Theres something about Brighton… the colours, the food, the all round loud celebratory vibe.
Think denim jumpsuits, flip flops, lots of yellow, topped with juicy lemon cake! This intimate and individual wedding will make you crave the simplicity that Anja and Noah chose for their special day.
Here they are to tell you more of the decision making and ideas behind their fun wedding.
Anja & Noah…
How did you meet and get engaged?
We met through a very close friend over 10 years ago, we remained friends for a while and eventually became more than just friends!
We had been together for 5 years and got engaged in August 2020. We were in the south of France (where Noah grew up) we spent a perfect sunny day hanging out by the pool, we were listening to music and drinking rosé when Noah got down on one knee!
How would you describe your day?
We wanted to keep things pretty simple as we’re still planning on a bigger wedding in Sweden in a couple of years! But we knew we wanted to be married, so we focused on the things most important to us. We got 30 of our closest friends together, got married, ate pizza and danced through the night.
How long were you planning it for?
Well, does a global pandemic count? Our initial wedding plan was real bumpy. We had planned to get married in August 2021 in Sweden, we were tracking the covid situation and eventually had to cancel those plans. We both have family and friends coming in from the US, UK, France, and Belgium and that kind of travel just wasn’t feasible or safe yet.
Once we decided to have a small ceremony at Brighton Town Hall, wedding planning was pretty straightforward! We relied only on local suppliers and friends, we kept most things simple and did it ourselves!
How was your day unique to you?
We were both happy to do away with some of the stuffier wedding traditions and make it as relaxed a day as possible. We’ve both been living in Brighton for over a decade, this city is loud, colourful, and proud. We love that about it and wanted the day to be true to us and to Brighton.
The morning had us and a couple of friends eating pastries and getting ready at home, we popped in to pick up the flowers en route to town hall.
We set up an iPad in the corner so our family could zoom in, those who were in California even woke up at 4AM to join the party! When we walked out of town hall we had an impromptu dance party in the square right outside, much to the amusement of passersby.
After the ceremony (and the lovely photoshoot with Manon!) we found a pub to celebrate in until the afternoon when we all went for pizza at Franco Manca – simple, delicious, and neither of us got tomato sauce on our white outfits!
Where was your wedding / reception venue and why did you pick it?
We planned our party on our friend’s roof terrace! It’s a big beautiful space and he kindly offered to host it there. We set up a DJ booth and hung fairy lights all around, there were a few areas to sit and chill, and enough space to dance! The wedding was over Pride weekend so we weren’t too worried about any noise issues – we figured parties would be happening all through town anyway!
Did you use a wedding marquees or any tents for your celebrations? If so, which company did you use and for what part of the celebrations did you use them?
You can never trust British weather. As the roof terrace is open air, we ordered a couple of garden sails from amazon and hung them up the day before.
Who was your wedding photographer and why did you chose them?
Our photographer was Manon Pauffin, she’s amazing. First of all, we loved the look of her photos, of course. We had a little nosey through her blog and she seemed to share our vision of a relaxed wedding with a focus on doing things our way, feminism, and partnership. She’s very easy to get along with and had great suggestions when we needed them. She let us be ourselves and made us look great!
We really enjoyed the surrender session she organised for us before the wedding, she was so open to suggestions and found a great spot where we could hang out together in front of a camera and it made the wedding day even more relaxed!
Your outfits! Tell us more about them! Was there any special details, accessories or reasons behind your choices?
Noah wore a white denim women’s jumpsuit from Everlane, with green flip flops.
Anja wore a white playsuit from Molly Bracken, with yellow shoes from Office!
Tell us about your wedding flowers…
Hunter Florist in Brighton did the bouquet, they were lovely and helpful with suggestions for flowers! We sent them lots of example photos of what we had in mind and they truly delivered!
Let’s talk food! What style of wedding food did you go for and why?
Everyone loves pizza (especially us)! We booked out the upstairs room at Franco Manca and had a great time.
Cake! Who created your wedding cake and what theme did you go for?
Our friend Hatty ( @hattycorn ) is an excellent baker. We tell her weekly that she should quit psychiatry and start baking full time, but she keeps, you know, helping people in need instead.
Anyway, the cake was absolutely incredible. It was a lemon cake with mascarpone cream and summer berries, she decorated it with flowers and it was summery, fresh, and completely demolished by the end of the night!
Tell us about your wedding stationery – who designed them for you and what style did you go for?
To avoid wasting paper, we made a joint Gmail account and a WhatsApp group.
Fun niche wedding tip: if you send a bunch of emails from your newly created Gmail account, most email clients will flag it as spam. Instead, link your accounts, log in to your own Gmail – when you create a new email, in the “From” section, select the new address as the sender. That way any replies will go to that new email, but because you’re sending it from a personal (already vetted) account it won’t send all these emails to the junk folder.
Do you have any advice for couples currently planning their wedding, for either the planning or the lead-up?
Have a good think about what things matter most to the two of you! There are so many expectations and opinions out there, but ultimately the day is yours to do with what you want! We thought a lot about where we wanted to put our money, especially since we’ll end up having two weddings! So we really wanted to make things easy for ourselves and for our guests, to minimise stress!
Seemingly big things like our outfits and our wedding rings – we just went for what made us happy and comfortable. We both ordered our outfits online for very little money, but we loved them and felt great in them! There’s a market stall selling rings on Kensington street in Brighton, Noah bought two silver rings for £16, and didn’t pick a favourite until the very last moment!
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