Colourful London Pub wedding - Lucy & Mike

This colourful London pub wedding is full of the things we love – DIY details, stunning frocks and flowers, happy smiling people and yummy food! Scroll down for all the gorgeous details…

How did you guys meet?

We met 11 years ago when Mike moved to Norwich and I returned to complete my degree after a year abroad inAmerica. Mike had finished his degree at Warwick and with no particular plans in place had been persuaded by some of his friends from home that Norwich was the place to be! Those friends also happened to be my friends from University so we were introduced through them. Our first meeting wasnʼt the most auspicious, I think we only said “Hey” to each other then I promptly returned to the conversation Iʼd already been having but after that we became better friends. We finally got together only when we were no longer living in the same place (typical!) but weʼll have been together ten years in August. We got engaged three years ago after an afternoon trip to one of our favourite pubs in Highgate. Maybe not the most romantic engagement story, but it was very “us”!

Where did you get married and why did you choose your venue?

We always liked the idea of a London pub wedding. We live here, it’s home and it felt easy for our two families as it was in the middle of them both!

We looked around a couple of pubs for the reception but the Easton was something else – lovely food, nice atmosphere, a really good big room but also relaxed and somewhere that we could decorate. Asia House was where we had our ceremony. It’s an amazing Georgian townhouse, we walked in and just thought wow! It was a really lovely place to get married, and the ceremony room felt very special. The venues were very central, which made it easy for our guests to get there and meant there were plenty of nearby hotels to stay in – both key considerations for us.

WHO WAS YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER AND HOW DID YOU CHOOSE THEM?

We chose Babb Photo and Laura and Pete were great to work with. We had seen their work up close in the past as Laura had photographed our friends’ wedding a couple of years ago and the pictures were just lovely so we were keen to work with them for our wedding as well. They were both so friendly and made everything really easy both in the run up to the day and on the day itself.

Colourful London pub wedding bride groom pompoms

How did you choose your wedding dress?

My wedding dress was quite an interesting find. I had a clear idea of what I wanted and what I should look like.

However, ideas and reality are two different things, and I discovered that what I had wanted most definitely did not want me. One thing I was clear on was that I was not going to get a strapless dress, under no circumstances…which is exactly what I ended up getting. I actually found the dress at a wedding fair. One of my very lovely neighbours had given me some free tickets to attend and me and my bridesmaid Hannah spent a while wandering around and trying on the sorts of dresses that I had liked the look of previously but which just never felt right. At the end of the day we wandered past the Pure Couture stand, where the lace on the dress caught my eye.

Bride groom laughing London lace wedding dress

We left the stand without trying it on, but then we went back as I thought the lace was too pretty to let it’s strapless design put me off and when I tried it on I absolutely loved it and felt so much more me in it than in any of the styles I’d been so sure of at the beginning! Best of all it was a sample that was on sale and pretty much fitted me already so it only needed fairly minor alterations! In terms of accessories I decided that it needed a veil, some massive earrings and bright red lipstick to really set it off along with my hair being its curly self (though rather more groomed than normal thanks to my wonderful hairdresser Karl who I’ve been going to for years), I felt special but like me on the day – which was exactly how I wanted to feel.

What about you Mike?

My suit came from the excellent Beggars Run in Shoreditch. I’ve long wished for a tailor-made suit, and this was the perfect excuse to splash out! Having a properly fitting suit in good quality cloth was fantastic, and it was easily the most comfortable I’ve ever felt wearing a suit. As a wedding present my Dad gave me my Grandad’s pocket watch to wear in my waistcoat, which felt really special and it was a lovely thing to have with me on the day.

How did you decorate the venue?

A while ago I made a pompom garland for our fireplace, and thinking how pretty it looked I decided that it would be a great idea to make some pompoms for the venue. I started off with small ones and then Mike very sensibly pointed out that maybe some bigger ones might be a good idea given the size of the pub. We ended up making about 500 pompoms, which was about 24 metres worth! We were making them for months, but I really thought that the end result was worth it!

The colours were a bright mix of pinks, blues, yellows, whites and green, which were included in the pompoms and the flowers.

Who made your wedding cake?

We had a Waitrose Entertaining naked cake with fruit, homemade decorations and homegrown flowers and a Waitrose cheese cake for savoury lovers.

Tell me about your stunning flowers

The Flower Appreciation Society supplied our flowers and they were absolutely lovely and smelled amazing. The big flowers we got for the fireplace in the ceremony were particularly praised by everyone and I loved the swan that we had for the table as well. The bridesmaid’s dresses were all different so the flowers for the bouquets really had to bring all the colours together, which they did so well, they really were lovely. My bouquet smelled and looked incredible, I’d requested dahlias as they are my favourite flowers and even though it was the wrong time of year for them Anna was able to put some into my bouquet for me. There were also peonies, roses, sweet peas, and lots of other amazing flowers in them all. I’m hoping to be able to grow some of the flowers that Anna used in our garden in the future. At the end of the night I kept trying to press people to take the flowers home so that they didn’t go to waste!

Tell me about your Ceremony…

The ceremony was amazing, we felt so giddy throughout the whole thing! Looking back it’s all a bit of a blur and seemed to go so quickly.

Our friend Helen read a poem by Bee Rawlinson (Love me when I am old), which we liked because it appealed to our sense of humour and Helen’s delivery really made everyone laugh. Our friend Joe played guitar and sang a version of Made Up Lovesong 43 by The Guillemots.

It’s a song we listened to a lot around the time that we first got together, and we were blown away by Joe’s rendition.

What was your first dance song and why?

Sam Cooke – Twisting the Night Away. We both like Sam Cooke, and this song is easy and fun to dance to! We actually only chose it the night before the wedding, having gone through a tonne of other songs to try and find the right one – and this was it!

Bride groom first dance pub wedding London — First dance at colourful London pub wedding

HOW DID YOU GET EVERYONE UP ON THE DANCEFLOOR?

We spent a considerable amount of time crafting the perfect evening disco playlist. We wanted a good mix of musical styles so that there was something that everyone would enjoy dancing to, starting with some big tunes and getting bigger as the night went on!

Guest dancing at wedding Easton pub London

What was your favourite part of the day and why?

All of it! It was the best day.

Would you do anything differently? Any words of wisdom?

Have a strong idea of the sort of wedding you want to have, and stick to it, even if it doesn’t match other peoples’ expectations. That said, don’t be afraid to let others help. There’s a lot to organise, and you can’t pull it off all by yourselves, particularly on the day itself. We really wouldn’t do anything differently, it was an amazing day.