Emma and Maja tied the knot on the 4th July which they dubbed 'no more independence day'. Don't you just love them already?

They went for a warehouse Prohibition vibe for their day and chose to hold there reception at their fave pub Earl Haig Hall. I think it's lovely to select a local venue where you like to frequent, with great existing memories and new ones you can make there too. Visiting there in the future will be so special for Emma and Maja. They decorated the space just wonderfully, DIY star lanterns and festoon lights looked awesome and really set the tone.

Emma wore a stunning top and trousers which she found in Reiss while Maja wore a mint green dress by Needle and Thread. They looked beautiful. This is one super happy day you are just going to love.

Thanks so much to Stephen Bunn Photography for sharing these amazing photographs today.

THE PROPOSAL | I (Emma) proposed in the Blue Mountains in Australia after planning it for a year. Maja had no idea what was going to happen, even when we checked in to a beautiful cabin in the bush surrounded by parrots and amazing scenery.

The terror of asking the question meant that I missed countless opportunities of sunsets all alone looking out over giant valleys etc. I had made a label for a wine bottle that said 'will you marry me' but after smashing that all over the kitchen and myself, I just went out onto the deck and asked Maja. I'd completely forgotten I had the ring in my pocket so had to bring that out after. A total disaster but also perfect.

THE VISION | We wanted to have the kind of wedding we could invite everyone we loved to, without having to worry about money. We wanted it to be in London where we and most of our friends and families live, and we wanted an informal warehouse/prohibition vibe which is just our kind of style. Relaxed, full of joy and in an environment that would make us remember we were cool once for the rest of our lives!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Maja is the planner. She immediately created a spreadsheet of potential invitees and it is still in use as we send out the last of our thank you cards.

We both instinctively knew that we wanted it to be in London and on a weekend so it was easy for our guests. We had about 9 months to plan the wedding and that was plenty of time. We looked around at lots of warehouse type venues in East London but they all seemed too expensive to just hire before you'd even thought about food and drink.

Before I proposed I had an idea that it would be really nice to have our party at the Earl Haig Hall which was our favourite drinking hole in Crouch End. So we looked into it fairly early on. It turned out to be the best option all round.

Once we had the venue sorted it was all just little bits and bobs like invites (which Maja made herself), sorting the menu with the venue, thinking about decorations and roping in mates to help with stuff. We had a few months of tasting lots of supermarket red wines and Proseccos and a friend organised a booze run from France with the white wine.

We only had one embarrassing public bicker about decorations - not bad going.

BUDGET | £10,000

THE VENUE | The ceremony was held in the Council Chambers in Camden Town Hall in Kings Cross and the reception party was held at the Earl Haig Hall in Crouch End.

The Council Chambers are right in the heart of London and have an amazing huge grand marble staircase leading up to the room. It was also the only civil venue anywhere near us that could hold 170 guests. It's in the round with galleries and was utterly magical on the day.

Then everyone got the 91 bus to the reception - Thanks London Transport!

The Earl Haig Hall is our local pub. We love it and go there a lot! It's an old British Legion club with tons of character. They have a huge side room, which terrified our parents when they first saw it, with its peeling wallpaper and wonky lampshades but we had a vision for it. Everyone, even them, agreed that on the day it looked amazing!

THE OUTFITS & ACCESSORIES | I wore a top and trousers both from Reiss and Maja's dress was from Needle and Thread. She realised half way through the wedding that she'd forgotten to take the giant labels out of it so technically she could take it back! (Of course she never would!).

Maja wore her great grandmothers hand made white leather wedding shoes to the ceremony, which remarkably fit her like a glove, and then switched in to some more robust sparkly numbers from Pink by Paradox for the reception. My shoes were silver brogues from Clarks.

FINDING THE OUTFITS | Again we both agreed straight away that neither of us wanted to be in a white dress, or a suit. Maja wanted to wear a dress so her school friends took her out for a day of wine and shopping and found her dress that day in John Lewis. I didn't see it till the day but was told it was a pale mint green so I could try not to clash.

I knew I wanted to wear trousers, partly because I would be a month post knee surgery with a swollen knee, and partly so I felt really comfortable and could dance with abandon. Two friends took me on shopping trips, one to Westfield and one to Harrods. I never even talk to shop assistants normally, scuttling around with my head down, but we had outfit after outfit appearing at the changing room. It was a great experience. In the end I found my outfit on my own but I never would have found it without the help and advice of my friends.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We wanted the whole day to feel really personal and to bring out the right emotions in everyone at the right time so we spent a lot of time and energy choreographing the music and choosing the readings.

