It is a delight to share Emily and Bill's joyful London wedding with you today! Last week, we shared a bride in a tractor, and this week we have another unusual wedding vehicle to share with you - a fire engine! Emily and Bill were whisked away from their intimate ceremony at the iconic Chelsea Town Hall in a vintage fire engine, arranged by the bride's father, a former London fire fighter. The reception took place at St John Food and Wine Farringdon, with an informal dinner followed by a giant quince pavlova for dessert. The day was relaxed and fun, styled simply and elegantly with beautiful flowers from Battersea flower market, and autumnal bouquets and bridesmaids in warm rust coloured dresses.
Emily wore Jesus Peiro's stunning 2352 jumpsuit and sleeveless coat, which features a strapless wide leg jumpsuit below a full length waistcoat with high collar and flower corsage detail. Emily removed the waistcoat later in the day, to transform her look from ceremony to reception, perfect for the evening celebrations! To style her look, Emily chose chic gold huggie earrings from Missoma, along with stylish chunky gold platform heels.
Read on to find out more about Emily's bridal shopping experience, and see more beautiful images from Bella Del Rey.
Jesus Peiro 2352 bridal jumpsuit and coat
Loved that it was 2 outfits in one! I took the cape off in the evening, changed my earrings to some dangly ones and it felt like a whole new look. Felt like the outfit really fitted with the town hall aesthetic
My mum and Dad came to Miss Bush with me and we tried on a few different outfits but the jumpsuit I’d already seen online and knew I wanted to try it and loved it the minute it was on.
Dress Shopping at Miss Bush
My favourite part of the dress shopping experience was using the gorgeous big room at the front of the chapel and seeing myself in a completely different light trying these dresses on
The Miss Bush team were really communicative, responsive, patient and kind. Gave great advice; what pants to wear, heels, I even chose my earrings because of some advice from my lovely seamstress (said she’d go for chunky huggies!)
Styling
I had above mentioned chunky huggies in the day and long dangly pearl earrings, both Missoma, for the evening.
I actually just wore some relatively cheapy Lipsy chunky platform heels - I knew I wanted platform heels because of the initial meeting we’d had with Emma.
A classic London wedding at Chelsea Old Town Hall
The bridal party got ready at our home in south London and got taxis across to Chelsea old town hall.
We had gorgeous flowers from Francesca Goldstein for our bouquets but our friend Chloe and I went to the flower market in Battersea to pick up flowers for the day itself a few days earlier - and she arranged them (she’s not a florist - just a kind friend who was happy to help !).
We had friends who are musicians singing / playing us down the aisle and readings in the ceremony (one that was an incredible written poem by a friend of the brides, Helen), and we wrote our own vowels- which were really emotional to read. We had a drinks reception in the cadogan suite next door and then got into transport to St John.
My dad was a fireman in London for a large part of his career (fitting for a Mr Burns!) and he had hired a vintage fire engine to take us from the town hall to St John. We drove through central London in the fire engine with tourists snapping our photos everywhere we went. Harper came too (my neice - 10 years old) and was absolutely lapping up the attention. Harper needed a wee at a certain point and so dad suggested we pulled into the Soho fire station forecourt (where my dad worked for a large proportion of his career) and so her and I went into the fire station for a wee mid traverse across the city. They put the shutters up so we could see the fire engines and dad chatted to the fire fighter there. Such a memorable moment - for me and I imagine for Harper too !
We got to St John and went off with Bella our photographer for some photos the two of us. When we got back, I did my speech and had surprised Bill by also singing a song - my friend had secretly brought his guitar and I sang a song about our relationship from the beginning to the tune of big yellow taxi by Joni Mitchell. We had incredible speeches from my dad, Bill and the best man (we were all crying with laughter as you will see at Bills and the best mans) and incredible food, including a crowd favourite, a giant quince pavlova for dessert.
Truly medley deeply, our band, were incredible for the tiny space and dance floor we had and I took my cape off we spent the rest of the night on the dance floor.
The best bits
Walking down the aisle and seeing Bill there
The time in the fire engine !
The speeches
Our first dance (to the less I know the better by tame impala which is a song we have loved forever!)
Emily's Advice
Go with your gut and don’t let others sway you from any vision you have in mind! Also, really concentrate when the registrar is asking you to repeat stuff as it’s far too easy to be over excited and totally forget to listen .. with 150 people waiting for you to say something.
Suppliers
Florist: Goldstones Flowers
Photographer: Bella Del Rey
Videographer: Ari Papadopoulos
Bridesmaid dresses: Rewritten
Bridal hair and makeup: Cat Parnell
Earrings: Missoma
Bridesmaid hair: Anita from Camerini
Ceremony: Chelsea Old Town Hall
Reception venue / catering: St John Smithfield
Band: Truly Medly Deeply