My Art Nouveau Wedding
You may have noticed that my domain name has changed recently! I am now Alexandra Kytka-Sharpe. With that, I join the ranks of hyphenated women who weren’t willing to part with their father’s last name (and its incorrectly pronounced variants).
As that may imply, I got married recently! My now-husband Dan and I were married on the 29th of October, in the London picture-perfect wedding of my dreams. Of course, the most important part of a wedding is the one you’re marrying, but this is a blog about art and fashion, not about men! So here are the details that I think readers will be most interested in.
The Inspiration: Art Nouveau/Secret Garden
Every week I seem to be absolutely obssesed with a new aesthetic or era. When we were beginning to plan our wedding, I was nose deep in reading and learning about all things Art Noveau. So it was inevitable that it became the theme!
Art Nouveau is a style of architecture, interior design, craft, and art that took place in the late 18th/early 19th century. It features a mix of new industrial techniques and materials with an ornate and natural aesthetic. Think Prague, Mucha, Tiffany lamps. In my mood board, I was thinking florals, patterns, gold, pearls, and stained glass. The secondary theme became the secret garden, based partially on the amount of floral prints I was looking at and the wild, overgrown bouquets I sent to my florist for inspiration. FYI, The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett was one of my favourite books as a child.
The other thing I loved about this theme is that it seemed relatively achievable on a budget. Whilst part of me would have loved the idea of an art deco/Great Gatsby wedding, that aesthetic seemed like it would require buying and changing too much of the venues we had available to work. Art Nouveau, which involved much I thought I could find secondhand and in charity shops without looking too cheap, was absolutely perfect.
The first moodboard I made on Canva feautring a plethora of patterns and colours I had found on Pinterest and Google.
The second moodboard including images I found on Pinterest, Google, eEbay and Facebook Marketplace.
The Invitation
My friend Emma made us these beautiful invitations. They illustrated them using several reference images from a Pinterest board and printed them using Riso printing, a technique also known as digital screen printing which involves using layers of a few select colours to get a vintage and colourful effect. They were actually printed in Berlin and sent to us to post out to our friends and family.
The Outfits
When I was thinking through what everyone would wear, my first thought was that I don’t like when things match too much. Especially with the secret garden concept, I was looking more for a palette of colours and themes that looked great together in place of the more typical men’s ties matching the bridesmaids’ dresses situation. It was a bit nerve-wracking, to be honest, hoping everything would end up looking good together but the moodboards helped significantly to unite the colours and patterns together.
The dress: Believe it or not, this dress was from Etsy! My lovely friend Emma sent me loads of images from Pinterest and when she sent this particular image, I knew I had to find this dress.
Earrings: The employees at The Hirst Collective were SO helpful in finding me the perfect earrings to go along with the dress. These gold and pearl earrings are from the 30s and have the image of a woman which is extremely typical of the Art Nouveau movement.
Shoes: I found these second-hand like new Sarah Flint heels from eBay. I first found them on the Vestiaire Collective but they were unavailable. Luckily, I found the exact ones in my size on eBay and couldn’t be happier with them! The heel was the perfect height to make me feel elegant yet able to walk around all day without thinking about it. Sarah Flint, apparently, is Meghan Markle’s choice of shoe brand, if that means anything to you.
The veil: Kindly gifted to me by Christine A. Moore Millinery, we ended up being unable to use the entire piece made with my hairstyle but in the morning we fixed the veil bit to my hair which I was so happy with!
The bridesmaids: Satin dresses in the colour bronzer from Azazie and pearl drop earrings from this Etsy shop.
Groomsmen: Navy suits with William Morris printed bowties and handkerchiefs from Mrs. Bow Tie. I feel obligated to tell you that technically William Morris predates the Art Nouveau movement, but similar textiles were popular during the influential arts and crafts movement which played a big role in Art Nouveau.
Taken by our wonderful wedding photographer Rohan Negi: https://www.instagram.com/rohannegiphotos/
The Church: St. George’s Bloomsbury
We were lucky enough to get married in this GORGEOUS church a couple minutes’ walk from the British Museum. The church has this wonderful Baroque look with the most beautiful stained glass. It was the perfect mix of beautiful itself enough to not need too many decorations and simple enough to not feel overdone.
We ordered eucalyptus leaves and small blue flowers from a wholesale nursery and my wonderful godmother Erin arranged them the day before the wedding for both the pews and the tables at the reception venue.
Taken by our wonderful wedding photographer Rohan Negi: https://www.instagram.com/rohannegiphotos/
Taken by our wonderful wedding photographer Rohan Negi: https://www.instagram.com/rohannegiphotos/
Taken by our wonderful wedding photographer Rohan Negi: https://www.instagram.com/rohannegiphotos/
A Seated Lunch Reception in Primrose Hill
Our reception took place on the top floor of the Princess of Wales in Primrose Hill. When I first toured the room, I knew it was perfect because of all of the gold mirrors everywhere in the place and the beautiful lamps and lighting throughout. It was exactly what I envisioned!
The main item I purchased to decorate around was these beautiful Tiffany-style lamps that we have now repurposed for our flat. I found these on eBay and I love them to death. We placed those on the head table as shown below. We also bought gold candlestick holders and white candles to arrange around the lines of eucalyptus on the table. We used my friend’s illustrations from the invitation to make name cards and a few signs for the room.
Favours and Cake
Growing up, I would always use Kitkats to explain how I pronounced my last name (Kytka, like Kitkat without the t). I thought making our own Kitkats with our new hyphenated last names would be a nice way of getting people to remember our new last name! This is not Art Nouveau themed at all, by the way, but an extra touch that I thought a lot of people enjoyed.
Cake-wise, we ordered a cake from one of my favourite London cake-spots Cutter and Squidge and I made the cake topper myself from some of Emma’s illustrations, some cardboard, gold spray-paint, and a lot of hot glue.
To end…
That’s about the sum of our Art Nouveau, Secret Garden wedding in London. I’m so grateful to everyone who was a part of this day which could not have been more perfect! This is different from my normal blog content, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share all the tiny aesthetic details that went into the planning of our special day.
One more fun note to leave you on: Between the service and reception, Dan and I headed to Pret to get hot chocoalte. A kind stranger paid for our drinks, and another stranger took a photo exclaiming that they always take photos of “strange things happening in Pret.” I’d love to see that photo someday!