WWW readers Julieta and Ben tied the knot back in May at the breathtaking RSA in London. They wanted their wedding to be relaxed and colourful, with Julieta using a WWW tutorial for her multicoloured pom poms which looked fantastic.

They had the prettiest wedding flowers ever, with hydrangeas and freesias and a scrumptious sounding ombre wedding cake.

Julieta looked so so stylish in her mermaid cut wedding dress, while Ben looked dapper in Jaeger with a liberty print tie. Ekkk!

Thanks so much to Miki Photography for sharing his gorgeous images with us today.

 

The Proposal… Ben and I had a holiday booked for Santorini, but when he broke his foot playing football we had to cancel last minute! Unbeknownst to me, Ben had planned to propose there, so he was really upset about having to call it off.

When Ben’s foot healed, we quickly booked a holiday to Rome and then Florence. We visited the romantic sites, had some amazing gelato and admired the beautiful artwork, especially the sculptures of Gian Lorenzo Bernini. I actually think his version of David is much more powerful than Michelangelo’s! If you don’t believe me go look it up! It’s intense!

It was after a delicious dinner by the river in Florence, Ben got down on one knee on the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge where lover’s would lock a padlock and throw the key into the river, to become eternally bonded and proposed.

The Vision for the Day… Relaxed, colourful, fun and intimate.

The Planning Process… I’m actually an Event Manager for a financial publishing house, so I was pretty confident about planning the wedding logistically, but it was a fantastic opportunity for me to stretch myself creatively and be able to add in a bit of our personalities to the wedding and give it a personal touch.

Ben is an Excel geek, so he kept our budget in line. It’s important to add in your expenses as you go because a few hundred here and there will add up, so do keep track of your spend.

Budget…  £15,000 – £20,000

The Venue… The RSA, 8 John Adam Street,  London WC2N 6EZ

The Dress + Accessories… I had a completely different length and silhouette in mind when I started searching for a dress, because I didn’t think a mermaid cut would suit someone who was short and busty, so when I picked out this beautiful number, it was more of wishful thinking. I was totally astounded at the shape it gave me! It pulled in at my waist giving me an hourglass figure I didn’t think I had and also gave the illusion of some extra height! Needless to say, I didn’t try on a single dress after this one. I was in love!

My shoes were from Dune and I also rocked some white converse for the end of the night!

The diamond earrings were a family heirloom passed down to my mother and then to me and became my ‘something old’ and the cute little elephant was my ‘something borrowed’ that I pinned to the netting of my dress. My sister got me a blue garter from Agent Provocateur and the dress was my something new!

I initially didn’t want to have a veil or anything in my hair, but as I was getting my hair trial done at the fantastic Andrew Barton salon in Covent Garden, Andrew (of the 10 Years Younger TV show) himself came over to admire the hair and suggested I get a comb, so of course I went searching for one and found it from the website glitzy secrets.

Groom’s Attire… Ben’s suit is from Jaeger, I instantly fell in love with the deep, rich blue colour and Ben loved the rough wool texture. It was the perfect cut for him, good sleeve length, peak lapel, but still had that relaxed feel because of the fabric.

His tie was from Liberty, as was the best man’s – we absolutely adore Liberty prints!

His mustard brogues were from Grensons and his pocket square from T.M Lewins.

The Readings + Music… My close friend from college (so we’re going back at least 10 years now) read ‘Union’ by Robert Fulghum and Ben’s close friend from University read the lyrics to our first dance song: Corrine Bailey Rae’s ‘Breathless’.

The song I walked down the aisle to was José Gonzales ‘Heartbeats’, which meant a lot to Ben and I in the hazy summer nights of our first week as a couple eight years ago. The first few notes on the guitar always give me shivers!

For the signing of the marriage certificate we played Israel Kamakawiwoʻole ukulele version of ‘Over the Rainbow’ and Jack Johnsons ‘Better When We’re Together’.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… My sister wore a beautiful dress from Coast. It was definitely on trend with the fuchsia/ ombre detail. Her awesome shoes were from Irregular Choice in Carnaby Street.

The Flowers… To keep in line with our vision of a relaxed and fun wedding, the ceremony flowers were a mix of white hydrangea’s and white leaf, with terracotta pots of hydrangea. My favourite flowers are hydrangea and freesia so these were incorporated into the bouquet’s, which were all supplied by Windmill Flower’s in Kennington.

