Sophie and Gonzalo's Village Underground wedding in Shoreditch London
If you're having a Village Underground Wedding in Shoreditch, your last portrait of the night should definitely be in front of a picture of a horse in a paddling pool, with a shopping trolley thrown in for good measure. We obviously took portraits that just focused on Sophie and Gonzalo, but I definitely loved that they were up for this tongue in cheek homage to East London.
Sophie and Gonzalo were a dream to work with. They were warm and welcoming and their warehouse wedding was amazingly good fun. From their lovely traditional Greek ceremony (where Sophie got the giggles!) to the energy of the dance-floor (watch out for crowd surfing and the absolutely brilliant Faithettes). It was a really enjoyable day. I love a winter wedding and this one was so much fun.
"It was so much fun on the day and I think you can see and feel that through the photos. The pictures are amazing" - Sophie and Gonzalo
Here's what they had to say about their wedding photography and working with me: Babb was wonderful to work with. It was so much fun on the day and I think you can see and feel that through the photos. The pictures are amazing. It was really fun working with Babb Photo and we couldn't have chosen better. We booked Laura after saw the wedding photos of an old school friend and as soon as we saw them we just knew that we loved Babb's style!!!
Sophie and Gonzalo met while working on the 2012 London Olympics. Scroll down to read all about it and for all of the details about their Village Underground Wedding.
See more awesomeness from Babb Photo over on the blog!
A first meeting at the London Olympic Games
We met for the first time working in the same department on the London 2012 Olympic Games, While we didn't spend much time together, we knew each other and had many mutual friends. From there we went on to work for different projects (Sophie in Glasgow and Gonzalo in Sochi) but were reunited in Canada working on the Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Para Pan Am Games.
What started as a friendship turned in to more over a few months. We often disagree about the date that we made things official but what we both agree is that from a discussion we had in the Red Rooster bar in New York we were serious about being together. We made plans to move back to London after the Games in Toronto were over and were committed to following the other wherever our jobs might take us.
We got engaged a little more that a year later. Gonzalo proposed at his family's New Year party in Madrid (in private), where Sophie's friends were visiting and joined in on the celebrations.
A London wedding venue to host close to 300 guests
We both have a lot of family and friends that live abroad. We wanted as many people as possible to be able to join us to celebrate our wedding and while we would have loved to get married in Cyprus or Spain, it wasn't very easy for either our Cypriot family, or Spanish family to make it the either location. We decided on the UK but wanted everyone to be able to enjoy their weekend without too much travelling, so we decided on a London wedding (easier said than done when you have a guest list of 270!).
A love of East London and a blank canvas warehouse
We've both always loved East London and enjoyed going out for drinks, brunch or dinner there. It's also special to us as Gonzalo lived there during London 2012 and Sophie's family are from that area. We didn't want a super formal or traditional wedding and liked the idea of an industrial/urban themed wedding.
When we found Village Underground we just new it was going to be an amazing blank canvas to be able to showcase our personality and use our organising skills to make something really special. We chose the church firstly, because Sophie's parents got married there on the same weekend but 30 years earlier and it was just pure luck that it was in such close proximity to the reception venue!
A bride in Jesus Peiro and a groom in Knack Menswear
Sophie: Jesus Peiro Dress
I tried on so many dresses and this one just shouted at me as soon as i saw it. It was traditional but had a modern twist to it. I wanted to look and feel like a bride but i wanted the dress to also suit the venue.
Gonzalo: Knack Menswear, Madrid
The tailed suit is pretty traditional for Spanish weddings. Gonzalo had free reign to wear whatever he wanted and he kept it a secret until the wedding day!
Our flowers by Early Hours LTD exceeded anything we could have dreamed of
Village Underground speaks for itself. It's such a cool venue and we wanted to accentuate it's features not mask them or overshadow them. We chose every item that was placed in the venue - which is the amazing thing about dry hire venues... and also very stressful. With the florals, we were so lucky with our supplier (Early Hours Ltd). Liz was amazing and had such creative ideas.... I felt so comfortable that i gave her a short brief and just let her work her magic and wow..... it exceeded anything we could have dreamed of. The same for the Bouquet! I got overwhelmed and gave Liz free reign and it was simply wonderful and exactly what I would have chosen!
