Sarah & Chris’s unique & beautiful London wedding, with Damien Vickers Photography

Published by Claire Gould on December 15, 2021

As we come to the end of the year, we have some of our most beautiful weddings to share with you. I’ve been excited to publish Chris and Sarah’s day – the romance and love are just amazing, and the images that capture their day are outstanding. This is a London wedding which will stick in my mind for a long time to come for so many reasons. I really do hope you love it too.

“The biggest part of our wedding was having our 4 month old son, Stanley, with us. When we planned our wedding we had no idea we would actually be parents on our wedding day. We found out on the day we should have originally been getting married that I was pregnant. Getting married a few months after having a baby was a challenge but we feel so blessed that he was there on our wedding day.”

Wedding photographer’s website

Cambridge wedding photographer Damien Vickers

www.damienvickersphotography.co.uk

How did you choose your photographer?

Damien’s photographs stood out as his has a very unique style when it comes to the colours and vibrancy of the images he creates. We also loved the natural style of his photographs. He captures the real events of the day.

Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!

Damien not only took amazing photos but his experience and knowledge of weddings helped our day run so smoothly. He was so professional but also made you feel like he was one of your close friends. He made having photographs taken feel natural and really fun. Our house is now full of his amazing images.

Wedding illustrator – a wonderful surprise!

We had an illustrator Aaron Jacob Jones (I booked him as a surprise for Chris on the wedding morning). I wanted something different and wanted to have an image we could display alongside our photos and look at every day. Aaron also painted our guests at our reception venue so they had something to take home and remember our special day. His work is outstanding.

https://weddingillustrator.co.uk/

Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?

Our wedding ceremony was at Hackney Town Hall. Until the birth of our son Stan, we lived in East London and passed it everyday, even before I met Chris I always said it was where I would love to get married and luck for me Chris loved it too. It was refurbished a few years ago and is simply stunning inside with beautiful Art Deco touches. Our reception was at the Lamb Tavern in Leadenhall market in the city of London. I had walked past the market a few times and thought it was beautiful (it also feature on Harry Potter). The pub has so much character and charm, with multiple rooms and Old Toms bar in the basement that is perfect for the wedding disco. The market is covered is beautifully painted which created a fantastic outside space which was also covered (although we got married in August it rained on our wedding day.

We were really lucky that these were the only venues we actually looked at and they just suited our style so well we didn’t look anywhere else.

Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?

My dress was from an Australian designer, Madi Lane. I used an amazing wedding boutique in Hale (I’m a northern girl originally) called Pretty White Dress who had so many amazing dresses. I loved the lace design and the fit of my dress although it was a really tough decision to make.

Chris’ suit was made to measure from the Grooms Room in Colchester. It is navy blue with a slight pink check. Chris doesn’t often wear suits but he looked so handsome on our wedding day.

Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness

We didn’t hire a florist. I made my bouquet and the bridesmaids bouquets and pinholes myself from artificial flowers. I spent a year collecting stems I really loved (lots of roses and eucalyptus and ivy) and then after many an hour of Pinterest research I just went for it. I was really pleased with the outcome.

Did you hire a wedding planner?

We didn’t hire a wedding planner as I love organising myself. As we were impacted by Covid and had to move our original wedding date this took a lot of communication with all our venues and suppliers but everyone was so helpful and we were able to have the day we originally planned for.

As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?

We are a little obsessed with the M&S Colin the caterpillar. Originally we had planned to purchase their bride and groom cakes but unfortunately they were discontinued in the March before our wedding. However we just put our creative hats on and purchased their giant Colin and Connie cakes instead (which serve 40 people each). My mum made a tiny veil and top hat for the cakes and we add on spare flowers from my bouquet. It even featured a baby caterpillar with a top hat to represent our son.

Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves

As well as our cake and flowers we decorated our pub venue ourselves. Again my mum was amazing at sewing meters and meters of lace bunting to hang around the pub.

Did you personalise your vows or have any wedding readings? What were they?

We had two wedding readings but they were both a surprise so I can’t remember the actual names of them.

What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?

Our first dance was to Elton John’s, Your Song. We had both grown up with his music and the lyrics of this fitted so well for us.

How did the pandemic affect your wedding plans? Do you have any advice to share with couples planning their weddings right now?

The pandemic postponed our wedding by a year. This was a little stressful when trying to rebook venues. Sending out a second set of handmade wedding invites is less fun than the first time!

My advice would be try and give your wedding party jobs to do on the day of you don’t have a wedding planner. I found it really hard to give up this control but I couldn’t be the bride and do many of the little jobs on the day. Once all the prep is done, enjoy the day and try and not stress. Sometimes everything doesn’t go exactly to plan but these things usually just make the day better and more memorable. It rained when we had our photos taken but the effect of the rain looked amazing (a credit to our photographer Damien) and we just rocked an umbrella.