Paloma Blanca Perfection For A Shakespeares Globe Wedding

This lovely afternoon wedding was sent in by a photographer who made himself a permanent fixture on our 'favourites' list last year, Nabeel Khan of Nabeel's Camera.  Nabeel was asked to photograph TV Producer Keeley and Sales Director John's wedding at The Swan, Shakespeare’s Globe in October last year.

"We wanted to have a real London wedding. By the river seemed a natural place and once we found The Globe, we knew you couldn’t get much more London than that!  We both also quite like simple design and as a pretty unfussy bride I wanted to keep everything uncomplicated.

We had certain priorities for our wedding, a venue where we could invite everyone we wanted to and ensure people had enough to eat and drink and a band they could dance all night to, so that’s what we did."

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Nabeel's Camera

"John and I have known each other for the past twenty odd years, we went to the same school! It was until October two years ago that we actually went out on a date though. John’s best friend got in touch with me on Facebook, and basically the rest is history.  We got engaged in December 2012 after a very romantic proposal from John. He organised it all in the October and I had no idea. He booked a night at The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge, which I thought was one of my Christmas presents.

On the roof of the hotel they have this amazing little courtyard where they show old films, you sit on fab little park benches, with lots of blankets and hot chocolate. We nestled down for a viewing of Love Actually and at the end of the film John turned and gave me the most amazing speech and then got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! At which point Champagne arrived and we cried and drank! It was just amazing, and a meal at Scott’s in Mayfair topped the night off! The hotel staff were amazing and made it a complete surprise for me."

"Malin Coleman is fabulous and so glad I found her through another make-up artist I know. She was such a calming and lovely presence on the day and cannot believe the wonders she worked on me! Wish I could take her everywhere!

Hannah Phillips was my hair stylist – how she managed to do anything with my hair I will never know, she is a genius! I have only ever had my hair in a short bob, so to be able to have the style I did was just amazing. Hannah is also an amazing colourist and made my hair look gorgeous. She’s also a friend of mine which made it even more fun!"

"My dress was by Paloma Blanca and I purchased it from the Mirror Mirror boutique in Crouch End.  I knew I would never be a bride that would have a huge dress, I like things fairly simple and classic. Our ceremony was quite late in the day and the main part of our day centred around the evening party, so I wanted something a little more evening orientated. I had tried quite a few dresses on but as soon as I put this one on, it just felt perfect.

The fabric fell beautifully and because the train wasn’t too long it felt so comfortable, I didn’t have to worry about it all day. I loved that it wasn’t a traditional white/ ivory (the silk was a champagne colour) and I customised it with a different sash to the original on the dress, as I wanted it to have a slightly more vintage feel."

"By the way, if you didn’t know – Addison Lee do a 3hr VIP Wedding package, which worked perfectly for us as we our hotel and venue were so close to each other and was cheaper than hiring a traditional wedding car. It meant we could make as many trips as we wanted in 3 hours."

"Fortunately for me one of my best friends and bridesmaids is an amazingly talented art director, and designed everything for us. This was really special for us as it made everything completely bespoke and we could have whatever we wanted. We went for Navy blue, as John had already decided he wanted a Navy blue suit, so it felt right and was right for the autumnal time of year. I’m not that into flowers, although I do love them, but have no idea what is what."

"We knew we wanted to keep it in keeping with the venue but also simple, so we went for gypsophilia as our main flowers for the ceremony and the table centres and I had a gorgeous vintage rose bouquet."

"I think one of our favourite parts of the day was summed up by the photo of us on the balcony, looking out over the Thames to St Pauls. The ceremony had been done, and the guests from the ceremony had left the room to make their way down to the main dinner and meet our other guests. It was just time for John and I and all we could do was smile and giggle and say we are married! It was peaceful and London just looked amazing, exactly as we had hoped it would be.

The other part was walking down into dinner, where we were greeted by what felt at the time to be a small stadium full of people! Everyone was singing and dancing along  to The Lumineers 'hey ho', as we were introduced. It was just brilliant to see all of our friends and family, so many smiles all round, it was just incredible."

