This is me on our wedding day, opening a bottle of fizz pulling one of my many faces. This is the moment which I shot the cork up the road, by accident in front of a police car in an impute stop at a pub less than 40minutes after saying our I do's. I never knew or noticed our incredible photographer Nat capturing these moments. And you can see more below.
You may have seen my recent Instagram post about getting married and doing it our way. and also including our top tips. And so I thought it might be good to share my top tips here for you as well.
Top tip 1: Your wedding, your day, your rules. Basically there are no rules, don't listen to outside noise. You don't have to have a thing, or you can have all the bells and whistles. Have the day that you both want. Its about your love.
Top Tip 2: A photographer, no matter if you are eloping or have a wedding of 300+ guest, and a photographer you connect with. I can not put into words how wonderful this whole experience was with Nat. She has not only given us stunning photos that feel like us, We also have fallen in love with her. To begin with we weren't going to have a photographer, how gutted we would have been.
Top Tip 3: Rings you love. Ad no, this is not here because I'm a jeweller (blush). Its here because I know these get over looked often. You'll be wearing your wedding ring and looking at it daily for the rest of your life, go with what you truly love. And start looking well before you think you need to this gives you time to save and find a jeweller you connect with in the same way as a photographer. Oh and for it to be made for you.
Top Tip 4: List things most important to you as a couple. For us that was a stress free day, great food and a great hotel for the night before and night of our wedding. We also wanted the hotel to be within approx 15 minutes taxi ride so that we didn't spend too much time in-between places sat in taxis. As it was our hotel was 15 minutes away in a taxi to the venue, our restaurant was the same if not less that 15 minutes from the venue and the restaurant was a 5 minute walk back to our hotel. This walk was so much fun.
Top Tip 5: work out your budget and make a spread sheet with all costings to keep track.
Those are my top tips.
I will share that this wasn't mine and Chris original plan for our wedding, nor was it our first wedding date. When we got engage we had decided to get married over seas and started looking, but with the pandemic this made us realise what difficulties could arise. Once we had decided on a UK wedding, we had originally booked everything for 13th May 2021, but again COVID restrictions put pay to this and we had to move everything to 10th June, with one hick up in between. But having said all this, we had the day we wanted.
When we say we booked everything online without seeing in first, this is truly what we did. We booked everything laying in our courtyard during lockdown 2020. We booked the Old Marylebone Town Hall based off photos online having just decided to give up on our plan to go aboard to get married and we booked our hotel 20 minute's later once we had invited our cousin. She forwarded us an image of the Mandrake Hotel. When we saw it we just knew it was right, it was also just round the corner from our venue so we booked it! My dress was found online and a friend kindly altered it, my shoes I found online, And we made everything else ourselves. So when we say we went stress free we really did go stress free. Even keeping the numbers down to 6 guest (well 7 including the ever so lovely Nat) We even kept the actually wedding date a secret from most people, which again removed some possible stress.
When it came to finding our restaurant, once the first lockdown had lifted we went and found the hotel (we didn't go in) and we walked the streets around and between it and the Old Marylebone Town Hall, again we couldn't go inside.. We found a restaurant we liked the look of and e-mailed. They then suggested another of their restaurants which we hadn't seen, forwarded us a menu sample and based off this and how lovely they were we paid a deposit online. And when we say the food and service at Embar Yard was incredible, we truly mean it. We had the private dinning area for 4.5 hours before heading back to the hotel for more champagne!
So this is it, our stress free, everything we wanted London based micro wedding. We did everything for approx £4,500 - £5,000. Normally I don't share money but I think its helpful to know what cost involved were. Most of this money was spent on Food, Drink, Accommodation and venue. This also includes food and drink the day and night before the wedding, prep, travel and this also adds in the cost of a couple of gifts we got such as Bridal hair and makeup etc
I had so much fun that now poor Chris has me asking if we can renew our vowels already!
So here you go, in no order, are a small sample of photos showing our wedding day. And if you would like to know who else we worked with please scrolls to the bottom of the page.
If you are planning your wedding, enjoy every moment. And remember, your love, your day, your way
Mrs O
xx
Suppliers we used for our wedding:
Hair and Make up: www.lucybeesleybridal.co.uk
Photography: www.nataliapaulinaphotography.com
Venue: The Old Marylebone Town Hall Paddington Room
Hotel: The Mandrake
Restaurant: Ember Yard
Earrings and wedding rings: www.rebekahannjewellery.co.uk
Ribbons for flowers: Ribbon and Thyme
Thank you Cards, Groom cards & other personal cards: Lindsay Marianne
Paper for invites & wedding announcements: Greenili
Biodegradable confetti bags (empty): Wedco Handmade
Confetti: Dried flowers
Bow tie and Pocket square: King and Priory
Dress: Gifted
Suit: TBC
Nails: blu_belle_beauty