Our Intimate London Wedding

This is not a travel related post, but since so much of what we do with and love about travel stems from the fact that we are doing it together, we love to share some special moments from time to time. As of last week, the two of us are looking forward to traveling, exploring, and loving life side by side for the rest of our lives.

Yes, we did it – we are officially a married couple! Bound together for life. Mr. & Mrs. And loving it!

Since immigration is a prominent theme in our relationship (one American + one Brit = two years of visa struggles), we decided to have an intimate wedding with our immediate family in London just three months after we got engaged, followed by a much larger wedding with family and friends next year. This will allow us to be together, travel together, and continue building our lives together in London. Our (smaller) wedding took place on August 23, and it was such an incredible day spent with our families!

In order to keep things budget friendly, we tried to make everything as simple as possible. We booked the local registry office for our wedding, one of our favorite restaurants for dinner, wore clothes we already had, and only spent money on flowers, a hair appointment, and shoes for the actual day! Sean’s sister, Beth, and Kelly’s sister-in-law, Sarah, took photos of the day, and they ended up better than anything we could dream of without hiring a photographer! Shoutouts to both of them for providing most of the photos in this post – we are already picking out which ones to frame!

The Preparations

We woke up early on Tuesday morning and made a massive full English breakfast. Kelly’s brother, Mike, and Sarah were staying on an air mattress in our living room, so we all enjoyed the breakfast alongside a couple of glasses of champagne. Kelly went off to her hair appointment at a local place, Love Hair Brixton, while Sean ran out to get a last minute new pair of shoes and pick up flowers from another local shop, Birksen. The order for flowers and hair was the same – pretty, soft, romantic. Come to think of it, it was actually the theme for the whole day!

We were lucky to have chosen one of the hottest days of the year for our special day – but that also meant we spent the day covered in sweat!

The Ceremony

After a rather stressful Uber ride, we met our families at the registry office just in time for the ceremony. The ceremony was short, but very emotional nonetheless. We are so fortunate that everyone in our immediate family was able to join us – it truly made it a special day! The Lambeth Register Office had a much nicer setup than we were expecting – covers on the chairs, flowers everywhere, and plenty of areas available for photos. Some beautiful vows, a couple of teary eyes, and about a half hour later, we walked out a very sweaty married couple, donning our new wedding bands from Beaverbrooks in Sunderland.

The Celebration

After the wedding, we made our way toward dinner; but, with a couple of hours to spare and in true fashion for both of our families, we had to stop at the pub first! We went to Bunch of Grapes near London Bridge station, where the pints started flowing immediately.

Happy because he’s a husband, or because he has a cold beer in his hand?

After a few drinks, we went for dinner to celebrate at Hutong at the Shard, in London’s tallest building. Hutong has easily become one of our favourite restaurants in London – the views are stunning, the food beyond incredible, and the service just fantastic. We had a private room on their 33rd floor overlooking St. Paul’s Cathedral, with various other London sites in the distance. They were constantly refilling our drinks and ensuring we had a great experience. The best part is that they did not even know we were there for a wedding, so this is just how their service is everyday!

Hello London! We loved having this view all night.

Kelly’s dad gave a quick champagne toast before we all devoured peking duck, dan dan noodles, and so many other wonderful dishes. Throughout dinner, we all kept getting up to take photos as the sun was going down over London (we saw the full progression from daylight to dark) and Beth even did a mini photoshoot of us both as the light changed.

Now, onto the next adventure!

We ended the night back at the same pub we started at, before heading home to get some much needed sleep. Now, we are settling into married life (and pet ownership life) and loving every moment so far. We are already so excited to celebrate with our family and friends next July at our (larger) blessing and ceremony.

Most importantly, thank you to everyone for the congratulations, and for being there for us throughout everything!

Looking forward to many, many more adventures together.

x Kelly & Sean

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