UK brides need to see this swanky London bank wedding

Swanky London Bank Wedding – Jessica Williams 6

When we imagine the city weddings of our dreams we instantly think of swanky, elegant affairs featuring high-fashion & upscale venues. Today’s real wedding surpasses those expectations thanks to a few of London’s most fabulous venues & a to-die-for Claire Pettibone wedding dress.

A grand old bank turned stunning hotel, an ornate cathedral & a swanky restaurant set the stage for this stunning City of London wedding. Each an architectural masterpiece, the venues provided clean, marble backdrops for the couple’s wedding portraits.

Strolling through the grand walkways between venues, photographer Jessica Williams captured flawless candid moments – as though the city had been shut down for their special day.

Our Love Story

We met through friends in 2009 and got engaged in Paris in 2014, which was very romantic. We originally planned to get married in 2016 but decided to go travelling instead, so we restarted the wedding planning from a beach in India in Feb 2017!

The Dress & Attire

I have loved Claire Pettibone dresses ever since I joined my sister wedding dress shopping for her wedding in 2015. I saw the Kristene Dress back then and when I tried it on two years later I knew it was the dress for me!

We found Beggars Run through Instagram, the guys there are brilliant and Terry’s made to measure suit was the perfect fit.

The Venues & Style

We live in Northamptonshire surrounded by countryside and have therefore been to lots of beautiful country house, barn and marquee weddings. We wanted to plan a day that felt different and more relevant to us.

We have always loved spending time in London and the Hawksmoor is one of our favourite restaurants. When we found out they catered for weddings at their Guildhall restaurant it felt perfect. We are massive food lovers so to be able to serve up such a great feast to our guests was amazing for us, we knew right from the start that the guys at Hawksmoor would get it spot on.

The Venues & Style

Everything else just fell into place, the stunning St Lawrence Jewry Church was a five-minute walk away and nine months before our big day, Soho House opened their latest hotel, The Ned, just around the corner. We booked rooms to spend the days leading up to the wedding and the days afterward. Most of our guests stayed too so we really made a weekend of it. The party back at the Ned went into the very small hours. It was great fun on the day to be able to walk between the venues, and luckily the rain held off.

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Swanky London Bank Wedding – Jessica Williams 5

The Photography

We met Jess, our amazing wedding photographer at a wedding fair at The Truman Brewery on Brick Lane, we knew as soon as we saw her work that she would capture our day perfectly! Neither of us are great at posing so Jess’s romantic yet modern style worked perfectly for us. We couldn’t be happier with the images!

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The Reception

We wanted our day to be really relaxed and fun, we had an incredible magician that entertained guests during the drinks reception and dinner. We went for a speech free wedding, because no one needs that pressure! Instead, we just said a few thank you’s to our nearest and dearest.

The band kicked things off in the evening followed by a DJ, we opted for a first song rather than a first dance and insisted everyone joined us on the dancefloor for ‘Chic – Everybody Dance’. The party (and the drinks) flowed from there and it was brilliant fun!

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Advice to Other Couples

During the planning stages, Instagram and Pinterest are full of amazing ideas which really help to plan and consider things you may not have thought of otherwise! On the day, take five minutes to sit back and take it all in, it goes so fast!

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The Honeymoon

We headed to Costa Rica for our honeymoon, it was fantastic and had such a great variety of things to do. From sloth watching in the rainforest, horse riding, white water rafting or soaking up the sun with a cocktail on the beach, Costa Rica has something for everyone and we can not wait to go back there!