Indie Cool London City Wedding

What fun I am sharing today with WWW readers Sarah and David’s indie city wedding. They tied the knot in Department of Life before parting at Clapton Country Club in London on the 25th August 2019. Their day is a really wonderful example of doing things your own way, forgetting about adhering to any traditions that don’t suit and working with local businesses in a supportive and eco-friendly manor. An ethos close to my heart and I am sure to many of you guys too.

It’s so great to hear that Sarah and David found inspiration here on WWW too and are happy to share their own experience with you lovely lot in helping you with your own plans. So just what do I love their day? The crescent moon cakes placed on each table for cutting by guests, the greenery bridal bouquet which looked really lush and all of the beautiful signs throughout. I think Sarah’s gown is just beautiful and teamed with plaits in her hair and Swedish Hasbeens she looked fabulous. David meanwhile wore a blue suit with contrasting waistcoat and pattern tie. Very dapper!

Kate Gray Photography thank you so very much for sharing these darling images today. Wow.

The Proposal

We went for a weekend away in a shepherd’s hut in the Kent countryside. It was September and we were hoping to enjoy the last of the summer sun. After a gorgeous dinner at a local pub we were watching the stars outside the shepherds hut in the middle of the countryside and David got on one knee and proposed. It was amazing. He proposed with a proposal ring he’d bought as a stand in as he knew I wanted to look for a ring in Brighton lanes – which we did the following day! Buying a gorgeous onyx engagement ring that David found in the final jewellery shop in the lanes – they changed the band to something more suitable for me and I was able to walk away with it on my finger an hour later! We then went back to Brighton to buy our wedding rings which we had beautifully made by the wonderful jewellers at Baroque.

The Vision

We didn’t have a particular vision for the day. We just wanted all the people we loved in one place to celebrate with us, with good food, good music and a drink in hand!

The Planning Process

Most of the planning involved looking online at websites and blogs especially WWW. We just needed to look at how everyone else had done it their way and take inspiration from that. We wanted to make sure that the wedding was about us and our future rather than traditions or what was just expected.

Budget

Exceeded!

We were very lucky to be gifted some money from family members, however we still had a lot of saving to do ourselves.

When presented with a decision on whether to spend the money or not on something, we followed the advice “will we care about this item in 10 year’s time” – quite often the answer was no! This was a good mantra to follow – it meant that everything we were spending the money on was important to us. We wanted to write the guest list before thinking about money so that we could invite everyone we loved. This meant that we had 112 people for the day and David was adamant that we would have a sit down meal – this and the venue took up the majority of the budget but it was totally worth it. The food was exceptional.

All in, the day cost around £24k.

The Venue

Clapton Country Club.

As both of us work backstage in theatre, we didn’t want a venue that required loads of decoration and setting up to do – we just fell in love with the interiors and the vibe of CCC the first time we walked inside.

We were initially put off by the fact they were not licensed for civil wedding ceremonies – having the full day in one venue was important to us, but on talking with Terence the owner (who built the venue for his own wedding) he mentioned they were renovating a space just across the cobbled courtyard with the intention of getting it licensed.

We took a chance and reserved our date, with the hope that the license would come through – and it did – in fact we were the first couple to be legally married in the Department of Life.

The reclaimed parquet floors, alongside the exposed Victorian red brick, all of the plants and greenery and the glass that allowed natural light to flood the space made it the perfect setting for our ceremony – even though it was only a building site when we first saw it.

The food was incredible – we had so many comments from friends and family about how good the it was. With everything served family style in the middle of the tables – everyone could help themselves and just dig in. There was no shortage of food, CCC really know what they are doing with the service and quality of the meal.

When we went for our wedding tasting – it was all so good that we had difficulty choosing what to actually serve on the day!

Your Outfits & Accessories

Groom’s suit – Ted Baker, with my Granda’s tie pin and cufflinks. Since I wasn’t allowed to see Sarah’s dress – I didn’t allow her to see my suit until the day either!

After searching throughout London with my mum, two sisters, aunt, best woman and best friend (it was a lovely day but a lot of opinions!) I took the advice of my sister “what style of dress do you already own that you feel a million dollars in?” I finally went to a dress shop two minute’s walk from where I live on my own one Tuesday morning and found the exact style I was looking for. The perfect dress in the sale for £300! I wore the same headpiece my grandmother wore in her hair for her wedding in 1953, and her gold bell drop earrings with a new bracelet from Etsy with mine and David’s initials on. The shoes were from Swedish Hasbeens – and so comfy.

Beauty

I wanted to look like me so I choose a hairstyle similar to what I normally wear in the summer – but done MUCH better by the wonderful Kirsten. She made me feel glorious on the morning, and managed to weave my grandma’s headpiece seamlessly into my plait.

I have known Nicola, who did my makeup, for over fifteen years – she did my friends wedding makeup last year and I just knew I had to have her with me on the morning. She just makes everyone feel calm and is a wonder at her work. She made me look like me but just a better version. We had a couple of trials to see what would be best, as I don’t normally wear much makeup, and the final result was exactly what I wanted!

I had a manicure and pedicure at London Grace with my soon to be mother and sister-in-law the day before the wedding. It gave a bit of calm during a day that was filled with lots of things to do and meant that I had some quality time with them both before the big day.

Bridesmaids

Again as we didn’t want to have a big bridal party I had a best woman and no bridesmaids. Jess’ dress was from ASOS and was the flutter sleeve midi dress. She looked stunning.

