Coral Peony Humanist Wedding at Tab Centre Shoreditch

We love a colour pop wedding, especially when the colour pop is coral peonies! The fact the blooms cost the couple a mear £160 from Covent Garden Flower Market and was put together by the bride herself makes them even more special. They fill The Tab Centre in Shoreditch beautifully and the couple look so in love and stylish amongst this contemporary setting.

Coral Peony Humanist Wedding at Tab Centre Shoreditch

Anne & Ben: We briefly thought about getting married in my home in the Austrian Alps but decided that it would be easier for our loved ones to come to London. I had photographed a wedding at the Tab Centre in Shoreditch before and loved the light, high ceilings and wooden floors. More importantly, we wanted a dry hire venue and the Tab Centre was the perfect blank canvas. We got legally married in the morning with only our close families and had a humanist ceremony in the afternoon.

Wedding Decor & Styling

We were on a tight budget and our priorities were great food, an open bar, and a good photographer. Ben handled the spreadsheets and organised everything from the beautiful wooden tables and chairs, to the crockery and glassware, the music and the catering. I only had to do the fun bits: dress, shoes, flowers, stationery, and all the pretty stuff. All our decorations had to fulfil two criteria: useful after the wedding and/or cheap. We bought white stump candles and grey fragrance candles in jars from IKEA, as well as our candle holders (which are actually cork coasters) and big glass storage jars we used as vases. Everything else was sourced on Etsy, like our confetti bags and the recycled silk ribbon for my bouquet. Our confetti was tissue paper cut into strips, as we wanted big colourful confetti rather than tiny little petals.

Coral Peonies

The coral colour scheme developed only because of my shoes I finally bought after months of unsuccessful online shopping. I also love Peonies and they are in season in May so I was thrilled to be able to have them as the key flowers in our arrangements costing only £160 in total. We bought them from Covent Garden Flower Market and spent a relaxed afternoon arranging them with the help of my sisters, my maid of honour, and all their boyfriends (who are very talented first-time florists). I made my own bouquet and my sisters conjured up some buttonholes from leftover greenery.

Advice

It honestly is the best thing to be able to hang out with your guests instead of rushing around because you need to do family and couple photos after the ceremony. We planned our schedule to allow for plenty of time with our guests. We were also aware that good photos can’t be rushed and we wanted to give our photographer Mairéad enough time to work her magic. Ben seeing me in my dress for the first time when I walk down the aisle was not something that was important to us, so we opted to do our posed pictures before the start of the wedding and just did a few impromptu shots with friends during the reception. It was honestly the best decision! We had 70 guests and we had time to speak to everyone during the drinks reception and then sit down and have a meal without having to run around in between courses to say hello to people.