Bringing a taste of the tropics to East London

Source: Repeating Islands

I’m not one of those girls who lives by tradition or abides by all of the so called ‘rules’, so when it came down to choosing a theme and colour scheme for the wedding I knew I didn’t want to go down the usual wedding route of muted colours, golds, silvers and creams. I knew that I wanted to do something a little bit different, something that will stand out, be memorable and also have a reflection on us as a couple. 

The first thought that came to mind was our personalities, lifestyles and things that are important to us. My train of thought kept going back to the word family. As I have mentioned in previous posts family plays a big part in both mine and my fiancés lives. A lot of things we do revolves around family. As you know I come from a Jamaican background and him from a large Nigerian family, both enriched with culture and traditions. I think it would be a nice idea to somehow reflect both of our lively, tropical, colourful cultures in our wedding day because after all we wouldn’t be who we are as people without our family and culture.
 
With that as a seed, I decided that the theme should bring the Caribbean sunshine (because let’s face it, we hardly ever see it over here), and the life and soul of Africa back to London with a tropical wedding theme. Now let me stop your mind from thinking Hawaii, grass skirts and limbo poles! It will be a classy tropical lol.

I started exploring vibrant colour options and settled on burnt orange and a tropical blue. Sounds like a strange combination but it actually looks so good together. I put together a mood board (pictured) of different shades and road tested the idea on my bridemaids.

They loved it so that gave me the confidence to go with it. Now, I’m thinking of ways to weave the theme through all the elements of the day. So far I think I’ll be steering away from the traditional wedding flowers like roses, and using more exotic looking flowers like calla lilies or anemones for my table centres and bouquets. 

The music will undoubtedly be one of the key theme elements with the live African band and a DJ to play the reggae and soul that my family will expect. I have a few other ideas but I shall keep them close to my chest to leave a few surprises for you all on the day. 

If you have any suggestions though, please let me know!