DILSTON GROVE WEDDING

I met Annabelle at The Ace Hotel in Shoreditch when I was exhibiting at their first wedding fair. Annabelle had such an air of understated cool and with three epic venues playing host to their day I knew it would be a day to remember.

After their wedding day preparations taking place at The Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green, Annabelle and Jammie headed to The Asylum Chapel in Peckham for the ceremony. The Asylum never fails to disappoint with its incredible architecture and faded grandeur.

Annabelle and Jammie took over the incredible Dilston Grove for their wedding reception and styled the space to perfection. The foliage installations, the monochrome stationery with a strong design aesthetic, the marble vases and beautiful wild poppy floral arrangements - It was an amazing sight.

Here is Annabelle’s take on the day…

PHOTOGRAPHY

We spent a long time searching for a photographer. We felt so comfortable with Lee Robbins, like he was one of our friends, we loved his photography, and on the day he helped us with so many things, even hailing a cab for the bridal party on their eventful way to venue. We couldn’t have been more happy with Lee, he captured everything.

VENUES

We wanted to get married in London, as it is where we are from and where we live. We met on an Art Foundation course. We liked the fact that at the Asylum we could get married on the day, in front of our friends and family. Jammie is from South London and Annabel is half Norwegian, and Norwegian National Day celebrations happen in Southwark Park, so finding Dilston Grove, a concrete Chapel now used as a gallery tucked one corner of the park was a perfect fit for our reception venue.

HERMIONE DE PAULA WEDDING DRESS

Hermoine designed the dress shape around what Annabel wanted and all of the embellishments and embroidered flowers; Icelandic poppies and anemones made with silver metal ribbons and pearl whites matching the flowers for the day. The date of the wedding and a couple of phrases were hand sown into the dress too. Hermoine and her team were absolutely fantastic, making the whole process so relaxed and friendly and creating exactly the dress that Annabel wanted. 

DECOR

It was really important for us to have a venue that was a blank canvas so that we could design the decor ourselves. Everything that we could do ourselves, we did! Jammie built the bar, made of black stained wood with a marbled cork countertop and the plinths for the flowers. We individually screen printed each of the napkins with a pattern and the guests name to act as the place name. We sowed the table runners and painted the table numbers on whitewashed wood. We printed the menus onto tracing paper and mounted them onto board. The marble flower vases in tones, of black, white, dark green and pink, we bought at a roadside marble shop in the mountains of Carrara, Italy and carried them all back in our hand luggage. But most of all we had 19 of our amazing friends and family working like clockwork the day before to help us set everything up at both venues; flower arranging, hanging lights, setting up sound systems, laying tables and everything else in between!
2 days before we went bright and early to Covent Garden Flower Market to get the majority of the flowers for the tables (we also foraged grasses from the local parks to our house!) The incredible archway, walls and 2 large stage flowers (which we carried from one venue to the other on the day) were created by Rebel Rebel. They also created Annabel’s bouquet, of long stemmed wild grasses, Foxgloves and Icelandic Poppies. We had a few meetings with them to discuss our ideas and what they created was beyond our wildest dreams. Their fantastic team transformed the space.

FOOD

The catering was an important ingredient for our day, and it was a little tricky as the venue does not have a kitchen! Sabel were brilliant. Canapés and cocktails at one venue and Scandivian style open sandwich starters at the other. They created the perfect sharing food for the meal; grilled Sea Bream and array of salads and were very accommodating to dietary requirements, including our own. Our desert was a traditional Norwegian Kransekake, which is a tower of baked almond rings ideal for sharing, made by Annabel’s family. One tower was brought to each table and served with berries and ice cream. For the evening food, Sabel made bao buns which were past around the dance floor. Our cake table was made by our wonderful neighbour and friend Helen, who decorated them with pressed wildflowers and oven dried citrus fruits.

ENTERTAINMENT

At the ceremony Annabel walked in to two family friends singing opera. During the ceremony we had two readings, one in Norwegian and one in English. While we were signing the register an old friend Sophie-Rose played with her band Paradisia, they played two covers, You Make Loving Fun by Fleetwood Mac and Wouldn’t It Be Nice by The Beach Boys. Our first dance was played by one of Jammie’s best men Charlie and a couple of our friends. They played a few songs, before groups of friends DJed throughout the night from the Balcony over looking the dance floor at Dilston Grove.