Charlotte and Jamie’s Cool Music Hall Wedding in London by Chris Blackledge Photography

Happy Friday everyone, I hope you are all well and happy? Tonight Dexter is off to cub camp, which means Nik and I have a child free weekend! We are out for a meal this evening and then tomorrow we will be doing some holiday planning and hopefully get some time to catch up on some films and maybe a bit of shopping. I’m sure some of you must be off to weddings this weekend?? How exciting that wedding season is upon us again. Today I have another fabulous wedding from Chris Blackledge Photography who is becoming quite the regular to the blog, which isn’t bad thing as his work is gorgeous. Charlotte and Jamie held a super cool wedding in one of my favourite wedding venues, Wilton’s Music Hall in London. Their day was cool, stylish and full of fun.

The happiest, coolest day ever. Very us

Charlotte and Jamie were married on 28th May 2023 at Wilton’s Music Hall in London. ‘We knew we wanted somewhere unique and focused on London venues as nowhere else really had any significance for us as a couple (or had the style of venue we wanted). We looked a 3 other options but both of us felt Wilton’s was above and beyond what we’d imagined. And how many people can say they got married at a venue where The Muppets: Most Wanted was filmed? We had 90 day guests, 120 evening guests an it took 18 months to plan’

How did you meet
We met on Tinder — 10 years ago!

The proposal
Under the ruse of a pre-Christmas break, Jamie had a planned to propose on trip to Paris. Unfortunately new Covid testing rules had just been brought back in and there was a risk we’d end up stuck in a hotel room on Christmas Day, so we postponed the trip and he actually ended up proposing in our living room. Not exactly what he’d planned but was so special being at home.
He’d told everyone he was proposing the following day so we ended up having an evening where it was just us that knew, which was really lovely.

How did you allocate your budget?
Firstly we drastically underestimated what we’d end up spending (!!), but having never planned a wedding before you really have no idea. We both agreed that venue, food and drink were the most important things for us, and the most expensive, so started with those and then saved where we could from there.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We splurged on the venue because for us it was such a huge part of the day and really set the tone. As a graphic designer we saved a lot on the printed elements as I could design them myself and then between us and my (Charlotte’s) dad spent a few weekends printing / cutting / pulling things together. We saved on things that we felt wouldn’t make or break the day for us or our guests.

How did you choose your photographer?
We knew we wanted a more candid / documentary style which narrowed it down initially. We reached out to a few different people that we liked the style of enough to have a chat with but once we’d spoken to Chris we just felt relaxed and confident he understood what we were after — and knew he’d fit seamlessly into our day.

The Brides outfit
My outfit was a mix of high street including Coast/Phase Eight. Shoes were Kat Maconie.

The suit and bridesmaids
Jamie wore tailored Gurkha-style trousers and a white shirt. The bridesmaids wore what they liked, I wanted them to be comfortable. They all have very different styles and 2/3 were pregnant at the time!

Flowers
We came across Annie – Floral Kind – who’s reasonably local to us in Hither Green who grows/supplies all seasonal British grown flowers www.floralkind.com I sent her some inspiration imagery and she pulled together the most beautiful selection based on a rough colour palette and what was in season. Not knowing what we were having was part of the fun and added to the ‘wild garden’ effect we really loved. We ended up with lots of Peonies, herbs and scented bits!
Annie supplied enough buckets of flowers for what we wanted, I made the bouquets and the groomsman very kindly did the bud vases for the ceremony decoration…under the supervision of the bridesmaids!

Decoration
Very minimal as Wilton’s is so characterful already, just a couple of tinsel garlands at the entrance and the flowers.

Food
We had a Lebanese style meal with lots of sharing dishes, followed by cocktails, pizza and cookies in the evening!

Wedding cake
We’d been to so many weddings where the cake was left untouched so we saved money there and bought boxes of cookies from Blondie’s Kitchen for anyone that needed a sugar hit for the dance floor. We didn’t get any back so assuming there were a hit!

Entertainment

• Card games out during the day
• Pianist playing modern songs for a cocktail hour after the meal
• Lucie Sheridan — Rubbish Portraits drew our guests portraits which doubled up as favours we sent out after the wedding
• DJ for the evening
• Instant camera guestbook
• Cocktail station

Who supplied the stationery?
We designed and made ourselves

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We had a minimoon to Seville a couple of days post-wedding which was lovely just to relax. Hoping to go to Canada for a longer “proper” honeymoon soon!

Personal touches
We had photos of loved ones that sadly couldn’t make the wedding out as a reminder. All of the signage we made ourselves.

Special moments
Walking down the aisle for both of us was really special and getting to spend the morning with our favourite people getting ready. Also the moment straight after getting married sharing a glass of champagne just the two of us.
The real highlight is having everyone we love all in one place for a whole day!

Advice for other couples
Allow time to enjoy the day together. We deliberately had quite a loose schedule so it was more likely things would run ahead of time rather than worrying about being late and stressing.
Also it’s easy to say but it is your day. We’re lucky there weren’t any expectations from family or anyone on how our wedding should be. If you love something, go for it, it’s the one day you can do everything just for you.
…and don’t sweat the small stuff.

Biggest surprise 
That it all went pretty much to plan! And one of the best men singing a Tina Turner cover during the speeches…

Supplier Shout Outs

• Photographer: www.chrisblackledgephotography.co.uk
• Rubbish Portraits:  www.rubbishportraits.com
• Makeup/Hair: www.carlaaraujo.co.uk
• DJ: www.storm-djs.com
• Pianist: www.alivenetwork.com
• Food: www.gathererscatering.com
• Flowers: www.floralkind.com
• Shoes: www.katmaconie.com
• Bride: www.coastfashion.com
• Venue: www.wiltons.org.uk

CHRIS BLACKLEDGE KENT WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

www.chrisblackledgephotography.co.uk / [email protected] / 07912851540 / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM 

Based in Kent but happily capturing wedding stories across the UK and Worldwide. Established in 2010 with the aim of making memories and capturing awesome wedding stories naturally, truthful and creatively.