Kate and Camilla tied the knot in August in London, with their reception being held at converted warehouse restaurant Bistroteque, Hackney. They wanted their union to be a reflection of their love of urban minimalism.

Kate and Camillia are one super stylish couple. Kate opted for a flowing green Hugo Boss dress which she teamed with fierce Alexander McQueen shoes. Camilla wore a vibrant sophisticated suit by Camilla and Marc which looked so chic.

I just adore their simple brown paper décor and the DIY rose flower arrangements. Beautiful.

Thanks so much to Babb Photo for sharing her stunning photography with us today.

 

The Proposal… As two women we both had ideas and wishes in our head of being proposed to. Clearly, with two of us, this wasn’t going to happen. One had to ask the other, or we needed to ask each other. And that’s what we did. We decided to combine our summer holiday in Ibiza as the setting for our engagement. We spent a day in central London buying each the rings and then put them away for a few months until a bright, starry night on a beach, the waves lapping on the shore. Asking each other we celebrated with champagne and kisses.

The Vision for the Day… We wanted to create our own celebration. We wanted to create and alternate story where two women can publicly share their love, be celebrated and create a ritual for becoming each other’s family. We both live and work in London, and while neither of our families are from here, we want this to be about us. To reflect our urban minimalist identities and sense of style. We wanted something to include the children in our lives whilst reflecting the idea of dinner party with lots of dancing.

The Planning Process… A year of: obsessive compulsive planning, eating out, looking for restaurants, exploring urban spaces for photos, looking for inspirations from wedding magazines and websites (and feeling disillusioned that there were no queer representations to identify with), finding reassurance with the openness of Islington town hall for civil partnerships, lots if conversations with with social networks looking for wedding rituals to inform our own,

Budget… We looked to Don’t Tell the Bride for inspiration…….

The Venue… Bistroteque, a quintessentially minimalist east London restaurant in a converted warehouse. The food is modern but not, and the wine list substantial. We felt it was our kind of place, had exceptional service from the tasting afternoon through to the actual day they were amazing!

The Outfits + Accessories… Camilla wore a sharp, sexy fluorescent suit from Australia designers Camilla and Marc.

Kate wore an elegant dress from Hugo Boss with Alexander McQueen heels and a black bespoke hair piece from Australian bridal accessories designer, Percy Handmade.

Finding the Outfits… Camilla was clear on wanting to wear a suit, something that made her feel sexy and feminine. We found this suit while on holiday in Australia and liked that it linked the wedding to Australia, where Kate is from.

Kate struggled with finding a dress. She initially wanted the whole wedding dress experience, but with her friends in Australia it wasn’t such an easy task. She was also quite clear she didn’t want a “traditional white wedding dress”.  A shopping trip to Harvey Nichols with her English stylist by her side proved the day she wanted with two possible choices. She chose the more dramatic green.

The Readings + Music… Readings:  I carry you in my heart (i carry your heart in mine) by ee cummings , Rings by Carol Ann Duffy, xiv from 21 love poems by Adrienne Rich.

Music: Intro by the xx, The Koln Concert by Keith Jarrett, Little Numbers by BOY.

The Flowers… A trip to Vauxhall Flower Market for inspiration resulted in 6 dozen roses for the heart ritual;1 2 burgundy roses for Kate’s bouquet; assorted wild flowers for the tables. Kate and her best friend spent the days leading up to the wedding arranging the flowers in recycled glass milk bottles….The bathroom resembled a florist.

The Cake… We didn’t have a cake as we had designed a menu to include individual deserts and preferred the idea of cheese boards instead of additional sweets. We did however like cakes from The Tartelettes.

Your Photographer… Laura Babb of Babb Photo. Laura was amazingly supportive and excited at our ideas. She was also really open to being part of a queer lesbian wedding, which was really important to us.

The Details + Decor… We were really attracted to the urban minimalist design of Bistrotheque. We also liked the idea of urban simplicity, and used recycled brown paper as our theme from the invitations though to the table decorations and favors.

The Honeymoon… We went to Cuba. Neither of us are very good at holidays and prefer the experience of travelling to both see and experience a place and it’s people. Cuba provided us with all of this, and was certainly an adventure. However it didn’t allow us the space to be a couple or have the intimate romantic experience of a honeymoon, which on reflection we would have liked.

Memorable Moments… Camilla: Lots of them. Putting the ring on Kate’s finger. Having all our friends and family wearing hand-make animal masks dancing around us holding a maypole (a traditional Bavarian dance).

Kate: There are so many. Our first kiss with Camilla as my wife (Frau). Seeing the love on the faces of our guests during my speech. Holding Camilla’s hand and being serenaded by her friends who wrote and performed a song for us.

Advice for Other Couples… Try to have your speeches filmed – there’s so much to take in on the day and these are truly beautiful to revisit.

We liked the intimacy of having a small wedding enabling us to spend time with all our guests. We loved having the presence of little people celebrating with us and being part of our queer wedding.

Don’t get caught up in the hype of what a wedding is supposed to look like / feel like / be like and try to remain true to the spirit that is yours.

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Photography: Babb Photo

Cakes: The Tartelettes

Venue: Bistroteque

Suit: Camilla and Marc

Hair Piece: Percy Handmade

Dress: Harvey Nichols

 

How wonderful, I just love the whole modern urban feel to their day. Thanks so much to Kate and Camilla for sharing their gorgeous wedding with us today XOXO Lou