A Made With Love Dress for an East Meets West, Modern + Romantic London Wedding

Do any of you lovelies have a penchant for statement shoes? How about modern, pared-back elegance and contemporary styling? I thought you might.

The bride and groom in this morning’s wedding are Phoebe and Leon, both lawyers, who chose the impressive Art Deco Banking Hall in central London to celebrate their marriage on 15 September 2018. The couple’s theme was ‘East Meets West’ to reflect their Hong Kong, Chinese and English heritages, with modern, stylish décor and a down-to-earth focus firmly on fun for their family and friends. Yes, yes, yes.

Love My Dress and our Little Book wedding directory were big sources of inspiration for Phoebe in the run up to the day.

“I regularly read Love My Dress every day for inspiration and as a springboard for ideas. We also used Love My Dress to check some of the work of our suppliers as quite a few of them have been featured before.”

Photography Kirsty Mackenzie Photography

“We wanted a central London wedding – not only is it our home, but I have grown up in various big cities around the world so it was only fitting we got married somewhere that reflected that. It also made it easier for the many guests who were flying in for the wedding.”

“I am originally from Hong Kong (and we had a Hong Kong wedding reception prior to our actual wedding in London) but lived in many different countries growing up. Leon is mixed English and Chinese so we wanted the wedding to have a nod to our heritage.”

The bride and groom met at a university ball in 2019 and were engaged for eighteen months after Leon proposed in Cape Town, South Africa.

“Leon was a croupier at a student casino and I was a guest; we met on opposite sides of the roulette table. At least one of us (or perhaps both of us) won big that night! We got engaged on Boulders Beach in Cape Town amongst the penguins.”

“We jumped on a rock with Leon having set up a camera ‘to take a photo’ and then he proposed. We used the photo of the engagement to create a ‘logo’ which featured on all our wedding stationery and throughout the wedding.”

“Leon proposed with my dream ring (there were some not-so-subtle hints about what engagement ring I might like if there was a proposal coming in the future…) – the Gatsby ring from Heidi Gibson.”

On the morning of the wedding Phoebe got ready with her bridesmaids, who wore elegant Monsoon gowns in teal.

“They had a bracelet and ring as wedding day presents which were from Etsy. I also gifted each of the girls personalised cards from Not On The High Street, nail polish from Nails inc and a clutch bag from Katie Loxton.”

The girls’ looks were styled by Spence & Oliver. What do you think about the bride’s super-polished, sophisticated look made fun with that bright red lip colour?

“Amanda and Lauren did all of the hair and make-up for me, my bridesmaids and my mother.”

I’m totally in love with Phoebe’s choice of accessories; a bespoke, hand-made gold headpiece by Twisted Glamour and embellished Manolo Blahnik heels.

“I’ve always loved the crown headpieces from the Dolce & Gabbana runways and wanted something which had a similar vibe. It was surprisingly hard to find. I met Cathy at the National Wedding Show and I immediately loved her work.”

“Everything is handmade by her and the workmanship is exquisite. She made my custom headpiece and we worked together through each step of the process – from the size of the rosettes to the shade of gold. I couldn’t recommend Cathy enough.”

“Shoes have always been my guilty pleasure (I even have an Instagram account for shoes @closetofshoes) – and our wedding felt like the perfect excuse to wear three pairs of heels! I wanted shoes that made a statement and that I could wear again and again. I got married in a pair of bright yellow Manolo Blahnik ‘Hangisi’ heels, purchased from Harrods.”

“I later changed into a pair of white sandals with gold studding from Aquazzura and lastly, for the late night dancing, I changed into a pair of metallic snakeskin Christian Louboutin heels. “

Phoebe’s exquisite backless gown, with its simple lines, pooling train and statement lace, epitomised their vision for a modern, stylish day with a point of difference. It’s designed by Made With Love Bridal, bought from Heart Aflutter Bridal Boutique in London.

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“Never one to do things by halves and being the girl who has been planning her wedding since I was about ten years old, I researched pretty much every wedding dress shop in London, went to eight dress appointments and tried on probably about 100 dresses in total.”

 

“However, in my extensive research there was only one dress I had seen online which I kept going back to. After I tried it on, it was the dress I ended up comparing all other dresses to and none of the others quite made the grade.”

“I never had that moment where me and my family (and I took my parents to all the dress appointments – my dad was by far the most opinionated!) burst into tears but that isn’t really our style and we knew it was the right dress for me!”

