Love, Laughter and Smiles on a Rainy Day Wedding in London…

'Sunshine on a rainy daaaaayyyy…..'

Well, maybe not actual sunshine, but sunshine in the form of love, laughter and smiles in droves I tell you, droves!

Love My Dress reader Kat married her beau Frank on 28 April at Lauderdale House in Highgate Hill, followed by a reception at The Star pub in Tufnell Park.  I love these photographs so very much, they capture such a pretty, colourful day and despite the weather, the couple look so relaxed and full of joy…

"We really wanted an informal venue for our reception as we didn’t want a sit down meal, so we opted for a pub. We also fancied something a bit urban as London is our home, and it’s where we met and has a special place for us more so than any other city.

North London is particularly special to me as this is where Frank used to live and he introduced me to the area when we met, so has happy memories for me personally…"

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Laura Babb

"Laura was able to put us in contact with Esta.  Esta was truly amazing and created the most fantastic flower displays– they far exceeded my expectations, especially on the tight budget we had given Esta  ! She managed to transform both venues and spent most of the morning transporting flowers from one venue to another {as we had to clear out fully from Lauderdale House}.

Frank called her the ‘flower ninja’, as she managed to move all the flowers and rework the displays in the time it took us to have a glass of champagne and get to the next venue, without us seeing her ! She was brilliant…"

"My dress and wedding veil, was lovingly handmade but a very talented family friend, Lynn.  I had visions of something very simple and quite ‘unbridal’, however, after trying dresses on I realised these styles didn’t suit me and I it seemed I actually quite liked the idea of a white dress!

I love lace, but didn’t want all lace, so I found a dress I quite liked and showed Lynn a picture.  We made some tweaks and she created my dress…"

 

"We chose a London bus to get our guests from Lauderdale House to the The Star.  Part of our London theme, and they all enjoyed it apparently.  Our friend organised our wedding car as a gift for us.  He has quite a wacky sense of humour so we were quite nervous!

We couldn’t believe the car when it arrived, it was very special and it allowed us to have half an hour zipping round London drinking champagne on our own which was just perfect…"

"The Star allowed us to hire out the whole venue for the day which was also what we wanted.   Having said all that I still wanted something a bit pretty for the ceremony as had a slight niggle about not going for ‘outdoor/countryside’ kind of day.."

"Laura was able to put us in touch with Tony of Fat Tony's Cupcakes.  I didn’t want a cake as I wanted it to be eaten on the day, so cupcakes it was.  And these were quite amazing cupcakes – people are still talking about them now!"

"I found my hair and makeup artist Jenny through a website and she put me in touch with her colleauge Danielle.  They were both absolutely lovely and managed to make me look just how I wanted to look – even though I couldn’t quite describe what that was!"

"I wore the 'Heirloom of Pearl side tiara, from Glitzy Secrets and a lovely necklace from a little shop in Camden Passage, plus a bracelet from Aunty Marleen!"

"Lauderdale House felt like it fit the bill as our wedding ceremony venue, as we really loved the gardens and the house and could have an outside drinks reception after the wedding and photos in the garden.  (It actually bucketed it down on the day so we didn’t step foot outside – but never mind!)…"

"My Dad gave me away – he sobbed through most of the morning! I walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of elbow – One Day Like this…"

"Both venues were quite unique, so we didn’t actually have to do much.  Esta really made the pub look less like a ‘pub’ and more like a wedding venue, so we just added some bunting (from Bunting Queen) lots of DIY jam jars which I’d saved, lots of candles and the open log fire and that’s all it needed.  We used the upstairs room as a dance floor and bought a disco ball, mirror ball and loads of fairly lights online to transform that which we roped our friends into helping us set up the night before…" 

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Everyone says it, but make sure you enjoy the day, but also enjoy the build up and I would highly recommend a honeymoon straight afterwards if you are able to have one! The day really flew by for me. I felt like it had all gone too quickly and I wanted to do it again, but in slow motion so I could remember more of it. 

When I felt quite down that it was all over Frank reminded me that the day is just part of it, all the other bits including what comes before and after are what makes it so special. 

Having the honeymoon gave us time to process it all at our own pace and enjoy it all for just a bit longer!"

What a lovely set of photographs. Thank you Laura Babb for sending them my way! 😉

"Laura is unbelievably talented and took amazing photos.  We hadn’t quite appreciated how important it was to get the right photographer until we got our photos back (although everyone had told us it was !) Laura was so approachable and really put us at ease.  She (and partner Pete) managed to capture the day and all the key highlights just as we had imagined it, and lovely pictures of our family and friends which was really important to us.

You don’t see what other people are doing because you’re trying to chat to everyone and everything seems to fly by so quickly, so we were able to re-live the whole day when we received our photos.  We are very grateful to have such lovely memories (I can’t stop looking at them!)"

I've featured a number of rainy day weddings now, which I hope provide reassurance for those brides worried about it ruining their day – it would be good to hear from those of you already married who also didn't let the rain get in the way of your celebrations! 🙂

Much love all,

Annabel

 

Photographer – Laura Babb
Venue – Lauderdale House + The Star
Brides dress & Veil – A friend
Brides Shoes – Iris, by Rachel Simpson
Brides Hair Accessories – Heirloom of Pearl side tiara, via Glitzy Secrets
Grooms Suit & Shoes – Reiss
Florist – Esta Morris {website unknown}
Cake – Fat Tony's Cupcakes
Transport – London Bus
Hair and make-up Artist – Jenny and Danielle of Perfect Creations