Junior Doctor Audrey and Software Engineer Tyron tied the knot on 15th June this year, with a reception at Cannizaro House in Wimbledon, London.
This classy couple opted for a black tie dress code, with Audrey wearing a modern, minimalist gown by Newhite, which she discovered at The Fall Bride – a boutique based in Dalston, East London and very popular with Love My Dress readers.
This simple, elegant and intimate wedding was captured beautifully by photographer, Marta Ilardo.
The Dress
My dress was by Newhite Bridal – I loved the simple cut, the hammered silk material and immediately fell in love with the backless design.
My dress was from the best wedding dress boutique if I do say so myself – The Fall Bride. I have to say a huge thank you to Annelise who made the whole experience so smooth for me, especially as my dress had to made within a short space of time.
I would highly recommend The Fall Bride to other brides. The dresses are unique/non traditional and the customer service is honestly second to none.
I didn’t go to the boutique knowing the kind of dress I wanted. I tried on four different dresses, and fell in love with the deep backless design. Without a doubt, my dress was my favourite part of my wardrobe.
I wore a veil that I purchased online a week before the wedding! It was the Layla off-white cathedral length veil with a longer length blusher. I bought it from Britten Weddings and I think it brought the whole look together.
I wore a pair of white strappy heels, with large organza bows at the back from Asos – it was something fun to wear and surprisingly very comfortable!
I wore Miss Dior Original by Dior. It’s a scent that reminds me of my grandma, and was one way I remembered her on the day. I chose simple jewellery – leaf design crystal studs and a tennis bracelet. The earrings were from Liberty in Love. My bracelet was from John Lewis and my clutch bag was from Oliver Bonas. I wanted to keep my accessories quite minimalistic in keeping with the day.
My hair was done by the lovely Daizy from Rachel Arike. Daizy and Rachel Arike really came through and saved the day for me! My make-up was done by the lovely Deji Rachel.
Deji Rachel promised that my makeup would last for the whole day, and she was right – even with the very high temperature on the day, my makeup did not budge.
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Ceremony
We got married at Hotel du Vin’s Cannizaro House in Wimbledon, London. We fell in love with the Sunken Garden, and knew it would be the perfect setting for the intimate ceremony that we wanted to have.
My dad walked me down the aisle – it was such a precious moment that I’ll hold on to forever. This was to the sound of ‘We Walk Through The Fire’, by Yung Bleu ft Ne-yo, played on the harp whilst I made my entrance to the ceremony. We hired harpist, Rachel Horton-Kitchlew play before and during the ceremony and into our drinks receptio. She played a selection of our favourite songs and some r&b and hip-hop classics.
The ceremony and reception were both held at Cannizaro House, and we stayed there the night before and the night of the wedding, so had no need for transport. Our ceremony was officiated by two registrars from Merton Registry office.
Both of my rings were bought online and shipped from America. I knew I wanted a ring which was conflict-free. I chose a pear shaped moissanite stone in a white gold setting, with a yellow gold band. I chose an eternity setting for my wedding band which was also set with moissanite stones. The website the rings came from was moissanite.com. Tyron wanted a plain solid gold band, and his wedding band came from The Royal Mint.
We were able to share two poems that our sisters read; ‘And I Have You’, by Nikki Giovanni was the first. This is a fun, poem by one of my favourite poets. We then had ‘Love is Friendship Caught Fire’, by Laura Hendricks. This poem is a beautiful description of the reality of what love is, not just a warm fuzzy feeling or the stuff we see in movies. The line “love is content with the present, hopes for the future, and does not brood over the past” is a particular favourite, with the whole piece is reminiscent of 1 Corinthians 13 verses 1-8.
We had a traditional Ghanaian (Akan) wedding ceremony nine days later with most of our friends and family, and had an informal garden party afterwards. This was done in traditional Ghanaian style, with our guests wearing white, Traditional drummers, an Adowa dancer and most of the ceremony conducted in Twi (so very different to our day at Cannizaro House!)
We didn’t have an event planner or stylist, but we had the incredible support of Marisa De Angelis (Meeting & Events Executive at Cannizaro House) from our first enquiry. She really went above and beyond to accommodate our vision.
Photography
We chose to work with Marta Ilardo because we loved her style of shooting and her vibe. We wanted an editorial style for our pictures, and hit it off from our first meeting. We met in person on the day of the wedding, but I felt like we were meeting an old friend.
We cannot recommend Marta enough – she is personable, efficient and captured every special moment of the day. We look back at the pictures and still can’t figure out how Marta got some of the shots that she did.
My sisters were my unofficial bridesmaid and maid of honour. I didn’t tell them what to wear, but they both coincidentally wore full length chocolate brown dresses from Club L London and Vesper. Their shoes were from Simmi Shoes, via Asos, and Zara.
Flowers
My bouquet, the corsages and the boutonnières were all made by Florals by Funmi. I had seen a few bouquets that I liked online, but then came across one I loved on her website.
They were all personally delivered on the morning of the wedding. I added a small details by attaching a photo of my grandparents to the bouquet.
How They Met
We met in February 2019 at my friend Tayo’s masquerade themed birthday party. The version of events that we both agree on is that Tyron asked for my number just as I was leaving, and we ended up going on our first date 2 weeks later.
There actually wasn’t a down-on-bended-knee proposal. Tyron was on holiday in December 2021, and during one of our conversations, asked if I wanted to get married. Our families then met up in the new year officially (Unbeknownst to us our mothers had met in private but that’s a story for another day).
A traditional Ghanaian “knocking” ceremony was arranged for later in the year marking the beginning of our official engagement. In essence we were engaged for about a year before we married.
Tyron wore a custom made, double breasted tuxedo by Suit Supply, Vigo St (shout out to Harrison who didn’t spare any details). Tyron wore a pair of patent leather oxford shoes and bow tie from Suit Supply, and cufflinks from Aspinal of London.
Reception, Evening & Dancing
The cake was a lovely surprise from my siblings! They know we love simple design, and picked this particular style from Pinterest. It was a delicious vanilla frosted sponge cake made by my brother’s friend Tremaine of Reille K. Cakes & Co, which made it all the more special.
Our place cards and wedding signage were all done by Marisa at Cannizaro House. We did have personalised bio-degradable confetti. My sisters bought off some faux flowers off Amazon that we used to decorate the singing table, and then repurposed for the table decorations when it was time to eat.
We didn’t have a formal first dance, but ended up dancing to a personal favourite “Odo” by Kidi.
Our families joined us after dinner to dance to this, and thinking about it makes me break out in a smile. Odo means love in Twi.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
Our words of Wedded Wisdom when planning your wedding would be: go for what you want. Don’t be persuaded into having the wedding you think you should be having.
It’s easy to get swept up with the hype and excitement of it all, but pause and ask yourself if what you’re potentially stressing over will matter when you look back on it.
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Additional Credits
The below suppliers and venues are featured in this article, but are not part of the Love My Dress Wedding Directory.
Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
