Hello all 🙂 … seems my blog is having a bit of a London love affair this week! This is the second Islington town hall wedding I have featured, and this time, the photographs come to you courtesy of the lovely Catherine of Lily & Frank photography.
Carly & Ian got married on 25 February this year with a ceremony at Islington Town Hall in London {the second wedding there this week to be featured on Love My Dress} and a reception at The Modern Pantry, St. John’s Square, London, and later, a reception party at The Artisan, St. John’s Square, London.
"We are both from opposite ends of the country, but we met and share our history in London, so wanted to show our guests a slice of our life in places that are significant to us.
The Clerkenwell area has a real ‘village’ feel to it, so we tried to keep everything about our wedding local as the theme; and make sure it wasn’t too much like an identikit wedding!"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Lily & Frank
"Our local florist, Flor Unikon, does amazing, whimsical & wild flowers which I love giving as presents. The only specification I gave them was that I wanted peacock feathers and bold shapes.
They did the rest perfectly and we took our colour scheme from there."
Carly wore a dress from Morgan Davies Bridal in Islington…
"I approached wedding dress shopping with an open mind – I am not a keen shopper and was sure I would find it really hard to find a dress so took my parents along determined to try anything and everything on – big, small, frilly, plain, the lot. I wanted something a bit quirky but my main criteria were that a) I would be comfy all day and b) I wouldn’t need help going to the toilet! To my surprise there were just so many things that I loved that looked fantastic.
The dress I picked is a short 1950s silhouette with a tiny waist and a big flared skirt for dancing. It is ivory and covered in Chantilly lace with a high neckline at the front and a dipped back. I added a silver satin sash to emphasize the waist. When I put it on I felt both special, and like me at the same time; and I loved how at ease the staff in the boutique at Morgan Davies Bridal in Islington made me feel – I knew I would be happy going back for fittings…"
The couple stayed at the fabulous Zetter Townhouse in St. John’s Square, London at the end of their big day – I've not slept at the Zetter but have met friends and dined, socialised there several times now and it's super duper – highly recommended…
Such a lovely feather headband from Emmy below – the same designer Carly got her shoes from. BIG Emmy fans here at Love My Dress – I wore them on my wedding day too 😉
Accessory wise, Carly carried a beaded purse from Pennies Vintage on Amwell Street in London, wore a white gold and diamond bracelet from India and a pair of diamond stud earrings {her something 'borrowed', via her stepmum}, a sapphire engagement ring {her Mum's} and a gold and diamond engagement ring that belonged to Ian’s grandmother’s, circa 1936 – it was a gift to Carly on the morning of her wedding. You can just imagine her unwrapping that gift looking at her expression in the image below…
"I have an allergy to gluten (wheat) and Ian doesn’t like cake so I was a little despondent about the cake, until my parents suggested we indulge our love of cheese! Cheese tasting was the best wedding job of them all – we picked ours from Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden, and the ‘cake’ was ably decorated with fruit by Ian’s mum and my dad.
The guests loved it as the centerpiece of our evening buffet, although it was a little smellier than a traditional cake. My step-mum insisted on a cake topper, which I accidentally beheaded whilst trying to cut a ceremonial slice of stilton!"
"We deliberately picked quirky venues that weren’t traditional wedding venues so that they could speak for themselves without too much decoration. We tied our ‘local’ theme together with tables named after local streets, and bright feathers ordered from the internet in preserving bottles from Lakeland.
Expecting bad weather we also had purple heart shaped umbrellas from Tip Top Weddings, which ended up being great photo props…"
"We wanted something that was personal to us, a little bit quirky, fun and easy-going, so didn’t set out with a particular theme in mind. We decided on ‘local’ to keep things easy for ourselves so everything was sourced within a 10 minute walk from our house! Rings, dress, venues, accessories & decorations. We tied things together in bright peacock colours just because we like them and made sure there was plenty of fancy dress and champagne – 2 ingredients that can’t fail to make a party swing!"
Ian was kitted out with a baeutiful bespoke suit thanks to Venice Tailoring. He also wore a white shirt from Pink, a silver and foral tie, plus socks from Paul Smith and a pair of bespoke silver cufflinks from McCaul at Exmouth Market – a gift from Carly…
"Like me, Ian has a casual style and we wanted the day to be as relaxed and informal as possible so he knew exactly what he didn’t want to wear for our wedding – so no penguin suit or top hat for him! He was also determined it wouldn’t be a one-time outfit, so visited his usual tailor to have a suit made to last in a dark blue-grey.
We picked his and my dad’s ties together in Paul Smith. I knew Ian had made the right choice – he looked relaxed and comfortable in his outfit and had his touch of individuality – picking a contrasting stitching on his buttonholes, and giving me a glimpse of his purple socks in the ceremony!"
"The traditional London Routemaster bus we hired was a big hit with our guests and meant we didn’t lose anyone to the city!"
Words of Wedded Wisdom….
"It’s very easy to get ‘sucked in’ to wedding planning and end up creating a very expensive little monster! We knew that if we found ourselves having sleepless nights over ribbon colours we wouldn’t have created the relaxed, simple day we wanted, so we started by making a list of what we definitely wanted and definitely didn’t want from our day. It was a good thing to keep us grounded and also to help us express our wishes to the rest of the family.
Also don’t get too worried about being original – the wedding industry is massive and most things have been done before, instead focus on what you like and what your guests will appreciate…."
A sweet, simple wedding – kept local and super lovely.
Huge thanks to Catherine Frawley of Lily & Frank for sharing these photographs…
"Picking Catherine of Lily & Frank as our photographer was one of the best decisions we made in our wedding planning. She must have been everywhere at once because we have a perfect document that shows every memory as it unfolded; she kept ‘formals’ to a minimum which fit in with the feel of the day, and the photobooth went down a storm. Her portraits of us not only capture the fun and love of the day, but are truly unique artworks that we will treasure forever."
Shall we leave a few kind words for Carly and Ian? I'd love that 🙂 You might also want to take a moment to check out the 1950's, London Weddings and Lily and Frank Photography pages for more inspiration. You can see oodles more real weddings here too.
Much love all,
Annabel
Photographer – Lily & Frank
Venue – Islington Town Hall + The Modern Pantry + The Artisan
Brides dress – Morgan Davies Bridal in Islington
Brides shoes + feather headband – Emmy
Ivory angora bolero: Monsoon
Groom – Venice Tailoring + Paul Smith + McCaul at Exmouth Market
Flowers – Flor Unikon
Cake – Neal’s Yard Dairy
Transport – Traditional London Routemaster
Hair and make-up Artist – Hannah and Lauren from Easton Regal on Clerkenwell Road
Purple heart-shaped wedding umbrella – Tip Top Weddings
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