A Greek Orthodox church ceremony at the same Church Sophie's parents were married
We had our ceremony in St John the Thelogian Greek Orthodox Church in Hackney. My parents got married there, Sophie's aunt got married there and Sophie and her siblings were baptised in the same church so it had a lot of sentimental meaning. We kept everything very traditional and kept the ceremony as it should be.
A first dance to Nina Simone followed by The Faithettes Band
I put a spell on you - Nina Simone. Gonzalo would often tell Sophie that she had 'put a spell on him'. This was followed by The Faithettes Band and DJ Terry Lewis
Hiring a planner to help on the day
If you go for a dry hire venue make sure that you get a wedding planner for at least part of your planning journey but definetly on the day! We spent almost a year putting our everything in to planning the wedding we really wanted and because we had so many suppliers, our biggest stress was who would be managing them in the lead up and on the day, We knew we couldn't do it and we didn't want to give such a huge responsibility to friends or family because we wanted them to enjoy the day with us.
We hired a planner to help us with supplier management about 6 weeks before the big day and then manage all the operations on the day. We both work in events so we had most of our plans already in place; our budget plans, running orders, table plans and pinterest boards done and ready just to hand over and boy.... it was such a relief!!!!
Charlotte Dodd was a huge help to us in the lead up, working with suppliers and also filtering questions from them so that we could enjoy Christmas and plan other areas of the wedding. Nothing was too big or small to ask. There were some days when I would just brain dump things that needed to be done, worries/concerns we had, questions and Charlotte was amazing at taking those things on board, getting jobs done and in Bridezilla moments just being reassuring!!!!
A last minute wedding film
Sophie was really against filming the day, she felt it was really old fashioned, however, after her mum offered to gift the videographer package she decided to go with it and it was one of the best decisions we made.
We wouldn't change one second of the day BUT we wish we had taken on some advice of one of our friends.... take a moment to enjoy each other on your big day. We were so busy making sure we spoke to and thanked every one and danced like crazy that we didn't spend much time together...
Sophie and Gonzalo's suppliers
Dress: Morgan Davies http://www.morgandaviesbridal.co.uk/
Shoes: Dune www.dune.co.uk
Florst: www.earlyhoursltd.co.uk
Venue: Village Underground www.villageunderground.co.uk
Lighting: Static Light Company www.staticlightcompany.com/
Cake: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts https://www.krispykreme.co.uk/
Caterer Sabel www.sabelfood.co.uk/
Bridesmaids: Own dresses
Groom: Hired from various suppliers
Stationary: LadyBug Pixels @ Etsy
Band: The Faithettes https://www.faithettes.com/
DJ: DJ Terry Lewis www.djterryjlewis.com/
Video: Rapid Image www.rapidimageuk.com/
Partial Planning and on the day support:: Charlotte Elise Dodd Events www.charlotteelise.co.uk/
Evening Snack: Pizza Buzz https://www.pizzabuzz.co.uk/
To see more Village Underground wedding photography check out Luke and Natalie's wedding and if you're looking for a wedding photographer in London please do get in touch.
Let's make pictures together!
Hello! I'm Babb and I've been photographing weddings for over ten years!
I’ve photographed over 300 weddings, all over the world, I've won a bunch of awards for my work, I teach and mentor other photographers, but most of all I pride myself on creating pictures that my couples absolutely love, while not being very ‘wedding photographer-ish’!
You won’t catch me bossing your guests around or making you do hours and hours of endless group shots. In fact you'll hardly know that I'm there. My wedding photography style is vibrant and artistic. Whether your day is going to be laid-back or adventurous, it’s bound to include your favourite people and a few popped corks. It’ll be brimful of the kind of feelings you’ll want to remember forever, and I’ll be there to capture every fleeting and joyful moment, while you get on with having a brilliant time.
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