Understandably it’s taken me a while to do this post – it’s always hard to write a feature on a couple’s who’s wedding you worked with them on, purely as you are so close to it you want to make sure you do it justice and although I’d love to write about allll the details but I’d probably bore the pants off you all [what, you mean you don't need to know how many lace ribbons I tied around cutlery!?].
Maddi and Ryan were married in a rather surprising balmy September day last year at the city chic Soho House. I’m so lucky I get to witness these special days with my couples – the party atmosphere, the warmth of friends and family, the special little touches, the loving looks and of course the unforgettable exchange of precious words. I distinctly remember standing behind the doorway trying not to be seen by anyone, waiting for my cue from the registrar to push play on the music for the ceremony exit but I found myself distracted and welling up at their touching vows, that were so personal and meaningful. It’s a lovely moment and always so nice to see this part of a wedding. Don’t worry though….I made me cue. Just.
So rather than talking about things from my point of view, I will leave you with the incredibly atmospheric photographs by the superb Ed Peers and words from Maddi the bride herself, but it was a wonderful day and a pleasure to work alongside many talented suppliers to bring it all together for such a lovely couple!
“A relaxed intimate city wedding was our vision. Soho House is a beautiful building which has been sympathetically decorated to reflect the era of the house. The dark wooden floor boards, sash windows and eclectic mix of colours from one room to the next helped our decision when choosing colours. We went for vintage soft pinks and creams which blended with the house colours but linked our rooms together.”
Maddi wore a classic, pretty and really feminine tea length lace dress – the Rosalba by Stephanie Allin “I had no vision of what style of dress I wanted apart from that it should be lace – I love the timelessness of lace. I tried on numerous dresses but it wasn’t until I tried on tea-length ones that I knew I had found my style of dress. It was then a long hunt for the right lace one which was finally found at Stephanie Allin’s boutique in London. It was a gorgeous tea length dress with a cream underlay and a soft cream/pink lace over the top.”
“My wedding jewellery was my favourite part of my outfit as it meant so much a beautiful bracelet made by my talented friend Becky of Cherry & Coco and a sentimental and gorgeous piece each from my mum and mother-in-law.”
As you can see from above Maddi also had two pairs of shoes for her big day – well what better way to treat yourself! “As I chose a short dress it was all about the shoes – my favourite accessory. I have dreamt for years about owning a pair of Louboutins so for my wedding I knew they were the perfect shoe. After a lengthy hunt in London I went for a classic nude peep toe pair with the adorable name ‘You You’, perfect for a wedding day! I changed these in the evening for a pair of sparkly gold Kate Spade shoes. I love shoes!”
Maddi got ready at the nearby Soho Hotel with her bridesmaids and family, and you can see the buzz in the room! I remember collecting a few bits from there on the day and they were all so giddy with lots of laughter and chat going on “We had an awesome team and a really fun morning getting ready!”
I remember Maddi mentioning she was going to incorporate plaits into her bridal hair style which I was so excited to see, and I have to say that her hair stylist Cassandra Rizzuto did an amazing job as it looked so so pretty! Maddi’s make up was by the incredibly talented [and London Bride favourite!] Mariam Jensen who used her infamous airbrush technique to create a beautiful fresh and romantic look on Maddi. There was a lot of pampering going on in the morning so Rebecca McMahon did the beautiful make up on the bridesmaids too.
To compliment Maddi’s soft feminine lace dress, the bridesmaids wore navy blue lace strapless dresses from French Connection teamed with the gorgeous sparkly navy ‘Charm’ Kate Spade shoes – possibly my favourite bridal shoes! Their sweet hair flowers were sourced from DinkyBird Boutique on Etsy. “For the bridesmaids we decided to go to the high street as I wanted dresses they could wear again and feel comfortable in. They fitted the girls perfectly and we accessorized them with hair flowers and sparkly shoes“.
