Gabi & Morgan - An Undone Luxury Wedding at Clapton Country Club
Gabi and Morgan’s Clapton Country Club wedding was a relaxed, stylish London celebration, combining Hackney Town Hall, undone luxury, and a seriously good party.
Gabi and Morgan weren’t interested in a wedding that felt too much like a wedding.
They wanted good food, good music, candles, their favourite people and plenty to keep everyone entertained. Something chic, but not polished to the point of losing its personality. Romantic, but not overly sentimental. A little grown up, a little playful.
Basically, undone luxury.
For two self-confessed outdoorsy homebodies who love rock climbing, nature, board games, reading and really good food, it made perfect sense.
They met in London before Covid and, like many people during those strange few years, ended up living together with a large group of friends. They stayed in the city, built a life locally and chose Clapton Country Club because it was part of their neighbourhood and felt like them.
For their London wedding, the plan was never to disappear somewhere else. It was about celebrating in the city they know and love, with a few very good reasons for their guests to explore it too.
Hackney Town Hall, then onto the buses
The day began with a Hackney Town Hall wedding, where all 83 guests gathered for the legal ceremony.
Then came the fun part.
Everyone piled onto vintage London buses and headed across the city to Clapton Country Club. It was a brilliant way to connect the two parts of the day. Grand Hackney Town Hall on one side, and the wonderfully eccentric, industrial world of Clapton Country Club on the other.
The Club is a place with plenty going on already. Built from the bones of a former tram shed and filled with reclaimed and recycled materials, its interiors are layered, unexpected and full of character.
It didn’t need disguising.
The design was about working with it.
Undone Luxury
Gabi and Morgan’s brief was to create something romantic, playful and minimalist, without becoming formal or status driven.
As a London wedding planner, this was a particularly fun brief to bring to life. We kept the palette neutral and let texture, candlelight and the venue itself do the work.
Emma designed the stationery and arranged the printing to their brief, creating an illustrative, hand drawn look that brought a playful quality to the tables without taking away from the simplicity of the overall design.
There was plenty of candlelight too, which was particularly important for an early spring wedding. Tall, skinny candles in glass holders created atmosphere without cluttering the tables.
Florals were deliberately restrained. Rather than filling the room with flowers, we used greenery, wildflowers, cosmos and hydrangeas, including a statement hydrangea cloud installation overhead.
It was a case of knowing when to stop.
The venue already had plenty to say.
A Wedding designed around guests
One of the things we loved about Gabi and Morgan’s brief was that they were thinking about their guests from the very beginning.
They didn’t want everyone sitting around waiting for the next wedding moment. They wanted people to have things to do, things to discover and reasons to get involved.
The table names were a nod to their love of climbing, adding another small piece of their story to the day.
It was thoughtful without being overly personalised.
The kind of detail you notice because it feels natural, rather than because someone has made sure you’ve noticed it.
Very good wedding food
Food was always going to be a big part of this wedding.
The day started with canapés including beef Yorkshire puddings with horseradish, squash and ricotta tart, salmon crostini, and mozzarella and mushroom arancini.
Then came a three course wedding breakfast designed to be generous, sociable and full of flavour.
Sharing starters of butternut squash, garlic lentils and mixed leaves with harissa dressing sat alongside grilled aubergine, crispy chickpeas and yoghurt tahini dressing, all served with flatbreads.
For the main course, there was roast za’atar spiced salmon with olives, tomatoes, capers, onion and oregano, with a vegetable tagine for vegetarian guests. This was served alongside new potatoes, seasonal greens and Israeli couscous.
And then, instead of a traditional wedding cake, came a croquembouche tower. A nod to Morgan’s upbringing in France and his family visiting from France.
Half pistachio, half vanilla, surrounded by additional choux pastries in vanilla, milk chocolate and passion fruit.
Indoor sparklers were added to the moment, and yes, they still had their cake cutting moment. It just looked considerably more interesting.
Later, when everyone inevitably needed feeding again, Pizza Pilgrims arrived with bufala margherita, smoky aubergine parmigiana, mushroom and truffle, pepperoni with hot honey, and burrata and pesto.
A very good decision.
And then the Wedding Party
Gabi and Morgan had made it very clear that a great party mattered.
The music moved into 90s hip hop and classic party tracks, with a live band bringing the energy up another notch.
By this point, the careful minimalism of the tables and the considered stationery mattered considerably less.
People were dancing.
The candles were still burning.
The vintage buses were a distant memory.
And the room at Clapton Country Club was doing exactly what it was supposed to do, bringing 83 people together and giving them a very good excuse to stay late.
Gabi and Morgan’s Country Club Wedding
What I loved most about Gabi and Morgan’s wedding was that nothing felt like it had been included simply because it was expected.
They didn’t need a traditional wedding cake. They wanted a croquembouche.
They didn’t want a room overflowing with flowers. They wanted candlelight, greenery and a hydrangea cloud.
They didn’t want their guests to simply sit and watch. They became involved.
And they didn’t want a wedding that felt overly formal or precious.
They wanted undone luxury.
A little bit romantic. A little bit playful. Very London.
And, most importantly, completely them.
It’s exactly the kind of English wedding we love to create: thoughtful, stylish and personal, with the focus firmly on the people, the experience and the party.
Suppliers
| Photographer Toria Frances | Florist Greta in Flowers
