A tropical wedding in London? Sounds crazy, you say? Well, you might want to wait until you see the gorgeous Jewish wedding of Michelle, a fundraising manager at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, and Joel, a property developer, before passing judgment.
Inspired by their engagement in Curacao, these two knew they wanted a relaxed Caribbean party vibe filled with beautiful tropical plants and colours – and they didn’t see their desire to wed in their hometown of London as a barrier.
And with some help from fantastic wedding planner Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rachel Flax – who Michelle says “seriously saved my sanity” during the last few months! – they pulled it off and then some.
From their fab tropical chuppah with its lush green canopy and soft pink florals to the balloon installation in tropical pinks and peaches by the bar (not to mention the giant flamingo balloon at the corner of the dancefloor), we’re totally getting those beachy Caribbean vibes. Photographer Martin Phelps captured the day SO perfectly in his trademark documentary style.
Michelle and Joel chose fabulous Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Totem to make sure their big day not only looked like a party but felt like one too. It’s no surprise that Totem created a killer atmosphere and kept guests on the dance floor all night long – but what was a surprise was that they secretly worked with the groom on a musical performance of his own! Much to Michelle’s surprise, Totem announced Joel onstage and accompanied him as he sang‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ ! There’s nothing like a fun surprise element to make your day super memorable!
Now over to the bride, who looked radiant in her Made with Love dress and Hollywood glam look courtesy of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Pamela and Andrea Makeup…
How we met
Michelle, the bride: We met on a Sunday afternoon in the pub, The Kings Head in Crouch End. We were both with friends having a chilled afternoon and got talking and the rest is history!
Venue with a View
We got married at The River Rooms at The Mermaid. It is situated in Blackfriars, overlooking the Thames, opposite the Tate Modern. We chose this venue quite simply for the views. London is our home and this venue gave us London as the most perfect backdrop for our special day. Now, every time we cross a bridge over the Thames we think of our wedding day!
Tropical Vibes
We got engaged in Curacao in the Caribbean. It was the day after we got engaged that we had the idea to have a tropical-themed wedding, inspired by our tropical holiday, the relaxed Caribbean party vibe and beautiful tropical plants and colours.
We also wanted to give a nod to my father’s (Michelle’s dad) heritage and culture. He was born in Guyana and brought up living in a house situated on the beach, so I’d grown up hearing stories about Guyana.
In terms of decor we wanted to make an impact with the tropical theme, so we hired in some additional plants (palms). We asked Totem to produce a tropical background for behind the band which looked incredible, and we used the same vinyl to wrap the bar.
We also had an organic balloon installation by the bar in tropical pinks and peaches with tropical foliage interspersed. But my favourite thing was the giant flamingo helium balloon anchored by the corner of the dancefloor – he’s made his way into some of the photos!
When we began planning, we knew that we wanted to use colour and plants to help shape the look and feel of our wedding. After copious amounts of Pinterest pinning, we brought on wedding planner Rachel Flax to help us bring everything together and make our dreams come to life!
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Us
What I love most about STG is that it’s so inspirational! Each wedding featured is so unique and I love seeing how people put their own stamp on things. For me, it was always chuppah inspiration that I loved looking at the most. We did find suppliers via STG – Rachel Flax, our planner and also Totem, our band.
Tropical Invitations
We commissioned designer Charlotte Jade to design a unique tropical invitation incorporating lush greens, bold monstera leaves and millennial pink. The design was carried through on our table plans and menus. Charlotte is renowned for her nature-inspired designs, so she was the obvious choice to design our bespoke stationery.
Hair + Makeup
The dress needed a Hollywood glam look so opted for Hollywood waves and I wanted a dramatic eye. I asked the lovely Pamela and Andrea Makeup to be on glam duty for myself and my two bridesmaids.
