I don't know about you but that skyline always gives me tingles. I do love a London city affair and this celebration is totally upping the style stakes today.

WWW readers Colin and Gemma (aka Col & Gem) tied the knot on the 24th August 2014 at the gorgeous Devonshire Terrace in London. They hoped to create a relaxed day which was also super personal.

Gemma looked radiant in her Ronald Joyce low back lace dress, chic up do and traditional veil, while Colin rocked a sharp grey suit.

Colin is a drummer and so a fun nod to his passion was reflected in their fab décor. Together with light up letters, peachy florals and a marching band, their wedding gives you some brilliant steal-worthy ideas for your own party.

Thanks this morning goes to the ever brilliant Babb Photo for sharing these photographs.

THE PROPOSAL | It was just before my 30th birthday and Col was taking me away to celebrate in Valencia. Despite no one knowing he already had the ring and had been hiding it in one of his drum cases for weeks, the pressure was mounting and he was being constantly quizzed about when he was going to pop the question! I think he had probably been planning to do it while we were away but the 'right time' came at home one night. We were sat reminiscing over a nice meal and bottle of wine when he went out of the room, came back and got down on one knee! I loved that there were no grand gestures and it was just the two of us and Col loved the fact we could then go away for my birthday and he could relax knowing the job had been done!

THE VISION | Col is a drummer and plays at lots of weddings with his band Mowgli (shameless plug!) so he had quite a strong idea of what he didn't want for his day, which was actually a good thing as so did I! Although there were certain things that we knew we definitely did and didn't want, we weren't really fixed on a 'vision'. We have been to so many weddings over recent years, we wanted to try and create a day that reflected us as people and a couple. In essence what was really important to us both was to have a relaxed and informal celebration with all of our favourite people.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | I wanted to get married the following year, Col wanted to get married in the Summer and we both wanted to get married in London, so I started looking at venues almost immediately! We planned the wedding in about 10 months.

THE VENUE | We are both originally from the North but have lived in London for 10 years and consider it our home, so it was the obvious place for us, but it meant we had to consider accommodation for lots of our guests when picking a venue. A hotel seemed like the obvious choice but we didn't want to pick a bronze, silver or gold package from a hotel (no offence to anyone that did!) or get married in a function room, so we realised quite soon it wasn't for us! At the other end of the spectrum, the idea of hiring a DIY venue where you had to do it all yourself filled me with utter dread!

One thing that we both really wanted was a party! So many venues have to finish at midnight and we know what it's like to be guest, you're just getting going at that time so our main criteria was a late license, The Devonshire Terrace was perfect! A 3am license, flexibility on the menu, not to mention the use of the actual Terrace, it was just what we wanted!

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was by Ronald Joyce. There was a lot of detail on the dress so I kept jewellery to a minimal and my veil simple. I really struggled to find a pair of shoes that I liked that weren't either too high or too expensive so in the end I wore my old Latin and ballroom dancing shoes from when I used to dance as a teenager. I had actually forgotten that I still had them and Col said it was fate that I found them, which I thought was quite sweet. They were a bit old and battered but so comfy, so I'm glad I did!

FINDING THE DRESS | I wasn't really sure what I wanted so I was quite open minded about the process and was told by friends and shop assistants to try lots of different styles which I did. I tried on some really beautiful dresses but they soon made me realise I wanted something much more bridal and traditional than I thought I wanted. I found my dress in the third shop I went to so it was a lot less painful than me, my mum or Col thought it would be. The only thing that really hurt was paying for it!

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Cols suit was from Reiss. He wanted something classic but with a twist! Not something that anyone else would be wearing that day. He completed his look with a plain white shirt and collar bar, dark navy tie and oxblood brogues. He looked very handsome!

His best men and ushers outfits were a mix of things from the high street and we were so happy with how it all came together on the day. I thought all of the guys looked great!

THE READINGS & MUSIC | I walked down the aisle to Pachelbel Canon in D.

Our hymns were Lord of the Dance, Give me Joy in my Heart and How Great Thou Art. We tried to pick hymns that everyone knew so they would join in!

Two of Cols friends, Phil and Louisa read a poem I picked called The Key to Love. They have been happily married for a long time so seemed the perfect choice.

