WWW readers Louise and Ian married in May at the Battersea Arts Centre, London. They wanted their wedding to be fun and informal full to the brim with lovely home made touches.

They created pom poms, bunting, the flowers and stationery themselves, all in gorgeous blue tones. The bridesmaids looked pretty in navy frocks from Fever, while Louise found her flirty polka dot dress on eBay and Ian was suited and booted in Ted Baker. What a stylish pair.

I so love quirky and whimsy feel to their day. Not to mention all the entertainment they got in for the guests, a burlesque dancer (work warning), karaoke and retro singing group. Fabulous.

Thanks so much to the ever wonderful Assassynation for sharing her photographs with us today.

 

The Proposal… Ian proposed in my favourite place in the world, the ski resort where I had worked as a ski rep a few years before.

The Vision for the Day… We just wanted our guests to have fun, we didn’t want it to be too stuffy and formal, we kept the ceremony and speeches short so that we could have more time for a party!

The Planning Process… We had a year and half to plan the wedding and started booking vendors and making things right from day one. Partly because I was too excited to wait but also because so we didn’t have to do everything in a mad rush in the 6 months before the wedding.

Budget… £12,000, I have to admit to loosing track in the last month so we went over this by a bit.

The Venue… Battersea arts centre, as soon as we saw the website we knew this was the place for us, it has so much character and they really are so flexible and allow you to be as creative as you want, alot  of the venues we looked at in London where a bit too strict with rules and preferred suppliers.

The Dress + Accessories… My dress was bought from a company up in Manchester called inspiration bridal, I found them on ebay.  The shoes where originally river island, bought second hand on ebay.

Finding the Dress… I fell in love with a dress I saw featured in a blog (http://www.lovemydress.net/blog/2011/11/lime-green-wedding-inspiration.html#more) and then went on a hunt to find THE dress, after finding a shop that stocked it I went to try it on, only to find it didn’t really suit me. After visiting a few more shops I fell in love with a dress from Candy Anthony but it was a bit much for our budget, so while I was searching for preloved candy dress I found this similar dress on ebay for a fraction of the price. the only downside being they didn’t have a shop (hence why it was such a bargain) so I had to send my measurements to them and the made the dress in 6 weeks and sent it to me in the post. I told myself that I knew it was a risk but as it was such good value that if it turned up and was completely wrong I’d just have to right off that cost and go back to hunting in the shops. But it turned up and it was beautiful, exactly what I wanted and only needed a very small alteration nearer the time.

Groom’s Attire… The groom wore a Ted Baker suit and we found the tie in river island which matched the bridesmaids dresses perfectly.

Bridesmaids… I got the girls some beautiful navy dresses from Fever in london, we paired them with navy shoes from Carvela.

The Readings + Music… we had our friend read ‘made up love song’ by the Guillemots. We both wanted a reading but didn’t want it to be too soppy, when we putting the music for the ceremony together this song came on and we decided it would be perfect for our reading. We had our first dance to Love Cats as  I wanted an upbeat song that all of our guests could join in with!

The Flowers… I originally ordered my hydrangeas from an online wholesaler, the flowers turned up and half of them were beyond rescue, after a full refund I hit the florists of Balham to buy seasonal replacements, special mention to the flower sanctuary of Balham for being SO helpful. i them made the bouquets myself and the groomsmen put the centre pieces the morning of the wedding.

The Cake… My mum and her friend were in charge of the cake, we bought the tiers from m&s and then my mum and her friend painstaking made all of the hydrangeas flowers to decorate the cake. I made the silhouette cake topper myself tracing a photo of me and ian onto thin black plastic and then cutting it out.

Your Photographer… The amazing Sassy from Assaynation. We couldn’t be happier with our photos and everyone has commented on how unique they are and how great she was on the day, capturing all the right moments whilst managing to go un noticed most of the time.

The Details + Decor… 2 of my bridesmaids and I made the tissue paper pom poms the week before the wedding, I made the bunting as well to decorate the hall. We collected jam jars and ivy from our garden to decorate the staircase that we had the ceremony on. I made the button holes and flower girls posies and corsages for our mums from old music paper.

The Honeymoon… we went for 2 weeks to Vegas and then LA.

Memorable Moments… Ian planned a few great surprises during the day! Firstly he had secretly got permission from our landlord to get a cat and he announced this during his speech whilst bringing out a cat basket, not with a real cat in it, but I for a second I thought it was! He also secretly brought back enough Genepi (the local digestiv from the ski resort I worked) the February before so that during his speech the caterers brought out a shot for everyone to toast with! Finally he performed an acoustic rendition of  the Foo Fighters song Everlong to kick off the evening.

Advice for Other Couples… we diy’d everything from the favours, button holes, corsages, posies, bouquets, centre pieces to the decorations, invites and table plan. it gave us the flexibility to make the wedding exactly how we wanted it and make the day reflect our personalities. i even diy’d my veil! after struggling to find one like i exactly wanted in the end i ordered a cheap one online, cut it to the length i wanted, stitched it back together and added the bow that i wanted as well.

My advise would be to plan out your budget as soon as possible, once you know how much you have to work with you can figure out how you want to split your spending, we opted for a cheaper buffet option rather than the standard 3 course meal so that we could then splash out on the entertainment for the day as that’s what we really wanted.

Once you’ve done all your planning on the day you just have to sit back and enjoy the ride, for us flowers died, zips broke but it still was the most perfect day.

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Photographer – Assassynation – www.assassynation.co.uk www.facebook.com/assassynation

Venue – Battersea Arts Centre – www.bac.org.uk

Transport – Rolls Royce from abbey rolls hire – www.abbeyrollshire.com

Caterer – Heriot caterers of London – www.heriot.co.uk

Hair – Hollie of Dolly and Rhonda – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dolly-and-Rhonda/234959906532849

Entertainment – The frockettes – http://frockettes.co.uk/

Tabitha taboo burlesque dancer – https://www.facebook.com/TabithaTaboo

Rockaoke – http://www.rockaoke.co.uk/

 

 

I soooo love this wedding, there are so many gorgeous touches. Thanks so much to Louise and Ian for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today XOXO Lou