We never fail to be blown away at how a truly talented florist can transform a space. Take the interfaith Jewish wedding of Natalie, a senior digital project manager, Sam, a solutions consultant for Adobe, who married at the spare, modern Studio Spaces, a photography studio/event space in East London. The couple loved their venue’s urban vibe, but while emphasizing the space’s coolness they also wanted to bring in a hint of Italian vineyard style.
Enter the amazing Smashing The Glass Recommended VendorLiz of Blue Sky Flowers. Being that she did the wonderful flowers for the bride’s older sister’s wedding, the couple trusted her implicitly to make their dreams a reality. And did she ever come through, using lots of fairy lights, greenery, fresh pots of herbs, and candles to create a magical Midsummer Night’s Dream vibe, and a truly epic hanging flower display that served as the most incredible photo backdrop. We’re in love with the look Liz created – do check out the pics from Rebecca Louise Photography and trailer by Hanh Made Films to see just how special it really was.
We’re also crazy about the way Natalie, who’s Jewish, and Sam, who isn’t, crafted a personal ceremony reflecting their values and backgrounds. With Natalie’s brother officiating, seven honored guests reading English interpretations of the seven Hebrew blessings, and the bride smashing the glass, this couple’s big day was truly them.
Now over to the bride, who looked ever so elegant in Enzoani…
How we met
Natalie, the bride: We met on a night out at Leeds University 9 years ago have been together ever since.
A London Wedding
We got married at Studio Spaces, a photography studio/event space in East London. Having both grown up in London and with 95% of our guests based in London it didn’t really make sense to make everyone travel, and we liked the idea of a more urban venue. Because of the number of guests we had the majority of available venue options were hotels, which we knew we didn’t want as we wanted something a bit different.
We decided we wanted a warehouse-style venue and seeing as we could only find 2 or 3 that could fit our numbers, this made our choice very easy! We loved Studio Spaces as it has 3 different studios, one entirely white, one entirely black and one with brick-exposed walls and pillars and this meant it was effectively a blank canvas that we could do whatever we wanted with.
Urban Vibes
We didn’t want to hide the urban style of the venue we chose, so we kept decorations quite simple and just used lots of fairy lights, festoon lights and greenery to give a slight hint of ‘Italian vineyard’ style. We had an amazing hanging flower display in the white studio which we used for all our photos, then let our guests use it to take their own photos later in the evening. We were lucky to have Alex Merri, The Bijou Bride, as our wedding planner. She had helped my older sister plan her wedding and so we knew how great she was!
Invitations by the Groom
The groom works for Adobe and so we knew we wanted to design all our wedding stationery from scratch on Photoshop. We used a faded brick background with hints of greenery to give a nod towards the venue decor. He spent endless hours designing every single item of stationery and we had them printed onto textured card using Printed.com.
Hair + Makeup
My twin sister got married last year and I loved her hairdresser and makeup artist so booked them straight away! They are both brilliant at what they do and are so experienced that they helped me get into my dress, attach my veil and sort all finishing touches before I left for the ceremony. By the time I got back to the hotel almost 12 hours later my makeup looked as good as it did when I left!
An Enzoani Dress
I knew exactly what style of dress I wanted before I went shopping. I found my Enzoani dress at JS Couture in Marylebone, London and the style was called Logan. I always said I wanted an off-the-shoulder style and so the simple sweetheart neckline of this strapless style meant I could then ask the dress shop to design little ‘sleeves’ to add to the dress and make it bespoke. I had these attached with poppers so I could remove them later on in the day and dance properly!
Accessories
I am not really a jewellery person and so all I wore was a pair of pale grey pearl earrings my parents had bought me a few years before. I had fresh roses in my hair and borrowed my beautiful lace-edged veil from my best friend who had got married 2 years before.
Shoes
I knew my shoes would be hidden for most of the day so went cheap and cheerful with a pair of sparkly gold block heels from ASOS but they were perfect.
The handsome groom
The groom had always said he wanted a bespoke tailor-made suit, however he wanted something a bit unusual and very modern and so visited Cad & The Dandy on Savile Row where he chose his dark blue checked suit material and had the whole thing made from scratch!
Bridesmaids in Red
I had 6 bridesmaids – my two sisters, two sisters-in-law and my two best friends. They wore red-wine coloured dresses from Mix Bridal so that they stood out from the crowd and matched the colour of the flowers.