My mum and mother in law were a huge help with the flowers for the wedding breakfast. We wanted a lot of colour and a mixture of textures, so we had wild flowers, hydrangeas in the most beautiful colours and ranunculi.

The tea cups were supplied by Ben’s mum from her collection and the pots were sourced by my mum from local market stalls.

The Cake… I LOVE the ombre trend and found an amazing supplier that was able to work with buttercream frosting rather than the traditional white fondant.

Ben is a dessert fiend, so we went with chocolate orange fudge cake with chocolate ganache buttercream laced with Grand Marnier! It was as delicious as it was beautiful!

The cake toppers were sourced from Etsy.

Your Photographer… Our photographer was Mick Shah of Miki Photography. His photos are so amazing and he manages to capture the emotion in the moment. His work is really very special and unique and of a quality that sets him apart from other skilled wedding photographers out there.

Mick is such a professional and so friendly, he certainly puts you at ease and gets the best photos of you (I am notorious for my awkward photo faces!) he really does feel like part of the family and he sat with my friends for the dinner.

We hope to use him in the future for other big life moments!

The Details + Decor… I hand-made over a hundred pom-poms in the weeks leading up to the wedding, they were all various sizes and colours. Stringing them together was a challenge. Have you ever tried working with fishing wire?!

I also hand painted the table numbers as I’m a keen water-colourist.

A really good tip to transform a room is with lighting! We used the venue’s uplighters to highlight the arches and exposed brickwork and bought some fairly lights for the walls. I also bought some coloured tea lights for the table which I thought was a sweet little touch.

The Honeymoon… We had a quick three day break in Bath and stayed at the Bath Priory. It was a real treat to dine in their Michelin starred restaurant.

We also spent some time in the rooftop pool of Thermae Spa in the town centre. It was great experience to look over the city whilst immersed in the warm waters from Britain’s only natural thermal spa.

We hope to be able to book a longer honeymoon later in the year!

Memorable Moments… For some reason, the first song to pop into my head as I woke up on my wedding day was ‘Kiss The Girl’ from Disney’s ‘The Little Mermaid’, so I spent the morning listening to Disney songs as I got ready! It was actually very uplifting and put a spring in my step!

A close friend of mine was due to give birth close to my wedding day, so couldn’t make it. But as I walked out of the vaults after getting married, I saw her in the crowd and was so surprised and overjoyed that she was able to make it! She gave birth to a sweet little girl three days later!

I can’t forget the dance scrum at the end of the night with all our friends in a big old mess, dancing together without a care in the world! This is always an indication that we’ve had a good night!

Advice for Other Couples… Prepare yourself for the little things to go wrong on the day. It’s all OK. It’s the good things that you will take with you forever.

You should eat something! If you’re staying away from carbs, then I would recommend edamame beans to snack on.

Take a moment to spend time with your new husband. Even if you’re just stealing five minutes away, it’s nice to share the day with him.

Try and find someone that is experienced with weddings and can put you at ease. With us, this was our make-up artist Amanda! My mum wasn’t too pleased with the final styling of her hair so Amanda was able to tweak it and put my mum at ease, she was also able to help with the dress and prepare and hand me my flowers as we didn’t want to get our dresses wet from the water.

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Bridesmaid dress: http://www.coast-stores.com/?lng=en&ctry=GB&

Bridesmaid shoes: http://www.irregularchoice.com/

Cake: http://www.cakemaison.co.uk/

Cake toppers:  Lava Gifts http://www.etsy.com/uk/people/LavaGifts?ref=pr_profile

Cupcakes: http://www.crumbsanddoilies.co.uk/

DJ: www.freelovegroup.com

Dress: http://www.berketexbride.com/

Flowers: http://www.windmillflowers.co.uk/

Garter: http://www.agentprovocateur.com/

Groom’s and Best Man’s suit: http://www.jaeger.co.uk/

Groom’s and Best Man’s tie: http://www.liberty.co.uk/

Hair comb: http://www.glitzysecrets.com/

Hair: Claire Bennett http://www.andrewbarton.tv/

Make up: http://www.amandatironi.co.uk/

Macarons: http://www.laduree.fr/en/

Photography: http://www.mikiphotography.info/

Shoes: http://www.dune.co.uk/

Venue: RSA http://www.thersa.org/

How fun?! I so love their atmospheric venue and those colourful details. Thanks so much to Julieta and Ben for sharing their wedding with us today XOXO Lou