Toni & Jonny

With a prop maker and set designer as the bride and a tattoo artist as the groom, this wedding was always going to be something special. Stylish and creative pair Toni and Jonny used the photography of Tim Walker to inspire their big day and having such a strong sense of identity to follow meant the styling and general vibe was really cohesive. We always say this, but when deciding how to style your own wedding day, using inspiration from fashion, interiors and art can really help to narrow things down - before you get overwhelmed by wedding content on Pinterest (!) By using a swan motif, smoke bombs and balloons, and choosing creative photographer Joanna Nicole, Toni's vision is most definitely echoed throughout the day. The Tim Walker vibe is plain to see AND the whole day looks stylish, fun and very eccentric.

Our Wedding

Toni the Bride: The wedding was held in the garden of the brides parents house, a 900 year old watermill at the foot of Box Hill. Toni is a prop maker and set designer and Jonny is a tattoo artist at the family business in Exmouth Market, needless to say it was always destined to be a creative wedding!

The Inspiration

Toni’s love for the work of photographer Tim Walker lead to a bit of theme emerging; nods to Tim Walker shoots featured heavily throughout the wedding. These included coloured smoke bombs, lots of festoon lights, sugar coloured balloons attached to the exterior of the house and swan references left right and centre! Including vintage ceramic swan vases on all the tables, two swans hand painted on the back of Toni’s denim jacket by Jonny, and laser cut swan feather detail on the back of Toni’s dress. They even called in the help of one of Toni’s friends Anthony Wayte, a super talented prop maker who specialises in poly sculpting, who created the most beautiful swan boat for the occasion complete with seat and golden beak! The swan boat quickly became a main talking point as it sat centre stage on the pond in the garden at the ceremony.

The Order Of The Day

The ceremony took place in front of a wildflower and sunflower arch with plants all grown by the bride’s father, and featured personal readings by the maid of honour and master of ceremony. The guests dined on a hog roast buffet with Moroccan inspired salads, and Moroccan inspired pavlova for dessert. The wedding cake was a Guinness cake with millennial pink crème cheese frosting. It was cut with a tiny Scottish dagger produced by one of the guests from their sporran, when there was no cake knife in sight! Their first dance was to Haim 'Little Of Your Love', with guests dancing into the night to 90’s dance classics.

The Bride

I wore a custom made gown and long veil with delicate lace trim, by family friend and bridal seamstress Elizabeth Robinson. I wanted a simple and elegant design that showed off my figure. I chose a plain white silk crepe fabric with low back. We added detail with strings of individual laser cut fabric feathers that draped delicately at the back. My husband is a tattooist at The Family Business, and perhaps I’m a tad biased but his painting and drawing skills are amazing, so I asked him if he could hand paint a swan design on the back of my old vintage denim jacket, so that I could wear it over my dress! It was the perfect addition to my dress once the sun went down and it got a little colder! Of course I had two pairs of shoes. For the ceremony a sophisticated pale grey suede pair with fabric ankle ties. I had dreamed of wearing a pair of Manolo Blahniks on my wedding day, but couldn’t justify the cost for a pair of shoes I’d likely never wear again, so I scoured trimming shops for the perfect diamante brooches and applied them to the shoes myself! Then for the dancing I changed into a beautiful pair of turquoise metallic block heels.

The Decor

All décor was done by bride, groom, family and friends. Marquee décor consisted of large round balloons in peach and coral tones above rows of trestle tables. Bunches of green foliage were wound around the structural wooden poles and attached along the interior walls of the marquee. The groom and ushers set all the table places, with name places all hand written in calligraphy by the groom himself (all x120 of them!) And two of the ushers spent the evening before the wedding hand picking hundreds of fern leaves from the surrounding fields to lay at each place setting! Wedding favours in the form of little packets of wildflower seeds to help attract bees and butterflies, all hand packaged by the bride and groom and adorned with floral stickers designed by friend and illustrator Beatrice Rose who also illustrated all the wedding stationery for the event, including save the dates and invites!

The Flowers

All flowers were hand picked and ordered by the bride, a set designer and prop maker, on a trip to New Covent Garden Flower Market, and consisted of peach Dahlias, wax flower, Tuberose, blousy peach roses, eucalyptus, amaranthus and fennel. The bride and maid of honour (Stephanie Murdoch) created all the bouquets themselves, as well as all the floral table arrangements, which consisted of vintage ceramic swan vases, and glass bottles that the bride had collected from flea markets and antiques fairs in the months leading up to the wedding. The beautiful flower combs and button holes were created by family friend and artist Kate Walton on the morning of the wedding incorporating thistles to bring in a touch of Scottish!

The Ceremony

A blessing performed by close family fried and priest Doug Ross, with readings on love and friendship read by Maid of honour Stephanie Murdoch and Master of ceremonies Calum Doris. Chief bridesmaid Tammy Koslowski walked up the aisle with the bride’s family dog Minnie on a lead, who was of course wearing her own miniature veil! And page boy Hudson Parker walked up the aisle wearing a mini kilt, with his mum and bridesmaid Melanie Fletcher!

The Entertainment

We created our own playlist incorporating all our favourite tracks, and got our friends Angel and Ed (both professional DJs) to DJ in the evening. The first dance was to Haim ‘Little Of Your Love’ and we made sure that there was a section of the evening dedicated to 90s dance! A highlight was the bridal party reliving their youth and dancing to pop punk and emo classics at the end of the night!

The Food

Catering was provided by Epic Catering in the style of a buffet. There was a whole hog roast, along side Jamaican jerk chicken and Moroccan themes salads. With pavlova topped with passion fruit and crushed pistachios for dessert. The highlight had to be wedding cake, an amazing three tier chocolate Guinness cake with millennial pink crème cheese frosting, created by one of the brides best friends Charlie Purchase Trotter. It was topped with fresh flowers and two handmade paper swan ornaments made by the bride herself!

The Photography

We honestly couldn’t have been happier with our wedding photographs, Jo was amazing in the lead up to the wedding and on the day, even helping the guys doing up their ties! We had some big ideas where our photography was concerned, sticking with the Tim Walker theme we wanted to experiment with coloured smoke bombs and Jo was only too happy to oblige. Neither of us had any idea how the smoke bomb photos would turn out but they totally exceeded our expectations!