April 2012

Real London Wedding Anne & Sebastian The Design Details

Working with Anne and Seb was great fun, they are a lovely couple but some might say very different interests so when putting the look of their wedding together we wanted to make sure both of them were represented.

I started off by putting a couple of mood boards together and some design ideas; here is the mood board based around Anne’s love of irises and books.

A family friend Jane, put together the flowers for the church but was unable to do the personal flowers so I stepped in to make the bouquets and buttonholes. We all had a fun morning together at Covent Garden market where Anne got to choose her favourite flowers for the bouquets.

When it came to the reception details we knew we wanted to include Anne’s love of books but it was just as important for Seb to have something he loved especially as his family were not able to make it over from Argentina. As Seb is a big football fan we decided to name all the tables after famous Argentinean football players. The cake was made by one of Anne’s auntie’s but Seb made his mark by customising a cute little cake topper with a photo of his favourite team on the TV and supplying football shirts for the table!

There were a large number of children at the wedding too so as well as personalised goody bags at their seats I also set up a kiddy table with lots of fun activities from colouring books and balloon driven plastic cars-a big hit! I also made a finger print guest book tree for the kids to stamp their mark on.

So a final Happy Anniversary to Anne & Seb as they celebrate one year of married life today!! x

Wedding photos courtesy of Shell de Mar Photography

Mood board credits:

Iris bouquet photo by Arrae Photography.  via Green Wedding Shoes, Bridesmaids photo by Richard Wood Photographics via Project Wedding, Necklace photo by Cunningham Photo Artists via Style Me Pretty, Books photo by Jenny Liu via Ruffled, Cake photo by Chelsea Elizabeth via Style Me Pretty, Place setting via Style Me Pretty, Silver Frame photo by aaron delesie via JL Designs, Flowers photo by Marianne Taylor, Bouquet photo by Jessica Claire


Real London Wedding: Anne & Sebastian~The Reception

After the ceremony in Tooting, Anne and Seb held their Reception at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London. As a child Anne’s sister had been to a wedding there and always remembered the grand staircase and following the recent renovations the Drawing Room and Edinburgh Suite made the perfect choice for their wedding dinner and party. After the drinks & canapé reception guests were treated to a delicious 3 course meal followed by some very heartfelt and amusing speeches by one of Anne’s best friends, her mother and Seb’s best man.

Photography by Shell de Mar


Real London Wedding: Anne & Sebastian~The Ceremony

As the end of April quickly approaches so does the one year wedding anniversary of Prince William and Catherine but here at Always Andri I’ll  be celebrating  the one year wedding anniversary of one of our lovely couples from last year Anne and Seb who were married in London on Saturday 29th April 2011. You can see their wedding in my portfolio here but I thought it would be nice to share more photos from the day and some of the planning and design details that went into it.

First up getting ready and the ceremony: Anne got ready at her parents’ house in Tooting where she grew up. With her sister as her maid of honour helping her and makeup by Ellie Blackwell.

Seb and his three best men-who says you can only have one? Got ready across the road from the church at the Long Room Hotel

Now Anne could have walked to the church it was so close but one of her cousins surprised her by booking a classic Rolls Royce from Carol’s Classics to take her and her mother, who walked her down the aisle, to the church.

The ceremony took place at St Nicholas’ Church in Tooting were Anne’s mother regularly attends.

After the ceremony guests were treated to Sri Lankan sweet treats while group photos were taken in the gardens and before heading off to central London for the reception at The Grand Connaught Rooms.

Come back next time when I’ll show you the lovely photos from the Reception.

You can also read Anne’s account of the day as featured opn Whimsical Wonderland Wedding blog here

Photography by Shell de Mar


Featured on Sweet Designs, a blog by Amy Atlas

At the start of April,  Asma from The Sugared Saffron asked me to help her style a photoshoot she was putting together at The RSA with photographer Caro Hutchings. It was to have a colourful 50’s vibe with her cakes and sweet treats making a fabulous dessert table. It was a really fun shoot to style and even more exciting to see it feature here on Sweet Designs, a blog by Amy Atlas especially when the queen of dessert buffets says such lovely things about the styling too.

The dessert table was just a small part of the shoot as we also had a model in a couple of lovely wedding dresses as well as a sweet heart table but you’ll just have to wait to see the rest of the shoot…


Always Asks: Le Papillon Patisserie

Cake… mmmm, who doesn’t love a bit of yummy cake? At the Luxury Wedding show last year I got to taste the delicious cakes of Surrey based company Le Papillion Patisserie and wanted to know more so I caught up with owner and cake maker extraordinaire Neil Thornton to ask him about those cakes….

What’s your background?

I was very keen on baking from an early age.  Looking back I was probably destined to be a cake maker!  My journey started at catering college where I specialised in Patisserie and sugar craft.  My career then developed in London in five star hotels and restaurants whilst making wedding cakes on the side.  Eventually I was able to realise my dream of opening a patisserie with a wedding cake business attached

Why did you decide to set up Le Papillon Patisserie?

Well it was my dream.  I love making cakes and knew that so many famous patisseries are now chains where the focus on quality has really suffered.  I also wanted a platform to build the wedding side of the business and it gave me the opportunity to do that.

How would you describe your style/vision?

Um probably scrumptious!  I just do not understand wedding cakes that taste of nothing but look pretty!  Why make a cake that is average?  For me cake should always be 100% tasty as well as looking gorgeous.  My style is based on that, it must look edible.

Where do you find your inspiration?

A lot of my inspiration comes from the bride in question.  We try not to offer you a book to choose from but encourage brides to get creative with us.  Of course we do duplicate cakes when a couple likes a cake we already made.  I also take lots of inspiration from classic patisserie, you will see hints of it in lots of our cakes.

What’s your design/creation process working with couples?

Well all our couples are invited to the shop to taste the cakes first, this is a must for us, once they go through flavours we start with the portfolio to get ideas from previous cakes, we also look to the couples wedding for inspiration.  If there is a theme running through the wedding we will try to incorporate it in the cake.  The design is sometimes finished in front of them that day or sometimes we work on it for a week or two.  Even now we are having last minute changes where a bride changed her colours last minute!

What has been your favourite wedding to work on?

I seem to like all our couples.  We have such a personal service that we make so many friends.  There is one wedding that sticks out where we created a cake for an artist where we used her art with our classic chocolate wrapped gateaux.  It was one of those jobs that until it’s finished you have no idea how it will turn out.  As it happens it was my favourite cake of the year.

What have you found the most challenging job?

The artist cake definitely, getting the balance of colours right was a very difficult task

What do you think couples should be looking for when buying their wedding cake?

You need to first of all decide what style you like.  If you want a tiered cake then there’s no point looking at our French gateaux tower.  Once you have the style then you can work on varieties of that style and flavours etc

What advice would you give to couples when planning their wedding?

RELAX!  I find it so amazing when someone is so uptight about the whole thing that they look like they aren’t enjoying themselves.  This is meant to be a romantic wonderful day, if you plan ahead relax and take professional advice planning can be very easy.  Also make sure you know what kind of wedding you want, stick to your idea.

What do you wish couples knew already when working with you?

Well I could probably write a list!  One of the things that amazes me is that people don’t realise you can have multiple flavours for your wedding cake.  I guess because traditionally you just had fruit cake that when you mention three flavours for a three tier cake they seem amazed!

What’s your one obsession at the moment-something you just can’t live without?

My new puppy Winston!  He is therapy after a hard long day baking

All images courtesy of Le Papillion Patisserie