Over to the bride…
Emily says…
Will works in locations for tv/film/events and as such we had a good advantage for venue finding! We wanted to get married in London and have a non-traditional wedding which felt like us – and the feel to be both relaxed and fun. We loved the vaulted spaces, exposed brickwork and steel trusses at Shoreditch Studios and we loved the small-scale Victorian feel to the courtyard whilst being surrounded by the city’s skyscrapers.
As Shoreditch Studios is licensed for weddings – being able to get married and have the reception at the same venue was great and having the use of the two arches and the courtyard made it easy to create different feels to the space throughout the day. We were hoping to make a bit more use of the courtyard but unfortunately the British weather wasn’t playing game!
My dress was from Charlie Brear, which I loved. It was very comfortable (very important for dancing) and I felt like the best version of me in it. I had a change of sash into a red sash for the tea ceremony as red is an auspicious colour. My hair was done by my usual hairdresser Dany Mikhael and make up by a make-up artist friend Anna Payne, they both came to us in the morning which was great, and wonderful to have people you know and trust in this regard. I had a hair piece lent to me by one of my bridesmaids who also wore it at her wedding. Shoes were simple block heel sandals from & Other Stories. My bridesmaids were all in two types of dresses from Ghost in five different colours – we always wanted them to be individual. Will had a new tailored 3-piece suit from Edit Suits.
We had a very specific idea of what the feel of the space would be – bright, vibrant and with little matching. I think the colours offset the brick and concrete nicely. I was most pleased with our flower curtain and this, with the fairy lights and greenery, added a softness to the studios. Will is Chinese and we wanted to include Chinese wedding traditions into the day, including a tea ceremony and double happiness symbols hanging in spray painted hoops on the wall. I love crafting – so everything was handmade apart from the giant W & E vinyl letters on the wall in Studio 2 which took 5 people over 2 hours to mount in the morning – but it looked great!
Shilpa Reddy Flowers was our florist – again we knew her already and she really bought into the idea of having lots of green throughout with pops of bright random colours and any flowers really so I think she enjoyed having freedom on whatever worked within that brief. We had some ranunculus flowers too which were gorgeous. The flower curtain was my favourite piece of décor, romantic but contemporary. We reused table flowers on the floor during the ceremony to make the most of the flowers throughout the day, which again was great to work to our budget.
Our caterers are called Cater – they were great, and the food was delicious. It started with a discussion with Greg and Ruairidh to discuss the type of food and style we wanted from which they devised a tasty menu. We wanted Asian canapés (these were the highlight) then we went straight into the mains (chicken with a chicken bonbon, with new potatoes and greens as sharing plates) and had our beautiful 3-tiered victoria sponge cake served up for pudding with pavlova in sharing bowls to top it off. As our wedding didn’t start until 4pm this felt like plenty of food. We also had bagels and crodoughs from Rinkoff’s Bakery set out at midnight for extra snacks which went down a treat. We brought in all the booze from a trip to Calais, we gave two cocktail options for the evening – gin & tonics and dark & stormys after the usual champagne, wine and beer during the day. We were worried about the idea of running out of booze and/or food so hugely over ordered and now have a fully stocked wine rack for a considerable time!
We actually looked into more photographers than any other supplier for the day, Victoria stood out to us – looking at her portfolio we loved the natural reportage style, capturing moments and the light in her photos. She is very friendly and relaxed, it genuinely felt like having an extra friend there. I am not a natural in front of the camera and one of our big fears would be an album of photos of us looking awkward in a variety of poses. She put us at straight away ease and it rarely felt like I knew she was there for all of my favourite moment shots – we kept the posed ones and family portraits to a minimum which is great as you don’t want to waste precious time of the day in various line ups! She was excellent value for money and went above and beyond what we were expecting, and we are thrilled to bits with the photos.
Best part of the day
The whole thing really! The ceremony was so special (as it should be!) we had some gorgeous readings, Will’s brother and cousin played the violin and piano to us walking-in and out and an opera singer friend also sang a piece during the signing of the register which was so lovely to have live music in a ceremony. We feel very lucky to have truly had the best days of our lives.
From one bride to another…
Although I am very happy to have handmade our décor and stationery – do not underestimate the time it takes! I think I spent about 40-50 hours in total making things! Otherwise relax and enjoy it! Things will go wrong on the day, little things you will notice as you have carefully planned everything out – but no one cares! It’s most likely your guests haven’t noticed the hiccups or if they do – they are too busy enjoying themselves to care!
Venue Shoreditch Studios
Photography Victoria Somerset-How Photography
Caterer Cater London
Florist Shilpa Reddy Flowers
DJ DJ Rommel via Euphonica
Lighting KSS Event Production
Bride’s Dress Charlie Brear
Bridesmaid’s Dresses Ghost London
Groom’s Attire Edit Suits
