A Fabulously Fun 1920s Gatsby Inspired London Wedding

Morning lovelies! Have you grabbed a good night sleep, and are you feeling rested? Let us ease you gently into Wednesday with the wedding of Sarah and Oliver.  I love it when a couple choose to go with a particular style or theme and pull it off to great effect.  Primary school teacher Sarah married her TV Producer fiance Oliver on 26 July this year, at Hackney Town Hall, followed by a reception at Clissold House in Stoke Newington and there were many references to the 1920s throughout the day, this being an era Sarah loves and is inspired by.

Sarah’s mother in law made her dress, but readers, if you have a genuine interest in original vintage wedding dresses, you must read this feature we posted yesterday afternoon about Elizabeth Avey, one of the top suppliers of vintage wedding dresses in the UK.

Photography Copyright (c) 2013, Gabrielle Hall Photography

“Oliver and I met at The Underworld Camden in 2004, on a night out. After eight years together, and on a remote island in Panama, Oliver proposed, after which, we had roughly a year of being engaged to plan our wedding.

We both wanted a vintage style wedding and I especially love the 1920’s so we decided on a Gatsby themed dress code.”

“Oliver’s mum, affectionately known as ‘The Goose’ was my dress designer. She made my dress by hand as that’s what she used to do for a living, and she wanted to get involved! She did an amazing job allowing that extra personal touch to such a special creation.

Given that I love the 1920s era so much, I sat down with Oliver’s mum and discussed different ideas. Having my future mother in law creating my dress allowed me to have it exactly how I wanted it and I truly loved everything about it!”

“We got married at Hackney Town Hall and then moved on to Clissold House, also in Hackney, for our reception.   The reason we chose Hackney Town Hall was because my grandparents got married there 65 years ago.  My parents married there too.

Both my grandparents were present on our wedding day to help us celebrate – they loved being back at the same spot they had their wedding all those years ago.”

Sarah wore the fabulous gold T-bar shoes by designer Rachel Simpson, a perfect match for her 1920s inspired drop waist dress.

“Oliver’s dad, Ian Meade ,designed and made our invitations/table plan and all other stationery. He designed it around our theme and made it personal to us.”

“As our surname is Meade, for wedding favours we had little glass bottles of Mead in different flavours – ‘Meade’s Mead’”

“My Auntie Jan made the wedding cake. She has always been fabulous at making cakes so we used her expertise to our advantage. She did a great job! Oliver’s sister, Chloe, made the little people on top because we wanted them to look like us. She did well!”

“Our photographer was Gabrielle Hall – she was amazing and did a fantastic job, capturing the day perfectly. She took lots of creative informal shots which we really wanted, making the pictures look natural and relaxed, portraying the day as it was.

Gabrielle made us feel comfortable throughout, being very attentive and sociable with us and the guests. She was brilliant, we can’t recommend her enough!”

“My dad gave me away – and we had a family friend, Daisy Brown, a soprano, who sang Laudate Dominum as we walked down the aisle.”

“During our wedding ceremony, Oliver’s dad read ‘A lovely love story by Edward Monkton’ and Oliver’s sister Chloe read ‘The prophet – Marriage by Kahill Gibran’.”

“For our first dance Oliver chose ‘I Wanna Kiss You All Over’ by Exhile. It was special to him as a song – he and his friends used to listen to it on their nights out – in fact, it was sung as a warm up to one of these nights out when he met his lovely wife! 

It’s cheesy, terrible and over the top; ’til the niiiiight cloooses in…..!’ – but then again, that’s just like him! :)”

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“Make it as personal as you can without worrying what everyone else thinks you should do – do your own thing, there are no rules!”

Huge thanks to photographerGabrielle Hall for sending these images in to share with us all today, and huge congrats to you both, Sarah and Oliver, what a fabulous wedding!

You can see more 1920s inspire weddings here. You might also want to check out our London weddings and other Gatsby inspired weddings and features.

Annabel

 

Photographer – Gabrielle Hall Photography
Venue – Hackney Town Hall + Clissold House
Wedding Dress + Veil – Made by Oliver’s mum.
Brides Shoes – Ginger Gold T-Bar shoe by Rachel Simpson
Brides Hair Accessories – Headband from Etsy
Brides Accessories –  Pearl necklace via Lovett & Co
Grooms Suit – Gresham Blake
Florist – Roses
Cake – Family member
Transport – Route master bus between registry office and reception via Timebus
Catering Company – G.Kelly Pie and Mash – Roman road, Bethnal Green.
Entertainment – Droit du Seigneur – The best man’s band.
Rings – antiques
Stationery – Ian Meade (the groom’s father)