Customer advice, help and tips, wedding entertainment ideas

A London Underground Theme Wedding with Encore

Photo of Bride and Groom kissing

Becky & Ryan recently married at the ever so popular Dodford Manor, Northampton with a London Underground theme. After spending plenty of their time traveling on the tube, the red, white and blue colours were the perfect fit for the couples love story. We love the idea of using underground signs and a tube map for the decor too. Not only do they look awesome but Becky told us they were easy to make with friends and family getting stuck in with some DIY fun. The wedding was shot by the lovely Lesley Bee who captured the love and laughter this big day brought… Enjoy.

Lesley Bee Photography

Tell us a bit about yourselves

We currently live in Essex, both work in London but actually met in Peterborough when we were on a placement year as part of our University degrees. Ryan is originally from Sheffield and I am from Leicester and we have been together nearly 10 years (met in 2005). We have great families who get on well so organising the wedding has been a fantastic experience for 18 months. Myself and Ryan are both planners and love to be organised (I think everything we do sits on a to do list somewhere!). Everyone has found it quite entertaining hearing about our joint wedding plan and who was behind on the actions. Not sure what to do with myself now its over.

Lesley Bee Photography

How did he propose?

We went to Mexico in September 2013 – I had a suspicion he might propose (I always said I would like to be engaged before I was 30 which was in the January 2014) but Ryan was super chilled at the airport so I thought that there couldn’t be a ring in his suitcase. I was wrong and one evening he proposed on the beach – I burst into tears (happy tears) and then we had a fantastic two weeks celebrating. Ryan hadn’t told anyone besides my Dad (he had asked him which meant a lot to me as these types of traditions are not always the norm anymore) so we face-timed our family to tell them and they were over the moon.

Lesley Bee Photography

So you said yes… What happened next?

Being planners we of course started with creating a nicely detailed plan. I am probably the more creative one so I took on the challenge of themes, decorations, dresses etc. and Ryan started on budgets and suppliers etc. I didn’t know what to do with the theme. I looked at so many wedding magazines for ideas but they weren’t really us. I wanted something Ryan would like as well and then one day on the way to work I thought what about a London theme? Ryan then suggested we did a London Underground theme and that’s when our Red, White and Blue colour scheme started. We had a lot of fun with the theme, it meant something to us as everyone knows us as being in London on the tube 2 hours a day (and the commute gave us more ideas).

Lesley Bee Photography

The Dress

I didn’t know what to do about the dress but luckily my mum and sister in law came with me to every shop and then we tried a small shop where my sister in law bought her dress from (Bradgate Brides, Anstey, Leicester) and I found ‘the’ dress. The dress was beautiful but when I had it on the morning of the wedding that’s when I truly fell in love with it. The dress was a Maggie Satottero.

The Suits

Ryan took full control of the suits and colours for the boys. He is a Sheffield United fan so wanted red and white, another thing that helped us agree on the the London Underground theme! The suits were from Young’s in Debenham’s.

Lesley Bee Photography

The Venue

We had no idea on venue so started looking around. Being in London made it a bit harder but we did a lot of research. Strangely enough the same day we were looking at Dodford Manor on the internet, my brother called me to say he went to a wedding and that we should definitely visit the venue. I asked what it was called and… it was Dodford. We visited the venue, fell in love with it and booked it there and then. We didn’t even visit any others. The venue is stunning and the events team are fantastic at what they do so everything worked really well on the day.

The Decor

We didn’t want too much so we kept the decorations simple. Underground signs for the tables, a tube map for the table plan and bunting. The decorations we made all ourselves which everyone enjoyed helping us with. I am not great at sewing so the bunting was delegated out to Ryan’s sister and mum who both did an amazing job! Fleurs en Fleur in Loughborough were our florists. Lisa who owns the shop did all of my brothers wedding and she did a fantastic job with mine. I had red roses, red gerberas for the brides team and white roses for the grooms team.

Lesley Bee Photography

The Food

Jenkinsons is the caterer which Dodford use and they were fantastic. The food was amazing and everyone enjoyed our special “host a roast”. On each table we assigned a family member or friend who would have a hat and carve the beef for the table. This meant lots of laughter during dinner which was just what we wanted!

The Photos

Lesley Bee was our photographer. She is fantastic and also did my brothers wedding so we knew she would be great.

Lesley Bee Photography

The Entertainment

We had a lot of fun. We made a prop box which went down well with kids (and adults) of all ages. My brother and sister in law made a London Underground sweet table (Eleflump and Castle). We had the ‘host a roast’, then to top it all off the band and DJ.

We booked the band Encore with Warble Entertainment after searching for wedding bands in Northamptonshire and they were a brilliant addition to our day. The booking process was really easy and any questions we had were answered quickly. Encore were a fantastic band if you want a range of music and you have a range of ages at your wedding. I didn’t leave the dance floor for the whole time they were playing as every song kept you wanting to stay and dance! They also did a special request for my dad that was excellent and sang into the crowd, which had everyone joining in – my flower girl was a big Encore fan as well – she is only 4 but didn’t want to leave the dance floor either, spinning around constantly. I would definitely recommend this band – they exceeded expectations.

My dad also made a video for part of his speech which was him, my mum, sister in law and brother dancing to ‘My Girl’ by ‘The Temptations’. They filmed it at the venue a few weeks earlier and I was absolutely blown away!

[wpdevart_youtube]FdDL5bBxiBg[/wpdevart_youtube]

The Dress – Maggie Satottero, Bradgate Brides

The Suits – Young’s, Debenhams

The VenueDodford Manor

The Flowers – Fleurs en Fleur

The FoodJenkinsons

The PhotographerLesley Bee

The EntertainmentEncore, Warble Entertainment

The Gallery

Published by Warble Entertainment

Comments are closed.

Looking for wedding inspiration?

Drop your email below and we’ll send you some of the very best wedding entertainment ideas, direct to your inbox