Roast Borough Market Wedding Photography

Roast Borough Market Wedding – Anna and Dil

Anna and Dil’s wedding in London was so much fun to photograph. SO much fun. A riot of colour, a procession through the streets of London, a river boat cruise down the Thames, Lady And The Tramps getting everyone dancing during the drinks reception (for the second time this year – seriously this band are brilliant!) and an amazing meal at Roast in Borough market. This wedding exuded joy all day long.

Here’s what Anna and Dil had to say about their wedding at Roast in Borough Market:

The Beginning

We met randomly, in a black taxi on the Strand in London after a night out. Anna’s bridesmaid stopped at a cash machine to get money and Dil and his friend thought the taxi was empty and got in. They were heading in the same direction so the taxi driver suggested we share the fare. Dil and I got talking, swapped numbers, and we went out the following evening.

I was living in Leeds at the time so we started to see each other on and off over the next few weeks and had a great few weeks of dating over the summer. Charlotte (one of my other bridesmaids) and I had a big Vegas and West Coast America trip planned and when I got back Dil was waiting at the airport to take me away for a weekend at a lovely country hotel in Kent and then we became official from there!

Dil proposed on my birthday in 2014, on a weekend trip to Bath. His proposal was scuppered by the floods and he couldn’t do it where he wanted to, but we drove out to lovely spot and he asked me there instead. It ended up being even more lovely as it was on a spot called Alfred’s Tower, which is my grandad’s name who is no longer with us. We drove back to tell our parents and to celebrate with them!
The Venues

London and the Southbank is really special to both of us. Dil moved there from North Wales to go to University and I spent many weekends there with my family when I was younger.

We wanted to get married somewhere that meant something to us, and that encompasses all the things we like doing like having fun, eating good food and drinking wine! We can be quite restless so wanted something were we moved about a bit during the day so we decided to have a separate afternoon party on the Thames on a boat, which was fantastic and meant we could have a bit of outdoor space too if the weather was nice!

One of our favourite parts of the day was walking along with everyone from the church to the boat and then down the Southbank to get to Roast. It was lovely to have some time on our own to chat after the service but also to walk along chatting to all our friends and family as we went from place to place.

The Ceremony

A church service was really important to me as I grew up a Catholic and although I rarely go to church now, it was always something that I wanted to do when getting married. Father Tom at St Etherdreda’s was really lovely and gave a lovely talk after our ceremony where he honed in on bits and pieces from the readings and the poem that we’d picked too.

Father Tom was incredibly helpful with the planning process. On his advice, we decided not to have a full Catholic Mass as, with Dilwyn isn’t Catholic so it wouldn’t have been fully inclusive to us both. I searched for ages to find modern, non ‘man centric’ catholic readings! In the end I chose one from the book of Ruth, adapted one from one of St Paul’s letters and then my Mum read ‘The Lovely Dinosaur’ by Edward Monkton which had everyone in tears as she read it so well!

For the hymns we had “I watch the sunrise” which was one of my favourites from when I was little and then “Bread of Heaven” as Dil is welsh and a huge rugby fan! The church choir was fantastic too and really made the service so beautiful.

The Outfits
I had a bit of an idea in my head as to what I wanted and ended up trawling the internet for ages looking at various styles. I wanted a bit of a party feel to the dress and when I was looking it turned out I was more into sparkle than I thought! I stumbled upon a picture of my dress and booked in to Jenny Packham where I tried on 5 dresses, leaving this one to last, and that was that. Sold! I tend to know what’s going to suit me and although I did have a wobble thinking I should have tried on loads of different styles, but I just loved all the beading and how soft it was. It also meant I could walk around London without worrying about picking up half of London’s debris on my dress! I thought I wanted a little half veil but then fell in love with the sparkly headband. I added on the veil about two weeks before the wedding in one of my final fittings!

Shopping for the bridesmaids dresses was a lovely afternoon out, ending with a few bubbles after! The girls could chose whatever they liked as I really wanted them to feel and look great on the day. They tried on loads of styles each and found one that suited them but then we couldn’t decide on a colour that suited everyone. It was very close to the end of our appointment when we were flicking back through the dresses and spotted the patterned fabric, which had just come in. Everyone loved it and looked great in it and so it was a great last minute save!

The grooms outfits we spotted on a wedding blog and they had a fun day out (and night after) in Covent Garden once they’d chosen their tweed.

My hairdresser was my usual hairdresser Premlee who is honestly just magic. It was really lovely having him there for the morning and him and Rich made everyone look stunning, as did Danielle the make up artist!

Getting ready was one of my favourite times – we had use of one of the rooms in the Rookery and all had breakfast in there whilst working through last minute additions to table plans and dresses – it was a hive of activity. It was so lovely as lots of the family and friends could pop in, say hello and have a glass of champagne with us in the morning!

The Flowers and Decor

My mum and I went on holiday to South Africa years ago and there was a wedding in the hotel there that had a huge display of little vases and flowers and from there I was set on having them for my wedding. I wanted it all to be really bright colours so Andy, the florist, kept to individual flowers in each vase to give a colour block effect which tied in with all the colours in my bouquet.

I love a balloon. It’s not a party without a balloon! So these amazing oversized ones from Bubblegum balloons were in from the start. It was great using them as markers on our walk along the Thames to show everyone the route – even if I did get wrapped round a few tourist on the walk as it was quite windy!

The Photography

I can’t stop telling Laura how great she is. We just love our photos and everyone has remarked on how brilliant her photos are and how she just blended in on the day. She was great all day – not needing to be prompted and not being dictatorial either! We can’t thank her enough. She has honesty captured the true spirit of our wedding, our friends, family and us!

The words of Wisdom

Make it last as long as possible! We loved having brunch with everyone the day after as it gave us a chance to catch up with them properly and separately to our wedding day.

Savour the ceremony and just afterwards – for us we remember the church and walk down to the boat so well and it totally sunk in that it was our wedding day and we were married at that point!!

The Credits

Dress: Jenny Packham www.jennypackham.com //Bridesmaid Dresses: Maids to Measure www.maidstomeasure.com // Groom and Groomsmen: Walker Slater www.walkerslater.com // Flowers: Wild About Flowers www.wildabout.co.uk //Rings: Burt and Gurt, Hatton Garden http://www.burtandgurt.london/ //Boat: Thames Luxury Charters: http://www.thamesluxurycharters.co.uk/ // Wedding Breakfast/Evening: Roast, Borough Market www.roast-restaurant.com //Wedding Hotel: The Rookery www.rookeryhotel.com // Church: St Etheldreda’s RC Church, Ely Place http://www.stetheldreda.com/ //Balloons: Bubblegum Balloons https://www.bubblegumballoons.co.uk/ //Hair: Premlee Ramasamy //Make Up: Danielle from Michelle McGregor, http://www.makeupartistrylondon.com/ //Cheeseboard: Neals Yard Dairy https://www.nealsyarddairy.co.uk/ //Afternoon Band: Lady and the Tramps http://www.thebandboutique.co.uk/vintage-styled-wedding-band-brighton/ // Evening Band: The Bears http://www.thebears.uk.com/ //Stationary: Wolf and Ink www.wolfandink.co.uk // Day Stationary and posters: Rebecca at RLA Wedding Designs http://www.rlaweddingdesigns.co.uk/