Rachel and Hiroki came to me in March needing help with their ‘industrial chic’ wedding. They lived in London, had very busy jobs and the only thing they had sorted was the Ceremony venue and the Reception venue.
My ‘Full Planning’ package was really useful here as they knew they wouldn’t be able to attend every single consultation with suppliers so I made all the arrangements for them. I recommended all suppliers including caterer, photographer, videographer, entertainment, flowers, makeup, indoor decor, outdoor decor, furniture, lighting, celebrant and transport! I visited them in London to go over different options and we made meetings in the North-West to speak to different suppliers.
They knew they wanted an ‘industrial chic’ theme and had booked the Rum Warehouse as their reception for that reason – there was exposed brick, outdoor colonnades, industrial buildings in the background and this fitted perfectly with their vision for the day. However, the Rum Warehouse is such a vast space which fits 400 people so I came up with suggestions to help them break this space up and make it more suitable for their 200 guests. They had chosen the ‘Dry Hire’ option and so we needed to source everything for the day. I love Dry Hire options as you can really personalise it and absolutely make it your own.
As there was an event on at the Rum Warehouse the night before we could only get access the morning of the wedding – this meant an extremely early start for all us suppliers. We set everything up and worked with fantastic suppliers to pull it all together.
As Rachel and Hiroki were staying in the Titanic Hotel the night before I popped back and forth a few times to their rooms to check everything was okay. Hiroki departed the Titanic Hotel with his groomsmen to The Venue at the Royal Liver Building where they were having their ceremony. Chris Mee the amazing photographer was here to take pictures of Hiroki and his groomsmen whilst his second photographer stayed with Rachel and the bridesmaids. I recommended Chris to Rachel and Hiroki based on the amazing work I had seen him do before – I knew they wanted ‘documentary’ style photographs and the way a photographer used lighting in the images were really important to them both and Chris provided absolutely that. He was amazing to work with on the day and put Rachel, Hiroki and their guests at ease from the beginning. I can’t wait to work with Chris more in the future as I’m sure you will agree the pictures have turned out absolutely beautiful.
After The Dollz had finished the bridal party’s makeup it was then time for them to depart for the Royal Liver Building. I made sure I was at the Liver Building ready for their arrival so I could ensure the guests were all ready and the amazing Manchester String Quartet were set up. Lorraine Hull was the celebrant for the ceremony and Rachel and Hiroki had chosen to write their own vows both of which were so heartfelt and touching. Papertwin the wonderful videographers I have worked with before again did such a fantastic job (as you can see in the Trailer video at the bottom of the post). I love working with Papertwin as I know the videos always turn out amazing.
We had arranged coaches to transport the guests from the Royal Liver Building to the Rum Warehouse but Rachel and Hiroki went to have some pictures at the top of the Royal Liver Building when their guests all departed. As the Rum Warehouse is only 10 minutes down the road, Rachel and Hiroki wanted a different entrance than their guests – they suggested a boat as both venues are on the banks of the River Mersey. As I tell all my clients ‘Anything is possible’ and so I found a way to make it happen.
Upon arrival to the Rum Warehouse the guests threw confetti and the canapés were served. With a Twist were the fantastic caterers we chose for the wedding – we went to a couple of tastings with them before the wedding as great food was an important aspect for Rachel and Hiroki and With a Twist definitely didn’t disappoint. The team are wonderful to work with and all staff on the day knew exactly what they were doing. Rachel and Hiroki chose 4 courses for their guests – a vegetable starter, sea bass and prawn risotto, fillet of lamb and a chocolate dessert and all guests absolutely loved every course.
As the guests were enjoying the lovely sunshine, champagne and canapés on the colonnades I went into the main room to finish any last minute arrangements. The room looked incredible – I knew Verdure Floral Design would provide exactly what Rachel and Hiroki wanted – lots of greenery with some blue, white and purple flowers with the look of picking handfuls of flowers from the garden in lots of different size vases as well as hanging greenery mixed in with lights. Adi is fantastic to worked with and the tables, bouquets and button holes all looked amazing.
Typical Type provided the Edison bulbs and festoon lighting in the wedding breakfast room – we used their Edison Board over the top table which looked incredible and then had random edison bulbs hanging down mixed in with festoon lighting over the other tables. This tied in really well with Lightech’s lighting provided in both the wedding breakfast room and dance floor area.
Just before being called into the wedding breakfast, Rachel and Hiroki had some pictures with their bridal party and then some couple shots.
Before the food was served, Hiroki’s father did a small toast to a glass of sake each guest had on their table – a personal touch to their Japanese heritage. The food was served and in between courses were the speeches – Father of the Bride, Groom, Bride, Bride’s Best Friend and Best Man.
Rachel and Hiroki even managed to slip away between the main course and dessert to have some sunset pictures taken.
After the speeches, we pulled back the black draping to reveal the dance floor area which was kept hidden until this moment. Zak Abel was the band for first hour of the evening and did an acoustic version of ‘One Dance’ for the bride and groom’s first dance – leading in to a compilation of songs which got all guests onto the dance floor!
Escapade provided a fantastic bar service with a selection of cocktails, champagne, wine, beer and spirits. They are great fun to work with and make amazing drinks!! During the wedding breakfast we had set up on the colonnades outside a ‘shisha area’. Decor was provided by Shades Canvas in the form of Moroccan style tenting, seating, tables and lanterns and Rachel and Hiroki wanted their local shisha cafe in London to come to Liverpool to provide the shisha for the evening.
It was a fantastic party and after Zak had finished his set a DJ had started to entertain the guests into the early hours of the morning.
I absolutely loved working on this wedding and it was such an amazing day – Rachel and Hiroki had their vision and ideas for the day but just didn’t necessarily have the time to do it and so they hired me to make their vision a reality so they could relax and enjoy the run up to the wedding.
