Abbie & Alastair’s exclusive London Savile Club wedding, with MIKI Studios

Published by Claire Gould on May 19, 2020May 19, 2020

How about we start Tuesday with an EPIC wedding? Beautiful Abbie & Alastair’s London wedding is bursting with WOW moments – from the first time we see Abbie in her stunning Lynn Ashworth gown all the way through to the crazymazing dancefloor photographs full of joy! This is what weddings should be: a never-ending succession of moments of incredible happiness, love and connection. The day is captured by fabulous London wedding photographers MIKI Studios.

With love,

Wedding photographer’s website:

https://mikistudios.com

Miki studios were an absolute dream find. From the moment we first met them for our complimentary pre-wedding shoot, we realised they were not only exceptionally nice guys but also extremely talented and great fun to work with. They made us feel comfortable and relaxed and expertly balanced the requests of the bride / groom / family and friends! They even helped the bride and groom escape when the formal photos were becoming a bit too much! The images they produced are creative and beautiful and we would recommend them to everybody.

Tell us about the moment you saw your wedding photos for the first time?

Wow. Wow. WOW!!
Everyone was in tears!!
Speechless!!
People had been badgering us about when we will have our wedding photos and video, we kept promising it would be worth the wait but even we never imagined just how spectacular the end result would be. These guys managed to capture the true heart and soul of our day in the most stunning way. Somehow they captured absolutely everything, from the beautiful to the sweaty, the tears, the laughter, the love and all the fun!!

Discover more from Jewish wedding photographers MIKI Studios

Wedding venue:

Ceremony – Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue on Lauderdale Road. Apart from the fact it is a beautiful old synagogue and a listed building, it’s also where Alastair’s parents and grandparents were married so it was very special and sentimental.
Reception – the Savile Club in Mayfair. It satisfied our dream for a beautiful exclusive country house, but with all the convenience of central London! The day we arrived for our viewing, they were actually filming scenes from Vanity fair – I was instantly sold! We are also serious Londoners so it felt right to party surrounded by the sights and sounds of central London.

Your wedding style or theme:

FOOD – Alastair and I are serious foodies and we knew people would expect big things from our dinner menu. As we got engaged in Puglia (whilst scuba diving in an underwater cave!) it felt natural to use Italy for our inspiration. We worked closely with the head chef at the Savile club to create an exciting menu filled with fabulous Italian flavours with lots of truffle, basil, pecorino and seasonal vegetables like artichokes and courgette flowers! All the wines were Italian and we served espresso martinis with dessert. Not forgetting the beautiful Italian cheeses…I don’t think anyone went home hungry!

SUCCULENTS – Apart from the food, I was really keen to ensure that Alastair had his say in our wedding as I think men often get left out. Alistair has always had a particular soft spot for cacti and succulents (way before the millennial trend) so we decided to work that in as a recurring element in the wedding. So we used them to inspire the invitations, flowers and even the colour scheme! Our wonderful florist (more on him later) even made two enormous initials for each of us, filled with succulents!

Where did you find your suppliers? (Blogs, magazines, recommendations?)

Mainly friends recommendations or google search!

What’s your top tip for saving money?

Spend money on what is important to you and not others and don’t feel pressured to have things you don’t need or want. Doing things our way saved us a lot of money!

… and which elements of your wedding are you glad you spent more on?

Don’t skimp on photographers….There will be so many things that whizz past on the day and so many things that you won’t see and good photographers will capture and safeguard all your memories for the future!

Where did you buy or source your wedding stationery – or was making it a labour of love?

We worked with an amazing company called Big Day Design who was totally charming in indulging my bizarre ideas – as I mentioned, I really wanted to somehow work the succulent theme subtly and tastefully into everything as that was the main thing Alastair had given his opinion on. So I found a gorgeous design on Etsy that ticked all the boxes, sent the graphic to the designer who then used it as inspiration to create the final piece. We couldn’t have been happier with the outcome and the same graphic / motif was then worked into all of our stationery! I loved it so much, I have a collage at home with all the wedding stationery as a reminder.

Did you fall in love with your wedding dress?

Finding my dress was surprisingly easy….I had done some research and knew roughly what I wanted so I went to a boutique bridal store in Ruislip (Anne Louise Bridal) and it was the second dress I tried on! It was a traditional and romantic Lynn Ashworth gown with 3/4 French lace sleeves and a full silk chiffon skirt. I knew it was the one because I just stood there smiling and didn’t want to take it off. I have to say that Cheryl (the owner of Anne Louise Bridal) is one of the nicest, kindest people I have ever met. She even came on the day of the wedding with her mum to help me get dressed and make sure everything was perfect. I insisted she came to the ceremony because she really felt like a special part of the whole process.

