Romantic, Industrial Wedding With a Homemade Pink Dress & A Last Minute Venue Change!

Voyteck Photography

June 23, 2017

When it came to wedding planning, Alice and James worked on finding a middle ground between their very contrasting tastes. They wanted their wedding to celebrate their differences. They looked at colour as a way of showing their different viewpoints and the end result was a mix of a few different themes. They served vegetarian and vegan food, and they had a vegan wedding cake.

“Our tastes couldn’t be more different,” began James, “so we didn’t really go for a specific theme. Our inspiration was using our contrasting tastes to our advantage. Alice loves pinks and mauves, I love navy and greys, so we looked at showing both these viewpoints and uniting it all with a rose gold to match our engagement and wedding rings. Alice loves layers, complex details and decoration, while I am into stripped back, ‘essentials-only’ type of aesthetics. Food and music were also a huge inspiration and something we felt we HAD to get right.”

The wedding was in October as neither of them are a big fans of the heat, or bright sunlight. “We both favour cooler weather and the duller sunlight in Autumn”, explained Alice “We had 50 guests attend our simple ceremony in the beautiful Islington Town Hall, my best male friend (bridesman) read a short piece he wrote and my old music teacher sang some Joni Mitchell while we signed the register. Everything went absolutely perfectly although we realised we had forgotten all the confetti as we arrived at the town hall but it was too late to go and get it. My dad, the bridesmaids and town hall staff ended up picking as much confetti up from outside as possible. I’d always dreamed of that big confetti moment and in the end it didn’t go exactly as I had imagined, we should have written a list of things we needed to bring with us!”

“Originally our reception was due to be at The Victoria Stakes, a lovely little Gastropub in Muswell Hill. We spent ages meeting with their event planner (who was so wonderful and helpful), the upstairs was a beautiful pale blue Victorian dining room, the food there was exceptional and they were more than happy to accommodate our vegan / vegetarian / picky eaters menu. Then, nine days before our wedding day we got a phone call from the event planner, who told us there had been a fire in the kitchen overnight! Nobody was hurt but the fire had totally gutted the kitchen and dining room so we had to find a new venue for the reception, with only nine days to go! It was really difficult starting again, especially with our food requirements.”

“One of the original venues we were interested in was The Union Club in Soho, but it was out of budget and originally had an event planned on our wedding date. However luckily it was cancelled the week before so the our date was free again! We went to have a look around and they were midway through building a new space on the first floor so it was a total building site with wires hanging from the ceiling, exposed brick, crumbling cement and patchy paintwork, but the space was great, so we went for it.”

Due to the sudden change in reception venue, a lot of the details of their day had to be altered. “We just had to roll with it”, she said. “We had to change the seating plan (as the tables were now different shapes), the place settings, the flowers, and we couldn’t really fine tune any of the details as we had originally done. We didn’t visit the new venue again after seeing it that one time and so walking in it was a total surprise. The event manager had done an amazing job, the space was all fairy lights, velvet drapes, bare plaster and cement. It was romantic meets industrial and was just perfect! We were so impressed with our florist Catherine during the whole reorganisation as we had so much to deal with so she handled the whole redesign of the flowers. The flowers really made the space too, they were amazingly romantic and Catherine went above and beyond to deliver without any word from us in the last few days.”

“What was a silver lining on that whole fire situation is that when we had to tell the guests some of the plans have changed, we received so much support and everyone chipped in to help find a new venue in time and donated money to cover the extra costs,” explained James. “It really gave the day that spirit that we are all family and are there for each other. I updated my groom’s speech to say and extra thank you to everyone, not for just turning up but for helping save the day!”

“Our biggest expense was the reception because of the sudden switch of venues, although, if the reception had gone ahead at the original venue it still would have been the biggest expense!” Alice said. “Also the food cost a lot as James and I both really like good food and didn’t want to skimp on it. However, our biggest savings were my dress (made by my Aunt Esme) and on my wedding ring (which I designed and got a friend to make). James also managed to save money on his wedding suit as he found one he loved in Topman, which he then had tailored to fit him. We would advise anyone who is buying a wedding suit from the high street to do this. The fit makes all the difference.”

“Our advice to future brides and grooms is that smaller, independent companies are better in a lot of ways”, they concluded. “The attention to detail we got was second to none and they seem to really care about everything going well. Check out Tripadvisor reviews when looking at venues (it’s really helpful) and pick a photographer who gets you as a couple. Don’t take time for granted. Start early, do your research, go meet suppliers and discuss your ideas and overall it’ll be a more enjoyable experience rather than a mad panic in the final month. Be confident making your day exactly like you want it to be, your taste might not be to everyone else’s liking but looking back we’re so pleased with how it all turned out and that’s what matters. Try and relax as much as you can as the whole day flies past so quickly, and remember to bring the confetti!”

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