A Jew-ish Ceremony
The groom isn’t Jewish and so we knew we wanted a hybrid ceremony designed by us. My brother kindly agreed to be our celebrant and did a fantastic job leading the whole ceremony. We had seven of our closest family and friends read English interpretations of the seven Hebrew blessings, and I stamped on the glass at the end instead of him, as a sign of my Jewish heritage.
Our music choice
We have quite a varied taste in music, so I walked down the aisle to Saint-Saens –‘Romance’ and we walked out to Elbow – ‘One Day Like This’.
Our first dance was to Whitney Houston – ‘Saving All My Love’, and towards the end of the night our DJs gave the crowd what they wanted and played a mixture of Funk’n’Soul, Indie and Grime (which worked perfectly in the venue’s black studio with all the lights).
Fantastic Flowers
Our florist was Liz from Blue Sky Flowers. She did the flowers for my older sister’s wedding and so we knew we could trust her to do an amazing job. I often find wedding flowers too simple and so for the bouquets I went for bold pinks, reds and greens to contrast with my white dress and match the bridesmaid dresses. We had hanging greenery in two of the studios, hanging branches with tea lights in the black studio and fresh pots of herbs and candles with leaves dotted around the ceremony and dinner too so the room smelled amazing. The groomsmen had red roses for button holes, whereas the groom had a special rose for his.
Photographer and videographer
The groom’s sister is a talented photographer and having done many weddings herself, she recommended Rebecca Louise Photography to us. We loved her style instantly, and built up a great rapport with her in the lead up to the day. Our wedding planner helped us find Hanh from Hanh Made Films who was so lovely and did an amazing job capturing so many moments we wouldn’t have otherwise seen from the day.
Food
We always knew we wanted to mix things up and serve sharing-style Italian food at our wedding, and seeing as Italian Supper Club had worked with the venue before we knew they were a perfect choice. Our menu started with charcuterie and cheese boards and moved onto various pastas, melanzane alla parmigiana, risotto and side dishes. For dessert we served tiramisu and chocolate torte with fruit.
Cake
Two of our good friends are very talented bakers and kindly agreed to make our huge lemon drizzle wedding cake for us. This involved them zesting and juicing over 100 lemons, but it was all worth it as the cake was delicious!
Entertainment
We already knew that we didn’t want a traditional wedding band, and that our modern venue was much more suited to us having a DJ. Elliot and Paul from Freight Train were our DJ duo and they kept everyone on the dance floor right up until the end of the night.
Family and friends
Our whole ambition was to make the day easy and fun for everyone, and to give them something a little different. We also wanted to involve our families and friends as much as possible. My brother led the ceremony, my older sister was our MC, two of our friends made our wedding cake and another good friend brewed all the homemade beer we served.
QR code
We had a QR code at the bottom of the food menus which unlocked an online quiz we had created for all our guests to test their knowledge of us and our relationship (with prizes for the highest scores!).
Speeches
I gave a speech to make sure I could have my say before the groom’s speech, and both my mum and the groom’s dad gave readings in the ceremony.
Honeymoon in New Zealand
We went on mini-moon to Morocco, but are doing a much bigger trip to New Zealand just after Christmas – getting married in June meant it was the wrong time to go so we decided to delay our honeymoon and go when it’s summer there! This means we have extra time to plan all the details without the stress of wedding planning at the same time.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
I was the third daughter in my family to get married, so received so many useful tips from my two sisters and my mum. If your day involves a lot of coordination then definitely look to invest in a wedding planner or coordinator to help run the show. Alex (The Bijou Bride) was incredible on the day and ran such a tight ship that every single thing ran like clockwork! She was also on-hand in the months of planning to make sure we had thought of every final detail.
I would say don’t stress about trying to talk to every single guest on the day (as this is almost impossible) and instead make sure you spend it with the people you want to see the most! Make sure you hold your bouquet with the flowers pointing outwards for photos, otherwise all you see is the green stems! And there’s no such thing as starting hair and makeup prep too early on the day – the last hour before you need to leave will fly by in what feels like 5 minutes!
Natalie & Sam’s little white book
Photography – Rebecca Louise
Videography – Hanh Made Films
Flowers – Blue Sky Flowers {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Wedding planner – The Bijou Bride
Venue – Studio Spaces
Bride’s dress – Enzoani found and fitted at JS Couture
Bride’s shoes – ASOS
Groom’s attire – Cad & The Dandy
Bridesmaids – Mix Bridal
Hair + Makeup – Zoe Norris and Frey-ja Barker
Catering – Italian Supper Club
DJ – Freight Train
Lighting and sound – PF Events
Invitation – Printed.com
