Jodie & James

To quote Claude Monet "I must have flowers always and always" and this city wedding full of bright blooms is most definitely satisfying my needs this morning. Your pinning fingers are going to go into overdrive when you see the floral arch entering into the fabulous St JOHN restaurant and bar, not to mention the just picked bouquets. Also making my weak at the knees is Bride Jodie's Charlie Brear gown. I love the delicate tulle top layer over the sleek strapless gown, so edgy, cool and chic all at the same time. Plus Jodie's red lipstick against her porcelain skin & white blonde locks makes her look like an elfin princess. This laid back wedding culminates in a trip around London on a red route master bus, a fabulous reception with pavlova wedding cake, and of course copious amounts of live music, bubbles, love and fun. All captured by the super talented Verity Quirk.

The Wedding

Jodie the Bride: James & I got married on Sunday 29th May 2016 in Camden Town Hall followed by reception at St John Clerkenwell. We wanted the whole day to feel relaxed, informal and most of all fun. Lots of delicious food, great music, great wine. St John was the perfect space which felt very modern, but also homely and hearty with food all served to share. James is an architect so loved the building itself & it’s down the road from his work in Clerkenwell. I loved the entranceway at Camden Town Hall and the white marble. We also had the amazing backdrop of Smithfields for some photos which had such brilliant colour.

The Brides Fashion

Bride wore dress from Charlie Brear – it was actually a sample, so I knew it was unique, it wasn't the style I had thought I wanted but when I tried it on I knew it was for me when I saw my Mum & sisters faces. It was two layers & I took the pearlescent/sheer layer off later in the evening to wear the silk slip on its own. Charlie Brear was the first wedding shop I went to & I bought it same day! I wanted the dress to be simple, elegant, understated & have fun with my Topshop Unique shoes.

The Venue

Ceremony at Camden Town Hall, we loved the deco tiled floor and grandness of the entrance way with the white marble & the cosy paneled rooms followed by a red routemaster journey to St John Clerkenwell for the reception.

Colour Scheme/Decor

No colour scheme as such, we wanted the flowers to be bright & representative of the time of year. We went with St Johns styling with simple, natural materials – chalkboards, brown paper & lots of fairy lights to make the space sparkle. The venue is quite industrial so we wanted to add the femininity of the flowers & lights.

Florist

Cressida Jamieson at Flora Starkey – an ex colleague & now wonderful florist did our wedding flowers for us. My bouquet was large, unstructured, I wanted it to feel quite wild and large. It was tied with ribbons – my something blue. Flowers included some of my favourites & particularly late spring/summer blooms; peonies, astilbe, cornflowers, delphiniums, cow parsley, large daisies, sweet peas. I also asked a few of my closest friends to recommend their favourite flower to be included in my bouquet and thankfully all of their favourites worked well! My bridesmaids flowers were small bouquets of mixed colourful flowers with predominantly large daisy’s and my flower girl wore a daisy crown. The table flowers were kept small and pretty at St John as the tables aren’t too wide, they were in small vintage mixed colour vases on the tables and all along the windowsills. We had a very large arrangement on the bar to dress the room and a beautiful dressed archway of foliage & flowers as you enter the venue.

The Wedding Party Fashion

Sophie, Charlotte and Sarah - Bridemaids - wore Topshop Boutique polka dot silk dresses & shoes from ASOS, necklaces from selected femme. My niece Jessie (4years) wore a white sparkly dress & pale pink cardi from Monsoon with her daisy flower crown. Kye - Best man wore a Topman 3 piece suit with accessories from Paul Smith.

Ceremony

My mum walked me down the aisle which was special for both of us. We had two readings at the ceremony one by a close friend Amina and one by Saffron my sister – accompanied by my brother in law Alex on a mandolin.

Entertainment

One of the most important things to us from the beginning of planning – from the day after we got engaged was knowing that two hugely important parts of our day were going to be great music and great food. Hopefully we delivered on both. We had DJ Sue play for us on either side of our band. We had gone on first dates to the pub that DJ Sue used to play at in Camden & we always used to joke that she had to play at our wedding – she did! She has great taste & plays a playlist of soul, rock & roll, RnB, Motown & blues. We gave her some suggestions but she did the rest & had everyone on a fairly sweaty dancefloor until 1am. Our first dance was to a Ray LaMontagne track – our first date was to see him at Southbank Centre so it was special to us. Also a great track & very poignant ‘You are the Best thing’ The best part was our band – a truly family affair – my brother in law Alex & his close friends Jasper, Matt & Silas and my amazing 18year old nephew Louis taking centre stage to play a specially arranged & rehearsed (they got together over a fair amount of miles over 6 month period) set list of some of our favourite songs. Tainted Love, Love will Tear us apart, Move on Up, Paint it Black, Higher & Higher, Louis Louis, Folsom Prison to name a few. Its was truly one of the highlights Our wonderful best man Kye, a songwriter & singer, also sang us some epic songs – Must be Love, Heard it through the Grapevine.

Food

Amazing food from St John as always. It exceeded all of our expectations We ate; Brown Crab Meat on Toast, Potted Pork & Rabbit Butterbean, Rosemary & Garlic Deep Fried Salt Pollock & Tartare Sauce Crispy Pig’s Cheek & Dandelion Roast Shallots, Goat’s Curd & Mint Braised Beef, Red Wine & Mash Whole Baked Fish on Green & White Vegetables Ginger Loaf & Butterscotch Sauce & Rhubarb Pavlova Welsh Rarebit Mini Salt Beef, Watercress & Mustard Buns in the evening The giant rhubarb pavlova was wheeled out on a desert cart with sparklers to cut as our wedding cake in the dining room Delicious French wines & St John champagne We did our speeches in between main and desert with James and then his best man speaking.

Photographer

Verity Quirk was so calm, fun and lovely on the day. She had been a photographer at my best friends wedding where I was bridesmaid and had been so fab on the day I knew I wanted her. Seeing my Sarah’s results sealed it.