Kate & Bobby

Kate and Bobby's wedding has put a huge smile on my face, their joy is just infectious. Both are clearly head over heels for each other and it radiates from the images. The couple run a stationery design company together, Telegramme Paper Co. so naturally their wedding is wonderfully styled too. Kate wears Phase Eight and has customised her mint green Jimmy Choos with the happiest of props - the humble pompom. For those of you thinking about avoiding flowers on your big day, for cost or allergy reasons, this is a gorgeous example of how to add colour and vibrancy in other ways. Namely balloons. Lots and lots of balloons. Images come from the lovely Joanna Bongard, who you'll find on our recommended supplier directory, The List.

Our Wedding

Kate The Bride: Kate is from Uttoxeter in the midlands and Bobby from Eastleigh, Hampshire. We both went to University in Falmouth and lived in London for a number of years and now we live by the sea in Margate, Kent. We are graphic designers and illustrators and run our own studio, Telegramme Paper Co. We married on 24th September. We knew we wanted an Autumn wedding as it’s both of our favourite times of the year and September is our favourite month.

The Bride

I knew what type of dress I wanted, which was a 1950s classic style. The one I got was from Phase Eight and I loved it. I customised it with a short veil, which was from a vintage wedding shop in London - Fur Coat, No Knickers, and I also had a giant bow and sash made by an amazing costume designer, Nadia Tahari. I wore mint green Jimmy Choo kitten heels and customised those with some pale pink pom pom shoe clips. I had a pom pom bouquet and the wedding party had pom pom button holes, which I made myself.

The Groom

Bobby’s suit was custom made by Beggars Run in Hackney. He wore it with black Dr Marten brogues, a pale pink tie and a personalised copper tie clip, which we also had made for all the men in the wedding party.

The Venue

We used to do a lot of craft fairs where we sold out art prints and cards and homewares and we did our very first one together at the Vintage Suitcase Vintage Fair which was held at The Dome in 2014 and thought it was such a unique and beautiful venue. Then whilst we were looking for venues my maid of honour mentioned that her friend had got married at The Dome so we thought it’d be perfect!

The Theme

We didn’t really have a theme but we both like lots of colour and wanted to make the wedding as casual and as much fun as possible, and a bit like a fun fair. So maybe the theme was fun! We run a design studio together and so we designed our invites and all other stationery ourselves. The invites and main pieces were mostly dusty pink, gold, mint green and cream but we had lots of multicoloured confetti and balloons and hand painted signs everywhere so there wasn’t too much of a strict colour scheme.

The Decor

We didn’t have any flowers on the day. Myself and the bridesmaids had pom pom bouquets instead, which I made myself using wool, flower wire and gold washi tape. The groomsmen, parents and wedding party had mini pom pom button holes which I also made too. For other decorations we had lots of amazing marquee lights and painted signs. Such as the large K and B lights, the light up bar sign, our welcome sign and the large sign post we made for the centre of the room. They were all handmade by my brother and sister in law. They run a company called Lamplight Design Co. and they make lots of lighting props for weddings and homes. We then had lots and lots (and lots!) of balloons. You’re not allowed helium balloons in the Dome due to the high ceiling, so my dad, who is an amazing engineer and maker and can just about make anything, thought of a genius way of making fake helium balloons. We wanted large round helium-looking balloons at the end of the aisle and also for the table decorations. So my mum and dad made stands and bases (using cement, plant pots and plastic tubing) and then we used regular balloons on top of these. My mum then found the perfect gold tassels to cover the poles in - making them all look like they were floating! They were probably my favourite part of the props we had. Because they looked amazing but also because of the amount of effort, work and love that went into making them for us. We also made our own amazing balloon arch out of a metal garden arch (painted and altered by my mum and dad) and lots of balloon clips and glue dots. We’re so lucky to have such talented families for sure!

The Wedding Party

My Maid of Honour Anna and bridesmaid Sam wore coral pink coloured tea dresses which had white peter pan collars and petticoats underneath. They had white kitten heels which we also customised with white pom pom shoes clips. The groomsmen in the wedding party just wore their own, lovely suits and personalised copper tie clips which we gave as gifts. I also made the groomsmen and parents pom pom button holes.

The Ceremony

We had a civil ceremony which was really nice and casual. My maid of honour Anna read a reading we had chosen which was “If I Should Fall Behind” by Bruce Springsteen - we’re both big fans. The ceremony in general was really fun and I spent most of it in giggles!

The Entertainment

For entertainment we had a 50s rock and roll band called The Crybabies, who were great. We also then had 3 friends, who regularly do a pop punk/rock club night in London called Last Resort, to DJ for the rest of the night. I don’t think they could’ve gone down better, it was one of the most fun nights ever! We also had a bouncy castle, a temporary tattoo parlour (which my brother, sister-in-law and dad designed and built!), a sweet cart (which my mum stocked and even made chocolate mice for!) and a photo booth, which came as part of our package with our photographer, Jo. So our guests had lots to do!

The Food

The food at The Dome was great. We choose ham hock, chicken in red wine and strawberry cheesecake (along with dietary alternatives for many guests) We supplied our wine and prosecco ourselves as we wanted to make custom labels for all the bottles because we really wanted to design as many details as we could. My maid of honour Anna also made our absolutely incredible wedding cake!

The Transport

We had our ceremony and party all on the same huge room and everyone stayed over the road so we didn’t need any transport, but on the day I travelled over the road with my dad in his 1965 red Chevrolet truck. I can’t think of a better way to travel!

The Photography

Our photographer was the absolutely amazing Jo Bongard. She specialises in wedding photography and knows her stuff! We would definitely recommend her to everyone - I think we have already! She did such a great job of shooting everything and organised the big crowd into shots. We had our group shots just outside of The Dome entrance, and around the side for shots with the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Bobby and I then went over the road to the Pavillion Gardens and Opera House for some more shots together. The gardens are beautiful and perfect for couple photos.