A Made with Love Dress
I bought my dress from Heart Aflutter in Hackney. The dress is the Harlie dress by Made with Love. I had said all along that I wasn’t going to opt for a backless dress, I didn’t think I could wear one and thought I’d opt for something more bohemian and more modest. I had tried on a few more traditional dresses in other boutiques, but nothing gave me the wow factor.
The day I found my dress I was actually dress shopping alone. I tried on about 7 dresses that day but as soon as I put Harlie on I knew I’d found her! I welled up in the boutique on my own. I felt so glamorous, I loved the unique lace pattern, I loved the way the dress hugged my figure and how it sparkles in the sun. It’s covered in clear sequins which catch the light but aren’t overly blingy. When I found out that the lace was from Israel, I was sold!
Accessories
I had a very simple veil. I didn’t opt for anything else in the hair as I felt that the dress spoke for itself. I opted for deco inspired earrings to pair with the deco-style pattern on my dress. These were by V Jewellery.
Aside from my own engagement ring, my mum gave me my grandmother’s engagement ring to wear on my other hand. My granny passed away the month before we got engaged so it was special to wear the ring on my wedding day. I also ended up wearing an additional piece of jewellery on the day which was an emerald and diamond necklace in the shape of the moon. Joel knows that I love the moon and that I have a penchant for moon-inspired jewellery.
After the chuppah and yichud, Joel surprised me with a gift, it was an Anne Sisteron necklace. I was simply over the moon!!! I also made Joel’s wedding ring for him. I did a ring-making workshop with The Workbench London. It’s a plain silver band but it was made with love and has real meaning and sentiment for Joel.
Kurt Geiger Shoes
I had a very simple pair of gold sandals, just from Kurt Geiger. I wanted comfort all the way!
The handsome groom
He wore a dark green suit! Joel didn’t want to be run of the mill, he wanted to stand out and fit into our tropical theme. He had a custom-made suit by DD Menswear. He surprised me by having our wedding date and our names embroidered in the inside lining which was amazing. He wore a colourful tallit which looked fabulous against the green of the suit and the colours of the chuppah. He accessorised with a pink tie, pink pocket square and a kippah trimmed with pink.
Bridesmaids
I had two bridesmaids who wore a khaki green one-shoulder mid-length dress from Ted Baker. My flower girl wore a floral dress with lots of green leaves from Monsoon.
Chuppah
We gave our florist, Hiding in the City, free reign to design our chuppah. We simply asked that it was tropical! Sarah, our florist, did such an amazing job using impactful greenery and soft pink florals. She created a lush tropical canopy but ensured that we were still visible to most of our guests. I adore how the light came through the window shining through the leaves.
Ceremony
We had a traditional bedeken before the ceremony which was special. My favourite photo from the whole wedding is of Joel veiling me, such a special moment. During the ceremony itself, I loved the smashing the glass of course! Joel managed to get his leg really high to ensure it smashed first time!
Our ketubah was by L’Chaim Ketubot. Rabbi Chaim Weiner is a rabbi at our synagogue.
Our music choice
For Joel’s entrance we had ‘Blackbird’ by the Beatles, instrumental. We just really like the melody and Joel loved the Beatles. I entered to ‘Moon River’ which has sentimental meaning to me as well as being such a beautiful song. Also, we were getting married on the river!
We entered the dancefloor to ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ to really kick the party off – this was Totem’s suggestion and it went down really well with our guests.
Then our first dance was ‘You’re All I Need To Get By’ by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell. The lyrics felt really pertinent to us and it’s just a great song which builds slowly to a point which felt perfect for confetti canons to go off!
Flowers
The fabulous Hiding in the City brought it all to life. Sarah mixed bold waxy tropical leaves, monstera being the main feature, with blousy pink English florals. She used the most stunning rununculous.
For the centrepieces she uses a combination of tall and low arrangements to add variety to the room. We opted for a low centrepiece on the top table so that our guests could see us unobscured. The chuppah was adorned with bold green leaves and pinks which really stood out in the sunlight which was streaming through the windows during our ceremony.
