Red, Gold & Orange Bangladeshi Scottish Fusion Wedding: Will & Miri

I’ve been looking forward to sharing today’s real city wedding – the ceremony was held at Islington Town Hall and the reception at Shillibeers!

Will and Miri planned their Scottish / Bangladeshi fusion wedding day to pure chilled out perfection. A lovely mix of English tradition and Bangladeshi customs – the day even ended with a fun pub quiz!

Their day looks so fun and relaxed and I’m super loving the emotion captured by their wonderful, alternative style wedding photographer – barbara k photography.

Words by Miri. Images by barabara k photography.

Red, Gold & Orange Bangladeshi Scottish Fusion Wedding: Will & Miri

We wanted to make sure that there was a fusion of traditional Bangladeshi customs with English traditions. The colour scheme (red and gold) are traditional wedding colours – of fertility and luck, so the bridesmaids were dressed in saris.

Also, I made sure I had my henna done, as per the Bangladeshi custom, which says that the darker the henna, the stronger the love between the couple.

I did a lot of dress shopping, initially thinking a friend who was a costume student would be able to make it. Then I found The Dress, and it’s so far removed from what I normally wear that I thought I should go ahead with it.

If there’s one day you can wear something fitted and still look good, it’s your wedding day! It’s very different to my normal style (which is floral and flouncy) but I felt absolutely incredible in it.

I took a lot of direction from my husband, so I knew what sort of thing he liked, but in the end it was a totally different dress to what I originally planned!

I went for a sample as it was far cheaper than buying a new dress, and had it altered by the fantastically talented Yuksa at Resurrection Boutique in Archway.

My bridesmaids wore red, gold and orange sari’s purchased from a stall in Green Street. They accessorised with lots of my cousin’s jewellery and wore pashmina shawls too.

Will’s suit was from ASOS, his cuff-links were handmade by me and his tartan socks were a gift from his parents.

I walked myself down the aisle to ‘First Day of My Life’ by Bright Eyes.

We did our own flowers, waking up at 4am to get them from New Covent Garden Market and then putting them together in our flat. Will was responsible for pretty much all the flowers, except my bouquet which I put together following some youtube tutorials.

We decided on the roses and thistles to reflect Will’s heritage (Scottish, Irish and English – we couldn’t find any clovers!) and the yellow flowers were because we couldn’t get cut Indian Marigold’s.

We found our wedding photographer Barbara on a London wedding Facebook group set up by our ring maker. We were completely lost with how to find a photographer that suited our budget, who would be able to capture the right moments.

When we saw Barbara’s website, we were absolutely floored with her ability to capture special moments, and we decided after an initial Skype conversation that she had the enthusiasm and the vision for our big day that all the money in the world couldn’t buy!

She did an incredible job with the photos, and they brought a tear to my mother-in-law’s eye when she saw them!

The day itself wasn’t very traditional – if anything it was a rejection of normal weddings. We’d been to a lot of wedding venues which said that they would do anything we wanted, so long as it was within their list of things they provide.

Our choice for venue was down to their openness to do literally anything (so long as it was legal and health & safety approved!).

We went a bit off piste with the order of the day, having a wedding dinner at 6pm instead of the wedding breakfast, and slotting in a pub quiz around 4pm, to keep the excitement going through the day!

Essentially, we just wanted to throw a big party, much like our engagement do which was a buffet in the private bar of a pub.

We collected jars for the flowers, and the placecard holders were made out of champagne corks. The cards themselves had a bit of the print from the invitations on them, which kept the theme (indian red elephants) going.

We also managed to get some miniature pumpkins as part of a deal with our florist, which were the table name holders.

The cake was actually made by my mother-in-law – it’s the same recipe as the family Christmas cake, with less spices.

The cake was iced and decorated by Kate Poulter at Patacake Patacake, who I found on a community notice board. She also managed to source the cake stand for us, burning on the date and our wedding monogram.

Martin Hancock does the regular pub quiz at Shillibeer’s – we went to it once and loved him, and he very kindly said he’d do our wedding pub quiz as well!

If you could impart any words of wisdom to future brides planning their wedding days, what would they be?

Take help from those who offer it, especially if you’re doing a lot of DIY! I didn’t at the start, and as time went by the list of things to do grew and grew! About a month before the wedding, I asked my in-laws for some help and things came together very well at the end.

What was your most memorable moment of the day?

The speeches – particularly my godmother who did a speech as my family weren’t there. She was the only person there (apart from my cousin) who’d known me since I was born, and had been a permanent fixture in my life, so it was lovely to hear from her.

Also, my in-laws had been taking dancing lessons in the months leading up to the wedding, and they did 2 numbers for us as a surprise, which was brilliant!

Thanks Will and Mari for sharing your totally unique wedding day with us! You were clearly made for each and I love that you’ve done things your own way!

Are you planning your own unique wedding? Tell me how you’re going to make your day, you!

wedding credits / photographer: barbara k photography / wedding venue: shillibeer’s / brides dress: teokath / brides veil: ebay / grooms suit: asos / bride & grooms alterations: ressurections boutique / brides henna: chandni arts / brides shoes: debenhams / grooms shoes: new look / bridesmaid saris & pashmina’s: green street / bridesmaid shoes: their own bridesmaids hair & make-up: olivia flemming / florist: new covent garden / wedding cake: grooms mum and icing by patacake patacake / catering: shillibeer’s

View the Gallery