Right - I know I've gone on about our wedding quite a lot now but will you indulge me one last time?! It was the happiest day of my life after all! We received our wedding video a few weekends ago which was very kindly made for us as a present from my sister and her very talented boyfriend Tom. It perfectly captured the day - mainly us both smiling like maniacs! I think I may of watched it 100 times already. Scroll down to have a watch!
I also thought I'd chat through a few of the elements that made up our wedding and share some of the wonderful photos taken by our very clever friend Mike!
As Ollie and I been together for a long time (since 2008!), we felt we didn't need to go down the traditional route and that didn't really feel like us anyway as we're not at all religious. We wanted our wedding to be fun and relaxed and celebration of our relationship, surrounded by the people who've been important to us over the past 11 years.
(Our Wedding Invite Ollie and I designed!)
Venue & Ceremony
As we had decided not to go down the traditional route, we had a small legal ceremony with just very close family at a registry office a few days before the actual wedding day. I'm actually so so happy we decided to do this, as it meant we got to spend some quality time with our core family members. What we thought was just going to feel like a formality, actually turned out to be a really lovely special day.
The main event was the following Sunday at Ollie's work, an art gallery in central London. We chose London over Hastings as we knew it would be easy for all our guests to get to and from and be able to find accommodation if they wanted to stay the night. It also happens to be a really beautiful building - an old girls boarding school - and it was big enough to have both the ceremony and the reception. It also has hotel rooms so we could also get ready there, which was super convenient!
Before Ollie and I had even got engaged we knew we wanted to ask our friend JP to marry us. We thought it would feel more personal and would make us feel more comfortable seeing his handsome smiling face at the end of the aisle! He's very charismatic and confident so we knew he'd do a fantastic job and luckily for us took it much more seriously than we both did! The service was beautiful and completely felt like us. JP surprised us by reading the lyrics to 'Wide Lovely Eyes' by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and our friends also did some readings - 'Inch Of Dust' Lyrics by Future Islands (featured in the wedding video) and a paragraph from Haruku Murami's Norwegian Wood.
“I really like you, Midori. A lot.” “How much is a lot?” “Like a spring bear,” I said. “A spring bear?” Midori looked up again. “What’s that all about? A spring bear.” “You’re walking through a field all by yourself one day in spring, and this sweet little bear cub with velvet fur and shiny little eyes comes walking along. And he says to you, “Hi, there, little lady. Want to tumble with me?’ So you and the bear cub spend the whole day in each other’s arms, tumbling down this clover-covered hill. Nice, huh?” “Yeah. Really nice.” “That’s how much I like you.”
We ordered way too much confetti. We had a paper cup filled to the brim under each chair, so by the time we got to the end of the aisle we were completely covered! This turned into one of my happiest memories from the day. Us both looking at each other afterwards COVERED in dried petals. I'm sure some even found it's way into my underwear!
Oufits
I didn't have a huge budget for my dress and even if I had the money, I don't think I'd feel comfortable spending £100's or even £1000's on a dress I'd only wear once. After months spent searching, I eventually ordered a dress from Olive Clothing. It was a simple, classic midi dress with a crew neck and fitted sleeves which showed off my gold clogs from Lotta from Stockholm (bought in their seconds sale for half price!) My finger tip tulle veil was from Florence & Dot which I found on eBay. I then changed into a straw hat for the reception, which was from a little shop in Hastings that I'd bought last year. I changed the ribbon to a velvet pink one I again found on eBay. Everything included my outfit was just under £190 but I felt a million bucks!
Ollie's Green Tweed Suit and floral tie were from ASOS. The boys, my uncle Charles (who gave me away) Billy (the best man) and JP (our celebrant) all wore different suits in complimentary colours which looked lovely alongside the bridesmaids outfits, who all wore a different shade of dress/shirt to match the colours in my bouquet.
(My Bridesbabes! My Cousin Lilia, Two sisters and two of my best friends Rhiannon & Matt.)
Decorations / Flowers
As my dress was quite plain I wanted a massive wild bunch of flowers for my bouquet with lots of green foliage. It was made up of eucalyptus sprigs, Proteas, Celosias and blue thistles. The Bridesmaids each had a smaller version. My mum did a brilliant job on all my flowers, they were everything I dreamed of and more!
Ollie and I had spent weeks making all the bunting and cutting the pastel pink paper chains. Luckily our friends lent us some bunting they'd made for their wedding last year which was a massive help! My sister spent months drying flowers for the floral wall we created as a backdrop for our ceremony, which we taped to the wall using washi tape, to look as if it had just blown in on the wind. I loved the end result and it looked amazing in all the pictures!
Speeches
Speeches are always my favourite part about weddings! My uncle did a great job with his. I expected to cry throughout whole day but the only time I teared up was during his speech. Billy's best man speech was hilarious, although quite rude so I can't divulge any of it's contents! Ollie mentioned Tovah in his speech which brought the house down. My sisters were heckling me through out mine which brought out the bossy older sister in me - much to the crowds amusement which was lucky!
Food
One thing Ollie and I both agreed on and felt quite strongly about is that we didn't want a sit down meal. It's always something I slightly dread about weddings, as a fairly shy and awkward person, I worry about who I'm going to be sat with and would feel like a hypocrite if I then forced someone into the same uncomfortable situation. So instead we let people sit where they liked and we did vegan Greek wraps, with marinated mushrooms, cashew cream Tzatziki in a homemade flat bread. We were meant to have olives, dips and break sticks to snack on before the food came out, but in all the excitement we forgot and left them all in our hotel room! Safe to say our kitchen cupboards looked like we were preparing for an Armageddon for a while afterwards, and I think Ollie is still giving out olives at work! For pudding we had a vegan carrot cake and our lovely friend Emily very kindly made us vegan chocolate orange cake!
Music / PARTYYYYYY
We didn't have a band or DJ and instead had put together a playlist for the day. We love music so there were a few songs that played a big part in our wedding. I walked down the aisle to New Partner by Palace Music. It's a song we both love and have listened to a lot over the course of our relationship and the lyrics seemed very appropriate. We walked out to Inni mer syngur vitleysingur by Sigur Ros. It's such a joyful happy song and fits perfectly in the wedding video! We knew our first dance was going to be awkward so wanted something a bit tongue in cheek. We chose 'The Most Beautiful Girl in The Room' by Flight of the Concords. We both LOVED the TV series and finally got to see them live last year. In actual fact I refused to do our first dance as I found the whole thing so embarrassing! I don't think Ollie enjoyed his new wife running away from him every time he tried to get me to dance. But it was much more pleasurable experience once all our friends joined in!
Then things got messy.....
It really was the best day ever, completely worth the 6 months of anxiety in the lead up! It was so full of happiness and love. I really expected to cry the entire day but I was just so so happy. I couldn't stop smiling (as you can probably tell in the pictures!) We both came away feeling incredibly lucky to have such amazing friends and family. Anyway I shall stop waffling on. Here's our wedding video....featuring my grumpy face and some scandalous dance moves at the end! We also recorded a special episode of our podcast 'The Cute Life' where we talked through the day. You can listen here. Hope you enjoy! Thanks for reading / watching / listening!