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The offbeat bride: Emma, Deputy Box Office Manager at The Lyceum Theatre
Her offbeat partner: Carl, Lighting Technician and Stage Manager
Location & date of wedding: Camden Town Hall followed by the reception at the London Canal Museum, Kings Cross, UK — 12/09/09
What made our wedding offbeat: We don't enjoy being the centre of attention, so we skipped many of the formalities like sit down meals, cake cutting, first dances & speeches, which made for a wonderfully relaxed day.
We walked from the Registry Office to the reception venue, and it was certainly entertaining seeing the looks we got from passers-by spotting a Bride & Groom followed by fifty people walking towards them!
The venue itself was important to us, as we wanted somewhere the kids could enjoy and somewhere that was visually stunning. The Canal Musuem was a god send and Martin, who deals with hire, was amazing. The Museum has a stunning canal side location that meant we could spend the late afternoon enjoying the sun, then watching it set before heading inside to enjoy the bare brick walls and exposed beams.
We went with colours and small touches that are main influences. Pink, black and white, candle light, hand made black rose and skull table decorations and a Day of the Dead cake topper!
Instead of a DJ we hired a Jukebox — we are music fanatics and it gave us control over what was available to play, plus it was heaps of fun for everyone!!
Our 100+ invites, favour signs and postbox were handmade and decorated with a Sailor Jerry style Swallow holding a banner. I also decorated our guestbook cover with a collage of images reflecting us — sun records, vintage horror films, tea cups and pots, tattoos and so on.
Our biggest challenge: Was Money. We had no budget so we had to buy bits and bobs here and there leading up to the big day.
Sometimes it was very frustrating, for example, we were adamant that we wanted cupcakes, but found most to be very overpriced (I don't have the skill to make so many myself) but after three hours of frantic Googling I found a wonderful lady charging a wonderful price and they wound up being one of the most talked about things of the day!
We made lots of things, this also saved lots of money obviously. Especially where the invites and favours were concerned.
I also managed to pick up my dress, the bridesmaids dress, my shoes and the Grooms suit in various sales at Debenham — it was purely conincidental to be honest but Debenhams did me proud for our big day!
My favorite moment: There are so many… here are my top five!
Seeing one of my best friends nearly burst in to tears when she saw me. Getting my vows wrong and thinking the ring wasn't going to go on my finger! Having Carl being blown away by how I looked. Strolling through a busy London street with my new husband and being surrounded by stares, shouts of congratulations and people taking pictures on their camera phones. Looking around at the reception and feeling blessed by the glorious September sun and all the people I love and care for being around me having fun.
To be honest, our day was filled with love, laughter and happiness and exceeded all our expectations a million times over.
My advice for other offbeat brides: Patience is a virtue and think further outside the box you're already thinking outside of!
London is an especially expensive place to get married and if it wasn't for the hours we spent Googling we wouldn't have managed to pull it off.
I was very disheartened by the cost of caterers most venues insisted you used and what you got for that money so I Googled “London venue use your own caterer” and not only got to use a caterer of my choice, but this random search led to the venue of our dreams!
Care to share a few vendor/shopping links? 
- We hired the Canal Museum which I would advise anyone looking for a unique Central London Venue where the staff bend over backwards to help to check out.
- Our delicious cupcakes came from a wonderful lady named Cindy.
- Flowers by Alan at Hybrid.
- Brides, Bridesmaids and Groom dressed by Debenhams
- Hair created by Nina, the only place to go for vintage hair cuts, colours and up do's!
- Jukebox hire
- Feathers, fur shrug, favours and cake topper… plus many other things – Ebay.
- Candles, holders and favour jar – Ikea.
Enough talk — show me the wedding porn:
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I loved your theme!! Retro-glam look is really thinking outside the box with weddings! It's like a fairy-tale wedding for Rockers! I love it! I wish I could of been that creative! The ice cream cart was a significant add to the decoration! Seems like every little detail helped embrace the bigger theme! Beautiful pictures by the way!
Your wedding sounds fantastic! My partner and I had our civil partnership on friday, and had such an amazing day. Our day was tainted, however, by the devastating fact that our amazing photographer, that we chose based on her excellent portfolio of wedding photographs, decided not to turn up! It was CAMILLE WARING! It saddens me so much that she could do that to anyone, and she is now apparently un-contactable! If anyone in London can let me know her whereabouts, then I would be very grateful!
Hi,
Please email, she has done exactly the same to me. She is now in Melbourne in Australia. I know another Bride in the same position. We have gone to the Police, the more of that go the more chance we have of getting justice. Email me for more details.
Hi Susannah – Camiile Waring did the same to me and i have spoke to clare price about the action she has taken. my email is [email protected] – she is not going to get away with this!
Stunning, love the hair (wish Nina's was a bit closer). What a brilliant wedding!
What great ideas! Well done!
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Wow – I love the look of the whole thing, the venue sounds fantastic and your tattoos look great with the dress! A gorgeous wedding. Plus I am beyond excited that it's possible to hire a jukebox! Wonderful idea!
I was lucky enough to be your guest and so glad you are on offbeatbride! You looked stunning, and yes I cried and as my boyfriend said, "You are the coolest bride I have ever seen". What a wedding, we had a smashing day and loved every moment of it! Big love to you and Carlos Van Dingos. Just one thing, you know there's a new site linked to this one called offbeatmama! Get busy you two. x
I love this wedding, I love the dress sooo glamourous… and I know what it's like getting married in Londomn on a budget… I wish I had thought of hiring a juke box!! congrats it all looks fantastic…
Lovely wedding. Who did you pick as your caterer in the end?