If I had to describe Fiona and Kweku's big day in a single word then the adjective of my choosing would be joyful. In fact you've probably already guessed this from the title of this post...

But you see it really is joyful, from Kweku's beaming smile to the bright maids' dresses, all the way through to Fiona's colour pop bouquet and the life-affirming singing that you can see the guests partaking in during the pair's wedding ceremony.

Fiona and Kweku's glorious 'I Do' makes me smile from head to toe and really folks, that's what it's all about. Congratulations you two!

Fiona The Bride: After the initial excitement of getting engaged, Kweku and I started the scary task of planning the wedding with very few ideas of what we really wanted. What we did know was that we wanted the wedding to reflect who we are as a couple and for it to be a 'London' wedding. Kweku is originally from Ghana, but has lived in London for most of his life. I am from South Africa but my parents are Scottish, so there were endless options of where to have it, but we wanted to get married in the place that we met and have both grown to love (well, a bit more so in the summer!).

Kweku and I both love east London, and it's where Kweku has lived for many years. We wanted a venue that was different to the average hall that could fit all our friends and family! We loved the West Reservoir Centre straight away, mostly for its beautiful interior design, high ceiling and water surroundings. We had the ceremony at East London Tabernacle Baptist, which is a beautiful church, very close to where we live. We also had our photos taken in East London, around Victoria Park and Shoreditch, which ended up being really fun.

We had so many friends and family offer their help before and on the day which helped us to stay within our means and have really personal touches - most aspects of the wedding ended up being mini DIY projects. A few weeks before the wedding, a group of friends all came round for tea and helped create the décor for the ceremony and reception, which included tying lace and string around recycled jars, cutting table runners, designing props for the photobooth and creating the lantern lights for the reception from scratch (the lighting should be accredited to our friend Duncan, a very clever engineer). My bridesmaids and I arranged all our flowers (bouquets, pinholes for the guys, table arrangements, glass jars on pews in church) after buying them wholesale at the Covent Garden Flower Market.

Kweku and I didn't really have a colour scheme in mind, but knew that we didn't want it to be too vintage/ rustic, but a bit more contemporary to suit the venue. As Kweku is a Graphic Designer, he designed all the stationery including seating arrangements, menus and invites and the colours just somehow came into being!

The in-house caterers at the West Reservoir, Juan and Marco, were so willing to provide what we wanted, within our budget, which made them the obvious choice. Kweku's family provided a lavish spread after the ceremony and more friends put their baking skills to use by providing mini desserts after dinner. Kweku's mum just happens to be is a professional cake maker, which meant that she provided the beautiful cake on the day.

I bought my dress online - after trawling the web for inspiration, I saw that the exact dress that I decided would be my dream dress (on pinterest) was on sale, for a fraction of the price! I was lucky enough to find it fitted me perfectly except for some small details that needed changing such as the capped sleeves, which were adapted by Kweku's sister, a recent fashion design graduate. My earrings were from my favourite antique shop in South Africa, Kays Antiques, my shoes from Topshop and my veil was borrowed from a friend. My gifted friends, Emily and Anila did my hair and make up for me.

Kweku chose his outfit for himself and his best man, with suits from Burton. After being a bridesmaid myself a few times, I just wanted a simple dress for the bridesmaids that they could wear again. We also needed to buy dresses which were a simple fit as one of the bridesmaids was in South Africa and only arriving in the country a week before the wedding! Luckily we managed to find some that fit the criteria from Oasis.

There were many special moments during the day, such as our friend Gbemi surprising us with a luxury car to drive us around and then delivering the most epic spoken word (which brought a tear to many in the room!) at the ceremony. Kweku's sisters gave readings during the ceremony and my brothers were the M.C's at the reception. Our friends and family (including Kweku's dad) formed the band in the ceremony, sending us out to an especially fun version of 'Joyful joyful' (inspired by the end scene of Sister Act 2). A close friend of Kweku's dad who was his best man at his wedding lead us in saying our vows and another friend of ours gave the message. Kweku and I decided that we weren't the slow dancing types and instead started the dancing with a different dance of our own (with Kweku mostly stealing the show!). The day was beautifully captured by our amazingly supportive, talented and chilled photographer, Caro Hutchings.

Looking back on the day, we just really loved it, mostly because it was relaxed, filled with fun and memories with those close to us, which is really what we wanted. Although nothing was over the top, it was still a lot of work making and organising most things ourselves, but it was amazing getting to the day and seeing the fruit of all our work coming together. Having so many friends and family involved really made the day that much more special and fun - something we would really recommend!

Photography by Caro Hutchings
Venue The West Reservoir Centre | Shoes Topshop | Groom's outfit Burton | Bridesmaid dresses Oasis.