Kat and Andrew had a colourful wedding and took inspiration from the bride’s tattoos and of times gone by. “We planned our wedding by the rule ‘do what you’d do if you didn’t know what was done’, as we didn’t want to go along with traditions that we didn’t understand or necessarily agree with”, Kat wrote. “We both saw our wedding day as an opportunity to throw a massive party for all of our family and friends, which made planning so much more fun! It’s far easier to be creative when you’re not preoccupied with what you think you ought to be doing, or with what you think people expect of you.”
“At our reception we created an informal, summer party atmosphere by hiring lots of vintage games from Matt and Annabel (our gramophone DJs). We both had an amazing time splatting rats, hooking ducks and throwing coconuts with our friends and family! It was great to see how involved everybody was and how competitive some people became over the egg and spoon race.”
Kat wore a short dress by Justin Alexander and two pairs of shoes, the first from Irregular Choice and the second Melissa for Vivienne Westwood. “I tried my dress on for the first time in April 2012”, she explained. “I knew that I didn’t want a full length dress from day one for both practical and aesthetic reasons. I wanted to be able to pee without taking an entourage to the ladies with me, I wanted to be able to dance, I wanted to show off my tattoos and I wanted an excuse to buy some killer shoes. Style 8555 from Justin Alexander was the only one I fell in love with. I’m a sucker for lace and the tulle ballerina skirt sat perfectly above my ankles.”
“We were planning our wedding for over three years, and if we could have done anything differently, we would have had more confidence in changing our minds”, she concluded. “We ended up cancelling our original photographer (we weren’t 100% sure about them and were scared to admit we’d made a mistake), but this turned out to be one of the best decisions we made.”
“We both have so much love for James Melia, who we eventually went for. Booking him was a massive highlight in the planning of our wedding and looking at his beautiful, honest images we both had a gut feeling that he was ‘the one!’. Our images are the most precious thing we have from our day and James was by far the best money we spent. If we’ve learnt anything from the planning process, it’s that if you’re not happy – speak up and be proactive in fixing it!”