“I loved that the dress was very modern and with a point of difference. The lace in particular was very unusual and reminded me of crochet. Plus, the full cathedral length train was the showstopper!”

The bride’s veil, which flowed over her train, was brought over from China by Phoebe’s dad.

“It was a very simple, extra-long veil which worked perfectly as I wanted a veil longer than the Cathedral-length train on the wedding dress.”

Leon chose to sport a slick style, looking immaculate in black tie from Emporio Armani at Farfetch, worn with a bow tie and handkerchief from Le Colonel Moutarde and skinny black braces from Topman.

“His Cartier cufflinks were a present from my parents at our Hong Kong wedding reception and his Rolex Datejust watch was a wedding day present from me.”

“Leon’s brother Justin was the best man. They are very close and lived together in London for many years. He, along with two groomsmen, wore DKNY suits with bow ties from Le Colonel Moutarde and skinny braces from Topman. We also had four ushers who each wore their own suits and Paul Smith ties gifted by the groom on the day.”

When the time came, Leon and his groomsmen and family travelled by Tube to the Banking Hall. The incredible venue had been dressed with little personal touches by the bride and groom. Oh, and they also designed the elegant, golden stationery themselves.

“Whilst the venue is impressive, we did not want the wedding to be at all pretentious and wanted the focus to be on fun.”

If you’re a film buff you may very well recognise the Banking Hall from ‘Mary Poppins’ in which it starred as Fidelity Fiduciary Bank.

“My dad organised the printing of orders of the day and menus in China. I handmade the welcome sign, the table seating plan and the table names which were inspired by the London Lions, a professional basketball team that we support.”

 

Phoebe walked up the Hall’s aisle on the arm of her very proud dad, to a live performance from Niké Jemiyo.

The bridesmaids walked down to ‘Dream’ by Priscilla Ahn and Phoebe walked down to ‘Thousand Years’ by Christina Perri. Both were beautifully sung live by Niké Jemiyo.

“We did personal vows. I had said we were not doing funny vows, but Leon came out with this. At the time he was confused as to why people were laughing – he was going for “meaningful with a twist” – but apparently it was just funny.”

“We had three readings. The judgement in a US Supreme Court case called Obergefell v Hodges is one that means a lot to us. It is the seminal US Supreme Court case which ruled that same sex couples have a constitutional right to marry, and the extracts are from the judgment of Justice Anthony Kenned.”

“We also took extracts from a 1997 Chicago Tribunal article by Mary Schmidt which was the basis for the pop song ‘Sunscreen’ by Baz Luhrman. It dispenses ‘advice’ and a couple of bits struck a chord with us – on how small the world is and the importance of family. ‘Union’ by Robert Fulgham is well known and was read in full.”

“In addition, whilst we sung the registers, we had one of Leon’s best friends Dave, along with his wife Lucy, playing music.”

Leon and Phoebe exchanged rings made by Viki Pearce, who specialises in handmade, ethical jewellery.

“We met her at A Most Curious Wedding Fair. She was very friendly, full of interesting ideas and we also wanted to support independent British design. We both wanted interesting designs and with her we created a mixed white and yellow gold ring for Leon and a mixed rose and white gold ring with scattered diamonds for me.”

The day was beautifully captured on camera by Kirsty Mackenzie Photography – her style is perfect for the vibrancy and movement of the central London location. Just look at those photos of the bride walking to the Banking Hall.

“We chose Kirsty because her style was perfectly suited to our day. Very moving, atmospheric photography that always ‘captured the moment’ rather than being staged. Her photos also exude fun which is exactly what we wanted. When we met her it turned out she was also super-cool and unbelievably friendly. We couldn’t have made a better choice! We had Kirsty and her second photographer on the day.”

I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned the gorgeous, gorgeous flowers yet. The chic, modern vibe of the day is softened wonderfully by the opulent, wild style put together by Wild Renata Flowers.

“Lara’s aesthetic is very modern with wild and loose bouquets, which was exactly what we were looking for. We also had a couple of specific specifications which Lara was able to source for us; a protea in my bridal bouquet to reflect our engagement in Cape Town, copper pipe plinths which I had seen photos of online and was hoping to have as table centrepieces for half of the tables, and blue and white Chinoiserie vases as table centrepieces for the other half of the tables as a nod to our Chinese heritage.”

“Other than that, we wanted bright and colourful flowers but left the rest up to Lara.”

“I wore two pairs of earrings – a pair of diamond earrings passed down from my great-grandmother and a pair of earrings from Tiffany which was a wedding day present from Leon.”

