Brides planning an autumn wedding are going to feel super-inspired by this glorious big day set in London town. Tom and Cecily embraced the fading light by creating a cosy romantic feel to their wedding reception, which they hosted in a traditional English pub surrounded by twinkling lights and flickering candles. Their choice of an Art Deco theme is inspired - the gold and black is elegant and easy to DIY. I love how they created their tablescapes themselves, with a little bit of help from their talented family. There's nothing you can't do with a can of spray paint! Huge thanks to wedding photographer Lily Sawyer for capturing every perfect detail.
We had a unique situation where we had weddings in both the US and the UK! Our UK celebration in October took place in East London at St Paul's Shadwell. We followed up with a reception at the nearby Dickens Inn.
We really liked the history behind the Dickens Inn and the rustic yet modern interior. The location on the docks and next to Tower Bridge made for iconic photos.
Our Art Deco theme and gold & black palette came from our love of the elegance of the colours. We also loved how easy it was to pull together our wedding style while planning the reception from abroad.
One of the biggest projected we undertook was the centrepieces for the tables. My sister-in-LOVE went around charity shops picking up any candlesticks she could find and then spray-painted them all gold! We had many compliments on how elegant they looked.
The talent in the family didn’t stop there, as the striped table-runners were lovingly made by my grandmother-in-LOVE.
We designed our invitations ourselves, using Vistaprint. They made it easy to create the style and finish we wanted. The rest of the stationery; the table numbers, place cards and favour labels, we designed ourselves. We named the tables after US States we have visited together.
When we think of English teas we can't go beyond strawberry jam – and my mother-in-LOVE makes the very best - so you can see it made sense to combine the two for our wedding favours! We packaged miniature jam pots inside cream boxes with a gold art deco pattern.
We used our neighbor and friend for the floral arrangements and the brief we gave her was 'white or cream and traditionally British'. We trusted her style having seen her brilliant work over many years – and she did not disappoint. She created a breathtaking bouquet and boutonnieres that matched perfectly.
We wanted a simple but elegant cake with an art deco flair. The cake was made by my husband’s Aunt Sally in Bristol, with the sugar flowers intricately and meticulously made by hand. We combined our favourite cakes, a traditional fruit cake and a classic Victoria sponge. Not content with just the one cake, we also had a second at an afternoon tea immediately following the wedding service.
We had a great time planning and bringing things together, although there were challenges planning from abroad. We had amazing support from my husband's family and real credit should go to them for putting the event together. So much was already done before we touched down in London and we were able to enjoy the week building up to the wedding.
I would advise anybody in the planning process to truly enjoy these moments and not get stressed out over the tiny details - rest assured that no one will notice but you. This is all part of the wedding journey and it'll be over before you know it. Just relax and have fun, building these memories with family and friends. Don't put too much pressure on making everything perfect to avoid any mishaps on your big day. There will inevitably be something that doesn't go according to plan but these make for great stories later!
Our photographer was the wonderful and illustrious Lily Sawyer! She had photographed a friend’s wedding and we were so impressed we the photos that we asked her to do our engagement shoot. After these came back even better than we expected, and Lily was a joy to work with {and became an instant friend!}, it was an obvious decision to have her capture our wedding celebration.
Lily worked tirelessly to ensure every special moment was documented and remembered, she even went above and beyond staying with us until midnight to finish the shoot in front of Tower Bridge as she knew it was my favourite landmark!
We had a unique situation where we had weddings in both the US and the UK! Our UK celebration in October took place in East London at St Paul's Shadwell. We followed up with a reception at the nearby Dickens Inn.
We really liked the history behind the Dickens Inn and the rustic yet modern interior. The location on the docks and next to Tower Bridge made for iconic photos.
Our Art Deco theme and gold & black palette came from our love of the elegance of the colours. We also loved how easy it was to pull together our wedding style while planning the reception from abroad.
One of the biggest projected we undertook was the centrepieces for the tables. My sister-in-LOVE went around charity shops picking up any candlesticks she could find and then spray-painted them all gold! We had many compliments on how elegant they looked.
The talent in the family didn’t stop there, as the striped table-runners were lovingly made by my grandmother-in-LOVE.
When we think of English teas we can't go beyond strawberry jam – and my mother-in-LOVE makes the very best - so you can see it made sense to combine the two for our wedding favours! We packaged miniature jam pots inside cream boxes with a gold art deco pattern.
We used our neighbor and friend for the floral arrangements and the brief we gave her was 'white or cream and traditionally British'. We trusted her style having seen her brilliant work over many years – and she did not disappoint. She created a breathtaking bouquet and boutonnieres that matched perfectly.
We wanted a simple but elegant cake with an art deco flair. The cake was made by my husband’s Aunt Sally in Bristol, with the sugar flowers intricately and meticulously made by hand. We combined our favourite cakes, a traditional fruit cake and a classic Victoria sponge. Not content with just the one cake, we also had a second at an afternoon tea immediately following the wedding service.
We had a great time planning and bringing things together, although there were challenges planning from abroad. We had amazing support from my husband's family and real credit should go to them for putting the event together. So much was already done before we touched down in London and we were able to enjoy the week building up to the wedding.
I would advise anybody in the planning process to truly enjoy these moments and not get stressed out over the tiny details - rest assured that no one will notice but you. This is all part of the wedding journey and it'll be over before you know it. Just relax and have fun, building these memories with family and friends. Don't put too much pressure on making everything perfect to avoid any mishaps on your big day. There will inevitably be something that doesn't go according to plan but these make for great stories later!
Our photographer was the wonderful and illustrious Lily Sawyer! She had photographed a friend’s wedding and we were so impressed we the photos that we asked her to do our engagement shoot. After these came back even better than we expected, and Lily was a joy to work with {and became an instant friend!}, it was an obvious decision to have her capture our wedding celebration.
Lily worked tirelessly to ensure every special moment was documented and remembered, she even went above and beyond staying with us until midnight to finish the shoot in front of Tower Bridge as she knew it was my favourite landmark!
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