A Sharon Hoey Dress and French Lace Veil for a Glamorous and Elegant City Wedding

I haven’t been writing for Love My Dress for very long, it’s true, but when this wedding found its way into my inbox and I discovered the major source of inspiration behind it, I felt that today’s bride and groom were a couple after my own heart, and so they proved to be!

Actress, acrobat and choreographer Beth married Mark, a performance rigger on the 9th July 2017 in a day inspired by the Georgian era (it makes me so very happy to type that!) and filled with the joy and laughter of family and friends. Beth chose a gown from Irish designer Sharon Hoey, which she bought from Lucky Bride in Brighton. The lovely empire line and delicate lace details remind me so much of the romantic gowns of the Regency period, and so it was for Beth, too.

“My dress felt like it had been made for me personally. It was a sample and meant to be. I wanted something in Georgian lace, and any originals I tried on from vintage shops were always tiny. This dress had a lot of Georgian influences, the lace and the pearls and I loved that it looked slightly Pride and Prejudice.”

Photography by James Richard Photography

This deep sense of, and love for history threaded its merry way through the whole of Beth and Mark’s day, something they hadn’t envisaged at all when they began thinking about their wedding.

“We didn’t really want anything that showed the era we were getting married in. The church also lent itself to this…We originally looked into a festival type glamping wedding and ended up having the most traditional wedding in every way, like stepping back in time. My dress was slightly Georgian as well as my hair, and Mark had a suit designed to reflect this era, as well as the decorations and lace on the top table. My bouquet was a similar shape to that period.”It all began with homemade invitations by Beth, her mum and aunt, who worked together using brown paper, lace, pearls, scraps of velvet and old black and white photographs.

Hair stylist Vicki Lord went the extra mile to design a style for Beth in keeping with her dress, and with the history and significance of the couple’s wedding venues. 

Beth created her own gorgeous makeup look using Hourglass Cosmetics products and added a spritz of Baccarat Rouge 540 perfume by Maison Francis Kurkdjian as a special wedding day treat.

“Award winning for a reason, inspirational hair designs, not for the faint hearted, an honour to have Vicki agree to do her modern take on a Georgian hairstyle. And she really did go above and beyond so that I could have her personally. I had a 4 hour consultation where she designed my hair from pictures of my dress and all the details of the history behind the church and our venue. Vicki was fascinating, talented and exciting to be around. She made me feel so wonderful on the morning of my wedding.”

What’s particularly lovely about Beth’s veil is how personal keepsakes and mementos were included – her father’s St. Christopher medal, together with a locket and pearls. On her feet, Beth chose a pair of classic satin peep-toe sandals from Rainbow Club, and accessorised with a gold bangle from her Maid of Honour, a necklace from Debenhams and simple drop earrings from Beaverbooks.

The veil was the work of Roxy Goldstein of Atelier Gold and handmade in her Brighton studio.

“The lace came from France, and I’m a sucker for anything French!”

Their ceremony was held at the beautiful church of St Anne’s Limehouse in East London followed by a reception at the Lamb Tavern inside the historic Leadenhall Market, within the old Square Mile of the City.

“St Anne’s Limehouse, London – We chose this as Beth’s grandparents, great aunts and uncle, great grandparents and great great grandparents were married at St Annes and we have the wedding certificate as early as 1890.”

“We are not regular congregation members, however there is so much in my family that I admire and I feel a deep connection to that side of my family. As they were all married there, it felt like a spiritual connection to honour that tradition, and my family’s values and personalities. It felt overwhelming from the minute we stepped foot in St Annes. Not only getting married in the eyes of God, but in the eyes of our ancestors on both sides, and what they stood for and how they conducted/conduct their lives.”

Accompanied by her father to Henry Purcell’s joyous Trumpet Tune, Beth met her handsomely attired groom at the altar. What a cracker of a suit Mark wore – a traditional morning suit with long jacket, silk cravat and mustard coloured waistcoat from Gresham Blake, with a pocket watch bought via eBay, a tie pin and chain picked up from a small jewellers in Canterbury and shoes from Loake.

“Mark had two best men, two of his oldest friends. They wore their own suits and kept their individual style, there wasn’t anything particularly wedding about their outfits, they just looked super cool.” 

Beth and Mark originally met through work while both on the world tour of a show. After travelling, touring and seeing the world together for two years, they became engaged in September 2016 at Villa Joya in Portugal, while on holiday with their daughter and parents.

“We had a day at the spa (Villa Joya) and whilst being next to the jacuzzi overlooking the sea, Mark got down on one knee, on a towel (as it was 40 degrees that day). We then had dinner overlooking the ocean at the two Michelin star restaurant at Villa Joya where we had a 15 course meal…we were engaged for 10 months before we got married.”

During the ceremony, Beth’s mum read Shakespeare’s wonderful Sonnet 116 and Mark’s friend Colin read Love by Roy Croft.

“My mum had written me a card when I was about 23 and she wrote out this sonnet inside talking about how much she loved it, so it seemed the perfect choice. Colin sent Mark a few poems he liked and this was our favorite, especially the part about friendship at the end.”

“After walking back up the aisle after the ceremony and everyone was stood on the steps as the doors opened, and the sun was shining and everyone we wanted there was in front of us smiling…I remember thinking, this is the best thing in the world.” 

That brilliant just-married joy, and the sunshine and happiness of the couple’s day was all captured with marvellous candour by James Richard Photography. There’s an amazing sense of the history and significance of the day for Beth and Mark, which shines out in these images, as well as all of the fun-filled moments of dancing and laughter, too.

