It’s nearing the end of a busy week on Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, but fear not I have another stunning wedding to share with you today.

Paula and Alex were married in October of last year and opted for a modern, music themed wedding in London. I so love Paula’s vibrant blue dress and her super stylish hair and make up, with a retro feel. Alex looks so dapper in his pinstripe suit, what a handsome pair these two make.

I love Paula’s opulent bouquet, and the simple yet lovely modern musical touches in their wedding decor at their favourite local pub.

Thanks so much to the fantastic Viva Wedding Photography, for sharing his amazing images with us today, here is what he had to say about the day;

“What a wonderful day this was! The gorgeous Paula & Alex got married at Islington Town Hall with their reception at The Compass Pub.

Paula had the most stunning blue wedding dress and Alex had a suit from the uber cool Jump the Gun in Brig

hton. They are both massive music fans, so there was a big music theme at the wedding venue, with all the table names being some of their favorite band.

We were lucky enough to do a quick walkabout before the wedding and we spotted a fabulos blue tiled wall which we just had to shoot infront off.

We’d like to wish Paula & Alex all the best for their married life together and thank them for being such nice people and so accommodating for us.”

NAMES…  Paula and Alex

WEDDING DATE… 22nd October 2011

THE PROPOSAL… At the top of Primrose Hill – romantic and touching proposal…with an answer of Yes, Yes, Yes.

THE VISION… Relaxed and informal was our key requirement for the day. A day being surrounded by our dearest friends and family, lots of fine food, great Kiwi wines and most importantly music that we both loved that would make everybody feel like dancing!

THE PLANNING PROCESS… The Proposal happened on the 12th August and we decided we wanted to get married on our 6th year anniversary of meeting which was the 22nd October.  So…… we had had 10 weeks to organise the wedding.  But in many ways we wanted to spend our time organising for our life not just one day…so 10 weeks was a challenge but also quite a fun challenge.

THE VENUE… As our key requirement for the day was informal and it also needed to be in central London we decided on a choosing one of our favourite gastro pubs in Angel, London called The Compass who we knew did weddings and the food and service is fabulous.  They looked after us so well, really catered to our every need. The project manager for the wedding was amazing…really thoughtful and kind and the chef was brilliant. We are both vegetarians and he created a fabulous menu which every body was raving about. For the ceremony we wanted somewhere in close vicinity and the recently renovated Town Hall in Angel for the registry office was just the ticket.

The music and dancing part of the reception was for us the most important part of the evening. We asked people to choose their favourite party song and we arranged the songs by decade and our DJ Scott Packman went out of his way to ensure that he had every single request from our guests. He had his own lighting, really impressive kit and was so lovely and friendly to our guests. He really helped make the evening a huge success.

THE DRESS + ACCESSORIES… Paula was keen on a dress with a vibrant colour and 50s style so where else would you go ….but Candy Anthony.

FINDING THE DRESS… As I knew what I wanted I only went to the one shop and it took me about an hour to choose the style and colour. The wonderful people at Candy Anthony made the whole experience such fun….I brought my two friends along on the day and we were all treated really well…had such a good time.  The care and attention the team also gave me when getting the dress fitted was just lovely. Really made me feel special…it was really cool. Big thanks to them all.

GROOM’S ATTIRE… Alex wanted to have a retro looking suit – so we travelled down to Brighton and visited the very stylish Jump the Gun shop.

THE READINGS + MUSIC…. We had a fairly simple ceremony but music is really important to both of us so once the ceremony was over we had a number of our favourite songs playing to celebrate the occasion. ‘Do you Realise’ by The Flaming Lips and ‘ God only Knows’ By the Beach Boys. The songs were perfect and the guests really enjoyed hearing the tunes.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS… No bridesmaids just my wonderful sister and some brilliant friends who helped up to and during the day.  One thing that happened which wasn’t quite planned was that I forgot my bouquet. I left it sitting on the kitchen table with all the excitement of getting ready.  When I arrived at the registry office my dear friend ran off to the local florist and bought me a beautiful bouquet. So kind.  She really saved the day.  Big thanks!

During the whole wedding process, I was overwhelmed with how lovely, generous and supportive everybody is towards the wedding couple. It really is an amazing time!

THE FLOWERS… We wanted to use local businesses for the main requirements for the day so we went to our local florist – Sam and Sarah. They were great, really helpful and lots of great ideas about what would look good.

THE CAKE…  One of our favourite restaurants in the area is Ottolenghi and they do amazing desserts so I rang them up and asked them if they do wedding cakes…Not quite they said but they do create ‘Celebration Cakes’ which was a chocolate sponge with cream and fresh fruit. Sounded perfect and it was!  Delicious.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER… We used Viva Wedding Photography. They were brilliant! We went to meet them in Brighton first off to see what they had to offer and to see how they approached weddings and it really matched what we were looking for. Capturing moments …not staged….focusing on interesting details of the day.  Couldn’t recommend them more highly.

THE WEDDING LIST… We chose to have a wine list instead of the traditional wedding list. We have both got more than enough things for the house and we both love wine so we chose a local wine shop called Theatre of Wine who have a really impressive array of wines. The angle was….if you buy us wine ….we would like you to come and share the wine with us which we thought was a good way of getting out of the slightly awkward asking people for gifts. We told Theatre of Wine we were looking to use them for our wedding list and they were great…helped us to choose a really impressive collection of wines and when we received the collection…they had written up the notes really stylishly as a keep sake. Great team ….and really enjoyed liaising with them all.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES… You may hear this a lot…but really enjoy the planning process as this does take a bit of time but kick back and enjoy choosing and deciding how you are going to make the day as fun as possible. ….the day goes so fast so if you had a good time planning the wedding….then the wedding becomes not just about the day but the whole process. Take photos along the way as well…all the lovely things that you’ve done and all the good times with your friends and family up until the big day.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT’S DUE…

Photographer –Viva Wedding Photography www.vivaweddingphotography.com
Alex’s  suit – Jump the Gun in Brighton www.jumpthegun.co.uk
Paula’s dress Candy Anthony in Oxo Tower www.candyanthony.com
Florist – Sam and Sarah La Belle Vie Flowers 020 7561 0068
Cake – Ottolenghi in Angel, London www.ottolenghi.co.uk
Wedding list – Theatre of Wine theatreofwine.com
Reception Location – The Compass, Angel, London  thecompassn1.co.uk
DJ – Scott Packman www.westlondonmobiledisco.co.uk

Thanks so much to Paula and Alex for sharing their super beautiful wedding with us today, Please do leave your thoughts below :-) XOXO Lou

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