Hey! I’ve put together some of the most helpful websites I came across during our wedding planning, plus a list of all the suppliers we used and loved! I’ve also added in a few suppliers that we didn’t use; perhaps we discovered them afterwards, went in a different direction or they were already booked! Lastly as an independent business I love to support other small indies which bar the top link everyone listed here is; woo hoo!
HELPFUL WEBSITES:
We decided not to build a wedding website, instead we used Typeform to collect RSVP’s and peoples dietary requirements you can see ours here, it was free to build and you can download the responses in a spreadsheet which I did and with a quick tidy I sent them to our Caterer!
The invites and save the date I risographed and screen printed which I cover in more depth here but for last minute / small quantities like printing the Table plan which I combined into an A2 poster with the Order of the day I used Printed.com also for bits like the Drink and Food Menus.
Most curious Wedding Fair is not just a website but also a brilliant event that I attended in March as our cake designer ARD Bakery was exhibiting and we wanted to take a look around and get inspired! I’m so happy I went as it’s where I found Fi Graham who worked with me to create my bow headpiece for the day! If you can’t attend an event then it’s definitely worth looking through their excellent directory!
Rock n Roll Bride is a great print magazine and website for showing alternative weddings, it was so helpful for us when planning our unconventional wedding to see how other people had ‘broken the mould’ as it helped us to be bold and confident in our choices! I really recommend getting a few print mags to flick through! ;)
I found myself constantly gravitating back to Offbeat Bride as this website covers everything, especially helpful for writing our vows and researching for the right readings.
LOVELY SUPPLIERS:
Venue: Because we were planning on hand making a lot of wedding scenery and props to decorate the room this venue was perfect for us because A: it’s around the corner from us and B: It’s a pretty black space that you can bring your ideas to without having to wrestle with what’s already there. So The Old Dairy was perfect and James who runs it was super chilled, if you’re looking for a venue in Hackney, it’s a great option especially as they are licensed so you can have the ceremony there too! Goodbye logistics of moving people around!
Photography: This was the second decision we made after venue as honestly good photographers get booked a year or more in advance. But they are totally worth it! I’ve been bowled over by the snaps I’ve seen so far from Tub of Jelly and would recommend them in a heart beat! We went for photos and a short video as after seeing their work it felt crazy not to, plus knowing the effort we were planning to put into our day it felt important to capture it properly! Since doing loads of wedding research I’ve also come across the work of This Modern Revelry who make brilliant videos and are also totally worth checking out!
Caterers: about 40% of our budget went on food as we love to eat and wanted to spoil our friends and family to a three course meal! We got a few quotes which all came in about the same but decided to go with Warburtons as they had catered our friends wedding and done a banging job! I’m so glad we did as Paul is lovely and has the nicest team of people working for him that seemed to be enjoying the day as much as we were they also took a certain relish in getting our guests drunk! ;D
Headpiece: As I mentioned earlier I met Fi Graham at MCWF and was so excited to see her beautiful bow headpieces! I decided it was just what I needed to complete my outfit ;) Fi worked really closely with me and I’m so happy with the final result! Honestly it was so light and easy to wear that I forgot it was there!
Hair and Makeup: Katie Coward is the most super chilled expert at all things hair and make up and exactly the person you want to sort out your look before you stand up in front of loads of people! She was recommended through friends of friends who work in the makeup industry and you can tell that she is just brilliant at what she does! Plus doing the trial was totally worth it, as I completely changed my mind! :D
DJ: Gary from Fox and Braces brought some epic tunes! We discussed having an ecclectic set which explored different eras and he totally nailed it! I’d of thought it might have been a tad early for the rave anthems but we all got very carried away and it’s one of the highlights of my day; building boxes and stacking shelves with my brother! :D
Rings: Our beautiful wedding bands were made by my friend Romy Vinzelberg aka Eden Rose Jewellery
Speaker System: This was a last minute panic item as we realised we needed a sound system for music pre DJ and a mic for the speeches but Halo completely sorted us out!
Decorations: We ended up making all of our own decorations and I’ve gone into detail about that here but if that’s not for you I’d recommend checking out Rachel Emma Studio and May Contain Glitter for cool creative solutions!
Dress: Skip over here to read about my process for buying and customising my dress!
Let me know if you’ve any other questions I feel like I’m full of wedding info ATM! Jacqueline x