“James came recommended from another photographer. As a chance coincidence it turned out he had gone to the same school as me, albeit 10 years later, and neither of us were local anymore! James’  introduction and planning meetings were like meeting a friend.”

“We instantly clicked and had a great time. On the day of my wedding James arrived early and looking the most dapper of guests. While getting ready he made me feel relaxed and calm and from then on was a dream to have at our wedding. He got on with all our guests and at the end of the day we were sad to say goodbye. A true gentleman and professional from start to finish.”

The glorious and wild floral arrangements for the day were by Gwenda Jeffs at Bohotanical.

“Gwenda was warm, generous, fascinating and super talented. She did a version of what my Nan had from old black and white photos for my bouquet and smaller versions for my bridesmaids. She also decorated my tables at the venue with trinkets that looked Miss Havisham/Georgian style and did the top table. I was interested in the flowers but completely underestimated how lucky I was to find Gwenda and when she arrived at my mum’s with my bouquet the tears started. It blew me away. My aunty and mum did the pedestals for the church and the flower girl baskets. A whole bunch of talented women!”

I couldn’t agree more! It’s so wonderful to be able to pay tribute to family in details like a bouquet, and is something I myself did with my own wedding flowers. What a stunning contrast the compact, pastel-hued roses are, surrounded by wild and abundant fern leaves, eucalyptus and trailing ivy. Beth and Mark exchanged rings, which they bought from Brighton-based Number Ten Jewellers.

“Our reception was at The Lamb in Leadenhall Market, London. It was within 15 minutes of the church…and as we got married on a Sunday, it meant the City was quiet and we had the legendary market to ourselves. For that day it felt like we had London to ourselves. Beyond magical!”

Graphic designers Tilt Originals designed the table plan and names, while florist Gwen at Bohotanical decorated the top table with arrangements of roses and greenery, as well as trinkets and keepsakes given to her by Beth.

“On the tables were old trinkets, for example lace, pearls, glass boxes, fake ivy, vintage picture frames and general ‘toot’ collected from my family home. All decorated at the venue by Gwenda at Bohotanical. She took all my trinkets and designed the tables herself. They looked so beautiful.”

Friends of Mark’s – the band The Wolfhounds – were on hand to play for the newly married couple as they arrived at Leadenhall Market for the reception, delighting them by playing The Kink’s version of the Batman theme as they arrived, followed by Only Fools and Horses and a medley of old East End London songs – how brilliant!

“As I work as a performer, it seemed only fair to choreograph a Saturday Night Fever inspired partner dance for myself and Mark coming out of the traditional wedding dance at the start. It worked really well and everyone seemed to find it good fun, however we hadn’t accounted for the cobbled floor in Leadenhall market during our rushed and slightly tense ‘rehearsals’!”

“Also there was a point about 10pm when everyone was in a circle singing to ‘Hey Jude’ and me and Mark were in the middle dancing and looking round at everyone smiling like Cheshire cats.”

“Lastly, as myself and Mark drove in a taxi from Leadenhall to our hotel in Smithfield Market at about 2am when everyone had left and the City of London was silent and empty, until we arrived at Smithfield, where the meat market trade starts at around 11pm and is all finished by the time everyone wakes up. We were suddenly catapulted into the hustle and bustle and excitement of one of London’s oldest market trades. We said to each other, we couldn’t imagine our wedding ending any other way, even though we hadn’t planned for that to be the case.”

“What tops all this though, was our two year old dancing to the band until 10pm without a nap. She was having the time of her life. What I would have done differently would have been to stay in a hotel the night before, near the church, as the stress of getting through the Blackwall tunnel was so horrible and I was 40 mins late for the ceremony.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Stay near the ceremony venue!…I think if I had stayed in a hotel, even if I wasn’t asleep I may have felt more calm. Who knows? But maybe going to a spa the day before and relaxing, rather than still finishing last minute preparations  – I may have at least felt rested.

I think the difference when you get married whilst having a toddler, is that even though it is your wedding, you are still parents and your mind will still be predominantly on your child. And we feel unbelievably blessed that our beautiful daughter was the most important part of our wedding.”

“I always feel anxious when having a party that people have made a lot of effort to come visit etc, and I am always nervous that I may have not spoken to everyone enough… With a wedding I anticipated that I would feel like this tenfold. We were so touched and so, so appreciative that our nearest and dearest came to share our wedding day, and travel from other continents.”

“So in between courses I made a point of going to each table and speaking to everyone individually, so that if I spent the night on the dance floor for the rest of the evening, I knew I would have spoken to every guest properly. It really made a difference to making me feel more relaxed and the next day just as high as a kite with no social anxieties, which I was concerned about beforehand.”

“Make it your own wedding and not for show for anyone else’s benefit. We had every element which meant something to myself and Mark, which is why I think it blew our minds, and apart from having our daughter, was the best day of our lives. Everything in our wedding reflected our personalities so it made each element so personal. There were a few times, when making 50 individually handmade invitations… with pinking shears when we thought we must be mad doing all this, should we have gone to Debenhams for example…However these are all the things which contributed to our wedding being so heartfelt (to us).”

Thank you so very much to James Richard Photography for these wonderful images of a super-cool London wedding, and of course, massive thanks to Beth and Mark for giving us a peek into their day. It looks like it was amazing fun!

With love,

Laura