We’re whisking you away to Brighton today for the wedding of Luke and Dana at the magnificent Brighton Town Hall on 18th May 2019. After their intimate ceremony, the rest of their guests joined them on Hove Lawns where they enjoyed drinks and a steel band followed by their reception at the Better Half pub nearby.
I love that this pair kept everything super simple and didn’t overdecorate their venues. Their Wes Anderson inspired colour palette was informed by Dana’s shoes and Luke’s sartorial choices followed suit. Don’t they both look wonderful? They coined their theme “Bright-on Bold” – love it!
Marianne Chua Photography was Luke and Dana’s first choice after she photographed a friends wedding and doesn’t her reportage style document their relaxed and intimate nuptials just perfectly? Thank you so much for sharing these brilliant images with us Marianne.
The Proposal
Luke proposed by Loch Ness, Inverness in January 2018, we had gone away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday.
The Vision
We wanted our wedding to be laid back, fun and colourful. We based the colour palette on Wes Anderson’s Darjeeling Limited – rich and bold. We were keen to keep it our day to celebrate with all our friends and family.
The Planning Process
Planning started slowly…we looked at a few venues but found it really limited us in what we could do, we wanted to spend our budget on food and drinks for our guests and not the venue itself.
The Venue
Brighton and Hove Town Hall followed by a reception on Hove Lawns and The Better Half pub in Hove.
Your Outfits & Accessories
My dress was a Divine Atelier dress from White Leaf Boutique in Brighton. It was the second dress I tried on and fell in love, it’s romantic and modern as it has a deep cut in the front and the back, it made me feel like a princess. I had pockets sewn in too to give it a bit more personality. My shoes were from irregular choice – covered in sequins with a heart on the front – totally mad and cripplingly painful but they looked stunning. Once I chose these, our colour theme became teal and yellow.
Hugo Morris in Brighton made Luke’s suit. It’s a teal tweed with yellow stitch detailing and a bright yellow and orange satin lining. Luke and his groomsmen had individual silk pocket squares from Furious Goose that each had a different planet pattern on.
Beauty
I chose Poppy Tallulah to do both my Mum’s and my hair and make-up . She was so lovely and patient with me when I couldn’t decide on my hair at the trial. It felt like talking to a friend. I chose Poppy as her style is very natural and wanted to look like myself which is something she mentions on her website so was the perfect fit.
The Readings & Music
Our close friend from Cambodia did the following reading:
“People are like cities: We all have alleys and gardens and secret rooftops and places where daisies sprout between the sidewalk cracks, but most of the time all we let each other see is is a postcard glimpse of a skyline or a polished square. Love lets you find those hidden places in another person, even the ones they didn’t know were there, even the ones they wouldn’t have thought to call beautiful themselves.”
― Hilary T. Smith, Wild Awake
Music:
You send me – Sam Cooke
Here, there and Everywhere – The Beatles
We’re going to be friends – White Stripes
Your Photographer
Marianne Chua. We went to a friend’s wedding in London just after we got engaged and I saw Marianne at work and asked about her straight away. What I noticed was that I didn’t notice her taking photos, which was perfect – I really wanted reportage photography and she was perfect. She is so very talented and really captured the true happiness of the day.
The Cake
Luke’s uncle kindly made us the delicious fruit cake and vegan cake. Still eating it now.
The Details & Décor
The only thing we did was to buy potted flowers and fairy lights for the pub, it’s already decorated nicely and we didn’t feel the need to decorate.
Our invitations were printed on recycled paper using sustainable Soy based inks using a riso printer.
The Honeymoon
We have just got back from Japan. It was an amazing adventure and we already want to go back.
Memorable Moments
Luke and I decided that before the ceremony we would have a drink together alone. Many of my friends said to just make sure we have some time to ourselves during the day and this really was a lovely moment to start our day together. It really helped to calm our nerves and have a giggle.
Our ceremony was limited to only our closest friends and family (16 in total) and following that we went to Hove lawns to meet the wider wedding party. We had a steel band play and had a small celebration out in the stunning bank holiday sun before heading to the pub.
We have been living abroad for close to 8 years and came home to be closer to our friends and family so we had many people come from far and wide and meant so much to us that they were there to share the day with us.
Advice For Other Couples
It’s very easy to try to please everyone, it’s just not possible but just make sure you have the best day as nothing else matters.
Start your wedding playlist early, it’s harder than you can ever imagine.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Photographer
Marianne Chua
Invitations
Dopple Press
Flowers
Leila Watts
Dress
White Leaf Bridal
Suit
Hugo Morris
Pocket Squares
Furious Goose
Hair and Makeup
Poppy Tallulah
Steel band
Pan Electric
Venue
The Better Half, Hove
Thank you Luke and Dana for sharing your fabulous bright-on bold celebrations with us all at WWW. Rachel x
