Linh & Abe

If you're unsure how to dress your bridal party, then you should definitely take a look at this seriously stylish squad. The groomsmen don navy suits with bow ties, the bridesmaids look heavenly in burgundy ReWritten gowns and Bride Linh looks exquisite in a Giambattista Vall wedding dress. That lace bodice is giving us all the feels. All the style and beauty was captured by The Curries for your pinning and swooning pleasure, so make sure you're sitting comfortably, and we'll begin.

Our Story

Linh the Bride: Abe and I are both from London but moved to New York in January this year for work. Abe works in finance and I am a fashion stylist. We always planned on getting married in London and wanted to have a understated, laid back feel to our day. We just wanted to make sure everything felt easy and fun.

Bride’s Fashion & Accessories

As a fashion stylist, I knew I didn’t want a traditional “wedding dress”. I couldn’t imagine myself wearing a Vera Wang or getting anything from David’s Bridal. I actually only tried 2 dresses, both by fashion designers that happened to be white. Both ordered online. I decided to go with a Giambattista Valli evening gown that I ordered from BrownsFashion.com. It’s a super light silk chiffon gown with lace macramé detail and I loved. My shoes were a simple single strap black Manolo Blahnik heel and I wore a diamond tennis bracelet my mother gave me.

Groom’s Fashion & Accessories

Abe had his navy 3 piece suit tailor made by King & Allen and included our names and wedding date inside his jacket. His shirt was from Santamaria shirt makers, bow tie and pocket square are from Moss Bros and shoes from Dune.

The Venue

We both have pretty big families. For the ceremony and dinner, we had about 90 friends and family with an extra 40 joining us in the evening. We chose to have our ceremony at Asia House in Marylebone. This is such a beautiful area in the city and the room was simple and elegant. Our evening reception was held at The Happenstance just by St Pauls Cathedral. As Londoners, we really wanted to have a “London” wedding and felt that both venues really had that feeling.

Colour / Decor / Theme

We didn’t have a particular theme for our wedding, but as a stylist, I know what I like. The most important thing was that everything felt easy, fun and laid back. The last thing we wanted was a big fancy hotel wedding. We love going to them, but this felt more like us. I knew I wanted lots of white flower and greeney. We both loved the idea of deep red and navy tones so incorporated all of those colours. Pinterest was the best source of inspiration! My niece Ying Lui is a graphic designer so we had her design our wedding invitations and seating chart. It followed our theme of simple, easy elegance with a leafy design. She has a friend (Silver and Rickie) who is an incredible calligrapher. He designed our place cards and table numbers. He also designed a hand painted welcome sign for us. Our wedding favours were from Wildflower Favours. I wanted to give everyone something they could use and love. We selected chilli seeds and flower seeds that benefit two different charities. For the kids, I made sweetie bags. Abe had the idea to give each table a name of an old classic song that we loved. Our table was our first dance, Let’s stay together by Al Greene. The music was super important to us. For the drinks reception, we played lots of Bob Marley as we wanted to have a really fun, summery vibe. For dinner we had our favourite classic motown and soul songs playing. Abe’s cousin is a DJ so provided the music for the party.

Florist

I had a very strong idea of what I wanted and worked with Fran from The Fresh Flower Company in Dulwich. I wanted lots of white flowers with beautiful green foliage and for it to feel slightly wild and easy. I didn’t want a huge bouquet as it’s not my style. I had a beautiful loose and understated bouquet with white roses, ammi, scabious, nigella and flowering herbs. My 3 bridesmaids had a similar smaller version and the flower girls had a mini version. The men’s button holes were white nigella with a small rose and rosemary. For the venue, we had each table covered with lots of small bottles with little white flowers and garlands of olive leaf and eucalyptus running down the middle.

The Wedding Party Fashion

I had 3 adult bridesmaids and 4 flower girls. I have known Fran from Rewritten for a while and when she launched her brand, I knew I had to take my bridesmaids for a fitting there. They all have different body shapes and I wanted to make sure they all looked and felt comfortable in their dresses. The best thing about Rewritten is they have various shapes which worked perfectly for them. We chose dresses in Chianti. The flower girls wore ivory dresses from Marks and Spencer. For the groomsmen, they wore suits from Hawes and Curtis, Shirts from TM Lewin and shoes from Dune.

Ceremony

I walked down the aisle to a song from one of our favourite films, Baz Luhmer’s Romeo and Juliet – Kissing you by Des’ree. We had two readings at the ceremony. First was by Abe’s eldest sister Melissa. She read a Sonnet 116 by Shakespeare and also shared a few lovely words about Abe. The second was by my maid of honour Charlotte. She read an extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. At the end, we walked out to Stevie Wonder – Signed, sealed, delivered.

Entertainment

We always wanted to make sure the day was fun and really wanted a magician. A friend recommended Diobo. He was exactly the type of entertainment we wanted. His style is very cool street magic. The last thing we wanted was a cheesy magician. He during dinner he entertained guests with table magic. Following dinner he did a big group performance that had everybody captivated. We can’t recommend him enough!

Food & Drinks

For our drinks reception, we had gin cocktails and lots of prosecco. We had crab to start and roast chicken for mains. For veggies we served tomato bruschetta and a vegatble tagine. We had a dessert table that included a delicious 3 tiered wedding cake from French Made (two layers of Victoria sponge, one lemon). Our guests were raving about it. We also had Eton Mess and Chocolate covered strawberries.

Photographer

Our search for a photographer wasn’t easy as both Abe and I really knew what we wanted – documentary style with a film like quality. We discovered The Curries and fell in love with their work and after meeting the duo, we knew they would be perfect.

Hair & Make Up

My lovely friend Laura Tucker did make up for myself, bridesmaids and my mum. We have worked together on my editorial projects so I knew she would do an amazing job for the wedding. Emma Small did an incredible job with our hair.

Videographer

We booked Ray McShane to make our wedding video. We loved his style and really wanted someone to be able to capture all the moments we would miss. Additonal Info: The night before the big day, my bridesmaids and I stayed at The Ned Hotel. We had a really lovely suite to get ready in.