We walked in to the ceremony to London Grammar's Strong .... To make the hairs on the back of everyone's necks stand on end. It still does that to me whenever I hear it.

We sang, together with all our guests Bridge over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkle in the middle of the ceremony. It was extremely moving.

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 who we'd seen play at the Earl Haig before playing Jazz/Blues piano as people arrived.

We had an amazing band called The Jukeroxx Collective play in the evening and danced till we were kicked out.

The readings we chose were 'Yes I'll Marry You My Dear' by Pam Ayres and an extract from 'Lighthousekeeping' by Jeaneatte Winterson. The first more light-hearted, and the second set me off crying before we'd even got to the vows.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | We didn't have any bridesmaids. We walked each other down the aisle. We did have lots of friends help though with our make up, decorating the reception venue in the morning, driving us to and from the ceremony, making the cake, writing speeches, doing readings etc etc.

THE FLOWERS | Maja's brother's girlfriend Shinobu is a florist so we asked her if she'd arrange our flowers. Maja's mum Brita was charged with going to Covent Garden flower market (in Vauxhall now) early in the morning the day before the wedding to pick up flowers for some big bouquets and small bunches for the reception and for our bouquets. Shinobu stayed up till the wee hours the night before making them all beautiful.

We decided we wanted them all white with greenery and a wild flower feel to the arrangements. They looked incredible and made our flat smell amazing for the week following the wedding.

THE CAKE | Again we pulled in favours for our cake. One of Maja's oldest friends, Maia, has a reputation for making wonderful cakes so we asked if she would do us the honour of making our wedding cake. We never imagined how much thought, effort and love would go in to this, and it was admired and devoured in equal measure on the day. It was a chocolate biscuit cake with white chocolate cigarellos around the edge, and she made a separate cake of Maja and I in the front seat of a van (I run a removals company). The best cake ever!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our photographer was Stephen Bunn. The only thing I was really fussy about with the whole wedding was choosing the right photographer. I am from an arts background and like taking photos myself. There's a certain style of reportage photography that I really like and we didn't really want many posed photos. We wanted them to capture the guests and all the action of the day in a completely natural way.

Stephen's portfolio was perfect. I loved his style and thankfully he was free on our date. We kept ruining all the key photo moments by running down the confetti gauntlet in front of him and being totally awkward whenever we knew we were supposed to be looking nice, but we had told him that posed photos weren't our thing and he did an amazing job in awful lighting conditions at capturing the story and mood of the day in stylish images, which is exactly what we wanted.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We wanted the room to remain fairly as it was, because we loved the shabby look of it, so we decided to focus on adding some simple features consisting of lighting, and gentle decorations which would compliment and show off the room.

Our light box at the entrance of the venue was made by a friend as a present (after not so subtle hints/requests from us).

The hanging white star lanterns were made by us. Maja found a template on the internet which was printed onto A3 paper and we then spent days cutting out, and sticking together. We moaned at the time, but the effect was beautiful and totally worth the time and effort. Plus, we still have them all so can reuse them at the next party!

The bunting that hung around the venue was hand made by my mum - 40 metres of it!

The Edison lamps we had on our present table were found on Etsy and eBay.

We hired some extra festoon lighting to create some dangling bulbs over a little seating area of chesterfield sofas.

We also hired some giant illuminated letters from Vowed and Amazed which looked great.

THE HONEYMOON | We spent two weeks in Japan on honeymoon. We booked through a company called Inside Japan who made travelling around super easy by organising everything from hotels and transport to sumo tickets and restaurant reservations. We basically ate and drank our way through our time there - unforgettable.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | We will never forget that day. It really was the best day of our lives. My two most memorable moments were walking in to 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 in to spontaneous applause.

The other was pulling up to the reception venue in the removals van that our friend drove us in, and seeing all of our guests out on the pavement in the sunshine, and the overwhelming feeling that seeing all our loved ones together supporting us brought with it.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | 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 and no one will forget it.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Ceremony | Camden registrars

Venue | Earl Haig Hall

Photographer | Stephen Bunn Photography

Giant letter hire | Vowed and Amazed

Festoon lighting hire | Cinemattag

The band | Warble Entertainment

Dress | Needle and Thread

Shoes | Pink Paradox Shoes

Wow. So gorgeous.

Emma and Maja, thanks so much to you both for sharing your story with us here at WWW xo Lou