Non traditional wedding in the city -Real Wedding || Jess & James -

Today on the Urban Wedding blog we have the stunning non traditional city wedding of Jess & James. They had a fun wedding in Kentish Town, London. It’s full of personality (which we love, of course) smoke bombs and a cool band.

Jess & James married at a registry office before heading out for some street shots. Then they headed to The Bull & Gate to have a wedding reception with their family and friends. Before dancing the night away to a live band!

Where did you have your wedding?

The ceremony was at Marylebone Town Hall, a beautiful old venue, recently renovated and with a history of celebrity weddings! For the reception we chose Bull & Gate, a characterful Victorian pub and ex gin palace. Its a cool venue where bands like Oasis, Blur and Nirvana played in the 80’s. Ok, it’s official this venue is uber cool!!

A wedding that reflected us

Our wedding was a celebration of us – curated not for tradition. But to be a true reflection of our personalities and most importantly FUN. We love Autumn in London and we wanted to reflect this, as well as the sense of fun that we were both seeking from the day. With an incredible sax band, a piñata, enormous confetti canons, personalised cocktails and a close-knit group of our favourite people. We held the reception in a rather lovely London pub and I think we achieved just what we wanted, a non traditional city wedding

Lawful or Awful wedded husband?

We were married in the Westminster Room of Old Marylebone Town Hall, a beautiful oak-paneled room. The saxophonist played ‘Stand by Me’ by Ben E. King. Jess’s sister Rebecca, our bridesmaid, walked the aisle with her children Oscar (page boy) and Olivia (flower girl), but not before one of our little flower girls (James’s niece Amelia) bolted down the aisle like a wild animal much to everyone’s amusement!

Jess was walked down the (very short) aisle by her Mum, with a big smile. Amusingly, during the vows Jess mistakenly said ‘awful wedded husband’ instead of lawful, which went down a treat!

Jess’s brother and James’s gran both did a non-traditional readings while we signed the register. Our talented friend Heather performed an incredible rendition of L.O.V.E. by Nat King Cole, backed by the saxophone. We were played out of the room to ‘Twisting the Night Away’ by Sam Cooke.

We did things our way

After the ceremony we exited the hall to a tunnel of the biggest (biodegradable) confetti cannons that anyone had ever seen, which was amazing fun! Our guests hopped on a vintage Route master while the bride and groom hailed down a cab for a photo trip around Regent Park. The rain was coming down heavy, but despite getting very wet it was completely worth it, and we had so much fun.

We started with a champagne reception and a pimp your own prosecco station, during which James gave his speech to avoid the usual long period of listening to speeches. Dinner was served in the dining hall, decorated with stunning autumnal flowers and foliage hanging from the chandeliers and every corner, by Lizzie Thorne. During dinner we threw some of the traditions up in the air with a speech by the Bride, as well as the Maid of honour and the Father of the bride.

Cocktails and dancing

After dinner, we had a cocktail reception with personalised cocktails, they were ‘Jim & Juice’ and ‘Jesspresso Martini’. While our guests enjoyed them we escaped for some more photos, again in the rain! We played with smoke grenades and sparklers in the streets of the candy coloured houses in Kentish town. When we returned we hung the piñata, Jess swung first making a mark but leaving empty handed. James then rocked up, took a swing and completely missed, which he hasn’t lived down yet!

We cut our delicious three tier cake from SE cakery. It was topped with mini toppers from Beau Bows and had three alternative flavours, which were cherry bakewell, Neapolitan and red velvet.

We had an incredible, energetic and fun performance by More is More, a brass funk band. Probably the most fun bit of the day. By the end of the set they were up on their chairs, circling the guests and clearly having a lot of fun! They were an unusual choice but 100% us and our guests absolutely loved them, as did we. Finally, a DJ played tunes for the rest of the night, and the dance floor was full throughout!

It was a very wet day and Jess was fresh out of a leg cast following a serious injury three months earlier. So things weren’t ‘perfect’, but our fun, non-traditional and creative wedding was unique and we loved every minute of it! A lot of our guests said it was the best wedding they’d ever been too, and we don’t disagree!

What did you wear?

Jess wore a Justin Alexander gown. It was stunning and had a lace applique and was a pink champagne (soft blush) colour. I loved that it has a detachable skirt. Although I had so much fun wearing the enormous skirt I never actually took it off. I intended on getting a much more simple dress for a non traditional city wedding. But when dress shopping I decided it was the only time I’d ever get to wear such a big dress and so went for it. Given the constant rain on the day it wasn’t the most practical choice, but I had a lot of fun wearing it! I also wore a custom made dried flower crown made by Folky Dokey which completed the look and is something I’ll treasure for years to come.

James wore a forest green 3-piece tweed suite by Walker Slater. It was paired with tan Grenson shoes, Liberty print tie/pocket square and a Charles Tyrwhitt shirt. He also wore an engraved Greenwich Watch Company pocket watch and a pair of Ralph Lauren ‘bear drinking martini’ socks!