Sara & Simon

Are you ready to shimmy your way into the weekend? Of course you are. Bride Sarah wore a truly gorgeous gold sequin gown from Gibson Bespoke, setting the tone for this relaxed and incredibly fun wedding in East London perfectly. Then there's the DIY gold spray painted dinosaur planters and name place settings that not only look amazing on the trestle table in Hoxton Arches but are a nod to the couples wild side. Get ready to feel the love and the gold with all the fabulousness of this city wedding captured by Christine Wehrmeier Photography.

The Ring

Sara the Bride: When Simon proposed he wanted to choose a ring together so we had a great couple of months researching in London going into Mayfair jewellers asking advice, learning about diamonds and, finally, going down to haggle in Hatton Gardens and choosing the right cut together.

The Dress

I knew I didn’t want a traditional wedding dress, so when I found Gibson Bespoke, based in Northern Ireland, I fell in love with their gorgeous rose gold sequin gown; it really added the wow factor. It certainly matched my Hollywood glamour vision! The dress spoke for itself and I wanted to keep accessories simple so wore some L.K Bennett shoes I already had (that I knew were comfortable to dance in) and a glamorous necklace I had bought several years ago in a boutique in New York.

Beauty

Despite doing a lot of the decorations and invites myself, I knew I needed help with the hair and make-up. A friend recommended Fleetwood of London and Justyna came round to do the trial and it was fantastic. She got the Hollywood glamour vision straight away and is incredibly talented, and great to have around to boot.

The Grooms Attire

When I saw Simon in his suit for the first time I was blown away, he looked so suave! We went into Marks and Spencer to try on some fits and came away with a beautifully made suit at great value. I was really impressed with their choices.

The Wedding Party Fashion

I wanted to bridesmaids to have dresses they could wear again so we went with a chic black Audrey Hepburn style knee length dress and a classy updo and they both looked stunning!

The Venue

We got married in Hackney Town Hall, which is a fantastic building and the reception was at Hoxton Arches. The location is special to us as we met in Hackney and have lived there together ever since. It’s our home. Hoxton Arches is usually an art gallery so was a blank slate, but has a really great outside area full of street art and an outside bar.

Stationery

Simon and I run a non-profit organisation teaching encryption so we wanted to bring some of ourselves into the save the date cards and invites. I found a template on Martha Stewart’s wedding site of ‘encrypted save the date cards’ so we spent some time making these ourselves, which was really fun. Then we made the wedding cards based on our own design using a ‘grille cipher’ to lead people to our ‘Appy Couple’ wedding site, where our guests could rsvp, tell us their meal choices and find information.

Colour Scheme/Decor

We wanted the wedding to be laid back and fun, so we knew we had to set the scene with fun décor. I made gold dinosaurs with air plants as the centre pieces, along with gold wine bottles with a single gerbera stem to add colour and some battery powered gold sparkly candles I bought in bulk from Ali Baba. We had asked people to send us a selfie in the save the dates, so we printed them off and used them as the name places by having a mini dinosaur holding their selfie at the tables. People loved the dinosaurs so much a lot of them found new homes… For wedding favours we gave our guests some metallic temporary tattoos and ‘Team Simon’ and ‘Team Sara’ stickers to wear throughout the day. I thought by the end of night everyone would be covered in metallic facial tattoos, but I underestimated our friends and family and it took a matter of seconds.

Ceremony

The ceremony was lovely in Hackney Town Hall and my sister and Simon’s brother both did beautiful and heart-warming readings.

Entertainment

For the entertainment, The Bare Necessities played us into the evening. They are a talented trio from Suffolk with a wide repertoire that got the whole party dancing.

Food

Chris Adnitt our wedding planner was an absolutely fantastic addition. As the venue was dry hire, he sorted everything from chairs and tables, to the bar and, of course, the caterers. Caiger and Co were great and we received so many comments about the delicious food. Chris was great at communicating before the vent and offered sound, down to earth advice. On the day he and his staff were so professional and the whole thing was seamless.

Canapes

Poached prawns in a Thai dressing on bamboo skewers

Seared scallop with chorizo crumb, saffron aioli on brioche croutes

Slow roast pork belly bites with crackling and an apple and pear dipping sauce

Starter

Salad of splitwheat, flame raisins and sweet potato

Herb salad, chorizo and a hazelnut pesto and goat’s yoghurt

Main

Pulled cajun pork shoulder

Served with Mexican slaw, rice and black bean salad with toasted coconut, green salad with breakfast radishes and toasted nuts and seeds

Evening food

To be served as a tower/cake style: Cheese cake, grapes, biscuits and bread

Desserts brought by guests as a ‘Great Wedding Bake-off’

Photographer

I had met Christine at a journalism course were on together years ago and had been following her wedding photography ever since. When we started looking I knew I wanted Christine there with her talented execution and original ideas. She was an absolute joy to have around from being a calming presence during the getting ready phase to efficiently organising everyone in the group shots right through to have a great time with the guests during the party at the. We came away with beautiful photos to remind of of the special day that went by all too quickly.