We love a fabulous London wedding! Victoria and Tom's day was fun, colourful and contemporary, taking place in South London with a ceremony at St Chad’s Church, South Norwood, followed by a reception ay Stanley Arts. The vibrant pink and red colour palette was so joyful, with tons of incredible flowers creating a stunning backdrop for the day.
Victoria wore her own custom version of Jesus Peiro's 2214 wedding dress. Keeping the chic square neck, Victoria added puff gathered sleeves inspired by the 2275 cape. The sleeves were finished with a sprinkling of handsewn pearl embellishments. Victoria styled her look with more pearls in the form of a stylish hair slide and some drop earrings, and added bright pink block heeled sandals and a bold red lip in keeping with the colour scheme.
Victoria shared her favourite images with us, alongside all of the details about her dress shopping and wedding planning experiences. Read on to find out more!
Jesus Peiro 2214 special wedding dress with pearl puff sleeves
I wore a custom Jesus Peiro - a mix of 2214 shape with an organza overlay and sheer, pearl sleeves.
I absolutely loved my appointments with Emma mixing and matching elements and fabrics from the Jesus Peiro collection to make my dress. Designing my dress was a process of many parts and I’m forever grateful to Emma for helping me get to my dream dress. I really appreciate her taking on board all of my ideas and influences and turning them into something I didn’t even know was possible when we first started talking!
We decided on the 2214 square neck and shape early on but I really wanted something a little different and a bit more me. I really liked the voluminous sleeves from one of the Jesus Peiro capes and pearls on another and wanted to find a way to incorporate both into my dress design. The cape also sparked my imagination for an organza overlay to the 2214 design so Emma got to work with the Jesus Peiro team designing something that incorporated all of these elements.
I got so many compliments on my dress and I felt absolutely amazing in it - I wish I could wear it every day!
I brought my Mam for my dress appointments. After the first appointment with Emma she said to me “I don’t need to come back with you now, I know you’re in safe hands”. She did come back for the big reveal when the custom dress arrived though! It had been so hard to explain my dress to everyone but when she saw it she totally got it and said it was so ‘me’.
Dress Shopping
I loved every appointment but I think my favourite was my first appointment with Emma. I was really anxious about dress shopping and was so worried I wasn’t going to find a dress that suited my style and felt like me. I was also worried about finding a dress that would fit me - I’m five foot and have quite big boobs so I struggle to find dresses that fit everywhere and nearly every dress I’d seen was strapless or backless.
When I found Miss Bush via an article and saw all the advice Emma was giving on Instagram stories, it reassured me that I might finally have found someone who could help. Emma totally understood where I was coming from and made me feel so comfortable. She really put me at ease in that first appointment and all of my anxieties dissipated and I had the best time and didn’t want it to end!
It also helped that Emma really understood my personal style so from the get-go we were on the same page and that initial appointment was like a giant dressing up session. When Emma said I could get a made to measure dress that meant I could still wear a bra I knew that I’d found the woman for the job.
I never thought I’d enjoy the wedding dress experience as much as I did, I really had been dreading it, but it turns out I just needed to meet Emma! I really couldn’t have had a better wedding dress experience - so much so I recommended Miss Bush and Emma to my bridesmaid who became a fellow Miss Bush bride too!
As my dress was custom we really had no idea how it was going to look until it arrived and it did require some tweaking. I was initially a little worried about how it would all come together but I needn’t have been because Ben is an absolute wizard and knew exactly how to make the dress work for me! I loved my fitting appointments with him and can’t thank him enough for all of his hard work to make sure my dress was perfect.
Styling
I wanted a modern bridal look to go with my dress. I took some major inspiration from Lucy Boynton’s red carpet looks and went for a modern wave in my hair and a bold red lip which my hair and make up artist Hannah was totally on board with!
I really wanted the sleeves to be the star of the show so my accessories were all pearl to complement them. I bought a pair of Claudia Bradby pearl earrings and finished off the look with a pearl hair slide.
I was struggling to find a pair of pink block heels I liked but eventually found a pair of Aldo heels on eBay and switched to some super comfy Clarks flatform sandals in the evening for dancing.
A fun, contemporary wedding at Stanley Arts London
A lot of our early planning was during lockdowns and we managed to squeeze in a viewing of Stanley Arts just in time. We absolutely loved the original features of the hall and knew it would be the perfect space for our day.
I’d decided quite early on that I wanted lots of colour and lots of flowers and our amazing florist Catherine at Floral Evolution definitely delivered on that brief! The flowers were such a beautiful backdrop to all of the big moments of our day. Our colour scheme was pink, red and blue and I love how much these colours pop in all of our photos.
We’ve been together for over a decade so our wedding was about bringing everyone together to celebrate and have fun. We’re big believers that a good wedding is all about good food and lots of dancing. We had a curry as our main meal which went down a storm, followed by a twmpath (Welsh folk dancing) and hours of dancing.
The best bits
We genuinely loved every minute of it but it was amazing to see everyone laughing and having a blast during the twmpath. We saw relatives who normally sit on the sidelines get up and join in and seeing grandparents dancing with our friends and everyone of all ages having a good time was truly magical! Everybody was enjoying themselves which is all we wanted for our day. I have to give credit to Tom for pushing through with this idea - I thought it would be too much to try and squeeze in to the day but I’m so glad we did it because it’s a part of the wedding we’ll never forget.
I also have to say a massive thank you to my sister-in-law for not only being an amazing bridesmaid but agreeing to drive me to the church in Tom's family's Morris Minor. It was lovely to have the car as part of our celebrations and she looked great arriving to the church in her dress and trainers!
Victoria's Advice
Don’t compromise on your personal style - there’s a wedding look out there for you, even if you think you’re not a traditional ‘wedding’ person.
It’s very hard during the wedding planning process to block out the noise and opinions but try your best to listen to yourself and make sure you do what you want - remember it’s your wedding day and not anybody else’s!
A good photographer is worth their weight in gold. We’re still going through Marianne’s photos all these months later because we love them so much and they capture the day so wonderfully!
Suppliers
Hair and makeup: Hannah Monk
Photographer: Marianne Chua
Florist: Catherine at Floral Evolution
Venue: Stanley Arts
Trestle tables and chairs: The Little Wedding Warehouse
Cakes: BonBon Parade
Twmpath band: Bow Reed
Catering: Poncho Khana