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An Intimate and Simple London Wedding Blog — Lydia and Lloyd at the ICA, London

By Claire

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Amanda Bal­main describes the ICA as hav­ing “gor­geous high ceil­ings, huge win­dows and ele­gant white inte­ri­ors it is a beau­ti­ful set­ting for a roman­tic, styl­ish wed­ding”. It’s a new venue for me as a wed­ding blog­ger but looks really lovely. Lydia and Lloyd were impressed as well, and used the venue’s rec­om­mended sup­pli­ers who they were very pleased with.

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Before I share all the images I want to intro­duce today’s wed­ding blog with a quote from Lydia which brought tears to my eyes. Talk­ing about the wed­ding cer­e­mony, she says, “it was as if the world around us did not exist any­more, it was only HIM and ME. Only when we kissed and every­body started clap­ping did we real­ize we weren’t alone at all, and every­one who was impor­tant to us, close fam­ily and friends, were with us.”

Isn’t that beautiful?

Con­grat­u­la­tions to Lloyd and Lydia, and thanks for shar­ing your lovely wed­ding report and great advice with us today. Thanks also to wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Amanda Bal­main for today’s wed­ding submission.

Enjoy the wed­ding blog today. Claire xxx
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Lydia and Lloyd — an ele­gant, inti­mate and chic Lon­don wed­ding blog

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The bride and groom: Lydia and Lloyd

Wed­ding venue:

ICA, Insti­tute of Con­tem­po­rary Arts Lon­don www.ica.org.uk

Wed­ding photographer:

Amanda Bal­main Pho­tog­ra­phy www.amandabalmain.com

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

Sim­ple, infor­mal, soft and intimate.

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

Adore Paper http://adorepaper.com

What did you wear?

Bride: Pronovias dress; Rachel Simp­son shoes; Mon­soon ear­rings; veil, hair­piece and bracelet all borrowed

Groom: Stu­dio Jeff Banks, Rus­sell & Brom­ley shoes

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony:

We had a reg­istry office cer­e­mony con­ducted by the West­min­ster City coun­cil at the ICA, Lon­don. I loved the idea to hold the whole wed­ding at one venue, mak­ing the most of the day and not hav­ing to arrange trans­port for everybody.

The coun­cil were very flex­i­ble and gave us a lot of choice about what we wanted to include or not, we felt as though we had the free­dom to pick, add and per­son­al­ize the vows we made which made it even more special.

I walked in to Pachelbel’s Canon in D major, my mum, who raised me as a sin­gle par­ent giv­ing me away (a very spe­cial moment), fairy lights, can­dles and beau­ti­ful flow­ers every­where and of course my hand­some groom.

Which read­ings did you choose?

Khalil Gibran– ‘Von der Ehe’ and ‘We will not wish you Joy’- anonymous

Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details:

I was focused on the idea of a wed­ding abroad in my home coun­try Ger­many or some­where warm like Tus­cany but when we came across the ICA in cen­tral Lon­don — with its two beau­ti­ful Bran­don and Nash rooms and stun­ning views across Lon­don — that changed com­pletely and we were sold on an inti­mate, styl­ish city wedding.

ICA did not have a pretty out­side space so we also decided to pull the wed­ding for­ward and have it in March on the actual anniver­sary of the day we met, March 16th. And thank god we did! We found out a few days later that we were expect­ing our first baby!

What made our day even more spe­cial was the fact I was 6 months preg­nant, ICA was a short 6 minute walk away from the night­club where Lloyd and I first met on a Sat­ur­day night exactly 6 years ago.

The rooms at the ICA are per­fect for a small, inti­mate wed­ding (45 guests) and we kept things sim­ple and relaxed with a U shaped table set­ting which made the Wed­ding Break­fast feel more like a fun Sun­day fam­ily dinner.

We used ICA’s rec­om­mended cater­ing firm, florist and fur­ni­ture hire com­pany and thought they all did a fan­tas­tic job in help­ing us make our vision come to real­ity. I wanted to cre­ate an infor­mal space with a warm atmos­phere where we and our rel­a­tives and friends would feel at home, be relaxed and enjoy the evening.

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

Paul Mar­tyn — sax­o­phon­ist, wed­ding singer and DJ, who knows how to read a crowd and give them what they want. Absolutely bril­liant! http://paulmartyn.co.uk

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

The cer­e­mony, although only a short reg­istry office ser­vice (our two ladies from West­min­ster Coun­cil were superb), the per­son­alised words and read­ings made it feel very spe­cial and brought tears to our eyes. At this moment, it was as if the world around us did not exist any­more, it was only HIM and ME. Only when we kissed and every­body started clap­ping did we real­ize we weren’t alone at all, and every­one who was impor­tant to us, close fam­ily and friends, were with us.

Wed­ding day advice:

First: Stay true to your­self and who you are as a cou­ple and do not let the wed­ding become big­ger than life. It is so easy nowa­days with so many won­der­ful and cre­ative ideas, wed­ding blogs and mag­a­zines around to lose track of what it’s all about– YOU and YOUR GROOM. Have an inspi­ra­tional browse around, then pick your style and stick to it. Trust your­self and it will turn out even more per­fect than you could have pic­tured it!

Sec­ond: Sur­round your­self with peo­ple who will keep you calm and relaxed, but can get things mov­ing when you need them to. A friend who got mar­ried recently her­self will under­stand what is going on and know exactly what to expect, she is most likely to be your best brides­maid ever!!

Third: Take time and good care when choos­ing your pho­tog­ra­pher, your pho­tos will be the most impor­tant mem­o­ries of your spe­cial day. Amanda was truly amaz­ing and I really rec­om­mend hav­ing a get to know you pre wed­ding engage­ment shoot. It will be an excel­lent use of your time get­ting used to being in front of the cam­era and work­ing out your best angles and poses.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

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