Ceremony
Please be seated by 3.15pm
St Mary’s Church, Bourne Street SW1W 8JJ.
The Ceremony will commence at 3.30pm.
Doors open at 3pm and please be seated by 3.15pm.
Getting there
(is easy!)
Nearest underground station: Sloane Square (5 minutes’ walk) – Circle and District line
Nearest rail station: Victoria (15 minutes’ walk)
Parking: free street parking on Sundays (with some exceptions – check the signs!).
Singing at the Ceremony
Everyone is invited to sing in our opening choral item, I Was Glad by Parry!
If you are not a singer, do not fear – you will not be forced to sing! If you are (a singer), scores will be available on arrival with the order of service – please join in!
There is an optional rehearsal at 2.50pm (for c.10 mins) in the church.
The Parry will be directed by Harry Christophers CBE – thank you, Harry!
Dress up, or down
We’d love you to feel comfortable so if that means wearing your fanciest attire please come dressed to the nines!
If you’re more comfortable in a tracksuit than a morning suit… you do you!
Cake and fizz
4.30–5.45 PM
Immediately following the ceremony there will be a short reception in the church with fizz, tea and cake.
There will be a range of Buns from Home (our new favourite bakery), and some of you are kindly contributing your own sweet treats!
Look out for: salted caramel chocolate brownies, mini banoffee pies, Prastgardens pepparkaka, pistachio cupcakes, and white chocolate and speculoos merveilleux cake!
Thanks in advance to Chris Gray for providing some tunes on the piano!
Please note we need to be out of the church before 6pm for Evening Prayer.
The Thomas Cubitt pub
6-11 PM
Via Orange Square (and Mozart) for photos, we depart the church by 6pm for The Thomas Cubitt pub for drinks, canapés and merriment!
The “hearty canapes” menu includes scotch eggs, arancini balls, beef/vegan sliders, charred cauliflower with vegan aïoli, nduja puffs, green pea and mint lettuce wraps, carpaccio of beef on sticks, Three Cheese & Guindilla Pickle Toasties and Hake Goujons with romesco.
We hope there to be loads of food but it’s hard to plan; if it runs out you can order more from the kitchen.
Wine
We’re really pleased with the selection of wines we’ve picked out at the Cubitt – a Valencian white blend (aromatic, a little Viogner-like), a Rhone rosé (“Luberon”) and an Argentine Malbec. All of these will be available from the bar on our tab.
Two of the wines we’ve pre-bought for arrival are the Cubitt’s own-blended wines and really good: a silky-smooth Chianti and a Provence rosé, strawberries and cream mmm…
For those of you who like seeking out something a bit different look out for a chilled Beaujoulais and some Carménère (from Chile). A limited supply of both will be available near the start of the evening.
Wedding playlist
Here’s some songs associated with us and our wedding that aren’t featuring in our wedding if you fancy a listen. Enjoy!
Staying over
We know you may need to get home after festivities ahead of the working week but if you’d like to stay over – lovely! There’s loads of hotels in the area – let us know if you need any pointers.
Gifts
Some of you have asked about gift lists which is lovely but honestly – we’ve got loads of stuff!
If you’d like to make a contribution to the start of our married life, then we have a couple of alternatives.
Streetwise Opera and Thames Reach
Two charities close to our hearts are Streetwise Opera and Thames Reach, who work with people affected by homelessness (and as it happens, organisations we work for). If you’d like to make a charitable donation to the value of any gift you’d have bought us we’d love that.
Honeymoon
We are planning a holiday-of-a-lifetime type honeymoon in January 2025 and would gratefully receive any contributions to help make that happen! Plans so far are to base ourselves in Cape Town for a week, and adventure onwards from there!
If that grabs you, then just follow this link to make a deposit into our Collctiv account and we can withdraw it at a later date.
This is very safe/secure – we use it all the time for other purposes – and it is free to use (i.e. you can choose NOT to ‘Support Collctiv’ in addition to your gift – just use the dropdown bar below the message box and change that option to ‘Don’t Support Collctiv’).
Brain teaser / Ice breaker
Guess the most recurring first (Christian) name in our guest list and how many of those are attending!
We’ll reveal on the day, after the ceremony (so feel free to fill those awkward small-talk silences with this…).
Video
Sorry to disappoint but this hasn’t changed… then again, nor has the plan really. Feel free to re-watch if you’re really that lacking in entertainment…
