Hannah and Niall were married in May at the oldest Catholic Church in England, followed by a beautiful reception at Kettner’s, Soho. They wanted their weddingw to be super relaxed and intimate, and their is a really lovely atmosphere to their wedding.

I love their quirky/cool choices, from Hannah’s fashion forward wedding dress, to the beautiful blooms, the Chanel flats, to the fun car and the croquembouche cake which was promptly smashed. What a stylish couple.

Thanks so much to WWW favourite Marshal Gray Photography for sharing his incredible images with us today.

Names… Hannah and Niall

Wedding Date…. 5th May 2012

The Proposal…. A fantastic surprise weekend in Paris 2009.

The Vision for the day…. We were aiming for very relaxed and fun day with our closest family and friends in central London.

The Planning process…. We did lots of research and it really paid off as everyone involved made it a really perfect day.  My Mum and Dad were brilliant and helped with everything.

The Venue… We had a beautiful 4pm service at St Ethelreda’s which is the oldest Catholic church in England, it’s absolutely stunning with very large stained glass windows and it has a rich history including providing inspiration for Shakespeare and Dickens.

We held our reception at Kettner’s in the heart of Soho; we had been to the restaurant and champagne bar and really loved the relaxed atmosphere.  When we met Katie the Events Manager she put us at ease straight away, it was a fantastic location and flexible space that we could have until 1am.  We held our party in the Salle De Fete on the second floor and the space was perfect with three separate areas, the dining room which turned into the dance floor, a separate bar and then another room with softer chairs.  The service was excellent and the food was delicious too!

We definitely wanted to have our own playlist for the party after dinner which Niall worked on for months! But during dinner we also wanted to listen to music, Niall got in touch with a brilliant pianist we had heard at the restaurant Bistroteque who plays instrumental versions of pop songs.  We were really thrilled when Xavior agreed to play during the reception and he even took requests!

The Dress + Accessories….. I knew I really didn’t want a ‘wedding dress’ but a dress influenced more from fashion and design.  I went with my mum to meet Jenny Lessin and she understood immediately the kind of look I had in mind.  Jenny specialises in wedding dresses and as well as being very creative Jenny has amazing skill and attention to detail.  It was really exciting to see the dress develop over the months and Jenny was also fun to visit!

As my dress had detailing around the neck line, I didn’t really need any jewellery but I did want to wear something special.  I had seen an ear cuff that jewellery designer Husam El Odeh had made and I got in touch to see if he could make me one.   The silver and pearl ear cuff arrived a few days before the wedding and it was really unusual, beautiful and surprisingly comfortable to wear.  My shoes were silver leather Chanel ballet flats that were so soft they felt like slippers!

On the morning of the wedding Jo Reid from Blush arrived to do make up for my mum, my two best friends and me.  We were all really happy with the looks Jo and Kylie the hairdresser gave us and it was a really fun with us all getting ready together!

Groom’s attire… Niall didn’t want traditional wedding suit and we found a beautiful bright blue three piece suit from Duchamp. We bought Niall’s shirt, spotty silk handkerchief, shoes and heart cufflinks on Saville Row.

The Readings + Music…. My lovely brother Josh and Niall’s cousin Caron read for us during the wedding ceremony.  For music we chose the traditional entrance and recessional: the Bridal Chorus by Wagner and the Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Felix Mandelssohn. We also chose the music for the St Etheldreda’s choir to sing. Listening to the choir during the service was so moving and we’ll definitely remember it forever.

The Flowers… Flowers are really important to me as I love them!  As well as my bouquet and the button holes, they would be the focus of the decoration at Kettner’s.  I had been reading a lot about Scarlet and Violet and knew I would love anything they suggested.  We met Vic Brotherson at the Scarlet and Violet shop which was heaven with beautiful blooms everywhere!  Vic was really friendly and had brilliant ideas for combinations of flowers and foliage.   We left it until a couple of weeks before the wedding to meet again and choose the flowers that would be in season.  I was so happy to see the bouquet on the morning of the wedding as it was so delicate, fragrant and also textural – better than I ever imagined!

The Cake… We love Maison Bertaux in Soho, the smell of pastry, cream and fruit as you walk in is mouth watering!  It was actually my mum’s idea to have croquembouche and as Maison Bertaux makes the best cakes and is opposite Kettner’s it made perfect sense to ask them.  We also wanted to have our cake as the dessert and the idea of smashing the tower of profiteroles sounded fun!

Your Photographer…. Getting the right photographer was really important to us as it’s the photos that we’ll have forever.  We knew immediately when we saw the Marshal Gray website that the style of Gary’s photography was exactly what we were looking for.  Gary invited us to do a pre-wedding shoot, the photos were great and it really reassured us that the wedding photos would be even better.  It also made us feel much more comfortable in front of the camera! On the day Gary and Cristina were lovely to have around and put us and our family and friends at total ease.

The Details + Decor…. Figtree Invitations created our bespoke save the date cards, invitations and order of service.  Paul and Rachel were really responsive to our ideas and turned my scribbles into lovely designs. Scarlet and Violet decorated the tables at Kettner’s with vintage glass vases filled loosely with flowers, surrounded by tea lights and silver dinner candlesticks which looked stunning. They also dressed the croquembouche with loose flower heads.

The Honeymoon…. We spent two blissful weeks in Modica in Sicily.

Memorable moments… Staying in the Zetter hotel the night before the wedding with my two best friends was brilliant with all the excitement and nerves that turned into tears in the morning! Just married and being driven in the Karma Kab from St Ethelreda’s to Kettner’s around Trafalgar Square looking at how wonderful London is, waving back at tourists and then stopping at traffic lights so that Stephen Hawkins could cross the road was incredibly surreal!

Advice for other couples… Take a moment to stand back together and really take in all that is happening.  I’d been concentrating on all of the organisation that I hadn’t anticipated just how happy we would be on the day!

Credit where credit is due…

Invitations – www.figtreeinvitations.co.uk/
Dress – http://www.jennylessin.co.uk/
Ear cuff – http://husamelodeh.wordpress.com/
Make Up - http://www.blush.uk.com/index.php
Flowers – http://www.scarletandviolet.com/
Photography - http://www.marshalgraystudio.com/
Car – http://www.karmakabs.com/
Church - http://www.stetheldreda.com/home.html
Venue – http://www.kettners.com/
Xavior – http://www.bistrotheque.com/sub.php?ID=30

Thanks so much to Hannah and Niall for sharing their amazing wedding with us today. I just love those moments in the cafe, so so wonderful XOXO Lou

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT...