Stormy and Dan were married in London and although they didn’t want a theme, their personalities and sense of style really came through on the day. “We flirted with the idea of a theme but to be honest it was difficult to find something that fitted the both of us and wasn’t super stressful to implement”, Stormy began.
“We had a very loose theme of ‘celestial’ which was woven into the invites, guest note cards (custom stamp based on a vintage illustration) and music at the ceremony – we just wanted everyone to have fun and wanted a wedding that was a reflection of us that we could enjoy, too.”
The chose Asylum Chapel, a deconsecrated church, as their ceremony space. They fell in love with it aesthetically and loved the fact that it didn’t need much in the way of extra decor! “I found the Asylum Chapel a while back via Rock n Roll Bride. We found a couple of milk churns on eBay and had them filled with a large simple arrangements either side of the parapet which was filled with candles (provided by the venue). The actual ceremony was pretty simple and quick but that’s exactly what we wanted. I walked down the aisle to Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine because one of our first dates was their gig at the O2″
“We wanted to recognise our mothers during the ceremony, too. My brilliant mother Geraldine brought up my siblings and I without dads (none of them stuck around – their loss). As fathers are still the only ones that make an official appearance on the wedding certificate I wanted her to be a witness on it and Dan asked his mum, too. I also asked my brother to walk me down the aisle as I had promised him this when he was little. It meant a lot to have him walk beside me even though I had to hold him back so he didn’t run from nerves!”
One of the main considerations for Stormy when planning the wedding was how to include and pay homage to all the wonderful women in her life. She told us, “After Uni I moved back to London and I was lucky enough to meet some amazing women that helped me grow into the person I am today. Without their friendship and support I might never have believed I deserved a love like Dan. They are my Girl Gang and I wanted to let people know this on the day. They are an eclectic bunch so I wanted them to feel their most gorgeous on the day by wearing whatever they wanted. To have something to tie us together I suggested we all wear a black jacket and have baseball bats we could decorate ourselves rather than carrying bouquets. We had a painting party for the bats and basically covered the garden in black, silver and gold spray paint including some apples which survived for three months! The jackets we decorated at the hen weekend spent in an East London AirBnB, covering them in pins and patches. It was a nice chill thing to do in the evening after a day of axe throwing at Whistle Punk.”
After catching the bus (yes, literally waiting at the bus stop and hopping on the next one that turned up!, they hosted a informal reception at one of their favourite bars. “I’m pansexual and we wanted to support the LGBTQ+ community where we could”, Stormy explained. “Luckily, we had spent many nights at Her Upstairs, a brilliant bar in Camden that was run by Meth the Drag Queen, and especially loved a drag group called L.A.D.S. We asked them if they would perform a surprise set at our after party and they agreed! It was an amazing performance that brought the house down. We asked Matt (our photographer) to get some shots of the crowd’s reaction (especially the parents) which are hilarious. Lilly Snatchdragon’s Ewok striptease completely threw my brother for a loop!”
Of their £14,000 budget, their biggest cost was hiring out the bar. They had a minimum spend but they also wanted their family and friends to really kick back and enjoy themselves so they put some money behind the bar, too. “Everyone was having a good time so we decided to bump it up on the night. We both like hosting and felt that the wedding was also our opportunity to say thank you to everyone there.”
