We are seriously loving the bright summer vibes of Nikki and Liam’s gorgeous UK wedding! Their venue, London Shenley Club, was the perfect match for their casual, summery day, and we love their gorgeous chuppah full of vibrant flowers! Don’t miss it in the beautiful images by beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Liam Smith Photography.
We’re equally obsessed with their stunning ketubah, designed and hand painted by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Carmel Designs, who followed the couple’s brief to make a piece of artwork matching their chuppah so exquisitely.
When it came to music, Nikki and Liam wanted only the best. They found it in Mosaic, the most fantastic band helmed by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jonny Mosesson, who also served as the duo’s chazan – and whose moving performance brought the pair to tears under the chuppah. Nikki and Liam report that the dance floor was packed all night – it doesn’t get any better than that!
Now over to Nikki…
How We Met
Nikki, the bride: Funny enough, we met on a night out in Heaven (a gay club!) as we were both out for friends’ birthdays – I accidentally gave Liam the wrong number and he found me on Facebook! The rest is history…
Venue
We actually only visited one venue – London Shenley Club – but we knew we loved it straight away! We loved the idea of having an outdoor space and the boathouse reminded me of Dirty Dancing. The team at the venue were really helpful from our first visit and we thought it hit the exact vibe we wanted for our wedding; casual and summery!
Theme
Whilst my parents, Liam and I loved planning the majority of our wedding, we worked with Hannah Lurie Events from 6 weeks before the big day. She was great at coordinating between all the suppliers and was a calm presence on the day, making sure everything went exactly to plan; and so we didn’t have to worry about a thing!
Invitation/Stationery
We did our invitations through Paperless Post and had a family friend write our escort cards, so it was really personal.
Papercut Fingers did a great job with our wedding stationery – printing menus and thank you cards.
Hair + Makeup
Gaby Katie MUA. She made me feel like an absolute princess. I don’t usually wear a lot of make up but she made me feel like the best version of myself and made my mum and sister look amazing too!
Dress
I bought my dress off the rack from Wed2B back in August last year! I had no idea what I wanted, so I was very open to trying lots of different styles and shapes, and ended up going for an A-line dress with lace and sparkles.
I used a seamstress recommended by Wed2B – Bridal Alterations – who did an amazing job with both mine and my mum’s dress, and even stitched my late Grandma’s handkerchief into the lining of the dress.
Accessories
I actually borrowed a pair of shoes from a friend of mine! My earrings on the day were made from diamonds from my late Grandma’s engagement ring, so were very special.
Bridesmaids
No bridesmaids but I had my 3 year old niece as a very cute flower girl, in a dress from Next and with a basket of petals to sprinkle as she walked down the aisle!
Ceremony & Chuppah
I think our chuppah was the favourite part of the day! As we had an interfaith wedding, our ceremony was officiated by Rabbi Paul Glantz, who we have got to know over the past year and have done bits of learning with too, as well as the wedding planning. He was really accommodating with bringing Liam’s family on the journey with us and making sure the Chuppah felt personal to us.
As well as an amazing chazan (who brought us both to tears on the day, and makes us cry every time we watch a video back!) I loved having my cousins under the chuppah to do the Humanist Sheva Brachot for us – it was so so special and such a personal and intimate moment for us.
Ketubah
We were really excited to make our Ketubah into a piece of artwork for our home together and found Carmel of Carmel Designs who hand paints beautiful ketubahs. Our brief to her was ‘summer florals’ (to match the chuppah) and she did an amazing job.
Our music choice
To me, a good band can make or break a wedding. My dad had seen the band Mosaic previously and once we got to know them, we were very excited to have them sing at our wedding. Jonny Mosesson was our chazan and he was amazing, he really made our chuppah as special as it was! Their creative director Charlie was great at identifying who we were, what our music taste was and how to bring our whole day to life. The energy on the dancefloor was amazing the whole night, and I truly believe this was down to the band! Whilst Liam’s half of the family and some of his friends weren’t Jewish, the dancefloor was packed from the start of the Israeli dancing until the end – the band even said that they wanted to do more as the energy was so high but were worried the groom would collapse….
