Nina & Damian

Nina and Damian's wedding is the epitome of our mantra - 'your day, your way.' They held an intimate civil ceremony at Islington Town Hall, followed by a family dinner. Then they held an Indian wedding blessing and a big party in the coolest space, Tanner Warehouse. Every part of (both) weddings was personalised to the include the things they love, making this wedding truly unique and a total pleasure to look at. Nina's lavender sari is absolutely beautiful. I've been longing to see a Bride in this gorgeous shade ever since I saw this wedding, so it's a real treat to share this big day with you all. The images come from We Heart Pictures whose work we always love to feature, Hector and Charlie capture weddings in such an honest, fun way that you feel as if you're there, soaking up every last moment with the couple, just from looking at them.

The Bride

Nina wanted to wear an indian sari, but knew she didn’t want to wear the traditional red and gold. The chosen outfit was a step away from the norm as she wore a lavender coloured soft net sari. It wasn’t the colour she was expecting to wear but loved as soon as she tried it on. It was worn one way for the indian ceremony and then changed up in style for the evening party. She teamed this up with matching bangles and hair jewellery. All were purchased from Aariya London which is a new designer Indian boutique located on at East Shopping Centre, Green Street.

The Groom

Damian wore a fully tailored made to measure suit from Reiss and a tailored white shirt from Eton. It was a navy suit, with a grey wool blend waistcoat. Shoes were from Church’s, with pocket squares and ties also from Reiss.

The Venue

We both wanted somewhere untraditional and a bit unexpected. The main things for us were informality and a place to have a good old party! That’s why we picked the Tanner Warehouse for the main ceremony and the party – a unique warehouse style venue that met the above criteria. In addition, its location on Bermondsey Street was perfect in being able to accommodate all of Nina’s family who travelled from Manchester and Leeds, as there a wide range of accommodation within walking distance. This in turn meant everyone could literally stagger to bed after all the drinking and dancing at the end of the night – extra bonus! The warehouse also had the added benefit of being self contained, with an open flare kitchen which was a great feature during dinner in the evening. For the reception, we hired The Bermondsey Yard Café next door to The Tanner Warehouse which was a perfect place to hold our guests for drinks whilst the warehouse got turned around for the dinner. Also perfect because it has a similar industrial and relaxed vibe like the Tanner Warehouse.

The Decor

There wasn’t a set ‘theme’ as such. Our décor was influenced by the raw space of the warehouse and of course reflected Nina’s colourful indian culture. The venue’s bright coloured festoon lights that hang outside were a real feature in themselves and dressed the entrance magically. The main blessing was conducted underneath a traditional Indian Mandap (a canopy supported by four pillars) dressed with flowers and featured a fire that we walked around as part of the ceremony. We dressed the venue with colourful saris hung from the beams as well as bright wild flowers and tea light candles displayed in jam jars.

The Flowers

We wanted the flowers to be quite effortless and wild. The bridal flowers and button holes had a purple and blue colour theme throughout to go with our outfits. The bouquet was a loose triangle shaped meadow bouquet, made up of baby roses, Astrantia, Lisianthus, freesias, Dahlias, daisies, Nigella, and Autumn greenery and Ivory Stems finished with twine. We also had a floral garland made with white chrysanthemums and a little greenery for each the bride and groom as they were used as part of the indian ceremony
 To dress the venue and the dinner tables, we had jam jar flowers that were a mix of bright yellows, reds, oranges and greens to inject some colour into the space, using flowers such as dahlias, snapdragons, craspedia, berries, poppies freesias and baby roses.

The Wedding Party

Groomsmen (best man, ushers) echoed what Damian as they too wore navy suits with brown brogues and a navy spotted tie. Nina didn’t have bridesmaids, but her sister and sister in law wore the same indian style outfit each in a different colour.

The Ceremony

The ceremony consisted of 2 parts: The first part of our wedding was the civil (legal) ceremony which took place at Islington Town Hall on Friday 14th October. This was for immediate family only (a total of 18 guests) and was a quick morning ceremony, followed by lunch in the private dining room of The Albion pub also in Islington. This day holds special memories as our young nieces and nephews each did a reading. These were not traditional wedding readings, but were quite humorous and entertaining. Our nephews read ‘A Lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton and our nieces read ‘I Like You’ by Sandal Stoddard Warburg. The second (main) part of our wedding was the indian wedding blessing where we invited 120 guests in total. It was a very scaled back and condensed version of a traditional indian wedding lasting just 50 minutes. (They can usually last up to 4 hours).

The Entertainment

We had DJ Tim Martello provide our musical entertainment throughout the wedding. He is a brilliant New York based DJ who we know through friends. We both have a love for dance music after many a trip to Ibiza and of course it was important for us to integrate indian music into the day. Tim’s brief was to mix in Bollywood beats with Ibiza dance tunes and the result was our guests busting out some of their best bhangra dance moves followed by a rave into the early hours of the morning. This was very special because it really brought everyone together and showed a true mix of our 2 cultures coming together. The earlier background music that Tim played whilst guests arrived and whilst having dinner, was a mix of electro indian beats from the likes of Talvin Singh and Nitin Sawhney.

The Food

Payal Events took care of the catering brilliantly, specialising in Asian cuisine. To ensure a very informal and relaxed dinner, we had sharing style food of indian curries and side dishes that were served on platters at the table which people could just help themselves to. One of our favourite London restaurants, Dishoom heavily influenced the style of the food – the minced lamb and pea curry was a firm favourite among guests! Canapes were served at the reception venue The Bermondsey Yard Café, and followed an ‘indian street food style’ theme. Again influenced by Dishoom we served spiced okra fries, onion bhajis and tandoori chicken bites. As well as prosecco and ale, we also served up traditional indian masala chai for the older guests to drink. We had our wedding cake as dessert, which had a nod to indian flavours. Nina’s friend Sally made a three tier naked cake each tier being a different flavour – lemon with chai butter cream, pistachio and rose, and vanilla with cardamom buttercream. Drinks also were served up with an indian twist on traditional recipes. The welcome cocktail was a “Bombay Pimms’ made up of saffron gin, pomegranate and fiery ginger beer. To accompany the curries during dinner we had a choice of Brixton Pale Ale or an Indian Cobra Beer. We both love whiskey and gin, so we had a bar for each during the party in the evening. There was a choice of 3 whiskies and the gin bar had a indian twist serving up cardamom infused gin with tonic, plus the classics of course.

The Photography

The amazing Charlie and Hector of We Heart Pictures took care of our wedding photos and we couldn’t have been happier. The main reason we picked them was because of their alternative take on wedding photos and lack of formal shots. Given our wedding was quite alternative and anything but traditional or formal, we couldn’t have picked or asked for a better photographer! We love how Hector truly captured every moment, emotion and personality with his action shots. Each image takes us back to the most magical couple of days.