Becky and Andy’s Mexican Day of the Dead Theme London Wedding by Stephen Duncan Photography

Welcome to another wonderful week of weddings here on the blog, we have a jam-packed week planned for you, starting off with this fabulous Mexican ‘Day of the Dead’ themed wedding which is going to rock your monday into shape! After going to a huge number of weddings themselves over the space of two years, Becky and Andy decided they wanted their wedding to be something different, so they chose a super bright and fun ‘Day of the Dead’ theme with all the wonder and excitement that Mexico brings! With paper lanterns, beautifully bright flowers, 100 hand-painted sugar skulls and the most amazing looking red velvet wedding cake, this wedding is brimming with amazing details and fun-filled decor. Plus they managed to plan the whole thing in just 5 months! Big thanks to Stephen Duncan Photography for the fab images.

A totally original, weird and wacky, Mexican Day of the Dead themed wedding, with a humanist celebrant (who happened to be a BBC Radio 4 news presenter).

Becky and Andy were married on the 14th May 2016 at Islington Metal Works. ‘We live in central London and wanted our venue to be as close to home as possible (about a 15 minute taxi in the end!). We’d been to 15-20 weddings the previous 24 months which were all variations of the barn/stately home theme, so were keen for something a bit more unusual. We actually got legally married the day before, just with our families, at the Islington Town Hall just up the road. We had 110 guests and the wedding took 5 months to plan.’

How they met
We were sat next to each other at a wedding in October 2010, and started dating straight away. Becky went to school with the bride and Andy went to school with the groom – we’re all still very good friends!

The Proposal
A bit of a strange one in Cologne – after nearly getting the ring pickpocketed during the New Years Eve fireworks! But all worked out a few days later along the river/near the bridge, while watching some street performers making whale-sized balloons.

How did you spend your budget?
We divided it up roughly as follows: £12k venue/food, £4k drinks, £1.5k photographer, £2k bands, £1k, dress+tailoring, £600 suit+shoes+tailoring … totalling to £25k-ish.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We tried our hardest not to splurge – we negotiated most costs, bought suits/dresses in sales, hand-made lots of favours/decorations, recruited very talented friends/family to help us make things (e.g. the cake!!) No hair or makeup trial. Our Venue was very close to where we live so minimal travel/hotel costs. Ceremony/reception in same place so no travel.

How did you choose your photographer
Recommendation from a friend, who’s photos we really liked

The Dress
My Dress was by Rembo Styling, and shoes from Clarks!

The Suit and Bridesmaids
The suit was a 3-piece Ted Baker suit, with Paul Smith shoes. The bridesmaids wore dresses from Joy.

Theme or Colour Scheme
Mexican Day of the Dead theme

Flowers
I had Crazy flowers! And Peonies.

Decoration
Over 100 hand-painted sugar skulls. Andy’s mum painted several Mexican folk-art paintings. Mexican papel picado bunting, hand-cut with our names on. Mexican ‘El Pato’ bean cans. Unicorn/rainbow pinatas. Mexican oil cloth table-runners. Loteria playing cards. Lots of polaroid photos of us/our guests.

Food
Food wasn’t a highlight… less said the better. It was ‘Mexican’ food.

Wedding Cake
3-tier red velvet cake, decorated with over 1000 sugar art decorations (made by Becky’s mums)

Entertainment
A mariachi band during drinks reception – The Beat Banditos followed by a 5-piece band after dinner – The Blue Lion Band

The Stationery
We made it ourselves. We used Paperless Post for e-invites.

Personal Touches
Humanist ceremony was completely custom to ‘our story’, plus a hand fasting (with readings from our mothers). Becky walked up the aisle to the Jurassic Park theme. Our ‘hymn’ was Madness – Must Be Love. Our only reading was ‘You’re all I need’ by Method Man. Hand-made table favours (mini bottles of tequila or hot sauce, with a custom-made stamp, and hand-made sugar skull lollies). ‘Find your face find your place’ seating plan. Speech bingo on every table. All of the hand-made stuff mentioned earlier. Home-made bridesmaid ‘Frida Khalo’ style headpiece

Special moments 
First dance to En Vogue – Don’t Let Go and the Hand fasting reading by our mums

Advice for other couples
Plan it in 5 months like we did – not 12+! Get a wedding planner for the day to avoid having to answer millions of questions.

Biggest Surprise
Becky’s 96 year old granddad’s video appearance during the speeches

Supplier Shout Outs

• Venue: islingtonmetal.com
• Band 1: Beat Banditos www.beatbanditos.co.uk
• Band 2: Blue Lion Band www.bluelionband.co.uk
• Photographer: Stephen Duncan www.stephen-duncan.co.uk
• Celebrant: Susan Rae humanism.org.uk
• Flowers: Flower Appreciation Society www.theflowerappreciationsociety.co.uk
• Dress: Rembo Styling www.rembo-styling.com
• Makeup: Nadia Elias nadiamakesitup.com
• Hair: Studio Mag, Whitechapel www.studio-mag.co.uk
• Mexican decorations/supplies: Viva La Frida www.vivalafrida.co.uk and Montes & Clark montesandclark.co.uk
• Rings: Oliver twitter.com/oliverdiamonds

For more information on Stephen’s work go to:

www.stephen-duncan.co.uk / [email protected] / 07879 251301 / FACEBOOK / I:@stephenduncanphoto / PINTEREST

Winchester-based wedding photographer working across southern UK. My real photographic interest is in the people – expressions and emotions – so I focus largely on the documentary side of things but still like to combine this with some of the more traditional composed portraits and details to really tell the story of the day and the couple. I like fresh, clean colour images and strong black and whites, and most importantly I like everyone to be get on with celebrating and enjoying themselves rather than feeling like the photography dominates the day at all.