Sophie & Dom

I swear recommended supplier Liz Linkleter Events has the best clients because today's London wedding is yet again absolutely incredible. If you haven't caught Liz's other gorgeously styled weddings these past thirty days you can find them here and here, because believe you me you're going to want to see them. Now back to today's stunning wedding. The industrial Loft Studios was converted into a botanical haven with hanging greenery, lanterns and festoon lights, and the tablescape beneath looked spectacular decorated with foliage stems in bottles, gorgeous stationery from Papier and yellow wine glasses. Bride Sophie and her best girls have also had me swooning with delight. The clean lines of Sophie's J Mendel bridal separates are divine, Just look at the slit in her skirt and shoulders, so sassy, yet so chic. And as for her best girls in matching Johnny Loves Rosie headbands and bardot tops, well, I think I've died and gone to style heaven. If all this wasn't enough there are beautiful blooms from Grace & Thorn, food from Spook and a vintage red mustang all captured by Dasha Caffrey Photography for you to feast your eyes upon too

The Wedding

Liz Linkleter the Wedding Planner: Sophie and Dom's wedding mixed the grandeur of beautiful Chelsea Old Church with the urban cool of Loft Studios. We worked with the bride on the creative design and décor of the wedding, before pulling it all together for them in the month beforehand. She was full of brilliant ideas that inspired the overall look and feel of the day.

Styling & Decor

For the reception, Sophie wanted something elegant and refined with a relaxed sophistication, full of personal touches and style, but also making the most of the setting, with its brick walls, concrete floors and exposed beams. Influences were many and varied, but in particular, we brought in elements of an English glasshouse or tropical hothouse, alongside elegant Colonial styling details – furniture and props had a luxe feel, contrasted against a faded, urban London backdrop. The bride loves orange and pale grey, so alongside foliage green and cream, those colours made up the palette.

Flowers

Plants and foliage were essential to creating the look we wanted, so we decided to remove florals completely and focus all of the budget on filling the space with lush greenery. We worked with Grace & Thorn to fill the courtyard with plants in lovely pots, with foliage garlands hanging from the ceiling and decorating the stairways, alongside plenty of festoon lighting, paper lanterns and some stylish wooden furniture in our wedding colours with bright patterned rugs. We hosted the welcome drinks here, and it really came to life in the evening when it was a very popular spot for guests to escape the heat of the dancefloor. To create more space for drinks (and in case of rain) we also took over the adjoining studio, decorating cream muslin drapes, creating an ethereal effect and hiding some of the unsightly industrial pipes, with more plants and seating, and a dramatic white wooden bar with a foliage installation behind it. Upstairs, in the dining and dancing room, Grace & Thorn hung cheese plant chandeliers above the dancefloor, alongside a glitter ball, and hung more foliage displays all along the length of the dining tables. Table décor was clean and simple, with touches of amber from glassware and simple single foliage stems in brown glass bottles. The foliage element also decorated the illustrated stationery.

Catering

Great food and drink were a priority for this. Working with brilliant London caterers Spook, alongside Cock & Tail for delicious drinks, they started with long sharing charcuterie boards that were elevated on supports and ran the whole length of the dining tables – they looked amazing and very dramatic. Mains included cannon of lamb with arancini with seasonal vegetables. The couple decided to skip dessert, heading straight onto the dancefloor instead, with tunes provided by the always-brilliant Wedding Smashers and the brother of the bride. They didn’t want the formality of a wedding cake, so instead had an amazing cheese table by Hamish Johnstone. Later that night, a Mexican taco van drove straight into the courtyard, serving frozen margaritas alongside the delicious tacos.

Photography

Sophie the Bride: What was really important to us on the day was the people. The feel of our wedding day was sophisticated but informal and as such, we wanted the more informal and natural style of photography. Dasha's photographic style is quite versatile and tends to gauge the mood of each couple’s individual day, in that she is great at capturing those naturally atmospheric and action shots. For us, we wanted to see a day that was fun and happy in a real way, not ‘perfect’ or chocolate-boxy and we loved the photographs Dasha created. Not only do we get to relive the day over and over, but we think she captured the mood and everything else perfectly!