Woodberry Wetlands Wedding

A brilliant Jewish Woodberry Wetlands Wedding, London

Woodberry Wetlands Wedding // Ruth and Dan chose to have their London wedding at the newly opened Woodberry Wetlands after finding out that they were opening their doors for a smattering of private hire events over the course of the year.

This wedding certainly was a perfect mix of vibrancy, fun and beauty! 

Choosing Woodberry Wetlands as the venue

“We wanted to get married in London, where the majority of our friends and family live. We liked the idea of being near water, partly because of where we got engaged (on a boat on the Norfolk Broads), and partly because we love the mishmash of urban and rural – of wild and verdant spaces hidden within the city. Ruth saw the cafe at the newly opened Woodberry Wetlands come up on a friend’s instagram feed, and immediately contacted the London Wildlife Trust (which looks after the site) about weddings. Turns out they had recently decided to start doing a handful of private hire events a year, so we were lucky to get in there.”

Woodberry Wetlands Wedding Exclusively Yours

Woodberry Wetlands allow their patrons to use the entire site for their own private functions, Ruth, Dan and their guests had the whole venue to themselves all day, for me, as a creative London wedding photographer, I felt so happy and joyful to be able to shoot at this charming spot, I was most struck by the beauteous greenery that was abundant, you know me, I do love a green frond or fifty, so I was in my palmy element! 🙂 

Walking to the wedding reception

A marquee was set up on the grounds as cover for the wedding breakfast whilst utilising the lush surroundings for the whole wedding party to mill about in and around – A true oasis in the very heart of North London! “We put up a marquee for the ceremony on one side of the water, and then had everyone walk around the water to a second marquee for dinner, before dancing in the Coal House.  Later we discovered that Ruth’s maternal grandparents had married just 10 mins away, which was a meaningful (and serendipitous!) discovery.”

Watermelon Kippot

One of the main talking points of this wedding was, I think anyone in attendance will agree; the watermelon Kippot, yes you heard me correctly(!) watermelon! “One decision that seemed to make a big visual impact was our watermelon kippot which we sourced from Kippah King. Watermelons don’t have a particular meaning for us, but we loved how playful, bright and fun the kippot looked. It was worth it because when we looked out over all our guests, the bright red and green kippot looked so fun.”

The Tisch

“We first saw each other during a ‘tisch-ish’ ceremony that we decided to have with some of our closest family and friends. He was standing in the middle of a circle of all of those special people, and I walked up with my parents and tapped him on the shoulder. He looked insanely dashing (as ever). We loved having some time together before the madness began!”

A BHLDN Bride

After much consideration and a visit to New York (I am imagining an epic eighties montage of dress trying on here!) Ruth’s decision was made firmly on a BHLDN ensemble that she put together herself (a total style queen), a sequinned top matched with a sweeping high waisted bridal skirt. I think you can all agree she is quite a vision of loveliness.

At first I thought I wanted an evening / fun red carpet-type dress, but when I went shopping I couldn’t find anything that felt right. My best friend (and maid of honour) Georgia lives in New York and when I went to visit her we had a hilarious week trying on classic wedding dresses that all looked awful on me. We also had a lot of fun in department stores trying on amazing sequinned evening wear that was way too expensive or (I felt) too mad to marry in.

Finally we went to BHLDN (with a recommendation from an American friend) which is a wedding-only shop connected to Anthropologie. We spotted a fully sequinned cropped top with little roses scattered across it – I think it was intended for bridesmaids. I paired it with a sweeping, high-waisted bridal skirt and instantly felt like we’d hit the jackpot: comfortable but still smart; playful and non-traditional but still ‘bridal’, a bit of colour and detail with the top, but not completely out there.

Wedding Shoes

“The skirt is mid-shin length at the front, so I knew the shoes would be on show. I went a bit mad trying every type of shiny shoe I could find (I believe metallic shoes are basically a neutral), and ended up trying to decide on the wedding day itself between shiny hot pink and iridescent pale pink versions of the exact same shoe (I found them on Asos). Both looked good but I ended up in the paler ones on the day, having canvassed everyone in the room on the morning of the wedding.

