Inspiration

If you like stylish, intimate and fun city weddings, then I think you're going to love Amy and Martin's big day. They chose the infamous Groucho Club to hold their celebrations, following a candle lit ceremony at the one-and-only Asylum Chapel. Both iconic locations, probably for very different reasons, but brought together beautifully by Amy and Martin's wedding. The couple chose the amazing Miss Gen to capture their big day - Gen's a truly exceptional wedding photographer and we've featured countless weddings from her over the years, you can see them here. But for now, let's enjoy this city shindig...

Our Story

Amy The Bride: Martin and I first met at a house party when I was 18 and he was 22. We talked about going for a drink after this, but both being young and stupid it never happened. 14 years later our paths crossed again and we finally went for that drink. He proposed 4 months after that, the day before we went to Paris for the weekend. He planned to pop the question at the top of the Eiffel Tower but thought he'd lose his cool, so asked me the night prior. We were married 18 months after that.

Our Wedding At The Groucho Club

We both wanted our wedding to be something special to us, but something that considered our guests. We put the buses on because we didn't want guests to worry about transport. We also bought numerous rounds of drinks at the Groucho Club as we were aware it's quite pricey there. If people were coming to venues we loved, we wanted to make it nice for them whilst they were there. So I'd say our guests enjoyment was one of the most important things involved in planning.

The Fashion

Both of my dresses were entirely out of my comfort zone, and not something I thought I'd pick. My wedding dress I tried on to narrow down styles I didn't like, and didn't want to take it off. And I've never worn anything as glitzy and glamorous (or tight fitting!) as my evening dress but truly felt wonderful in it. It's not every day you get to be a princess in the morning and a Hollywood starlet at night! My necklace was a gift from my sister for being maid of honour at her wedding, and my gold bangle was my grandmothers. It has tiny teeth marks on it where my mum has used it as a teething ring when she was a baby. Both my mother and sister wore it at their weddings. Martin had always wanted to get a bespoke suit made, so this was his opportunity. He went to Hardy Amies on Saville Row and came away with an amazing three piece.

The Flowers

Our wonderful florist Daisy Ellen Floral Design was really excited to work at our venue, listened to our ideas and took note of everything we wanted. We had various Skype calls with her and she sent loads of examples. The flowers turned out more beautiful than we could have imagined.

The Ceremony

I walked down the aisle to 'The Luckiest' by Ben Folds, played on the harp. The acoustics in the chapel are wonderful so we really wanted the music to be played live, but by something different than a string quartet. My mum suggested a harpist and I'm so glad we listened to her. Our readings were 'I like you' by Sandol Stoddard Warburg, 'After the lunch' by Wendy Cope and 'Love' by Roy Croft. We didn't want to pick traditional readings as our wedding didn't have a particularly traditional feel to it. 'I like you' just made us both smile. It's actually a children's story and seemed so fitting for our friend reading it, who's particularly lovely and warm. 'After the lunch' is my favourite poem. It talks about being on Waterloo Bridge, and that and the south bank are special places for Martin and I, so it seemed only fitting for it to feature in our wedding. 'Love' was more of a soppy one but ultimately, you're allowed to be a bit soppy on your wedding day. Our vows were just the traditional ones, as a lot of the things we wanted to say to each other were said in the readings.

The Photography

I'm not sure if the photography made us choose our day venue, or the venue made us choose Miss Gen but when we started our initial searches on the internet, the combination was just too perfect for us not to have both. Gen's style of capturing the natural was just wonderful, and exactly what we wanted. Neither of us are particularly comfortable posing for photos and one of my pet hates at weddings is the hours of group shots that follow the ceremony, so to have someone that photographs moments was ideal. She captured the essence and the day perfectly. Our photographs are fantastic and worth every penny. We're both still in awe of how amazing they are. Miss Gen was unobtrusive and managed to photograph important moments, but go unnoticed. We were unaware of her being there a lot of the time, which was perfect for us as we’re not wonderful having our pictures taken. Prior to our engagement shoot and wedding, Martin and I only had a handful of photographs taken together but now we have countless beautiful ones in frames around our house. Some of my favourite images are after we'd walked up the aisle and were stood outside. It was the only moment of the day we were on our own, and the moment of 'oh my goodness, we just got married'. Gen caught all of this on camera and I can remember exactly how I felt at that moment when I look at them.

The Music

We danced to 'My baby just cares for me' by Nina Simone. It's a fairly common occurrence for Martin and I to put on records at home and dance so neither of us wanted a slow first dance, just something we could spin around to. We had a short list of a few, but that won. We both wanted a fun and cool song to match our fun and cool evening venue. We signed the register to 'Hoppipolla' by Sigur Ros and 'Romeo and Juliet' by Dire Straits, both played on the harp. Martin loves these songs so I was happy to go ahead with them. We walked up the aisle to 'Me and Julio down by the schoolyard' by Simon and Garfunkel, because it basically the happiest song ever and wanted something to match our happiest moment. In the evening, the last song the band played was 'The Fairytale of New York' because that is actually 'our' song but it seemed inappropriate to play during a July wedding ceremony...and due to the many expresso martinis, I sang the Kirsty Maccoll part, which seemed to be a crowd pleaser!

The Entertainment

Our harpist played for the entirely of the drinks reception, so we had a great mix of classical and contemporary music going throughout. In the evening, we had a three piece band who played rock and indie so we managed to get all the music we love crammed into one day.

The Vibe & Decor

The vibe we were going for was laid back and chic, which hopefully we achieved. We just wanted everyone to have fun and enjoy our day with us. The colour scheme was blue and blush. The bridesmaids dresses were blush and the groomsmen in royal blue. The bouquets were made up of white, blue and pink flowers and the button holes were pink.

Advice

Never underestimate the amount of alcohol people will consume! Try and stay calm and enjoy the day. People kept telling us to spend time together on the day, which we did so I'm very glad we took note of that. Don't sweat the small stuff. Only different thing would have been to hold back some prosecco for the speeches!
Fern Godfrey

Written by Fern Godfrey

Bride: Best Dress 2 Impress | Sequin Dress: A Star Is Born | Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Groom: Hardy Amies | Shoes: Oliver Sweeney | Bridesmaids: Monsoon | Groomsmen: French Connection | Make Up: Tamara Tott | Flowers: Daisy Ellen | Ceremony Venue: Asylum Chapel | Reception Venue: The Groucho Club | Cake: Fondant Fox | Catering: Canababes | Music: Paula Popa | Academy | Transport: London Bus Group | Gin Bike: The Travelling Gin Co.
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