Peachy Productions Archives - Smashing the Glass

Back garden weddings always look so cosy, warm and welcoming and today’s is no exception. There are so many things that I like about this wedding — the homely setting is perfect and I love all the budget-friendly DIY ideas from the quotes attached to the drinks straws, to the colourful photo booth / guest book idea, to the pashminas on hand to warm up the guests – so very thoughtful! Rachel and Davids’ families and friends look like a really lovely, happy group of people, and it’s an overall joy to view this wedding through the eyes of their truly fantastic photographer, Dominique Bader.

Rachel and David met when she was invited to his 30th birthday party by mutual friends. She didn’t know that there was a theme (1980s TV and films) and that he would be dressed up as Tom Cruise from Top Gun in a flight suit. The first thing he asked, after looking at her non-costume, was who she had come dressed as. Twenty minutes later she gave him a delayed response and did an impression of the car voice from Knight Rider. They didn’t stop talking from that moment onwards…

VENUE AND THEME
Rachel, the Bride: The wedding was at my parents’ house where I grew up. It was funny how Friday evening dinner at my parents also became about going to see the venue! The house has a beautiful garden so we simply went with a garden party theme and picked a colour palette of soft greens, whites and pale pinks. I think it’s good to have a loose colour scheme to help create a cohesive look, but one shouldn’t be too worried about it — guests brings the colour and in our case, my 4 year old nephew Theo decided to wear a Fireman Sam costume in pillar box red!

GARDEN PARTY THEMED INVITATION DESIGN
The invitation design process was the unique part! I was writing about design at the time and have always been fascinated by print. I also thought that the invitation sets the tone of the wedding and searched for a long time for existing garden party themed designs that felt right for us.

I ended up appointing Australian graphic designer Tabitha Bray (who I discovered through a blog) to design a bespoke floral motif and illustrated map. Closer to home, graphic designer Rebecca Leggett created the most beautiful calligraphy for the main invitation and printed the invitation suite in Dorset. Paperless Post might have been an easier route, but we loved the end result.

Lee and Gary married at the gorgeously opulent Criterion Restaurant in Piccadilly, London. And when I say opulent, I’m talking a sumptuous neo-Byzantine Piccadilly haven with marble walls, decorative archways and a glorious golden mosaic ceiling.

And that’s not the only reason I’m excited to feature this wedding. You see I’m also totally in love with Lee’s couture dress and head piece which she designed herself. AND the fact that Le Gateau Chocolat, the big black transvestite opera-singer, with a penchant for being wrapped in body-hugging glittery lycra, performed at this wedding!

So here’s their story: Although this gorgeous couple are both Jewish, Lee (a former fashion designer, now a full-time mummy) and Gary, a barrister, are both, in their own words, “devout atheists”. Even so, both felt a need for some familiar cultural background in a partner and ended up finding each other on the Jewish dating site, JDate.

I’ll now hand over to Lee with all the delicious detail from the day:

VENUE + DECOR
Lee, the Bride: Gary, my then fiancà©, had been to The Criterion Restaurant before and knowing my love for art deco, thought I might like it. He literally thought of it the day after he proposed (which by the way completely flew over my head as he did it in his usual verbally subtle way!) We were on holiday at the time and arranged to see the venue a few days after our return over lunch. The moment we sat down and took the place in, we knew we needn’t look any further.

With such a beautiful venue choice, we didn’t need or want a theme or colour scheme as we didn’t want to detract from the beauty of the room with many other colours. Our floral and table layouts were fairly clean and simple too, with a combination of old school & clean modern – just how we like it!