MC Motors Dalston Wedding | London Wedding Photographer

Mehreen & Jim’s Kick Ass MC Motors Dalston Wedding Photography in London

Ever since meeting Mehreen and Jim for the first time at Gordon’s wine bar in London I’ve been excited for their MC Motors Dalston wedding. Party because I’d been wanting to photograph a wedding at MC Motors (an industrial warehouse in Dalston) since I’d first heard of the place, but mostly because Mehreen and Jim were just so dam cool. They were two of the chillest/fun people I’d ever met. And their wedding matched them so well. From the food truck lunch, to the informal speeches, espresso martinis in icecream cones and one kickass party. Now over to Jim and Mehreen for their views on their wedding:

What was your favourite part of your London wedding?

Our favourite part of the day was arriving at the reception and seeing everyone’s faces as they explored MC Motors; there was no hiding that our wedding reception was going to be a little different once they glimpsed the quirky decor and industrial chic!

What made you choose MC Motors Dalston as your wedding venue?

At the outset of planning our wedding day, we agreed that whilst we wanted a reception that reflected our favourite things, we also wanted at least a nod to tradition in our Ceremony. When we came across the beautiful rooms in Asia House we knew that would be the perfect mix of elegance to contrast with the industrial setting of MC Motors.

For the longest time we set our hearts on having a street food theme with our favourite types of food and drink to get away from the stuffiness of traditional wedding catering and experiences. This turned out to be pretty difficult to make happen – it was hard to find venues in London which would allow us to go that route with external catering, and certainly none that would had a wedding license! As a result our list of reception venues was pretty short – MC Motors happened to be at the top; as soon as we walked in we fell in love with the place. Nothing else really came close and we knew it would blow our friends and family away!

What would your advice be to other couples planning a London wedding?

Spreadsheets, definitely use spreadsheets to plan your big day! It makes life so much easier and using a type that you can share online means that both of you can keep track on the go.

The most important thing we would say is to do exactly what you want to do – this your wedding day and no one else’s. Don’t give in to what websites and magazines tell you should be done to make the day “special”; it will be special if it’s all done the way you want.

bride and groom first dance at MC Motors Dalston in London

What made you choose your details and styling for your wedding at MC Motors?

We decided on having burgundy as the colour from the start, it’s a favourite colour for both of us and was the colour of the first bouquet of roses that Jim had bought. Gold was also a prominent colour as it complimented burgundy and the bride is pretty obsessed with it! We knew it wasn’t a traditional summer colour for weddings but not much about the wedding was traditional.

For the bridal party outfits, all of the bridemaids were more than happy wearing a burgundy dress. Initially, I wanted to get them something all in the same fabric but different styles to match their own tastes and personalities but I couldn’t find anywhere that had the right shade. So in the end, they styled and accessorised the dresses with whatever they wanted.

The groomsmen wore tailored suits with burgundy accessories – we found a great company that sent out swatches so that we could pick the colour that we wanted. Jim wanted something slightly different for his tie and pocket square but couldn’t find a set that he liked. We ended up buying a Liberty fabric and I made his tie and pocket square for him!

The cake and the flower arrangements were made by Mehreen and her Mum. Mehreen was pretty set on having a gold cake and actually managed to make it happen!

Did you have any entertainment at MC Motors?

We used a DJ company that came highly recommended by MC Motors. Initially we had not planned on using a DJ as we have polar opposite tastes in music (the only overlaps being Garage and Grime) and finding a DJ that could accommodate for it all seemed like a mammoth task. Wedding Smashers were great with the fact that they asked exactly what songs you did and did not want to hear on the night; we’d given our DJ a pretty tough list but he managed to pull it off!

Do you have any comments working with Matt Badenoch Photography?

Matt was great to work with. We’ve never been fans of the staged wedding photos and had always wanted more natural shots of the guests throughout the day. We definitely got lucky with our web search – we stumbled across Matt’s website and his portfolio was just perfect. We met with him a few days after sending an enquiry and he was definitely exactly what we were looking for.