Chinese

Charlie & Jo’s reception took place the day before their ceremony and that’s not the only thing about this awesome wedding that was unconventional. “We decided to get married and the Registry Office had a date free in two months time so we had a short amount of time in which to plan and make everything happen,” the couple explained. ”We already had many things that we wanted to have at our wedding, incorporating lots of themes that we love. Many of these themes were not obviously related and not directly relevant to a wedding but we were more interested in these than having a traditional wedding. It all came together perfectly in the end. The less we worried about what we ‘should’ be doing, the more time we had to be creative and make our ideas possible in the time we had.”

“Our local community centre was the perfect venue but we could only get it for the night before the ceremony so everything happened a bit backwards! The hall dates back to 1909 and has a remarkable amount of original features (including the chairs!) and fitted in with the old time theme we wanted for our wedding. All our friends are very talented and generous so we knew that things would turn out perfectly if they helped arrange everything, rather than hire professional wedding companies – they designed the DJ booth posters, the stage banner, the collages, table decorations and more.”

“The age of the hall gave it a slightly eerie tone that reminded us of The Shining and so we complimented this with the DJ playlist for the beginning of the night by playing songs by Al Bowlly, Tiny Tim, The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers etc. and brought woodland animal masks for the children. This loosely tied into the art nouveau style of the hall and complimented the Mexican party theme (tissue paper flowers and garlands, fairy lights, Santo, Salsa).”

Music was also really important to this couple so the reception almost has the vibe of a music gig. They had a DJ that played Mexican music, projections of some of their favourite films, line dancing, salsa dancing and a gramophone playing. The night concluded with the reunion of Charlie and his best man Dan’s band, who performed into the night with friends and family as extras in the line up. “Tracks included White Wedding, 20th Century Boy, Knocking On Heaven’s Door and our friends did a surprise cover of Don’t Stop Believin’ for our first dance,” Jo concluded.

The next day, the couple woke up together and headed to the Registry Office to be legally married.

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