Rachael + Francesca

I am so excited to share photos from this extra ordinary wedding of two brides with dog ring bearer at fabulous and quirky Peckham Springs from this summer. It was my first wedding photography adventure at this urban wedding venue in the heart of Peckham – quite local to me in South East London. Francesca and Rachael wore gorgeous and super stylish structured lace dresses by Lihi Hod and Grace Loves Lace and matched the outfits with high heels and flower crowns for a boho look. I loved a juxta position of hippy bohemian look with gritty neighbourhood and industrial feel of Peckham Springs that is located in railway arches. The couple decorated Peckham Springs wedding venue with dreamcatchers, wicker chairs, cushions and rugs, copper tableware and colourful linen. All provided and arranged by talented Ami and Lo and Behold Bespoke. Fran and Rach did not forget to include their furry baby and gave Hank, cute dachshund, a ring bearer role!

I asked the couple a few questions on wedding inspo and their love story and beautiful proposal (must read!) so scroll down below these Peckham Springs wedding photos and get inspired for your own stylish wedding!

Why did you choose Peckham Springs as your wedding venue?

We love South East London! We were keen to keep our venue in line with our personalities and things we enjoy doing normally. We always try to hang out with Hank our furry baby locally whether that be in Peckham Rye Park or in one of the many amazing brunch cafes. Francesca initially came up with the idea of Peckham Springs as it’s edgy, urban, and more importantly has a street foot shipping container! When we came for our first look around we could already see our vision for the day coming to life. We could see past the graffiti and realise it’s full potential. Also, selfishly, we live only 5 minutes from the venue so this made it super easy for us with regards to planning which was key to keeping the stress away.

Our work as Peckham Springs wedding photographers

Jo- you were simply the best! We couldn’t have asked for any more from our photographer. You met and exceeded our expectation and captured our day so perfectly in a way that we can treasure the moments forever. You made us feel so comfortable and we had such fun in our photography sessions with you! We highly recommend doing an E-shoot with Jo before your big day as this really helped us to get to know each other and made being photographed on the big day far less daunting.

Our love story and proposal!

Myself & Francesca met through our work as police officers in London. Believe it or not Francesca was my mentor for the TSG– riot police! Very early on in our relationship I knew she was the one and began planning my proposal, I collected bottles of wine and Prosecco that we drank and put labels on them with the date we drank them and whether it was a special occasion or a just because bottle- there were a fair few “just because” weekend brunch bottles of Prosecco! After finding a cute little hideaway called “The Glade” which way a 2 person private glamping pod, I then contacted Ami from Lo and Behold bespoke to decorate and style the woodland for me. I took Francesca to a spa for the day in the New Forest and on our return the whole area around the Glade was lined with the wine bottles I had collected with candles lit, leading up to a fire pit area that was beautifully decorated and where I very hurriedly popped the question (Francesca began asking questions as soon as she noticed the bottles were ours and I had to tell her to shut up basically so I could propose haha!)

Our outfits & accessories

I (Rachael) fell in love with my Hollie 2.0 Grace Loves Lace on seeing it online. I wanted a boho vibes beachy dress which was different and I especially love the low back and trailing shoulder pieces. I was so anxious to try the dress on in case I didn’t like it in reality but as soon as I put it on I was sure it was the one! Better still, I snapped it up for a bargain price at the grace Loves Lace yearly sample sale, waking up at 5am on Francesca’s birthday leaving her in bed to go to the sale myself. Luckily I returned with my dress and also some coffee and cake so she forgave me quickly! We both saw the idea of hand painted leather jackets on looking at wedding ideas on Pinterest and we stumbled across the Mermaid Effect on Instagram. On realising she is based in Wales where I (Rachael) am from we were even more keen for her to fulfill our design to support her local business. We went back and forth a couple of times with design ideas and eventually she came up with the final design which were thrilled with! They came in handy on the day as in true British Summer time fashioned it rained and got a bit cold at times so they were worn with pride!

Wedding styling and inspiration

Francesca has a great eye for detail and creativity and many things in our home were hand created by her so we wanted our wedding to reflect this style, handmade and boho! Lo and Behold Bespoke were our wedding day stylists, I (Rachael) had already worked with Ami when planning my proposal to Francesca and I really wanted her to have a part in styling our wedding. The vision and props that she and her husband could bring to the day were spot on for what we wanted. Rose gold and copper was our general colour theme, many hours were spent by us and many family members spraying numerous household items rose gold, including many many tin cans! Also, Rebecca (Rachael’s sister) who loves in Spain and is also incredibly creative kindly made us some unique and incredible dream catchers that were gifted to us on the day, making our decor all the more whimsical and wanderlust-y.

Wedding flowers

We left the flowers until pretty last minute! We knew the style that we wanted to be in keeping with our boho theme, wild and bright with plenty of foliage and pampas grasses which we became a bit obsessed with! We went to a local florist called John Alan Flowers and had a consultation with Claire. She was super helpful and we were really happy with what she came up with. Our beautiful flower crowns and the installation on our ceremony arch provided by Lo and Behold Bespoke were just perfect.

Non religious personalised ceremony

Francesca’s uncle Eamonn acted as our wedding “celebrant” and perfectly executed his tall order with a script that we provided to him and he edited a little to put his own personality on it. He did amazingly well, especially because the first time he read the script was only a couple of nights before the big day! We had many laughs around the dining table, especially when he noted we were doing a hand binding during the ceremony which he initially read as bondage. Having our best friends Kat and Laura to take part in the ceremony tying our hands together in the hand fasting cords was a really lovely touch. Francesca’s mum, Jane, read a piece that was actually written by Francesca for Rachael and we were all stood at under the ceremony arch crying at that moment!

Music and first dance

In the day we had Lou Harper playing some upbeat acoustic vibes whilst we were eating, unfortunately it was chucking it down with rain by this point in the day in true British Summer style, but her music kept the atmosphere upbeat and worked perfectly. We chose Cool Folk, a live band, in the evening instead of a DJ because the venue lends itself so well to live music and myself and Francesca much prefer a band to a DJ.

For our first dance we had Ed Sheeran- Perfect performed by Cool Folk. It’s simply a beautiful song.

What was your favourite part of the day?

It’s so hard to pick one particular moment of the day! The ceremony itself and walking out under a shower of colourful confetti hand in hand with my new wife was probably the happiest moment! Also, our best woman gave the most hilarious “speech” which was more like a stand up comedy act and had everyone on their feet by the end of it!

Words of advice to couples planning their wedding?

It’s your wedding so do it your way and don’t worry so much about everyone else, you can’t please everyone! Also make sure to take some time out in the day for yourselves, it’s an exhausting day and it’s important to take a moment to appreciate the day together and have some privacy.

Dream Team

Photography: Joasis Photography

Venue: Peckham Springs

Wedding dresses: Rach – Grace Loves Lace Hollie 2.0 and Fran – Lihi Hod

Flowers: John Alan Flowers

Cake: made by Best of man (Rachael’s brother Ben)

Music: Louise Harper &  Cool Folk Provided by Music8 Agency

Wedding shoes: Kurt Geiger

Hand Painted Jackets: The Mermaid Effect 

Styling and decor: Couple with Lo and Behold Bespoke

Videographer: Neil Solliss Productions

Catering: The Rub BBQ & VanDough