Angela and Alex’s beautiful wedding took place on 18th February 2023, with a reception at Wandsworth Town Hall, followed by a reception at Wild By Tart in London.
The couple’s photographer, Cat Arwel, captured all the moody, romantic atmosphere of a late winter wedding in the city so beautifully, following the couple from their registry office ceremony to the beautiful and stylish reception space.
Angela wore a gown and veil by our favourites, Andrea Hawkes, a choice which aligned perfectly with the couple’s desire to have a modern, minimalist and unconventional style celebration.
Bridal Beauty & Accessories
My Makeup Artist was Kristina Gasperas.
My scent was Le Labo Santal – my absolute favourite and I also wore a pair of gorgeous earrings and a bracelet from Astrid and Miyu.
My shoes wee by Esska. They we gorgeous and so comfortable.
The Dress
My dress was direct from Andrea Hawkes and was a made to measure. The whole experience was amazing! The team were incredible in bringing the vision I didn’t know I had to light. Equally the craftsmanship was impeccable. I would 100% recommend them.
I think I knew I didn’t want the conventional dress and something understated and a little bit romantic. Andrea Hawkes was exactly the style what I was looking for.
My veil was also from Andrea Hawkes too. I definitely needed it with such a simple and classic dress.
Visit andreahawkes.co.uk
The Ceremony
I am from South Africa and Alex is from the Wirral. We toyed with having weddings in both locations but couldn’t land on any venues that were sentimental to both of us.
We landed on Wandsworth Townhall because its where we live and it meant something to our lives together.
Alex and I walked over from our pub hotel, The Spread Eagle, to Wandsworth Town Hall and met all our guests in the foyer. I was walked into the chamber by my Dad.
Our ceremony was short and sweet, with no readings. Our rings were from Durrants in Hatton Garden.
Photography
Our photographer was Cat Arwel. We just adored her editorial candid style of photography. And it also so matches perfectly with a London wedding. Cat and her assistant Alex were AMAZING on the day.
I would one million percent recommend.
How They Met
Like any modern love story, we met online – Bumble, to be specific. We matched early 2019 a few days before I headed off to South Africa to see my family for a few weeks. The conversation stayed throughout and when I go back we decided to meet up.
Part of that awkward chit-chat online was about Oscar worthy movies that were making their run at that point in time. The Favourite, with Olivia Coleman, was getting rave reviews, so Alex suggested we go watch it. A movie on a first date, sounded risky. What if there was nothing there and we had to sit through nearly two hours of awkward?!
Thankfully the day came – a snowy 31st of January. I met Alex at the bar at the British Film Institute and the rest was history. We had a great chat before the movie, I had two large glasses of wine and he almost got away with hiding his last day of Dry January.
With a few little jokes throughout the movie, I knew our sense of humour was the same. 2019 flew by with loads of travel together, a big adventure to Japan for the Rugby World Cup and a contentious time as we had tickets for the final and both England and SA in it. There was one very sore loser, not me. We came back and moved in to our first home, survived actually thrived through a challenging lockdown, another little move closer to friends and to get a dog, Angus. We got engaged on Christmas Day 2021 and fourteen months later, we were married. A jammed packed four years! It’s been so special.
The Reception
We needed to find a wedding venue that was a venue by trade but that had an event space but was known for its AMAZING food. After a quick food tour of London, we went to Wild By Tart and fell in love. So our style of eating.
We’ve been to a fair few weddings where food’s been the afterthought, we didnt want that. We wanted a small intimate (ish) delicious meal with all our nearest and dearests. It was perfect.
We broke tradition, we didn’t have a cake, but the elaborate Tiramisu at Wild By Tart was a showstopper.
Our Save the Dates and invitations were from Paperlust and the rest of the on the day bits were designed by myself. One mention would be we had ceramic half moon place cards that were made by Ginger + the Goddess. They were divine and Em was so helpful.
Evening & Dancing
We left our first dance up to chance. We don’t like forced fun but when the moment struck we got up there. It was a cheesy one – Careless Whisper by Wham.
We hired Jayson Norris – he was AMAZING, we didnt have the biggest space for a band or dance floor nor was that out vibe but Jayson read the room and got the people dancing. Such a talented man.
Words of Wedded Wisdom
The best bit of advice I got was to take a few moments through the day to take yourself and your partner way from it all and watch all your nearest and dearests in one room.
And take time to take it all in, generally. It goes so quickly. It’s gone in a flash.
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Cat Arwel Photography
Additional Credits
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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.
