Pippa & David

Our gorgeous couple David and Pippa met on a play date with their two girls. A year to the day they had their first date they held a truly beautiful, emotional wedding full to the brim of stunning details, perfectly telling the story of their romance, and the best part it was all in their back garden! First came the ceremony at Hammersmith Town Hall which captures some of my absolute favourite moments by O&C Photography of this new family unit, as well as showing off Pippa & David's undeniable style. Pippa looks uber chic in a Ghost gown, and how fabulous is her feather bouquet. Their girls look equally adorable in tulle skirts from Marks and Spencer, wands and headbands, and together there is no denying all the love and happiness.

Our Story

Pippa the Bride: David and I didn’t have a wedding planner, as from the moment we met we knew our styles, lives, kids and tastes matched. We knew we wanted to get married at home, as all our first moments had be in my flat. We met through the children at the school gates, and after a few play dates and sleep-overs we were inseparable. I asked David for a first kiss (modern woman) in our flat, our first play date and sleepover were here at home and David proposed to me twice in our kitchen – so it really was fitting to continue our journey of firsts in our family home. We only have a small London flat but are blessed with a huge garden, so over the course of 6 months we began the transformation of our London garden into a wedding venue. Our theme was “handmade homegrown chic – with a dash of everything we love, and a couple of feathers thrown in too”. David loves mustard yellow, geometric patterns, stationery and bold inventive signage – so those were all his domain. I took pride in all the details, I arranged and chose the flowers myself, I made our daughters accessories and I made sure that every day I was doing, ordering or creating something for the garden.

Budget

Choosing our suppliers was tricky because of our tight budget and our finickity taste, they seem to continuously clash ….so we decided to strip back the wedding and work out what we really wanted and start asking in some favours.

Stationery

Our invites were designed by David at Cherry Press in Chipping Campden, and we were blown away by their helpful nature and attention to detail, and how they translated our broken thoughts into a keep-sake of beauty. Our invites were very important to David and I, so no scrimping here!

Food

Next we set out to find our food and beverage options, we didn’t want fuss or three course meals just simple good easy food. We fell in love with the VW camper van style food vans at Camp Bestival so knew what we wanted, and Pizza is my favourite food so a no brainer for us. We ended up working with Woodbox Pizza, and all night we heard our guests complimenting their food and service! We also brought in a bar (The BugBar) and loved the fact they personalised our cocktails for us.

Photographer

Finding a photographer was the longest process, as a photographer myself – I was incredibly particular about style and what was included in the package. I wanted someone who could create beauty in the normal, find the spectacular in the everyday as our home and garden were not the most mind-blowing stage but that’s what we had to work with. I came across O+C Photography, we knew from the first few photos on their website that they were the guys for us. Everything fell into place, the date, the Skype calls – then they turned up on the day and I felt that I had opened up my doors to old friends….they set about blending in and becoming part of our family – which resulted in the most natural, beautiful, easy going photos that still wow us each time we look at them.

Groomsmen

David dressed his best man, our brothers and dads in Massimo Dutti, as he wanted them and himself to have clothes they could wear again and again….and I’ve never seen him look so smart or dashing! I can’t wait till he wears the whole outfit again!

Dress

I struggled committing to a style of a dress, but I knew it had to reflect me. I left it to the last minute and found it in the sale at Ghost with my Mummy on our “must find a dress” shopping trip, we also found my best Girls dress that day too. The dress was sleek, elegant, covered the bits I don’t like and showed off my favourite features. It was light, moved with me and worked perfectly with a leather jacket….. I had it tweaked and tailored at Zara Makes, our local Harlesden Dress maker, who also created the girls outfits and my veil . We wanted our kids to look like kids, and have the kind of clothes that move and breathe so they could have fun and not look like dolls…… My shoes were Jimmy Choo from eBay and perfect, comfy, wearable and a little glitzy……

Desserts

Our Parents had a dessert-off, My mother made her famous Cherry Cheesecake, My Father presented us with the Cheese Tower from Borough Market, David’s mother handcrafted the wonderful naked cake, plus my darling friend Sabine from Dream a Cake made the delicious feather cupcakes…… when we came home from our night at Dean Street Town House….everything had been eaten….

Entertainment

My mother asked my Auntie Sandra and Cousin Ed to sing our first dance – Years from Now by Dr Hook, which was the most incredible gift and personal touch, and our good friend Vicky aka Lady VIP rocked the decks for our guests and got everybody, even David (and myself) up dancing!

Ceremony

We tied the knot at the stunning Marble Gallery at Hammersmith Town hall, and then provided a wonderful retro Big Red Bus to carry us and our guests through London traffic calmly and quickly back to our home where we set about creating some of the most magical memories and moments.

Decor

Our house was full of handmade wine bottle candles, bottles thanks to Basia – the brides mothers, and San Pellegrino cans with flowers and feathers popping out of them – cans with thanks to everyone we know – we certainly drank a lot in the build up to the wedding.

Advice

My advice to anyone getting married – Don’t be scared to do it your way – its your day. We really did have the best day…….and now we are expecting a Johnson Jnr in Spring 2017!