They were very *very* high, but had an ankle strap which helped. They weren’t the easiest to dance in, but I just went for it and somehow didn’t feel the agony until after dinner. At that point I changed into my wedding trainers – a pair of Kurt Geiger lace up pumps adorned with gold foil, silver, baubles, and red lips on the back of each pair. They were so mad, very me, and so comfortable. They gave me a whole new lease of life for the dancing.”

The Dashing Groom

Dan is a writer and wrote a whole piece about his quest to find something unusual for the wedding that was special and marked him out as the groom, but wasn’t too OTT. [LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/apr/22/share-spotlight-peacock-groom-wear-wedding] We ended up seeing this beautiful green Paul Smith suit in Selfridges (we were both very hungover; it was the day after my brother’s wedding, but we trusted our instincts nevertheless). The colour is amazing, so vivid and fun. It seemed really appropriate surrounded by all the greenery from the venue, and (unintentionally) complemented the floral details on my top. His shoes – a lovely pair of burgundy Dr Martens – we owe to Jordanna, who drove us to the Dr Martens factory shop when we went to visit her to talk through our plans. An absolute steal at £25!

His tie was made by an amazing tie-maker called Ian Scott Kettle, who makes gorgeous and unusual bespoke ties for cheaper than most of the ones you’ll find in, say, Selfridges. Dan spent a fun hour or so in Ian’s studio choosing all the fabrics with him.

Special Chuppah

One of Ruth’s maids of honour and her husband helped to make the silver birch sacred covering which was accentuated with green foliage to bring it all together., it was completed the day before the wedding and finally Ruth’s late Grandfather’s tall was hung from the canopy.  This was not only a beautiful and stylish London wedding, but also full of sentiment, love, family and friendship.

Woodberry Wetlands Wedding Decoration

“We wanted to keep the floristry side of things as simple as possible. After all, we were getting married in a wild outdoor space, in late May, when all the beautiful plants, trees and flowers were in full bloom. It seemed unnecessary to bring in loads of flowers of our own. We got married in an open-sided marquee on one side of the reservoir, and then had the reception in a transparent marquee on the other side. To decorate these, we hired plants in pots from Sophie at Geo-Fleur. This was more cost effective (and environmentally friendly!) than buying flowers.

The brief we gave her was to keep it simple, which she did to beautiful effect by using understated, textured greenery – typical indoor house-plants like asparagus fern and pilea, in a mixture of pots that she had. These were dotted around the marquee as well as being clustered along the long communal tables where we had dinner. Ruth decided against a bouquet, but wore a hair piece that Sophie made from foliage, fittonia and asparagus fern. It echoed Dan’s button hole and the foliage she had used in the marquees.

Fun balloons to provide a colour pop

We wanted to add some fun colour and asked Sophie to provide lots of oversized helium balloons. The hot weather on the day meant that they didn’t all do exactly what we’d planned, but the clusters of hot pink, orange and yellow balloons still looked fabulous in the corners of our marquee, especially against the brick wall that became a backdrop for our speeches. We went to town on the strings of fairy lights that lined the roof of the transparent marquee. As dusk fell they looked amazing.

The Wedding Smashers DJs

“For the “disco” we used the awesome Wedding Smashers. They’re “alternative wedding DJs” but they weren’t too cool for school at all. Their musical knowledge is unparalleled – from chart pop to UK garage to Scandinavian death metal, if that’s your thing – but they totally took our lead in terms of the vibe. Max read the room so brilliantly, and kept the dance floor full from start to finish. (As Jordanna’s pictures show so brilliantly).”

Wedding Wisdom

“Use your friends! We couldn’t have got through the last days before the wedding and the day itself without the amazing support of our closest friends.We made a big list of things we needed people to take care of, from handing out booklets to keeping our wedding certificate safe to picking up bagels for midnight (yum!) and assigned each task to someone. We realised that people like to feel involved and useful, and it makes a big difference to you – you have enough on your plate!”

Ruth & Dan’s Little Black Book