first saw it, with its peeling wallpaper and wonky lampshades
but everyone agreed that on the day it looked amazing!
A gang of our mates and our mums went there in the
morning to decorate the room with fairy lights, photos, my
mum’s handmade bunting, flowers bought by Maja’s mum,
giant illuminated letters and tons of white paper stars made by
Maja (with a small labour contribution from me!).
Our first dance song was
The Story
by Brandi Carlisle. We
saw her perform on an ‘unplugged’ tour at the Union Chapel in
Islington the year before and will never forget how incredible it
sounded. It also builds to a great crescendo, so we could really
go for it.
We had a great guy called Maurice, whom we’d seen before
at the Earl Haig, playing jazz/blues piano as people arrived.
Dinner was ‘build a burger’ with pulled pork and beef burgers,
and then came speeches by Maja’s parents, my parents and
friends of both of us from primary school, before we each did a
speech. We had an amazing band, The Jukeroxx Collective, play
in the evening and we danced till we were kicked out!
We had great comments from our guests about what an
unusual, relaxed and joyful day it was. Everyone loved singing at
the ceremony, they loved the reception venue and the speeches
in particular.
The whole day felt like a whirl-
wind. A few tiny details didn’t go
how there were supposed to, but
none of that mattered.
The overwhelming feeling between us and among our
guests was joy. Everything went so well and we couldn’t have
enjoyed it more.
We will never forget that day. It really was the best day ever.
26 » pink weddings magazine
Emma and maja
My two most memorable moments were walking into
the ceremony hand in hand with Maja and feeling the
palpable love and excitement in the room, gasping and
looking around, and then our guests bursting into
spontaneous applause. The other was pulling up in the
removals van to the reception, to see all of our guests
out on the pavement – and the overwhelming feeling
that seeing all our loved ones together, and there for us,
brought with it.
Our best tip for other couples is to make your
wedding perfect for you. Don’t follow convention unless
it’s what you want. Everyone, including you, will enjoy it
all the more if it feels like it’s personal to you.