Photographer
We chose Martin Phelps as our photographer. I’ve known Martin for years having worked with him at a previous job where he was our preferred photography supplier. Martin has shot weddings for 3 other friends of ours, so we knew we wanted him and he was the first supplier we appointed for our wedding!
Martin’s style is relaxed, and he captures the moments so well in a documentary style. We didn’t want to spend hours of our wedding standing around for posed photos so we let Martin get on and do his thing – we hardly noticed his presence but we’re overjoyed with the photos we’ve received. We didn’t opt for a videographer… perhaps in hindsight we should have to capture all the surprise elements of the day!
Vegan Cake!
We had Katie Lake, Malarkey Cakes, do our cake for us. We met her at a wedding fair where she was showcasing the most beautiful creations. I’m vegan so Katie kindly created a three-tier cake, the top layer was vegan choco-banana, the middle tier was rum and coconut (to fit the tropical theme) and the bottom tier was sticky-toffee-pudding flavour.The icing was white and pink marble effect with gold leaf. We topped it with a Mazel Tov cake topper and some florals supplied by our florist. The main food and drink catering was done by our venue – we opted for fish and vegetarian rather than bringing in a kosher caterer.
Entertainment
We had the fabulous Totem. We went to see them and instantly knew that they were the band for us. They just embodied the party vibe we were after, we loved that they could do music from across the decades and I was hooked when I saw them perform a 90s garage set!
Succulent Favours
For our favours I wanted miniature succulents. I’d seen the idea on Pinterest and thought it fitted our tropical theme perfectly. I sourced the plants myself from New Covent Garden Market. Joel and I went down early one morning before work to collect them. I then also sourced miniature silver buckets to place them in.
Charlotte, our stationery designer, created circular name cards for us to place into the buckets, kind of like lollipops on sticks. This was one of the homemade elements of our wedding, I spent several evenings potting the plants and arranging the name cards into them. We asked guests to take them home at the end of the wedding and since then we’ve had lots of guests send photos of their potted plants in their new homes!
‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’
So, Joel stole the show on this one. About a week before the wedding, he decided that he wanted to sing on stage with Totem! He arranged with them to sing ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ by Queen. It was a total surprise; he’d kept it quiet from me so I was absolutely gobsmacked when Totem announced him onto the stage! He absolutely smashed it and everyone said afterwards that they had no idea he could sing!
Joel was full of surprises which made the day so much more special – the surprise necklace gift, the embroidery inside his jacket, the surprise performance!
Honeymoon in Sri Lanka
We are going to Sri Lanka but not until November. We’re planning to do a little tour around with a serious chink of beach time on the south coast.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Seek help when you need it! I tried so hard to do everything myself but there came a time when I had to lose a grip of my inner ‘control freak’ and let others in to help. Having Rachel as a planner to guide us through the last few months seriously saved my sanity. It’s not within everyone’s budget but if it is, I’d highly recommend! I’d also recommend making a list to prioritise which things are of utmost importance to you. For us it was the floristry and the entertainment that we weren’t willing to compromise on.
Michelle & Joel’s little white book
Photography – Martin Phelps
Decor and details photography – Jessica Schamroth
Wedding planner – Rachel Flax Events {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Band – Totem {offers Moni Tivony and 2 musicians for your ceremony complimentary to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Hair + Makeup – Pamela and Andrea Makeup {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – The River Rooms at The Mermaid
Bride’s dress – Made with Love found and fitted at Heart Aflutter
Bride’s accessories – V Jewellery and Anne Sisteron
Bride’s shoes – Kurt Geiger
Groom’s attire – DD Menswear
Bridesmaids – Ted Baker and Monsoon
Flowers – Hiding in the City
Cake – Malarkey Cakes
Stationery – Charlotte Jade
Kippot – Creative Favours
Ketubah – L’Chaim Ketubot
Balloons – Bubblegum Balloons
Rings – Ruth Tomlinson and The Workbench London
Smash Glass Pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
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