I am delighted to announce that I am now a recommended supplier with the Royal Museums of Greenwich. Their collection of venues include the stunning Queen’s House. So with this exciting news, I thought I’d take you back to a gorgeous Summer’s day last year when Shannon and Zack gathered their loved ones from the United States to hold their wedding ceremony and reception at the historical Queen’s House located in Greenwich’s UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was an immensely beautiful wedding to be a part of and definitely one where I need to tell you about all of the details.
If you don’t know already, the Queen’s House is a gem of a venue in South East London and was built way back in the 1630’s. At that time the house was seen as a luxurious retreat for Kings and Queens – a place of pleasure for court favourites and a thriving hub for artists and craftsmen. Martha, their wedding planner and stylist, dreamed up a softly romantic and sophisticated wedding design by drawing inspiration inspired from the rich history of the venue and the 17th century maritime paintings displayed there.
Florals played a huge part of the couple’s wedding design and Mary Jane Vaughan’s team created magic all over the site. Some of the highlights of their styling include:
– the aisle of white roses and fluffy gypsophila in the Great Hall that Shannon walked down to meet Zack, where they then exchanged their vows against a backdrop of cloud like florals with majestic views over the Royal Naval College, the River Thames and the city of London beyond.
– the unique escort display with origami boat escort cards.
– the reception table set up with light and floaty British summer flowers centrepieces, luxury linens in pale blue with a coordinating napkin in pearl grey, decorative edged charger plates paired with rippled glassware, textures to be reminiscent of the sea.
The couple were spoilt for choice with the locations in which they could have their couple portraits and bridal party photos. And their champagne reception took place in the Colonnade – again with views over the whole of the Heritage Site.
One of the original features of the House, the Tulip Stairs with its ornate and wrought iron details was the first geometric self-supporting spiral stair in Great Britain.
When I received the design concept for Martha with beautiful words like these to describe the colour palette, I knew I was going to have so much fun coming up with a cake design to capture these colours and textures:
“Like a soft dawn sky, the colour palette is a beautiful blend of the prettiest pastels — light delphinium, blush, and a hint of pale buttercup. Further lightened with lots of white and cream. Touches of contrast are added with denim and airforce blues, and a chic pearl grey.”
Taking inspiration from the clouds in the historical maritime paintings, I decorated their 4 tier buttercream wedding cake in a marbled buttercream in neutral shades of ivory, cream, dove grey and taupe. And brought the maritime theme into the cake with delicate edible rice paper sails in a shimmery pearl-like finish. To add a layer of softness to the cake silhouette, I added a scattering of pale blue sugar sweetpeas.
I loved their flavour choices – it felt like a fitting combination of their American heritage with the British location:
They had buttery caramel cake with salted caramel and whipped caramel buttercream, moist red velvet cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting, heady vanilla cake with fresh strawberries, Prosecco syrup and vanilla buttercream, and their largest tier was zesty lemon cake with zingy lemon curd and lemon buttercream.
Wedding Team:
Photography Elena Popa – elenapopa.com/
Wedding Planning, Design, & Styling Martha – Anemone Style – www.anemone-style.com
Venues – The Queen’s House – www.rmg.co.uk
Catering & Bar – Clink Events –www.clinkevents.org
Floral Design Mary Jane Vaughan – www.maryjanevaughan.co.uk
Hair & Makeup – Lauren Wedding Hair & Makeup weddinghairandmakeupbylauren.co.uk
Stationery Lynda Loves – www.lyndaloves.com
Cake Maker – Sugar Plum Bakes – www.sugarplumbakes.com
Furniture @houseoffurncollection
Furniture @yahireltd
Tableware @maisonmargauxltd @chapmantaylor_hire
Linens @just_4_linen
Band @gatsbyband
Production @slxmedia
DJ & Sax @dboothdj
Fireworks @painsfireworks_sfx
Evening Food @street.dough
London Bus @traditionaltravelltd
Wedding Taxis @weddingtaxis
Audio Guestbook @calleouk