Flowers
Alina of Flowers by Alina was a great supplier for our flowers. She really understood what we wanted and I was so excited to see our vision come to life on the big day. We had briefed her with ‘bright summer florals’ and I was over the moon to see my bouquet when it was delivered. She provided the chuppah and we opted to have bright summer florals on the top and bottom corners. We had four long tables and these were filled with bud vases and candles, which decorated the space beautifully.
Photographer and videographer
We loved the style of Liam’s photography (Liam Smith Photography) and had seen him capture someone else’s big day and felt like we could see their personality in the photos. On the day, he was such a calm presence and felt like a guest rather than a supplier, as he blended in so seamlessly.
Instead of a videographer, we decided to use Content by Georgie as a content creator. She did an amazing job at capturing the highlights of our day, and we loved watching it all back just two days after the big event!
Food and cake
Eighteen Events by Marc Sharer – the best wedding food I’d ever had! Soon after we got engaged, we went to a wedding he catered and knew he was the caterer for us. We loved selecting the canapes and our guests all told us how generous they were with them during the reception! Our main meal also went down a treat!
Wedding List/Registry
The Wedding Shop and John Lewis.
Extra Details
We both love a good drink and a party, so we had personalised shot glasses as a wedding favour for each of our guests. These were made by Spoken Gifts.
As well as a first dance, we had a ‘second first dance’ where a close friend of ours sung the song we walked down the aisle to at our civil ceremony. It was such an intimate moment for us, and we didn’t tell anyone she was going to sign so it was a nice surprise!
Having my cousins do the sheva brachot in English under the chuppah was extremely special, and something that made our chuppah really personal to us.
During the Israeli dancing, Liam was very proud to have been bounced/thrown from one end of the dancefloor to the other – one of the chair legs also came off when he was lifted in the air!
We also met our new baby nephew at the wedding, who had been in NICU in the lead up to the wedding – the two newest Strachans together!
Honeymoon
We went to Venice after the wedding for a minimoon and stayed in the gorgeous Hilton Molino Stucky. We’re going on our honeymoon mid-November and look forward to spending 3 weeks travelling around Argentina!
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Enjoy every minute of it! It is the most special thing in the world to have all of your loved ones in one place so even if things don’t go 100% to plan, it doesn’t matter!
Everyone told us to stay together throughout the night, and we made a point of staying on the dancefloor and let everyone come to us (rather than go outside, to the bar etc) and this kept the vibe and the energy up the whole night.
We also loved having our photos at a vantage point where we could watch the reception unfold and all of our family and friends having fun.
We both felt so present during the chuppah and really listened to what the Rabbi had to say, and just focused on the words and each other, rather than anything happening with our guests etc.
Whilst we were on a massive high after the day, ride that wave and just because the big day is over, doesn’t mean it’s the end of it all – it’s just the beginning! Even weeks later, we’re loving debriefing with friends and family and getting all the different opinions and perspectives.
NIKKI & LIAM’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Liam Smith Photography
Content creation – Content by Georgie
Ketubah – Carmel Designs
Music – Mosaic & Jonny Mosesson
Venue – London Shenley Club
Planner – Hannah Lurie Events
Bride’s dress – Wed2B
Niece’s dress – Next
Makeup – Gaby Katie MUA
Seamstress – Bridal Alterations
Flowers – Flowers by Alina
Catering – Eighteen Events by Marc Sharer
Stationery – Papercut Fingers
Invitation – Paperless Post
Wedding List/Registry – The Wedding Shop and John Lewis
Shot glasses – Spoken Gifts
Honeymoon – Hilton Molino Stucky
If you’re a Jewish or Jew-ish bride-to-be, you’ll want to join Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club. Guided by the world’s number 1 Jewish wedding expert, Karen Cinnamon, Brides Club is the private community for Jewish and Jew-ish brides that removes wedstress and indecision and gives you what you need to plan with confidence during these uncertain times. Join our Brides Club here.
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