Wedding dress designer and bridal boutique:

Lynn Ashworth – http://www.lynashworth.co.uk/
Anne Louise Bridal – http://www.annlouisebridal.com/

Tell us about your accessories: jewellery, shoes and anything else!

I wanted to keep my look simple and elegant to complement my dress so I chose a simple pearl and diamond vine to go in my hair with a long veil that floated behind me when I walked. However my mother and father in law bought the the most stunning Paspaley pearl and diamond earrings which finished the look so perfectly.

My secret, sentimental piece on the day was a bracelet that my mum had been given by her mum on the day I was born. It was hidden within my dress and felt so nice to carry a little piece of my grandma down the aisle right next to my heart.

After spending the entire day with my maid of honour trying to find wedding shoes (looking everywhere from New Look to Harrods) I was about to give up when we walked past a quirky shoe shop called Irregular Choice. They do the most crazy shoes from platforms containing bird cages to dolly shoes with furry ears and everything in between. My maid of honour convinced me it would be fun to have some crazy, quirky ‘Alice in Wonderland’ type shoes hiding under my dress. We had the best hour trying on all sorts of monstrosities and came out with perfectly white and pink sequined sparkly heels with a giant pink bow on the front! Because I take my wedding dancing very seriously (lol), I also ordered myself some bespoke personalised wedding converse which was a dream to put on before the dancing started.

And what did the groom wear?

My gorgeous handsome groom has a serious muscly rugby player build so it’s really hard for him to buy suits and normally he won’t go anywhere other than M&S!! As a special treat for the wedding, he agreed to have a small upgrade to Lewin!!! I also bought him sneaky personalised boxers from bags of love with my face on in case he couldn’t wait to see me in the synagogue!

Beautiful bridesmaids: what did your best girls wear?

I had three bridesmaids (my sister in law, my cousin and my best friend.) We had a great time in Maids to Measure in Chelsea. I gave all the girls a colour and was so happy for them to all choose their own style but in the end they all loved the same dress! I also bought them personalised floral dressing gowns to get ready in on the morning of the wedding which looked so great in the pictures!

Hair and make-up – did you DIY or hire a professional?

Hair was done by Charlie from Electric hairdresser in Marylebone. He has been our family hairdresser for a long time and I really trusted him to do something amazing. We had quite a few hair trials because I couldn’t make up my mind but the final creation was beyond anything I could have hoped for. Each piece of hair was curled and wrapped into a high bun which survived even though all the Israeli dancing!!
My make up artist Miryiam was gifted to me by my auntie as she works for Brides magazine and had worked closely with her on several occasions. I am rather clueless when it comes to makeup but she took care of everything and created such a gorgeous natural glow!

Describe your wedding flowers. Who arranged them for you? (florist details would be lovely please)

Jamie Aston was our fabulous florist and we were so lucky to work with him. He worked our succulents tastefully into everything, even my bridal bouquet and the grooms buttonhole! Apart from that I totally loved his portfolio and hence gave him free rein to go crazy and make brave and quirky decisions like using snowberries, herbs and loads of gorgeous foliage. Everyone was asking for his number by the end of the night!

General styling – did your venue need much decoration?

The Savile Club is a private members club so although the rooms look beautiful, they arent very weddingy. So our florist did his thing and made the whole place a work of art!

The wedding cake: what kind of cake did you choose and why?

Our beautiful cake was made by Alastair’s extremely talented grandma who frequently features in Sugarcraft magazine. She made us a three-tiered cake covered in hundreds of handmade rose petals. The top tier was the basket of roses cake she had made us for our engagement which had inspired the style for the other tiers!! She was making sugar petals for the whole year that we were engaged in anticipation – a true labour of love! The basket has a lid which opens and inside is a note from her to open on our one year anniversary!

Entertainment: any musical recommendations, surprises or treats?

We really wanted a live band who could nail both the Israeli music and party music for afterwards. After serious google searching, we came across Matzoh Boys! Although I wasn’t that impressed with their name (which is nowhere near as cool as they are), we went to see them perform at JW3 and the atmosphere they created was electric! Everyone was up on their feet!! We managed to squeeze a fabulous 9 piece band onto our dance floor and danced the night away!

Words of wisdom: share your best piece of advice for other couples:

The most important thing is not to lose sight of the person you’re marrying and what the day is really about. It can be so easy to lose all perspective and focus on the wedding day, rather than the union that it represents! Alastair always says ‘before you let something upset you, just think if it will still bother you in 1 month/1 year/5 years time…..if it won’t upset you then, why should it upset you now?’ It’s such a good way to reset and clear your mind to leave space for the important things. I look back now and laugh at some of the things that I thought were SO IMPORTANT then.
Alastair and I really enjoyed having our own little table and I would recommend it to anybody. It just gave us a few precious moments to eat, (get some great pictures) and enjoy each other.