During the summer, I had the pleasure of marrying the wonderful Natalie and Max at a working brewery in Greenwich, London.

Brew By Numbers is right on the banks of the Thames. Max and Nat are massive beer fanatics, and they've spent many early dates here, so it was always meant to be.

Their romance started 13 years earlier at Bestival. The fancy dress theme at the festival was Fantasy — Max was dressed as Jesus, Natalie as She-Ra. Their paths crossed at separate ends of the same friendship group.

They’ve been together ever since, moving from up north to London more recently. So, getting to bring all their friends and family together in the capital to an area they love and have made a home in was really important to them.

It was one of the hottest days of the year in London – over 30 degrees during the ceremony itself! It was a lovely, rustic, relaxed vibe. The ceremony was littered with amazing anecdotes that had their friends and family cracking up. They aren’t gushy people, so having something that felt real and stayed true to their personalities was key.

Read on to find out all about their London celebrant-led ceremony.

How did you find out about celebrant ceremonies and what made you decide to have one?

We went to a friend’s wedding a year earlier and they had a celebrant and the ceremony felt so special and different. We learnt so much about how our friends met. We wanted a non-traditional ceremony so we felt a celebrant was the perfect way to make the ceremony feel special for our families.

How was the process of creating your wedding ceremony?

It was great thanks to the help of Roxy. She sent us a selection of modern readings and we narrowed it down to two by each picking our favourite three. If there was any crossover, we would choose those ones which worked perfectly.

We felt a bit silly during the interview as we are not used to talking about ourselves for hours! Roxy made us feel at ease and comfortable during the whole thing and coaxed out stories from our lives together and then weaved them perfectly into the ceremony.

Looking back at the day, how did the ceremony feel?

It felt unique and special in every way. It was a lovely way to share our story with our friends and family. The ceremony remains the highlight of our day.

What was the most special part of your ceremony and why?

Writing our own vows made the ceremony feel extra special. We thought we would struggle to do this but we used the prompts and guides provided by Roxy, which made it so much easier. We decided to share these before the ceremony so we were on the same page with length and vibe, which luckily we were! This made us feel more relaxed.

Tell me about your vows:

We kept them short and sweet with our version of modern promises that felt special to our relationship with a little bit of humour thrown in.

What would you say to couples considering a celebrant ceremony?

Definitely do it — you won’t regret it. It’s my favourite part of our wedding to look back on.

We’ve been to so many weddings where the registrar felt flat and the ceremony felt impersonal so you can’t wait for the wedding to be over. This is not the case with celebrant weddings.

How did your wedding ceremony tie in with the rest of your wedding day?

Perfectly, we wanted a relaxed, fun party that was full of love. Roxy nailed the brief.

How did your ceremony go down with you guests?

We had so many of our guests tell us that they loved it and that it was one of the best ceremonies they had been to thanks to Roxy. She received a lot of love from all of our friends and family. A lot of our guests (including Max’s mum) said that they learnt a lot about us from the ceremony that they didn’t know before!

There were a lot of tears and laughter. It was wonderful.

How would you describe the vibe/style/look & feel of your day

We got married at a brewery in Greenwich, which overlooks the river. It was a DIY wedding based around great food & drink and music. We wanted our guests to feel relaxed and to have a party with us. So we started with welcome drinks and we applied for a late license until 2am so we could dance into the night, with disco balls, a band, DJ & karaoke caravan.

What's the best piece of advice you would give to other couples getting married?

Do you want to do and trust your gut. It might not be for everyone or the same as other people but if it suits you as a couple then go for it.

Don’t stress over the small things, no one cares.

Choose your non-negotiables. For us that was a celebrant, a great band, middle eastern food & a free bar. This meant we didn’t have a lot of budget left for the small things. We made our own canapes with pub snacks. I did a DIY dessert bar using a combo of cutter and squidge brownies and supermarket cookies and sweets. Instead of favours we had a photo booth. I designed all of the invitations, menus and table names on Canva. We emailed invitations and used a Google form for RSVPs.

