Sophie & Tom

How utterly divine is the lace V back on Bride Sophie's Rose and Delilah gown? And have you clocked her bridal up do yet? She looks absolutely stunning from head to toe. Also taking my breath away are the flowers adorning Jamie's Italian on Threadneedle Street in London. They've made the perfect backdrop for all the heartfelt speech portraits captured by Eliza Claire Photography. Keeping things simple with a white and greenery palette, complimenting and softening the industrial vibe of the venue beautifully. You ready to take a look? It's a goodie.

The Venue

Sophie the Bride: I chose the “Madeleine” dress by Rose and Delilah from Luella's Bridal in Wimbledon. I tried on lots of beautiful dresses during my appointment but my Mum welled up when she saw me in the “Madeleine” so I took this as a sign of it being “the one”! I really felt like “me’” in the dress, whereas with a couple of others I tried on, although amazing, I felt like I was playing dress up in someone else’s clothes! I adored the subtle lace detail round the waist and on the little cap sleeves, and totally fell in love with the deep V at the back. I also chose a matching veil from Luella’s from the Rainbow Club range. The lace on the edging matched the lace on the sleeves of my dress.

Beauty

Amanda Tironi was the hair stylist for my Mum, my bridesmaid and I. If you need a hair stylist, hire Amanda immediately! Amanda is ridiculously kind, patient and calming and quite simply created my wedding hair up-do of dreams. I showed Amanda a couple of Pinterest pictures, not really imagining I could ever look like that and she smashed it! Amanda you’re a legend.

The Groom

We had a very fun prosecco-fuelled afternoon shopping for suits on Regent Street with Tom’s Mum. Tom chose the 3 piece “Mayfair” suit in a deep navy blue colour from Hackett. He also used their made to measure service to order a bespoke white shirt with his initials monogrammed. I think the prosecco got us a bit over excited, but when else can you justify a monogrammed shirt! I gave Tom a little gift to open the morning we got married; some gold Aspinal cufflinks to go with his shirt, a few polaroids of my favourite photos of us, and a personalised handkerchief to soak up the tears!

The Venue

We chose to get married in London because it's where we met and live, and most of our friends are close by. I stumbled across St Stephen Walbrook church when attending a Christmas carol service in the city. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was with its dramatic domed ceiling and imposing altar. We got the idea to consider Jamie's Italian as our reception venue from a work colleague and fell head over heels in love with the 1920's bank building with its gorgeous ornate high ceilings and stylish interiors. We even loved the black and white tiles on the toilet floor! Right from our first visit we found the staff at Jamie’s to be welcoming, efficient and as excited and enthusiastic as we were - always a good sign! Nothing was too much trouble – we really can’t sing their praises highly enough.

The Food

We ate (and drank!) our way through the Jamie’s menu around 3 months before the wedding at our tasting session with my parents. We opted for sharing platters to start and finish the meal, with a selection of main courses for the table to encourage interaction between our guests and to keep everything really relaxed and informal. My Mum made delicious homemade chutney for all our guests to take home as wedding favours. We had cute labels made with a row of soldiers running along the bottom to tie in our London theme. Our 3-tier wedding cake was expertly made by the very talented grandmother of our flower girl.

The Décor

We wanted to keep the decorations to a minimum as the building really was the star of the show. We had a red personalised wedding card post-box made which seemed to go down well with our guests. Having chosen a “London theme” for our stationery, we carried this through with our London taxi table numbers and table plan all made for us by Lola’s Paperie. We hired beautiful big olive trees and covered them in fairy lights to make the courtyard at the back of the venue more special. The twinkly lights looked so magical at night.

The Flowers

Jennifer Pinder (formerly Brixton Flower Club) was the perfect match for us and totally understood the look we wanted to create. We decided on a simple colour scheme of white, cream and green to complement our venue and didn’t want anything to look too “done”. Jenn totally blew us away with her talent and ideas. Once she had sprinkled her magic we couldn’t quite believe our eyes. Every surface, ledge, windowsill and bar was overflowing with amazing arrangements. Jenn was an absolute joy and pleasure to work with. I was incredibly lucky to have my Mum make the bouquets and buttonholes. We may (absolutely definitely did!!) have been discussing my wedding flowers for years before I actually got engaged. Naturally she absolutely nailed what I wanted and totally wowed me with her creations. Thank you Mum!

The Wedding Party

Cordelia, my bridesmaid wore a navy blue silk dress from Ghost, and Matilda, our flower girl wore a dress I had made for her by Gilly Gray. Tom and his ushers had matching ties and socks. The navy blue polka dot ties were from Paul Smith and the pale blue socks were from Dove in Grey Haze, an independent sock company based in SW London.

The Entertainment

Initially we weren’t going to have a band to keep costs down. This was until one of our friends said the evening might be a bit of an anti-climax without one! This was probably our biggest unbudgeted expense, but it was without doubt one of the highlights of the day. Floating around during our first dance to the Salutations’ version of Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together is a moment that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. If you’re looking for a Motown/Soul band, the range of these guys was incredible.

The Photography

I remember Tom and I agonised over this decision as we’re not keen on posed pictures and wanted to make sure we hired someone who could capture the day the way we wanted. Eliza put us at ease straight away with her warm personality and understanding of our brief. On the day itself, Eliza and second shooter Mike were completely professional, but also fun and easy to work with. They didn't mind stepping in to assist in other ways either (especially when the ushers were completely stumped trying to attach the buttonholes!) It was also great to see them laughing and joking with our wedding guests and really enjoying themselves whilst they were shooting. The end result was a mountain of fantastic images that perfectly captured every aspect of the wedding. Looking through them brought all the emotion of the day flooding back. We look at them every day.

The Videography

Our super talented friend Emily at One Fine Day Films agreed to video our day as a wedding gift. Despite being a guest she managed to produce such a lovely video that we will cherish forever.