"Due to the size of the venue, we wanted simple items that had impact, and because of the space itself (it even has a tree in the middle of it) we didn’t really need that much. We wanted it to feel really clean, and when you walked down the steps for it to just feel like it was a slightly enchanted forest feel, white and full of candles. The walls were draped in a white voile, and just washed with a nice warm white (all incl in venue).

Our cake was by Villa Dolce."

"The tables each had a gorgeous gypospholia centrepiece topped with a fab silver candelabra. We had vintage plates and slate place settings with shakesperian quotes in chalk etched on them. 

Our only real prop were our amazing bulb lit letters, not amazingly original these days, but we thought they set off the room really well. They also made a brilliant backdrop for our cake cutting and our first dance. After the first dance we re-used them by placing them behind the bar, so double impact!
We sourced them from Vowed & Amazed."

"I’ve know our photographer, Nabeel, for years, as we used to work together in Production at 4Creative, so it was a no brainer for us to choose him for our wedding. We really didn’t want the archetypal wedding shots and I knew Nabeel would give us something different and really creative and we weren’t wrong. He made everything look completely amazing and made everyone so comfortable. He’s just a fabulous, fun guy to have around and the fact that we knew each other already, it just felt like a friend taking all our pictures."

"The bridesmaids wore bustiers and skirts from Coast. We saw the skirts first and we just loved the party feel they had to them. Also didn’t feel too Bridesmaidy!  My best friend was 8 months pregnant, so she got something that she felt comfortable in from ASOS, and still tied in with everything else. I think she looked amazing!

To say thank you for being the most amazing bridesmaids and best friends (you should hear about the hens they organised!), I bought each of them a different necklace to wear on the day, but all of them I got from the amazing Alex Monroe."

"My amazing Dad John walked me down the aisle to the sound of 'You’re all I need to get by', by Marvin Gaye.

My brother, Dave, and John’s sister, Katie, did the readings at our wedding. We thought that given that we were the only ones without surprises on the day, we wanted them to choose whatever they wanted and we didn’t find out until the day. Katie did what I call a SPEEDING, part speech/ part reading. She made up her own inimitable words and included the reading 'A Woman Killed with Kindness', by Thomas Heywood.  Dave chose a gorgeous children’s book – Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr Zeuss."

"Swan Events were brilliant and we had the pick of any props that were already in their coffers, therefore they created a chill out area for us, which was sectioned off with fabulous midsummer night trees."

"Our first dance was to 'First Day of my Life' by Bright Eyes.  John liked the track ages ago but we actually decided on it when we were searching for videographers and were inspired by the way that Laura and Leigh (Piece of Cake) had used it on a previous edit they had done. Once we had really listened to the words, the sentiments just felt exactly right and we fell in love with it. It’s got a great tempo and just felt a bit different."

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Enjoy it!! I loved planning our wedding! I am a Producer but still it was just great because you know it’s all for you. We were so lucky in that everyone supported every decision we made, we were told it was OUR day and that we should have it exactly as we want it, so we were lucky there were no overbearing outside parties!   And just don’t leave things till the last minute. I had three days off before the wedding and it was great to be able to leave work, knowing everything was done and just enjoy the run up to the big day.

Everyone is so excited and wants to share it all with you, be able and willing to get completely absorbed in all of that. Not everyone  is that lucky but I am blessed that we were."

Congratulations Keeley and John, you look so glamorous on your wedding day and I love your dress Keeley.

A big thanks also for the beautiful photography from Nabeel's Camera.

Love Annabel

Photographer – Nabeel's Camera
Venue + Catering – The Globe
Bride's Dress – Paloma Blanca, via Mirror Mirror – Crouch End boutique
Brides Shoes – Jimmy Choo
Accessories – Fraser Hart necklace +  Links of London bracelet
Grooms Suit – Alvan Whittaker (bespoke) + Liberty tie + Paul Smith shoes
Bridesmaids - Coast + ASOS
Flowergirl + Page boy outfits – Monsoon
Florist – The Bloom Bar
Cake – Villa Dolce
Cars/Transport – Addison Lee 3hr VIP Wedding package
Entertainment -  Excite, via The Alive Network + DJ via Sound Bookings
Rings – Stephen Pomerance
Hair Stylist – Hannah Phillips
Make-up Artist – Malin Coleman
Giant light up letters – Vowed & Amazed

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