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We do love Islington Town Hall here at Wed In London! We have our blogging bride Rach getting married there this June and have featured this real wedding previously on the blog.
Today, we bring you these lovely images from Jacqueline Helen Wedding Photography - we hope you enjoy them. How cute are this couple? I just love Kye’s dress and veil combo, and in my opinion, you can’t beat a groom in navy blue. What a beautiful day it looked as well! This wedding has it all as far as I’m concerned – a black cab, a red London bus, portraits by the river and a fantabulous Town Hall – can London weddings get any better? Kye shares her words with us:
“I’d been living overseas for 10 years (UK, Ireland, Canada) and had finally decided to head home to Australia to live but first decided to spend some time travelling in Asia. It was in Cambodia I met Reece. We did 3.5 years long distance (me in Sydney, him in Preston) and then finally in 2009 Reece moved to Australia, then we moved back to the UK in 2011.”
“Deciding to have our wedding in London was not an easy choice, as we knew there would be some friends and family from Australia that would not be able to make it, but it was the logical choice. We live here, so it made things easier to organise but we also knew it would be a great city to host a celebration.”
“Once London was decided as the location, we then decided our theme was also going to be London! As none of our guests actually came from London (they travelled from all over the UK, Ireland, Australia and the US), we wanted to give them a time to remember, and make it worth the trip, showing them all the best that London had to offer. I contacted one of my oldest friends, Fionán, about creating our invitations and just gave him the brief “London” and he designed the perfect invitation for us using a hand drawn version of a tube sign with our names in it, which we later also used for place cards. The back of the invitation also included a London Bus, which was just perfect as we’d already decided we were going to hire a bus and take our guests on a bit of a tour of London, something Fionán wasn’t aware of when designing the invitation.”
“We then had the hard task of finding a suitable venue. We’re not very formal people so didn’t want to have a stuffy, formal affair. We wanted somewhere that could provide good food and a relaxed atmosphere for our guests and Grace and the team at the White Horse did just that.”
Oh, that veil!
“After a week of rain the sun finally shone for us on the day. I was pretty calm all morning, thanks to Nichola. She knew I was nervous about having my hair and makeup done. To ease my nerves she just spoke to me like a friend, we chatting about books, films, gossip. Sometimes I actually forgot that it was my wedding day, it really was like catching up with an old friend and my hair and makeup turned out great too.”
“The lovely Ruth from Gingerlily flowers in Newington Green hand delivered my bouquet and Dave from London Black Taxi‘s arrived in plenty of time to take me for the short ride to Islington Town Hall, so all was going well.”
“The first person I saw outside the Town Hall as we pulled up was Jac, our lovely photographer, and it was like relief just swept over me, all the pieces were in place, hair and makeup were done, flowers delivered, our photographer was there and I was on time, all I had to do was make it down the aisle without falling over!”
“I walked down the aisle to Van Morrison’s “Someone Like You”, I could feel my Dad getting emotional beside me and I was determined not to cry, so I may have walked down the aisle a little faster than intended.”
“Other music for our ceremony included Frank Sinatra’s “The Best Is Yet To Come” while we signed the registry and the Proclaimers “500 Miles” as we walked back down the aisle, which made everyone smile, like we hoped it would.”
“After the photos on the town hall steps we went around the corner to Canonbury Square for a few of the “official” photos with the family. Jac was well prepared and we whizzed through the “official” photos in no time.”
”Then we had the first surprise of the day for the guests, the bus!”
“We didn’t want to go off on our own for photos, we wanted to spend time with the guests, since they’d travelled so far. Everyone was dead chuffed to be involved which was great. An even bigger crowd pleaser was the champagne and beer we bought to serve on the bus along with the goody bags with Australian sweeties, so the guests didn’t get too peckish on the tour. The lovely Sam from thisbus.com ensured everyone was topped up and had what they needed, as Steve the bus driver took us through London to a soundtrack of songs we’d created.”
“The highlight would have to be the whole bus head banging to Bohemian Rhapsody, Wayne’s World style!”
”We made several stops at London landmarks and Jac just did her thing getting some incredible and unique images from our day, which was just what we were after. One of guests said after the wedding “I’m really looking forward to seeing what the official photographer was shooting – she was really lovely & fun, the most inclusive wedding photographer ever”. That she was.”
“The reception at the White Horse didn’t disappoint either. Grace and the team were in place as soon as we arrived and I didn’t have to worry about a thing.”
“Keeping with the London/English theme we served roasts for dinner with yummy salads, veg and lots of spuds. Bringing some Australiana to the table we served Aussie wines, had pavlova for dessert and served Tim Tams (Aussie chocolate biscuits) with the coffee.”
“Instead of favours for our guests we served baby Guinness shots after dinner to get them in the mood for dancing.”
“Our first dance was to Something Changed by Pulp and the rest of the play list for night was mainly made up of a combination of Brit Pop and Indie classics that we knew our guests would love.”
“For our guestbook we bought a Polaroid camera and asked guests to take photos and place it in the book for comments. I should mention we also had props like masks of the royal family and funny hats, glasses etc. It seemed to be a hit, especially the masks.”
“Later in the evening when everyone was suitably “happy” and dancing we served mini fish and chips which went down a treat. Sadly we missed out though, too busy dancing.”
“The last dance of the night was to Fiesta by the Pogues. It was a fitting end to a great day. One we will never forget.”
We wish Kye and Reece all the best for a gloriously happy marriage!
Nim xx
Credits
Photographer: Jacqueline Helen Wedding Photography Hair & Makeup: Nichola Allen Ceremony venue: Islington Town Hall Reception venue: The White Horse Bride’s dress: Pronovias Bride’s veil: Light in the box Bride’s jewellery: earrings Lola M Designs on Etsy / hair bling Sweetheart Vintage / Kye also wore her grandmother’s etenity ring Bride’s shoes: Dune Groom’s suit: Ted Baker Wedding Car: London Black Taxis Red London bus tour: ThisBus.com Flowers: Gingerlily Flowers Stationary – invitations and place cards: Fionán Healy Number of guests: 48
![Lunch al fresco in Regent\](http://distilleryimage3.s3.amazonaws.com/3650ffd6b65d11e2bc9d22000a1fbcb9_6.jpg "Lunch al fresco in Regent\")
A truly gorgeous London wedding! Congratulations!