“My Les Néréides bracelet was a wedding day present from one of the bridesmaids. A Kate Spade clutch bag (which looked like a hardcover book) served as ‘something blue’.”

“We had a DIY welcome sign and table plan as well as various signs throughout the venue (for example, a ‘Let’s get this party poppin’’ sign for the popcorn bar, a ‘Cheers’ sign on the bar, ‘You look great, now go on out and help us celebrate’ signs in the toilets). We also had a DIY gift box and displays with photos from our childhood and from our Hong Kong reception. 

We also had giant light up ‘P & L’ letters, sourced from Vowed & Amazed.”

Whilst the newly-weds headed outside for their striking portrait shots, the guests were treated to a drinks reception and more singing from Niké as well as portraits from Taiwanese artist Bee Dwo Lin. Before dinner, there was also a traditional Cantonese lion dance by KSK UK.

“Bee Dwo Lin is an amazing Taiwanese artist who painted and drew very impressed guests during the drinks reception and dinner.”

Leon handmade the song request cards which were on each of the tables. We handmade the place cards for each guest. On each, we gave a ‘fun fact’ about the person so if people were sitting with others they didn’t know, there was an immediate talking point. It also showed a personal touch so guests knew we had thought about them individually.” 

In a nod to their heritage, Leon and Phoebe put together tote bags and personalised chopsticks for each guest.

“We gave personalised chopsticks – with #phoebeandleon on one chopstick and the date on the other – to each guest. They were in a gold pouch sourced from China by my dad. We also had personalised tote bags (with two different designs – one inspired by our engagement amongst the penguins and another by the casino we had met and which we brought back for the wedding) for guests to take on their way out.”

“In keeping with the theme of family, a poignant part of the day was having Bruce (Leon’s dad) play the piano between mains and dessert. Bruce is a piano teacher and he played ‘Your Song’ and ‘Million Dreams’. We also had a lot of speeches. One of my favourite parts of any wedding is the speeches.”

“It was also important that instead of the traditional trio of speeches, all the female equivalents had an opportunity to speak. So I and Leon, my dad, the maids of honour and the best man all gave speeches. Leon’s parents were also given the opportunity but they opted for Leon’s dad playing the piano.”

The immaculate hand-painted Chinoiserie cake was made by Nevie-Pie Cakes.

“We chose Natasha from Nevie-Pie Cakes as she specialises in hand-painted cakes. She decorated the cake with a design inspired by the blue and white vases we used as the table centrepieces and it was the most beautiful cake we could have imagined. It also tasted delicious. We had a layer of salted caramel, lemon and gingerbread, each with a buttercream icing.”

“Banking Hall provided all of the catering – the canapés, cocktails and the three course dinner. We had a ‘crabocado’ starter, steak for main with a mac ‘n’ cheese side, finished by a lemon sherbet dessert.”

“Our first dance was sung by Jin (my school friend) accompanied on the piano by Bruce (Leon’s dad). Jin now lives in New York (and flew from New York with her husband just for the weekend to attend the wedding!) and therefore rehearsals for the first dance song were done between Jin and Bruce over Skype. We left the choice of song to them and they chose ‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran.”

After I had found my wedding dress, I realised that while the train was my favourite part of the dress, it would also mean that dancing the night away would be difficult! I set off to find a second outfit and loved the idea of something a bit unexpected.”

“I tried on the trouser suit with its open back and wide leg cut from Galina Signature – and it was perfect!”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Don’t feel like tradition should hold you back from anything that’s important to you as a couple. It may not be traditional for a bride to make a speech on her wedding day – but if you feel like that makes sense for you, you should absolutely do it.”

“Delegate all of the tasks on the big day so that neither of you need to worry about anything other than having an amazing time. We had a very thorough timetable of the day and everyone in the wedding party were responsible for making sure a specific part of the wedding went to plan.”

“It might have seemed a little excessive at the time but it meant that on the wedding day, neither of us had to worry about anything. All we had to concentrate on was making the most of the day!”

“Take a couple of moments for yourselves during the day just to look around you and appreciate that it’s so rare to have all of your friends and family under one roof – and for all of them to be there to celebrate you and your relationship is truly special.” 

“Remember to have fun!”

Well Phoebe and Leon, what a beautiful day and such an exquisite gown. Thank you so very much for sharing it with us, and thank you of course to the wonderful Kirstie Mackenzie for these crisp and beautiful photographs.

Ele xx