Sheila & George

Sheila and George's wedding day is one of the most beautifully styled weddings I've seen this year. The warm and inviting colour palette, the gorgeous wild looking floral arrangements, the textural elements like concrete and coloured grasses, just make everything truly unique and personal to the couple. Then there's the relaxed London restaurant setting! This is clearly a wedding of a couple who know themselves and their relationship well. Susie at Knot & Pop was on hand to bring their ideas to life and wow - what an incredible job she has done. The wedding not only looked stylish but guests were treated to a fabulous occasion too. Style and substance is what we're all about, so this wedding is right up our street. The wonderful Miss Gen took the photographs and there were so many gorgeous images and details, I've included far more than usual for you to pore over. Enjoy this one beauties, it's a stunner of a wedding from start to finish.

The Venue

Sheila The Bride: The church was an easy one, it is one of the only Churches in central London that has a Luganda service. It was Sheila’s father’s church and where she did her holy communion. The church is massive and we were a bit worried about filling it, but once we had the flowers in and took some of the chairs away it looked amazing. Food was a guiding star for our event, we started with chefs we love and when we spotted Mark Hix had a restaurant in the area it was an easy choice.

The Ceremony

It’s the first time you get to live through those hero wedding moments - seeing each other, family and doing the vows (for real!) We had a gospel choir singing in the church and they really bought everything to life. There was a really upbeat mood and it flashed past.

The Fashion

George The Groom: We knew we wanted it to match the palette, but it was 2 weeks before the wedding and I, as usual, had left it right until the last minute. So we went to Selfridges and explained top-line what we wanted to one of their concierge, they pointed us to Paul Smith and it was a done deal. Got lucky in the first 30 mins! Sheila The Bride: After trawling the popular dress boutiques around London, my Maid of Honour suggested Riki Dalal. It was hand-beaded and perfectly fitted. Maids dresses were an ASOS bargain. The ushers were a bit of a mish-mash, which speaks of them perfectly. I don’t think anyone was wearing the same suit...but we did manage to get them into the same tie!

The Flowers

We were lucky to work with such an amazing florist that Knot & Pop suggested — Aesme. They used an insane variety of flowers, in really rich colours that completely brought our colour scheme to life.

The Styling

We wanted our day to feel effortlessly stylish, and uncontrived. Anything too weddingy was out. Thankfully we had a planner that totally got us and developed a wedding scheme that really suited us. Lifestyle led, it was to feel inviting and relaxed, with some surprises and twists thrown in for fun. The church is a large space so focus was drawn into the room with flowers flanking the aisle, bringing eyes into the main action! These gorgeous flowers were then re-used and re-placed throughout Hixter that added that extra magic. With us wanting that inviting feel, Knot & Pop styled a lovely lounge area for the Drinks Reception, bringing in breeze blocks that mixed with flowers for an industrial luxe touch. Rose quartz, the precious stone of unconditional love (Sheila’s favourite), was used to style lounge tables and dining, mixed with amethyst tealights and rock salt candle blocks. Drawing from our love of Anthony Burrill’s work, Susie suggested we create a spin on one of our favourite sayings – so Who Loves Wins became the wedding tagline, and was applied to wax sealed Save the Date book-marks, the main invitation suite, menus and signage within the space.

The Music

Music plays a big part in our life and we have a lot of genres and influences and when you map it out over an 8 hour period there’s a lot to cram in. Any and every opportunity to have someone perform — we took it. In the church there was a fantastic gospel choir performing everything from modern soulful classics to sister act to Stevie Wonder. At reception drinks we tracked down a pianist who had a repertoire of Hip Hop classics...at one point there was a bit of a sing along. Brilliant. Over dinner we had a trumpet-led jazz band playing Miles Davis. In the evening we gave our DJ a tough brief to cover everything from Ugandan classics, to UK Garage. He nailed it. Our first dance was Luther Vandross - So Amazing. Years ago we started a vinyl collection and we picked this up randomly at a record store. It’s a classic that isn’t overplayed and quickly became a soundtrack to our relationship.

The Food

Our worst nightmare would be trying to force down badly cooked duck whilst staring into an empty Champagne glass. From the off we went for a chef we knew would be brilliant. We had a ‘feasting’ format for food. Big, help yourself, plates of delicious food all sourced from the UK. Chicken, Steak, Seafood — you name it.

The Photography

The big cliché family shots aren’t us and we knew that it was all the little moments that we would want to remember. We worked with our planner (Knot & Pop) to source some reportage-style options and fell in love with Miss Gen’s work. She’s great with colour and composition and even if you just skim her portfolio you can see she has a knack for being in the right place at the right time.

Advice

Don’t do it alone. Susie from Knot & Pop helped us add a lot of the magic on the big day. Even with difficult requests (Hip Pianist anyone?!) she had a number to call and always came through with a suggestion. LEGEND.

The Party

Come evening, we wanted a party pad so Knot & Pop transformed the bar into a balloon filled basement bash with custom made DJ booth and glitter backdrop, with confetti cannons let off for those big tunes. We’re so glad we opted in for the photo booth (some amazing photos from that), and we loved the idea to have our dog Chip made into Chip on a Stick, and Chip Masks so he was with us on the day. He made it into our one of our First Dance pics with George holding a Chip On A Stick! Nothing beats seeing all your friends and family in one room celebrating together so enjoy it!

A Note From Susie

‘Styling for this day had to be discerning in it’s design cues, with a modern sense of luxury. A relaxed and stylish setting for George & Sheila to celebrate their cool city wedding, with their nearest and dearest. We love it when we see ideas come to life on the day, and the champagne table plan went down a treat! Of course. Guest names and table numbers were hand-lettered onto charged champagne flutes – and made for a fun take-home at the end of the evening.’ Susie, Knot & Pop