Morning all and happy Friday. I can’t believe how quickly this week has whizzed by. I’ve spent all of it in London up to now, meeting with sponsors and working on a beautiful new photoshoot for one of our clients (you can follow my adventures on Instagram). It’s good to be back holding the reigns and blogging these uplifting photographs this morning.
Meet theatre practitioner Jo and primary school teacher Benny, who tied the knot on 29th May this year with a ceremony at Stoke Newington Town Hall, followed by a wedding reception at The Royal Inn on the Park pub. I love the fun, fifties style gown that Jo wore – and that splash of gold in her shoes and belt. Her pretty dress was from those fabulous vintage wedding dress mavens, Fur Coat No Knickers.
“I didn’t want a typical wedding dress – long, frumpy and bright white! I wanted something sexy, beautiful and classic. I love lace and love the 1950s style.”
Photography by Marc Hayden
The couple say they wanted an East London wedding (their home for the past seven years), that touched on vintage UK style.
“The entire day was amazing and we were both on a high all day!”
“The girls at The Flower Appreciation Society create beautiful bouquets consisting of all British ‘just picked from the meadow’ flowers that are colourful and smell gorgeous. The vintage vases are also beautiful.”
Jo’s bridesmaids wore sweet 1950’s style A-line dresses by Lindy Bop with petticoats by Vivien Of Holloway, which they teamed with pretty flowers in their hair and colourful bouquets by a Love My Dress blog favourite, The Flower Appreciation Society.
Jo and Benny met in Liverpool, where they both studied in 2006. Jo was in her final year at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and Benny had already graduated and was working an office job. They met at a mutual friend’s 21st birthday party. Jo went on to propose to Benny in April 2014 on a beautiful secluded beach in Marseille.
Benny wore a navy blue wool suit fromSuit Supply with a tweed tie and classic champagne coloured brogues from John Lewis.
“I walked down the aisle to the sound of ‘Who’s that Lady?’ by the Isley Brothers.
We had a humanist wedding ceremony as neither of them are religious but wanted a ceremony that was ritualistic with a few traditions. Jo and Benny wrote their own vows and kept them a secret until the day.”
“In terms of accessories, I wore a pair of earrings from John Lewis, a gold chain with a small heart pendant necklace from Branch on the Park, and a thin gold bangle that used to belong to my Grandma – my ‘something old’.”
The couple had their respective Grandmother’s wedding rings melted down to create their own new rings through Triggs family jewellers in Enfield, North London.
“Our photographer Marc Hayden was brilliant – very warm and friendly when we first met, very good at communicating before the wedding, which put us at ease and on the day we didn’t even know he was there! We are super happy with the final photos!”
Jo, her bridesmaids and mum made 20 metres of bunting made from fabric from local charity shops to decorate their reception venue, The Royal Inn on the Park pub.
“We searched local charity shops to find beautiful old vintage frames and printed off photos of each of our guests with either Jo or Benny and wrote a personalised messaged on luggage tags and attached them to all the frames.
We also created love CDs for our guests to take home – a compilation CD of our favourite love songs.”
“My mum made a delicious chocolate devil’s food cake, which was a moist dense chocolate cake layered up with mascarpone cheese and fresh raspberries.”
“We had a 4-piece band who played classic funk, disco and soul songs accompanied by 5 different singers and the bride and groom also stepped up to sing! We ended the night with a DJ who played classic old school hip-hop, funk, garage, disco and dance music. The band, singers and DJ were all friends of ours.
Our first dance was to Diana Ross’s ‘Love Hangover’, played by the band and sung by one of our good friends.”
Jo says her favourite moments from the day were the ceremony, the speeches and the band. Benny’s favourite moments were when the best man’s speech turned into a six-man rap cipher, the first dance and seeing his mum dance to UK Garage music – hehehe!
Words of Wedded Wisdom
“We made a lot of effort with small added extras – like a basket of goodies in the toilets with deodorant, chewing gum, stick on moustaches, glitter, lighters etc, photos of our guests as their table place setting, personalised notes on each persons table place mat, playlists for the jukebox, CDs for our guests to take home of our favourite love songs. These took a long time but lots of people commented on how lovely the small details were, so it is totally worth it! Make the effort to make it personal to you.
Make sure you represent the women – Brides, do a speech and get you bridesmaids doing one too!
Be organised – print off a list of jobs for all your best men, ushers, bridesmaids so they know what to do at what time. This way you can completely forget about it all and enjoy every moment. It was also great to have our family and friends contribute to the day by doing readings and performing at the reception – they loved getting involved!”
I love weddings like this – relaxed, no fuss and full of fun and colour. Huge thanks to photographer Marc Hayden for sharing these photographs. You can see more from Marc on Love My Dress here.
Wishing you a lovely Friday morning all,
Love Annabel x
Photographer – Marc Hayden
Venue – Stoke Newington Town Hall + The Royal Inn on the Park pub
Bride’s Dress – Fur Coat No Knickers
Shoes – Rose gold court shoes from Carvela at Kurt Geiger
Perfume – 5th Avenue NYC, Elizabeth Arden
Grooms Suit – Navy wool suit via Suit Supply + shoes by John Lewis
Bridesmaids – Lindy Bop dresses + Vivien Of Holloway petticoats
Flowers + hair accessories – The Flower Appreciation Society
Cake – The bride’s mum
Transport – Routemaster Bus
Rings – Triggs family jewellers
Catering – The Royal Inn on the Park pub
Stationery Designer – Winona Harrod
So many beautiful details here, love the flowers throughout and the bridesmaids dresses are so pretty, the bride is radiant.
Thank you Jules for your lovely comment x
Lovely photos, that dress! :O So beautiful and elegant. Sam x
Jo and Benny look so cute together! Beautiful wedding photos
A gorgeous colour for bridesmaids dresses. I love all of the thoughtful details, it makes such a difference to the guests experience. Xx
I love them! Not a colour you see very often at all but I love it so much – really youthful and vibrant x
Beautiful Images that you have listed above….