Retro & Colourful Wedding in Hackney: Toni & Christopher

Jacob and Pauline Wedding Photography

November 28, 2014

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It’s no secret that I love a colourful wedding and Toni and Christopher’s really fits the bill! They chose Hackney Town Hall and St John at Hackney Church for their July wedding, only it was their reception that was held in the church!

Their day had a retro 1950s theme. “We hired lots of vintage sofas and standard lamps to make a ‘drawing room’ area”, Christopher explained. “We covered each table with bizarre kitschy little ornaments bought from eBay. Our friend created signs out of flexible neon wire and chalk board and we had custom made bunting from Yo Yo Cottage.”

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“We wanted our wedding to be exactly like as if you were coming around to our flat for dinner”, he continued. “We wanted our guests to be completely happy and comfortable, and we loaded our wedding with both our personalities. We did away with a lot of traditional stuff – we both walked down the aisle together, we didn’t have a first dance, or cake cutting. It was just all about fun, chatting, music, dancing and eating… and boozing.”

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“We did loads of DIY. We made all of the invitations, menus, table names and table map ourselves just by using brown paper, coloured card and various odd stickers and postcards. Toni sewed together material from Ikea to make a cover for the DJ decks on the alter, and we collected lots of old jam jars and glass bottles to fill with candles around the church. One of the things we worked really hard on was the party bags we gave to everyone. Each had loads of sweets and chocolate, but also loads of vintage stickers and trading cards from everyone’s favourite movies, music or sport. The highlight of the bag was a bespoke LEGO figure we put together ourselves that represented each of our guests. This involved many a late night trawling eBay and fighting with children in the LEGO shop. We also spent the entire day before the wedding setting up the venue ourselves (with a lot of help from our friends and family), it was completely exhausting but it meant that the venue looked exactly as we had imagined it.”

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Instead of a DJ, the couple invited their guests to all have a go! They brought their own equipment and let people run riot! It went down a treat! “We gave our friends and family the opportunity to soundtrack the entire night”, he explained. “We selected guests to choose five songs each, and had them get up on stage where we had our record decks set up, and they became superstar DJs for 15 minutes each.  Having all of our guests DJ for us on our own DJ equipment meant we didn’t have to pay for entertainment. It also meant our guests got a massive kick out of playing. And it meant we got to listen to exactly the music we genuinely love rather than the typical stuff you normally hear.”

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“Put as much of your own personalities into you wedding as you possibly can”, he advised in conclusion. “It’s really hard work, and you have to make thousands of decisions, but it’s all the more satisfying for it. And don’t feel the need to do/have anything that you don’t like just because you think you should – it’s your day so just do what you like. Getting married is rad!”

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