Dan and Lynsey, who met at a friends BBQ ten years ago, after they had both come back from backpacking trips to Asia, had a classic affair at two of my favourite ceremony and reception venues- a Stoke Newington Town Hall ceremony and a Londesborough Pub Wedding which is walking distance around the corner. In Dan’s own words they They were planning their wedding from abroad so wanted to keep it simple and straight forward, focusing on just creating a relaxed day where they could see all their friends and family. They booked Stoke Newington Town hall because it’s one of the larger civil ceremony venues in London, and it’s well positioned close to some great East London wedding venues for casual receptions. The Londesborough Pub is a sister venue to The Peasant Pub which I have shot at several times before. Lynsey spent the morning getting ready at The Rose and Crown pub across the road as it has a dedicated bridal room with beautiful light and decor, with the wonderful Laura Anne doing her hair and make up.
Dan also got ready in The Rose and Crown, which is ideal because then I’m able to shoot both groom and bridal prep and tell a fuller story.
The wedding ceremonies at The Stoke Newington Town Hall take place in a lovely wood panelled room, Dan and Lynsey had a humanist celebrant and had a customised ceremony with their own vows. According to Dan it was one of their favourite parts of the day: “We both really enjoyed the wedding ceremony, the celebrant made it very personal and fun. We put a couple of baby photos of us on the toilet doors in the pub. Turns out we were quite androgynous as kids as most people ended up in the wrong toilet. The speeches were great and the mirrored cubby hole in the Londesborough turned into a top dance location.”
After the ceremony the guests battled the rain to take the short walk across to their Londesborough Pub wedding. “We didn’t really have a theme – The Londesborough didn’t need much décor. We were lucky to have our friend Vanessa who did an awesome job with the flowers!” At the Londesborough the guests drank Aperol spritz and took sweepstake bets for the speech lengths.
Like many of the couples I shoot for who are thoroughly modern, Lynsey gave a bride’s speech in addition to the usual speeches given by the father of the bride, groom and the THREE best men!
After the dinner and various speeches, Dan and Lynsey cut their edible floral buttercream wedding cake by Bee’s Bakery
They then laid out a huge round of Limoncello shots for all their guests to get the party started, with evening bacon butties to cure the munchies!
Dan said “Marianne is really relaxed and easy to get along with. A couple of weeks before the wedding we met up for a coffee which turned into a couple of wines and was great fun. The photos have turned out brilliant and somehow she has managed to capture loads without Dan’s awkward ‘photo face’. Nice one!”. Their number one planning tip is “don’t worry too much about the finer details. Find a venue that works for you, invite your favourite people (including Marianne) and have fun. All of our suppliers were awesome. Our celebrant Mark Hayford did a brilliant job – super organised and made very helpful suggestions. Also very funny and relaxed! Paddy from the Wedding Smashers – well… he smashed it! Lynsey’s hair and makeup lady Laura-Anne was fab!
