Oh me oh my… i have the ultimate wedding to start a new week with :-)

Lucy and Martin were married on the 28th December, at the magnificent The Royal Pavilion in Brighton. They wanted their day to reflect their proposal in New York in Christmas, so chose an ice rink for their reception venue… WOW!

 They really reflected their style and personalities in their wedding, choosing quirky cool attire. I am in love with Lucy’s amazing bircage veil, red lips those love tighs and the red velvet shoes… swoon!! Their whole day has a steam punk feel to it, a reflection of their venue.

I am also a sucker for a big bouquet, and Lucy’s red one is amazing. Also check out the super fun ’til death do us part’ cake from  Choccywoccydodah.

Thanks so much to the brilliant Jacqui McSweeny Photography for sharing her images with us today, here is what she had to say about the day;

“Lucy & Martin got married between Christmas and New Year in Brighton. They planned their wedding in, get this, a month! I like their style! This very cool wedding, with some fab Steampunk influences wedding was at The Royal Pavilion. We  also we managed to get to the beach just as the sun was setting. I will forever be grateful to Martin & lucy for trusting me enough to come into a rather stinky subway with me, the images we got there will be on my top ten favorites for a long time. We then headed  back to The Royal Pavilion for a little skate on the ice rink! I love weddings like these, where both The Bride & Groom just want to do things their way.”

NAMES… Lucy and Martin

WEDDING DATE… 28 December 2011

THE PROPOSAL… We were on the holiday of a lifetime in a freezing cold snowy New York in December 2010. We had just moved to the beautiful Palace Hotel for the second half of our holiday and had arranged a lovely Christmassy evening out. First of all dinner at Bryant Park overlooking the ice rink, then to the Nutcracker ballet, after which Martin suggested a carriage ride around Central Park. After a bit of persuasion (it was freezing) Lucy agreed and half way into the park Martin proposed surprising Lucy with a ring that she had loved at an antiques market months before. Of course the answer was yes! We went and chose a beautiful diamond ring together in the diamond district the next day. What a perfect holiday!

THE VISION… At first we had no idea what kind of wedding we wanted. A lot of the more traditional weddings didn’t feel very ‘us’ and we wanted something a bit more original. We were going to put it off until Summer 2012 but then we saw them putting up the ice rink and restaurant in Brighton for Christmas. It reminded us of the ice rinks in New York so we went to have a look and a chat to the manager. It felt perfect and so that was it, we were having a Christmas wedding in 5 weeks!

THE PLANNING PROCESS… As we only gave ourselves 5 weeks it was all go. Luckily the manager of the ice rink restaurant used to be a wedding planner so she gave us a lot of good tips. Since we had been putting together general ideas since we got engaged.

BUDGET…  We budgeted for about £8000 including honeymoon.

THE VENUE… Once we had decided on the ice rink for the reception there was only really one option for the ceremony: the Brighton Royal Pavilion. One of the most amazing buildings either of us had ever seen, the Red Drawing Room where the ceremonies are held was perfect for our intimate Christmas wedding.

THE DRESS + ACCESSORIES… The dress and fascinator were designed and made by White Leaf Boutique in Brighton in keeping with the vintage style that we both love. The shoes had to be red and were a beautiful velvet pair from LK Bennett, swapped for a Vivienne Westwood pair for the reception. The jewellery was all vintage, a brooch bought as a wedding present from Martin that Lucy attached to a pearl necklace, marquisette earrings that were Lucy’s Grandmothers and a marquisette brooch attached to the dress from her other Grandmother.

FINDING THE DRESS… Although Lucy never thought she would wear a traditional wedding dress, when her best friend came to visit they went to some wedding dress shops as a bit of a laugh. It turned out that the 5th dress Lucy tried on she didn’t want to take off and thus it was ‘the one’.

GROOM’S ATTIRE… Martin hired a traditional morning suit. He splashed out on some beautiful Jeffery West dark red shoes and had a vintage top hat modified for him by Peter Gosbee who also made his vintage watch movement cufflinks.

THE READINGS + MUSIC…. We chose 3 readings, one by Pablo Neuruda, Lucy’s favourite poet, to be read by one of her closest friends, one by her sister and one by Martin’s father. We are both into rock music so the traditional wedding music wasn’t really going to cut it for us. We chose Ice Dance by Danny Elfman from Edward Scissor Hands for Lucy to walk down the aisle to and Let Me Feel Your Love by Bob Dylan. Our song is a song by a punk band called The King Blues called Underneath This Lampost Light which unfortunately we agreed lyrically our families might not appreciate at a wedding ceremony. As a surprise for Martin, Lucy contacted The King Blues management and begged for an instrumental version to use at the ceremony. They came through and Lucy walked down the aisle to Underneath This Lamppost Light and there is a great photo of Martin looking confused and then happy when he realises that the music has been switched.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS… Daisy and Greg, two of Lucy’s closest friends acted as Maid/Male of Honour both choosing their own outfits which tied in the dark red theme perfectly.

THE FLOWERS… Greg’s wedding present to us was to arrange the flowers. We trusted him implicitly and he did an amazing job organising a wintry bouquet and buttonholes of huge dark red roses with ivy put together by florist David Wayman in Manchester.

THE CAKE… In Brighton if you want a cake that’s a bit different the first call is Choccywoccydodah and they had the perfect cake for us which we had seen a few months after getting engaged. A solid white chocolate human size skull which sat next to the vanilla truffle cake also iced with white chocolate decorated with a red heart with the wording ‘Til death do us part’. Amazing!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER… Both of us are a bit camera phobic so finding the right photographer was a bit of a stress. We met a few photographers who didn’t seem quite right but when we met Jacqui we both felt comfortable with her. She was much more relaxed and up for the ideas we had, like the going racing to the beach to catch the light and the photos on the ice. We think the photos speak for themselves.

THE DETAILS + DÉCOR… Having the wedding at Christmas and the reception in a public venue made it quite easy for us as that was already decorated. For the table decorations Lucy’s craft group had been crocheting hearts for month even though a date hadn’t been set so they were draped across the table. An American friend, knowing our obsession with skulls, brought over some ceramic Mexican sugar skulls which looked fab and we used simple Christmas foliage like fir cones mixed in with roses and candles to finish the effect. For favours we bought green sugared almonds to combine our surnames and tied them in a bag to a Christmas decoration and a candy cane.

THE HONEYMOON… What with a low budget and barely enough time to arrange a wedding let alone a honeymoon we decided to go low key. We booked a gorgeous cottage in the Oxfordshire village of Woodstock and spent a week cosied up in front of an open fire venturing out to the amazing local pubs and restaurants every now and again. Bliss!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS… Both of us agree that we will never forget the moment that we first saw each other at the ceremony. Being taken out onto the ice of the ice rink in front of the pavilion in front of a massive crowd was a crazy moment. We also really enjoyed going to the beach to have photos taken as it was actually really fun and was the first chance we had to talk to each other properly since we got married.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES… Everyone says it but honestly don’t stress about the small things and do what you want. It can be a bit of a comedown after the run up to the wedding and the honeymoon so plan an evening together when you get your photos back to sit down together with a bottle of bubbly and relive your day.

Thanks so much to Lucy and Martin for sharing their uber unique wedding with us today. Are you planning any unusual or alternative elements to your wedding day? XOXO Lou

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