With a budget of just £4000, Gabrielle and Paul had a quirky Southend-on-Sea Wedding on 10th June 2015 (happy anniversary guys!) The ceremony was at the registry office and their reception was hosted at Bacchus Restaurant.
“In all honesty, other than the venues and what we were going to wear, there wasn’t really much that we planned”, explained the bride. “We just wanted our eccentric personalities to shine through in a transcendent and immersive setting surrounded by the ones we love.”
“As creative professionals, we are both often commissioned to showcase chosen inspirations for campaigns, so it was a new an interesting process for us to be able to just portray exactly what we wanted – our own personalities and interests. We really didn’t choose any specific theme but we were influenced a lot by having something that was a contemporary mix of vintage aesthetics, world culture and nature.”
This low maintenance couple didn’t make lots of plans for the day, instead choosing to let things unfold naturally. “We let a lot of things happen organically”, she continued. “Anything our families offered to contribute, be it traditional Italian wedding cookies, family heirlooms, live music or our ying-yang wedding cake, we happily said ‘Yes! Thank you!’. We feel it made the day that much more personal, and really allowed both of our families, from different continents, to share traditions that helped create the people we are today.”
“One thing we did make ourselves was the individual seating name tags, correlating each person with a little Victorian etching of an object that we felt best fit their personality. It was a treat watching everyone react to their print. I also created my own fresh floral headpiece by flowers bought the day before at a local grocery store. I find it inspiring to create interesting pieces from accessible everyday objects.”
“Our biggest expense was our photographer because you simply can’t put a price on exceptional artistry”, she concluded, “and we saved by having the reception at a restaurant. It didn’t need any additional decor either!”
