go for a shorter civil ceremony dress as that's usually the 'done thing' but then thought hell no why do I have to wear a short dress?! I'm getting married! I'll wear whatever I want! I wore a two piece from Catherine Deane but had altered to be a one piece (so I didn’t have constantly be fiddling with the dress) I wore shoes by Alexandre Birman which I loved even though they were pretty hard to walk it!

The Flowers

Liz from Blue Sky Flowers has been a friend of mine ever since I started as a wedding photographer in the industry, so there was no questions to who would do our flowers. She is a superstar florist and a lovely person to deal with on your wedding day, I recommend her wholehearted to anyone!

The Ceremony

Our ceremony was very simple and just followed the lead of our registrar, hilarious moments included me saying my own name wrong during the vows 'I, Sophie Julie Michaelsen...' you don't realise how overwhelming it can be once you're stood up there!

The Photography

I met Gen on a photography workshop a few years ago and when it came to our civil ceremony in London I wanted someone who was good at 'urban' weddings, Gen shoots a lot in London and I loved her photos for their fun and playful nature. She was a joy to work with and we're really happy with our photos!

The Entertainment

We had The Revue wandering band during our 'reception' which was a dinner at our family house after the ceremony. They were amazing and played acoustic as we relaxed in the sunshine!

The Vibe

We had hired a pizza oven van (pizza is one of my favourite foods!) the vibe was very much relaxed with guests having drinks in the garden!

Memorable Moments

We loved every moment of this day it really kicked off our wedding celebrations! We didn’t really do speeches as there would be speeches in Italy but Ross and I thanked everyone and Ross paid tribute to my late grandparents whose wedding rings we had inherited and used as our own, which was very emotional.

Advice

We wouldn't do anything differently it was the most perfect day! I would say to other couples to make sure you stay true to what you want for your wedding day and don't be swayed by other influences, what food do YOU like? What drinks do YOU want? It's so easy to fall victim to thinking TOO much about your guests. Your guest will have the most amazing time regardless so take the opportunity to be a bit selfish and just enjoy every moment!