The great thing about a central London wedding is that the bridal party could walk around the corner to the venue for the ceremony! So much fun walking around Soho in a wedding dress! Meanwhile the boys were getting ready and met with friends and family at Kettners for a pre ceremony tipple!
The Groom wore a brown suit from Reiss and the groomsmen all wore their own navy suits. They were linked together with vintage pink Mr Start ties and Reiss brown brogues – such a stylish party! “Ryan went for a brown suit from Reiss – well he is Mr Brown! He also had brown brogues from Reiss which all the groomsmen had.” Oh I do love a smart shoe on a man!
I love the sweet tags for the cute wedding keepsakes and traditions, nice to remember the little things!
Maddi and Ryan chose Soho House for their venue which held the whole day from the ceremony to the drinks reception to the evening party. “Soho House is a wonderful maze of rooms and staircases and we hired three rooms for our day. We decided early on we wanted to get married in London and viewed numerous venues. We were looking for an intimate venue which could host our whole day and had style with ideally some outdoor space. Soho House fitted perfectly it is a house so has the automatic intimate feel and has the most amazing roof top terrace which meant we looked out over London’s roof tops and up to the stars.”
What music did you walk down the aisle to? The first time Ever I saw your face by Roberta Flack
Do you have any planning advice for other brides? “Make it personal and that can be from the simplest of weddings to the dramatic wedding but make it yours. Make mood boards and take the time to work out what you both want from the day. My favourite part of this was adding our own vows to the ceremony – we had been together nearly 9 years when we got married and it was so special standing before Ryan and in front of our loved ones telling him how much he meant to me and promising him my heart and soul.”
When I met with Maddi, she was a girl after my own heart with lots of carefully thought through details and ideas. I was so impressed with how creative this pair were [and so sweet that they did a lot of it together!], sourcing gorgeous vintage mason jars, making printed lace handkerchiefs for their save the dates and amazing handmade paddles for their order of the day – there was so much thought behind it all and it was a pleasure to bring it all together on the day. Ryan, the groom is a designer so did all the amazing stationery for the day, including the invitations, order of the day paddles, tableplan and photobooth sign!
“We didn’t have a theme as such more a style of soft old vintage colours in pinks and creams mixed with kraft paper and hand stamped details. We made a lot ourselves as we wanted the day to reflect us and have a personal touch. My talented husband [Ryan the Groom!] made all the gorgeous stationery and we spent many a night putting together paddle fans, drink stirrers and cookie catchers! We filled each room with vintage style flowers beautifully put together by Euphoric Flowers (who are an amazing duo) in aqua Mason jars, tea cups, antique silver jars and French enamel jugs.
I love all the blooms that Euphoric Flowers did – there was a lot of wood in the venue and this really lifted it and created a really pretty feel to the fairly dark room. As they were all in little jars they were also great to transport from ceremony to dinner to evening so nothing was wasted!
Maddi and Ryan made SO many unique touches for their wedding day. They were so creative and it was these little touches that I think made their day all the more special. “We handmade a lot and added bits and pieces to the venue to give it our personal touch. We made bunting, drink stirrers, DIY photobooth area, hung pompoms from the ceiling and much more! We would have struggled without Charley to put it all up and turn rooms around- she did a fabulous job.”
“We also had a vintage set of scales with a collection of glass sweetie jars filled with retro sweets Rhubarb and Custards, White Mice, lemon sherbets and cola bottles. I loved looking round each room on the day seeing all our hard work and ideas come to life and really made our day feel personal to us. The best bit about making and collecting everything means we got to keep it after the day and now our home is full of wonderful memories from the day.”
After the ceremony as guests were enjoying delicious drinks and food, Maddi and Ryan went with their photographer Ed to capture a few portrait shots along with their bridal party too. “We choose Ed Peers as our photographer who we feels captures light and the feel of a day perfectly. He didn’t disappoint and our day has been documented perfectly.”