We asked my friend Gemma to pick a reading of her choice and she nailed it! Col is a huge Stevie Wonder fan and she created a reading which was based around his lyrics that were a declaration of our love for each other. Lines like 'you are the sunshine of my life, that's why I'll always be around'. We asked her to save it as a surprise for the day and it really was. There were lots of tears!

Col's sister Karen sang Ave Maria while we signed our wedding register. I had never heard her sing but knew she could and it was important for Col. Wow! She was unbelievable and blew all of our socks off! She received a standing ovation by all of our guests.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had my two best friends (Charlene and Alex) as bridesmaids but as we're all in our thirties, and they are married with kids, I didn't want to dress them up in anything too frilly and girly. Their dresses were from Asos. I think some people thought they were a brave choice but I was really pleased with how they looked on the day, especially once they had all of their hair and makeup done.

Col's nieces (Sienna, Savannah and Molly) were our flower girls and their dresses were from M&S. Our florist made little headdresses for them and they had glittery shoes from Debenhams.

THE FLOWERS | Kirsty came recommended with the venue and she was great! So lovely, she really took the time to understand what I wanted. I don't really know anything about flowers so I simply showed her a couple of pictures of the kind of thing I liked and put my trust in her. I was really pleased with the end result.

THE CAKE | We didn't have one!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Laura Babb who is just amazing! As soon as I saw her work I knew I wanted her for the day. She was so helpful and professional from the start and I can't recommend her highly enough! We are so happy with our pictures.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Before we really knew it was happening, music kind of became our theme. We were both OK with that because it's a big part of our lives but I tried not to make it too theme-tastic!

Col designed our wedding invitations, which were brought to life by our friend Rob, who is a graphic designer.

The venue was a 10-15 min walk from the church so not quite far enough away to justify putting on transport but we wanted to do something to detract from the fact we were asking our wedding guests to walk so we hired Gold Diggers, a brass marching band to lead our wedding guests from the church to the venue, through the streets of Shoreditch. They went down a storm!

As well as a guest book we had a 'cymbal of love' for everyone to sign which is now framed and hanging in Cols studio/office.

We used one of Cols old drums for people to put their cards in.

Instead of people's name cards I had Polaroid pictures of each of our guests made. It was a labour of love but really funny going through peoples Facebook and old family pictures. We got some corkers! Instead of having a seating plan we made a sign saying 'Find your face to find your place' so that everyone got to see everyone else's! Apparently it was a real ice breaker at the tables which was good to hear.

Wooden tambourines were used as centrepieces with little jars of flowers on top and table numbers which were covered in song sheets.

We hired large light up letters (G&C) from Vowed and Amazed.

THE HONEYMOON | We started off with five days in New York! Then we flew to San Francisco for a couple of days before picking up our hire car and driving down the West Coast, along the Big Sur with stops offs along the way until we got to LA. Then after two really fun nights there we went to Mexico for a week, which was just bliss and much needed after the wedding and the previous part of the honeymoon. We finished off with a final night in Venice Beach, which is an insane place!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | We have both said that the actual ceremony was our favourite part of the day. It's the bit that you forget about when you are busy planning everything else, but its actually the most important bit and it was such a powerful and emotional experience.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Don't drink too much the night before! We had dinner at Pizza East with about 50 of our guests the night before the wedding and people had been buying me drinks since checking into The Hoxton Hotel at 3pm. It seemed like a good idea at the time but when I woke up at 4am in a hotel room on my own, really nervous, I soon regretted it! And I had huge eye bags to prove it!

Everything that you hear or are told whilst planning a wedding is true! The day whizzes by! Things will go wrong! It might rain! A homeless man in a wheelchair might wheel himself into your wedding when you're half way through speeches wanting money (well, maybe that just happens to us select few!?) but regardless of any of this, it won't matter. You will have a great day, all of your guests will just love being there in celebration and you will walk away from it all as man and wife.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but do try not to lose sight of what it is all really about. Planning a wedding is stressful and time consuming, especially in the last few months, but it's not worth falling out over.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Devonshire Terrace

Photographer | Laura Babb

Flowers | Flowers by Kirsty

Band | Gold Diggers

Lights | Vowed & Amazed

Sensational.

Thanks so much Colin and Gemma for sharing with us all about your wedding XOXO Lou