KAPOW! We are kicking off the week announcing for the first time, a couple of our Most Curious 2022 London exhibitors!

We’ll of course do a spotlight one by one, but to begin with a bang, we are going to showcase this absolute triumph of a real wedding - Laura and Andy’s wedding in August, as it actually features MULTIPLE Most Curious 2022 exhibitors!

Laura and Andy attended the Feb 2020 show and of course the rest is history but those connections and inspirations made endured and were victorious at their glorious Hackney shindig. An almagamation of all those trends we forecast with the 2020 campaign, romantic bows and pearls, but evolved with that 2021 twist of colour pops and Dad-trainer inspired bridal footwear, and of course Andy and Laura’s own style.

Listen, she worked with Fluoresse (MC22 exhibitor) on the florals and there’s aubergines and broccoli romanesco on the table - if you know me you know that is my styling happy place! Yes Laura was one of the only brides I know who took those stylistic, editorial Pinterest pins and was like, I’m actually gonna do THAT. And I respect that. on a deep level! She draped her bridesmaids in gypsophila boas , Bates and Bates (MC22 exhibitor) captured their friends and family dewy proud and staring at them in wonder, Laura has a Halfpenny London dress, Simone Rocha accessories, Andy has a Beggars Run green cord suit, newbie SÜSS Cake Studio (at MC22) created an earl grey and blackberry flavoured cake, Hackney (including Hackney Town Hall - at MC22) plays a starring role as the third member of their romance - basically I’m in heaven.

Over to you Laura! Thank you so much for sharing your wondrous day!

My partner Andy and I got engaged in 2019 where he presented the most incredible magical green ring creation from Tessa Metcalfe. We both have been to sooo many weddings in our time; one year reaching 12 in total! We wanted our wedding to be truly authentic to ourselves, stylish and different, we wanted to go against rules. We were overwhelmed with everything out there as everything we had seen before and was too traditional or fancy for us. I came across Most Curious wedding Fair. The idea of going to a wedding fair was so not us as we didn’t want things to be the same as anyone else and we wanted things to be different. I dragged our Mams and Andy to the fair and we were so so nervous. We really didn’t think we would find anything at all. Most Curious was definitely for the edgy-anti-bride couples out there. It is full of the coolest creatives in the wedding industry!

Most Curious is where we met our amazing photographers Bates & Bates - Meghan and Andy. The most down to earth, coolest scottish couple / wedding photographers you will ever meet. We weren’t even going to have photographers until we met them. There photos that we saw at the fair were so natural, edgy and different. We magnetised towards them and clicked straight away. We knew it was meant to be!

Due to covid we had to change locations and dates so many times. We ended up having Meghan alone, whilst Andy was at another wedding. She was more than the photographer; she was the extremely helpful friend, wedding planner, project manager, she ran the whole day and kept everything together (even us!) She helped me get into my dress, she told everyone when to walk down the aisle and her energy grounded me when I felt overwhelmed. It was such an honour to have her there - she is magic!

Everyone loved her especially us! We couldn’t be happier with our wedding photos. They are incredible. She has captured the entire day. From getting ready, hackney town hall, our fun walk through the streets of hackney to The Old Dairy. The bridal party, the speeches, every single person there and the party at Rubys, the pizza (including when I spilled pizza and ruined my dress), as well as everyones love and emotion throughout the day. I honestly recommend Bates & Bates to the world.

Most Curious is where we met our amazing florist Jess from Fluoresse. I had ideas for what I wanted. I had spoken to florists I loved the work off and they were way way out of our budget. I noticed Jess’ stall and it looked amazing, flowers on plinths and so arty and fashion looking. I walked up to Jess and asked her if she could do these specific things. I wanted my flowers to look like crazy, random art. I wanted them to be different. I wanted different colours, textures and things dangling allover. I wanted my bridesmaids to have a feather bower style flower situation (instead of the usual hand bouquet). She said yes to everything. There was no crazy price tag. I sent Jess my inspiration and she loved it all. It was totally her style! Another perfect match - thank you Most Curious!!!

I met with Jess over zoom and then in a hackney coffee shop where we discussed mood boards, my ideas, her ideas, my wedding outfit; everything was in alignment. I trusted Jess so much that Fluoresse ended up doing not only the flowers but decorating the entire room at The Old Dairy. We decided on having flowers on plinths so it felt like art. Tulle material hanging from the ceiling and down the tables, multi coloured candles and my final weird idea was to have abstract vegetables and fruit on the tables. My favourite was mini mushrooms and peaches in glass dishes and a huge green romanesco broccoli. We had so many amazing flower features around the room. So what went from just a few flowers that I asked for turned into the main design event! Jess is incredibly talented, friendly, creative and inspirational. I would recommend her to everyone!!!

My dear friend Julia made our cake, with her new brand SÜSS Cake Studio. She only uses natural ingredients, everything is delicious and she is just so extremely talented!!! Our flavours were - dark chocolate and tahini, cardamom Lemon and Thyme, Earl Grey and Blackberry.

My advice for couples planning right now would be to plan it exactly how you want it, and let it be a true representation of who you are as a couple.

Our original plan changed. We were originally going to do Hackney town hall then take everyone on an adventure to a secret vineyard in North London then back to Hackney for the evening party - but covid allowed us to second think and strip it back; we could not be bothered with the logistics!

We had drinks the night before in our local pub The Leyton Star with family and friends, we slept in our own house together the night before. The morning of Andy went to his family and best men in The Standard Hotel. I got ready with bridesmaids and parents at home. We had the ceremony at Hackney Town Hall. We then presented guests with tinnies as we walked through the streets of Hackney to The Old Dairy in Clapton. The walk was so much fun. We then had an orange wine reception on arrival; with the most delicious food from Passetti & Boote an amazing couple caterers from Bristol. Wine was from Andys cousin at Grape & Grind (also Bristol). We made homemade margaritas and negronis for the speeches. We chose our menu ourselves - as we are big foodies. They let us have marmite butter which was insane. We then got buses to Rubys in Stoke Newington where our friends DJed and ate Voodoo Rays pizza. The weekend ended at the Ned Hotel and then All points East festival with our guests seeing the Foals. It was ecstasy.