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Yay it’s Friday! That sure did come round quickly! It’s been a hectic week at...
15
Jul
2016
Happy Friday everyone, I do hope you have had a good week and that you are now ready for the weekend ahead! have you got anything fun planned? To finish off the week we have this lovely London Pub Wedding courtesy of Joe Kingston to share with you. It’s a simple, laid back day, and just goes to show that you don’t need a mountain of guests, a huge budget and loads of fancy decor to have a fabulous wedding. Jessica and James decided to focus their wedding day on good food and good company and the results are this fun, low key day, Enjoy!
Jessica and James were married on the 12th March 2016 at Stoke Newington Town Hall, followed by a reception at The Londesborough. ‘We live just up the road and knew straightaway the town hall was perfect for the type of wedding we wanted, then all we had to do was find a pub with delicious food and a great atmosphere nearby and The Londesborough fit the bill perfectly! We had 43 guests plus an extra 15 or so in the evening, and the wedding took 7 months to plan.’
How they met
We met on a night out with mutual friends nearly three years ago, and we both knew straightaway that we’d met someone special.
The proposal
On our second anniversary James took me for a lovely meal at a hotel in central London. We went for cocktails in the bar beforehand and he seemed a bit jittery – I thought he must have had a few before I’d arrived! I realised he was going to propose when he started trying to climb down from the tall bar stools we were sitting on – I told him to stay where he was!
How did you allocate your budget?
We knew we didn’t want to spend a silly amount of money but everything just fell into place once we’d booked the venue – we wanted everyone to have a great day but we made sure we didn’t get carried away with all the little extras we knew wouldn’t make that much difference.
Where did you splurge and where did you save?
For us, the most important thing was that everyone had an amazing day so we concentrated on what we found most memorable about weddings we’d been to; food, music, alcohol and atmosphere! That really helped us decide where to spend our budget. The main expense was food, but it was worth every penny and our guests still talk about how good it was! Everyone got to choose from a menu on the day. I decided not to have bridesmaids, mainly because I would have found it so difficult to choose, but that ended up saving a lot of money on dresses! We didn’t bother with favours or cars, kept decorations to a minimum and had a non-wedding cake – it saved us loads of money and I don’t regret any of it – if anything, I think it helped or wedding feel more original.
Why did you choose your photographer?
Joe is a friend of a friend and we’d seen some of this work on Facebook , it was exactly what we were looking for so we got in touch. We were really impressed with his down-to-earth attitude and enthusiasm and knew he ‘got’ what we wanted.
The Dress
The dress was from Ted Baker with faux-fur shrug from Coast. Shoes were by Rachel Simpson. Earrings from Katherine Swaine.
The suit and bridesmaids
James wore a suit from Jennis and Warmann, with shoes from Barker.
Theme or colour scheme
We didn’t want it to feel like there was a ‘theme’ – we just chose the things we liked and thankfully everything came together!
Flowers
Our florist is the sister of a good friend of ours and has a fabulous style – very rustic. I sent her some examples of the type of flowers we liked and on the day they were exactly what we had hoped for. Very wild looking with hints of blue, lilac and pink. To be honest, I couldn’t actually tell you what type of flowers they were, it was the type of detail I was very happy to leave to the expert! We bought lots of cheap vases from Ikea which I decorated with little wooden hearts and hessian, and as the reception came to a close we gave them away to our guests.
Decoration
There was very little decoration – lots of fairy lights and some bunting, and that was it!
Food
Guests could choose their own starter and main course;
Starter: Salmon Gravdlax, or Smoked Duck salad, or Mushroom fricassee
Mains: Lamb rump with dauphinoise, green beans, rosemary jus, or Spiced pork belly with pumpkin mash and chorizo stuffed apple, or Sea bream fillet with mash, swiss chard and white wine sauce.
Dessert: Plum and apple crumble with vanilla ice-cream
Wedding Cake
Three very non-weddingy bright coloured cakes; a piñata cake covered in hundreds and thousands, a unicorn cake complete with pastel coloured meringue and a heart-covered red velvet cake.
Entertainment
We had a fabulous DJ who played a great mix of pop, dance and RnB and kept everyone on the dance floor all night!
Stationery
We designed it ourselves using a template on Vistaprint, and picked up loads of postcards when we were on honeymoon in New York which we used as thank-you cards.
Personal touches
We tasked friends and family with collecting corks from prosecco and champagne bottles and used them to make personalised name cards by putting mini Polaroid style photos of all our guests on them. For my photo I chose one of me with my grandma, who passed away just a few months before our big day. We also bought a personalised apple crate and and created a ‘living’ table plan.
Special moments or highlights
The speeches were lovely, both moving and funny – everyone had a strict 10 minute limit though and we got them out of the way before we ate!
Advice for other couples
Decide what’s most important to you and what sort of day you want before you start booking anything, and always keep that in mind. Don’t let yourself get distracted and tempted by all the ‘add-ons’ unless you really want them!
Biggest surprise
The end, we couldn’t believe it went so quickly! Enjoy every minute, it really will fly by!
joekingston.co.uk / [email protected] / 07725580819 / FACEBOOK / PINTEREST / T:@jokingstonphoto / I: @joekingstonphoto
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