I bought my dress from a sample sale. We also got our brilliant friends to help us. One of our friends painted the order of the day on an old pallet from the brewery. Another friend DJ’d and we paid him in beers. My friend Sarah and I spent the day before doing the table and venue flowers (except the bouquet) which we bought from New Covent Garden flower market the day before the wedding — this saved a small fortune. Our cake was a wedding present from our friends who own a bakery in North Manchester.

Do what works for you and don’t feel like you have to do the same as others.

Did you do the legal bit before or after your ceremony? or how did you combine the two together?

We did the legal bit at Islington Town Hall two days before the wedding with two of our best friends. We didn’t tell many people about this but it still felt really special and it was nice to do them so close together.

What did you love most about planning your ceremony?

We didn’t leave much time for the organisation so it would be the pressure and excitement of quick decision making and working together to a tight deadline. It’s like a full-time job that we did on evenings and weekends, so afterwards we had a good few months free from all kinds of life admin. We didn’t love planning the wedding but we loved seeing it come together and spending 3 days in Greenwich with our friends and family.

Tell me about your wedding location. How did you decide on the venue?

We got married at Brew By Numbers, which is a working brewery close to where we live in Greenwich. It has amazing views of London on the river. We really wanted to show our friends and family from the North where we have lived together for 5 years and all of our favourite places in Greenwich.

We spent a lot of time at the brewery and the first time it opened they had a beer festival and I remember thinking, I could get married here. It was such a cool space and perfect for a party. They don’t do weddings, so we had to persuade them to let us get married there.

It was a lot of work doing it at a venue that doesn't do weddings so we hired a specialist dry hire event coordinator, Dita, who helped us pull everything together. It was one of the best decisions we made — she was incredible and planning as a team with an expert made it so much better.

What do you remember most about your ceremony?

Seeing our friends and family laughing and crying.

If you could do the day all over again, is there anything you’d change?

Nothing. It’s true what they say on the day you really don’t care about the small things. If something doesn't go to plan on the day, you and your guests won’t care or even notice. I’d spent hours bagging salty pub snacks for the canapes and only half of them got put out. We found a full Ikea bag full of salty nuts and Scampi Fries the day after the wedding. It really was the best day of our lives and we have the most amazing memories of it all.

Suppliers:

Event coordinator : Dita Rosted Events

Photographer : Lora & Sergio (Helechos Azules)

Location : Brew By Numbers, Modern Wharf, Greenwich

Cake : Slattery’s Bakery, North Manchester

Dress : Andrea Hawkes

Hair & Make up : Emma Poppy Hair & Make Up

Confetti : Flutter Darlings

Food: Beyroots

Readings:

“The Art of Marriage” — click here to read.

Monkey and The Girraffe:

Wherever we go
Whatever we do
Whenever there’s me
I hope that there’s you.

Now Money is Funny, it can make people odd.
You forget to be happy, and you live for your job
And fashion, is a passion, beset with a flaw
You can dress to excess, but you’ll always need more

And a muscle toned body, may sound like a dream
But no body is better, than chocolate ice cream
What I’m trying to say, is that happiness grows
Not through your wages, or body or clothes

But in laughter and love, and in sharing your life.
In the arms of another as husband and wife.
So when you find someone who’s weird just like you
Who laughs when you’re stupid and who makes you laugh too.

When you sit on the sofa, not hiding your flaws.
As imperfectly perfect, as the hand that holds yours.
When the fortune of kings, or purse of a beggar.
Won’t change how it feels, just being together.

When a cuddle and cuppa is all that you need….

Well then…
you’ve found something quite special indeed.

Wherever we go
Whatever we do
Whenever there’s me
I hope that there’s you

If you are thinking about having a London celebrant wedding and are looking for a celebrant, I would love to connect. Find out more about my services here.

Real Wedding Story at Brew by Numbers in London