Soho House by nature is really intimate so the meal was held on beautiful big wooden tables which Maddi and Ryan supplied pretty rustic details for; bespoke stationery, cute favours, lace ribbon and beautiful flowers from Euphoric. “We had cream hessian runners and our assorted jars and cups filled with flowers and herbs placed down the centre. We then made Cookie Catchers for our menus and had our own personalised chocolate fortune cookies from Maple Molly’s for our favours.”
It’s not often I get to sit down and enjoy a meal at a wedding as I’m always running around but Maddi and Ryan so kindly seated myself, Jeff and Ed who were doing the video and photography together with their friends and family. I only managed a main course before rushing off but it was delicious and so nice to sit soaking up the atmosphere, even if it was for twenty minutes!
“We choose a buffet style menu as we felt it was more relaxing and interactive for our guests. The food was AMAZING and I can’t recommend it enough! We also opted for a buffet style cake table – our main cake was a yummy sponge layered cake with four other delicious cakes all made by my mum and our friends. We decided to let our wedding cake get eaten for dessert as we didn’t want it to get left. I was so impressed with their friends efforts, the cakes looked amazing and having helped to serve them, I know that they went down very well!
“In the evening we had a layered cheese cake from La Fromagerie with home-made chutney made by my mum and I. La Fromagerie are brilliant and really helpful at guiding you through what works well and we had a great morning tasting the cheese!”
What was your first dance song? Everlong by Foo Fighters (the acoustic version!). The lyrics are beautiful and mean a lot to us.
“Due to the fact Soho House is a small venue we felt it would be better to only have a DJ so we choose Mitch from DJinc who did a brilliant job and our friends and family didn’t leave the dance floor. We danced till 3am!”
When it was getting late as I finished up, I left a rooftop full of guests in arms swaying to music, with a beautiful bride and groom in the centre sharing a fun dance under the stars. It was a pretty amazing atmosphere and I love how Ed has captured the evening and these beautiful romantic moments at the end of the night.
What was the most special or memorable moment of the day? “Walking down the aisle and seeing Ryan’s face, saying I do and having a day full of love and happiness all for you and your husband you can’t ask for anything better. As cheesy as it sounds it really is the best day”.
I’m also thrilled to share with you their teaser wedding video by the brilliant Jeff Woods - brides and grooms PLEASE consider having a wedding film! It’s quite often one of the regrets I hear from my couples and it really is something you can look back on in one, ten and perhaps even forty years time. I love this film of Maddi and Ryan’s day by Jeff.
“We originally weren’t going to have a videographer but we choose Jeff Woods as when I first saw his videos on a wedding blog they actually moved me to tears. He has done an amazing job capturing our day and I am so pleased we booked him. I will forever treasure both the photos and videos”.
Huge congratulations to the lovely Maddi and Ryan, and thanks for letting me share your day! Also thanks to the superb Ed and Jeff for sharing their work and to all the suppliers involved in the day.
*UPDATE – Maddi is selling her beautiful tea length lace Stephanie Allin dress. If you are interested please drop me a comment or email enquiry and I’ll put you in touch!*
Photography: Ed Peers / Cinematographer: Jeff Woods / Venue: Soho House / Bride’s Dress: Rosalba by Stephanie Allin / Bride’s Shoes: Christian Louboutin / Bridesmaids Dresses: French Connection / Groom’s Suit: Reiss / Bride’s Make Up: Mariam Jensen & Hair: Cassandra Rizzuto / Bridesmaids: Rebecca McMahon Flowers: Euphoric Flowers / Cakes: Friends / Cheese Cake: La Fromagerie / Stationery: the Groom, Ryan/DJ: Mitch Matthews at DJ Inc
London Bride is a modern blog all about stylish & unique city weddings. Author Charley Beard is a London based creative wedding planner and stylist who aims to inspire and assist couples tying the knot in London! Check out the Services page for more info!
