Holly & Steve

I love seeing weddings from Trinity Buoy Wharf because the blank canvas events space is always transformed SO differently by each and every couple. Holly and Steve have added a vibrant palette of bold colours, balloons, a giant disco ball and some quirky vintage details as a nod to their 50s inspired theme. It looks fabulous - fun, fresh and definitely somewhere you'd want to party the night away. Images come from the lovely Frances Sales, who always captures both the details and the emotions to perfection. Oh and look out for Holly's swoonworthy Louboutins - a short dress is always a great excuse to invest in a pair of killer heels...

The Bride

Holly The Bride: Holly always knew that she wanted a 1950s inspired tea length dress. Holly went to a specialist in shorter length dresses and this classic design was Holly’s dream. As her feet were on show, a statement shoe was needed and Holly chose a nude Christian Louboutin stiletto. All accessories were classic pearls from Tiffany. The hair was always going to be inspired by the 1950s decade and Holly’s beehive style was accessorised with hand dyed Singapore orchids. Make up by Vanessa Rose Meyer was again inspired by the classic era.

The Groom

Steve chose a classic navy three-piece suit from Reiss, which he got tailored. He chose a white shirt from Mr Start to go with his specially designed tie. The shoes were brown double monks from Church's.

The Venue

We always knew we wanted to have our wedding in London and it was Steve’s sister who told us about Trinity Buoy Wharf, as it was a stone throw away from where Steve and his family used to live. It was exactly what we were both looking for and the idea of a dry hire venue worked with our vision.

The Décor

Both being creative, we wanted that to be a big part of our wedding day. We went for bold colours at our wedding focusing on five strong colours and these were reflected through the stationery, bunting, flowers and balloons. The bunting was hand made by Holly along with hand made individual ceramic pieces for favours. Holly also made an embroidered top table ‘just married’ pennant. Steve is a designer and designed all of the stationery, from the invitations to everything for the day. Each place name had attached a hand made coloured tassel made by Holly’s mum using hand-died yarn by her sister.

The Flowers

In terms of flowers, Holly’s mum has carried out flower arranging as a hobby for years and has a number of friends who love to work at weddings. Holly always wanted the flowers to be a big part of the day and Jacky did an amazing job, particularly with the top table piece. The Church flowers were kept simple with cream roses and seasonal green foliage. The venue flower design was big and blousy, consisting of different colour gerberas, roses and calla lilies all sourced from New Covent Garden Flower Market. Each table had a flower ring centerpiece with a single coloured Bon Bon balloon in the middle.  

The Bridesmaids

The bridesmaid dresses drew inspiration from a Marilyn Monroe dress of the 1950s. They were custom made by a talented family friend who used to be a seamstress and now does commissions. The shoes were from ASOS and the bridesmaid hair was again inspired by the era. Bridesmaid posies were deep orange roses to match the groomsmen’s buttonholes.

The Groomsmen

Steve's groomsmen all had their own navy suits so we decided to accessories with some personal touches. Holly's sister is a menswear designer and designed us some bespoke floral ties and bow ties which the groomsmen could choose. The ties matched the colour of the bridesmaid’s dresses perfectly and each had our names and the date on the back. Holly's mum also personally embroided white silk handkerchiefs with initials for each of the groomsmen. We also chose one single bright orange rose for the lapel to contrast the navy suits and ties to match the bridesmaid’s flowers. 


The Ceremony

We got married in a beautiful church called Our Ladye Star of the Sea, which resides next to Greenwich Park on Croom’s Hill. Holly arrived in a beautiful white jaguar with her dad. We chose to have a full mass with a choir. Readings were personal and read by close friends and family members. After the service, the wedding party was served Prosecco as we took two buses over Tower Bridge to the venue on East India Dock. 


The Entertainment

We always wanted to have a live band play at our wedding and were delighted to have the band Dukes of Havoc thanks to Steve’s sister who is a friend. They played an acoustic jazz and swing medley during the welcome drinks and also played us a special rendition of our first dance ‘Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher’ followed by two one hour sets of music through the decades. For the rest of the night we had the wonderful Wedding Smashers DJ set to keep all our guests on the dance floor. We also had the guys from Belle Studio with their incredible airstream photobooth for all our guests to enjoy. They kindly set up early as it looked amazing outside the venue by the waterfront in the sun. 


The Food

Good food was very important to us and one of the many reasons we chose Trinity Buoy Wharf was because of the ability to choose who we wanted to cater for our day. We chose Hand Made Food having frequently visiting their amazing cafe in Blackheath and knowing that they had worked at our venue many times we knew that we were in good hands. The team at Hand Made Food also took care of the running of our day and created for us an equally colourful and summery menu of seasonal and locally sourced ingredients. This began with a aperitif of aperol spritz by the river with canapés and followed by an informal three course dinner with sharing plates.  For the evening food we called upon our friends at Steak and Honour from Cambridge to come down with their amazing white Citroen H van to serve their legendary burgers outside by the river.  For the cake Lauren at French Made created a simply designed three tier cake of lemon sponge and lemon curd filling, a buttercream finish and real flowers from Holly’s bouquet were arranged on the cake. The topper was handmade in Madrid by Mari Carmen, found through Etsy.

The Photography

Frances was recommended to us and she was exactly what we were looking for. We loved her vision and level of detail to document a beautiful story. Her warm and friendly personality is evident in our pictures as she made everyone feel at ease to capture stunning natural photographs which we love.