DIY Islington Wedding: Katy & Dave

DIY Islington Wedding: Katy & Dave

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They met in Manchester in 2001 while they were both at University. He asked her to join his band even though he didn’t have one yet. At their Islington wedding, 12 years later, many of the friends they made during this time were there as witnesses. “We considered many themes briefly but decided in the end just to try to make the day as relaxed and informal as we could while still making it feel like a special event”, explained the bride. “We just wanted to get everyone together for some good food, wine and dancing and worked the rest around that. We did sneak a few sci-fi and superhero references in though!”

Katy wore a Jane Bourvis dress with shoes from Topshop that she’s had since she was 16! In her hair she wore a homemade wreath of gypsophila from Dave’s mum’s garden. The day started with a ceremony at Islington Town hall, continued with a pub lunch at The Duke of Cambridge and concluded with an after party at the Candid Arts Centre.

“We were lucky to find venues that were relatively close together, so we could walk between them all taking a scenic route through Islington”, Katy continued. “It was a great way to keep things moving and break the day up into different stages. It also meant that casual footwear (or none at all) became a defining part of the day. A particularly lovely memory is walking alongside the canal to the Candid as the sun was out and I had a chance to chat to a lot of the younger members of our gang about all sorts of fun things.”

“It was a very DIY affair, with lots of family members and friends coming together and putting in a huge effort to make things happen. So much of it was personal and unforgettable. It felt much more like a massive team party than the pair of us putting on a show, which meant we were able to really relax into the day and just have loads of fun.”

“We did all our own flowers which were a huge success. The table decorations were made the day before with old jam jars wrapped with raffia as vases and the flowers were from Dave’s mum’s garden and dropped off at the pub. After the dinner we brought them with us to the evening venue and dropped multicolour waterproof LEDs in them. The flower wall, devised by Dave’s mum, was built collaboratively by family and friends with a mix of real and silk flowers, tied together and pinned at the top of the wall. The ivy we wound around the columns was from Dave’s auntie’s garden. Also the bouquets were made on the morning of the wedding by the bridesmaids in the hotel room. Dave was able to borrow some stage lighting equipment and mixed that with the art gallery’s lighting to create different coloured areas in the space. Anne made the groomsmen’s boutonnières from old Super 8 film of Dave and his cousins when they were little as the ribbon – which made a really lovely personal touch.”

“The only thing I would have done differently would have been to ask for help sooner!” she concluded. “We were really overwhelmed by how much everyone wanted to help and contribute which made us feel so special and made the day an absolute dream. Any stresses we may have felt earlier in the planning stages just disappeared because we felt so supported and like we were all just getting together for a party.”

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