As I have many nieces and nephews who wanted to be part of the day we then had four bridesgirls and two bridesboys. The girls skirts and tops were from M&S and the boys shorts, waistcoats and shirts were from John Lewis. All the kiddies wore the same high-top sparkly shoes from John Lewis. The girls also wore rose gold headbands from Claire’s Accessories. My sister Hannah did the girls hair in which ever style they wanted that day. They are all different ages and I wanted them to feel their best.

Groomsmen

My best man being Scottish meant he already had his kilt and suit and looks very good in it!

The Readings & Music

David’s sister Maeve did the reading during the ceremony – a passage from Dolly Alderton’s ‘Everything I Know About Love’. The bit that was read is actually about the love of friendship rather than a romantic love, but it is just so beautiful and was so different to any other reading we found. Maeve actually found the reading for us which was perfect after feeling like we were drowning in other readings that didn’t feel like us. The whole book is wonderful and this passage just said exactly how we feel about our love and each other that she couldn’t have chosen any better!

Sarah walked down the aisle to Sea of Love by Cat Power.

We walked up the aisle to You and Me by The Wannadie’s – edited to kick in at the chorus of ‘You and Me – Always…’.

Our first dance was to Grow Old with Me by Tom Odell, which was the first gig we went to as a couple – performed live by the amazing Beat Junkies.

Your Photographer

After a lot of searching online we found the wonderful Kate Gray and adored her style. We managed to book her for our date and then had a wonderful meeting a few months before where she just made us feel so comfortable – getting us used to having pictures taken – something that didn’t come naturally to either of us. Then on the day she works as a team with her lovely husband Jon meaning we could have the getting ready shots with both myself, at the Airbnb I’d booked in walking distance to CCC, and David greeting all the guests at the venue.

They were fabulous, kind and just felt like having two extra friends to celebrate our day.

We were really pleased with the photos, and with the box that Kate sent the USB stick in with a few little mementos of the day it brought us straight back there.

The Details & Décor

Whilst looking through blogs we found a brilliant one that gave the advice of looking for décor inspiration we should look at our own home. Our taste is there and it meant we could use some things that we already had – basically earthy greens, metallics and dark blue. CCC is so beautifully decorated that we didn’t need to add much, just a few small touches here and there to make it personal to us. Luckily, we have a very talented friend who did all our signage and stationery for the day. Her calligraphy is beautiful and she made our table plan and large signs that were hung in the main hall, alongside all the name placements, menus, table numbers, order of the day and other signs. We then just added a few pictures of us around the venue, using frames from home, and had a large collage of our grandparents on their wedding days, as unfortunately only one of our grandparents was able to be there.

As I work in theatre we get a lot of flowers backstage, I asked all the actors to pass on their wilting and dying flowers so I could dry them to make confetti. We then turned our leftover save the date cards into cones to hold the flower confetti, we were trying to be as conservative as possible with waste and as eco-friendly as possible.

The Flowers

As the venue was already covered beautifully in greenery and plants we saved money by only having bouquets and buttonholes which we got from the wonderful Grace and Thorne. They do a ‘Ready to Wear Wedding’ range which just perfect. Beautifully designed and reasonably priced, delivered to us on the morning of the wedding. They were also local to the venue so little travelling involved. We wanted to support local business and this was one small way we could.

My Best Woman Jess and her partner Tom went to a flower market early doors the day before the wedding and bought £100 worth of greenery which, along with my sisters and two friends, we bunched together for table decorations the night before using the venues own vases. I think they worked out pretty good and we had so much spare!

The Cake

We wanted to support businesses local to CCC, and we came across Luminary Bakery, and loved the ethos of their business. The sample cakes we had were all really tasty – but we settled on a lemon and blueberry cake.

As the meal was served family style – and the cake was our dessert – we got 12 normal sized cakes and had one placed on each table asking the guests to cut their own slice – this was a similar price to having one big decorated wedding cake and was much more family style. Everyone loved taking their own picture of themselves cutting the ‘wedding’ cake – and haven’t stopped talking about how amazing the taste of it was.

The Honeymoon

Sri Lanka – February 2020.

We knew we wouldn’t have had the head-space to plan the honeymoon we wanted before the wedding, and planning our honeymoon gave us something else weddingy to look forward to after the excitement of the big day was over.

We asked for honeymoon contributions as wedding presents – and we were overwhelmed by the generosity of our family and friends that we were able to go away for 3 weeks!

Memorable Moments

It was the hottest day of the year when we got married, so forcing the rings onto swollen fingers isn’t something we will forget! Natalie, our registrar from Hackney, made us feel at ease and conducted a lovely ceremony.

Playing Harry Potter Dobble on the floor of the venue with all the kiddies – I didn’t even win!

Being the last ones to leave the party carrying a box each of leftover pizza!

Going against tradition, we had speeches from best man, best woman and then us which made all of us laugh and cry.

Enjoying a glass of fizz in our incredible outdoor rooftop bath at the hotel.

And this last one is a little soppy but sitting next to each other, newly married, during dinner looking around at all the people we love in one place enjoying themselves and having a wonderful time is something that will stay with us forever.

Advice For Other Couples

Just keep remembering that this is about the two of you. Make the decisions together and remember that other people will have A LOT of opinions and that is OK but the ones that matter are your own.

Ensure that you take a few days off straight after the wedding – it’s the one thing we wish we had done – both of us were back to work 2 days after the wedding (the perils of being freelance!).

Credit Where Credit Is Due

What a fantastic celebration.

Sarah and David thanks ever so much for sharing with us your really wonderful day xo Lou