We are delighted to showcase this fresh and joyous wedding, influenced by the graphic designer couples’ time in Japan, their love for the capital’s retro, eurphoric City Pop music genre, its 80s pastel aesthetic and the mountain vistas which were the backdrop of their time there together.

We are also thrilled to talk through how one of our Most Curious fam, Kerri of accessory brand Francis + Louise created a bespoke print based on the above brief which then ran through the whole day, from the ceremony set, the groom’s and Mums’ accessories to the motif for the Photo Booth frames!

The dress and cake are also by Most Curious dreamy suppliers Paper to Lace and ARD Bakery respectively!

Read on to hear groom Lewis’s story of the day as well as Kerri’s words on how it all came together.

Who are you?
Lewis and Charlotte, designers based in East London.

How did you meet?

We met on tinder nearly 10 years ago. It was Lewis' second and Charlotte's first ever online date!

Fave thing about each other

We like that we are both creative (but in slightly different fields) and just how easy it has been to spend time with each other wherever we are in life.

Where did you get married?

Victoria baths in Manchester.

What was the inspirations references/ aesthetic / feel you wanted for your day? What was on your mood board?

We both love Japan, having lived there for nearly two years and proposing there. We knew we wanted a bit of Japanese influence but nothing super on the nose. We chose "City Pop" a feel good genre of Japanese music as the main theme, think 80s Miami meets Tokyo. We were getting married in an old swimming pool so thought that would link nicely with a Japanese bathhouse vibe.

For the style guide, Victoria baths has lots of green tiling which Charlotte paired with a Flo pink and dark blue for our colour scheme. Charlotte illustrated our save the dates with aspects of us and the day. We decided to keep the venue secret at this point but left clues around the invite with what we had planned. We then used this invite as reference for everything else on the day.

What was your main priority, what took up the most energy, what was the most challenging and rewarding?Our main priority was for our guests to have fun and see us in the day we'd planned. Having too many voices at certain points of planning took up a lot of energy, we had to distance ourselves a bit and learn when to say no or when to let go :) . The most rewarding thing was that everyone seemed to really appreciate the planning and style we put into the day. We still get our friends talking about all the little details of the day.

Who were your suppliers? We met Kerri (Francis + Louise) when Charlotte did a craft fair they both attended. At the time we made a mental note to get in touch when we got married for her to design us a pattern. We think it's a really nice way to tie the theme together and give the guys something more personalised to wear. In the brief we gave her we asked for an outdoor bath scene with a mountain view over water. The idea was to have an abstract repeat pattern that could be cropped and printed large like a mural you'd find in a sento (bathhouse). We hung this behind us for the ceremony to hide the back of the pool wall and featured the repeat pattern on braces, bow ties and scarves for the mums.

We were struggling to find a florist, we wanted something down to earth, natural looking but with colour. By total chance our florist had a little stall at the hotel we stayed at while scoping out Manchester. She was great and suggested spacing the flowers outs in different pots/jars and filling those with coloured water. It helped our budget and looked really nice. Plus the smell was amazing and filled the giant swimming pool room, as she sourced everything locally.

Charlotte's sisters work in the alcohol industry so for entertainment we had one of their bartender friends create Japan themed cocktails for the day. He flew over from Paris and served these up in glasses Lewis designed (he's a product designer) with Charlotte's illustration laser etched on. This doubled up as a gift to give to guests with a takeaway cocktail. Meaning nothing was wasted and guests could keep and use them.

Charlotte made all our signage and some extra props for the photobooth, which guests definitely stole at the end of the night haha. She also put together a lo-fi style mix of anime clips to have on screen at the dancefloor. Also, shout out to the DJ who did a really good job with the music choice and mixing it all together.

Some questions for Kerri (Francis+ Louise) talk us through your process and experience!

“I’m incredibly proud of the bespoke wedding print I created for their special day.

The brief was to design a print to reflect the couple’s memories of traveling in Japan, especially a special moment they shared with a view from a gorgeous traditional onsen, but with a modern twist.

Knowing Lewis’s love of Japanese artist Hiroshi Nagai, along with the jaw-dropping wedding venue, an old swimming pool, and the plans for a amazing geometric cake from ARD Bakery, there was an overall feeling of architectural shapes, landscapes, lines, tropical plants, curves and fun colour pops.

Creating this print for such a lovely couple was a designer’s dream come true as there were so many beautiful elements from this I could bring together to create this scene. There were lots of references to water, the green lines and blue hues in the swimming pool, the mountain view from the onsen. The colours were influenced by the bride Charlotte's save the date invite, colours in the venue and Lewis's suit, which was a deep navy with this amazing pop of pink in the detailed stitching.

For Lewis and the groom’s party I made braces, bowties and pocket squares, and this was complemented perfectly with headbands for Charlotte and her bridesmaids. The theme was continued for the wedding party gifts of scrunchies, along with silk scarves for the mums.

The whole wedding was brought together using the bespoke print as the backdrop to the wedding ceremony, bringing it full circle again with the view of the onsen from the perspective of being in the pool! Minus the water though.

Sustainability is really important to me and the great thing about my accessories and gifts are that they can be used for the day and beyond as they can be worn again and again, evoking memories of a special day, not just for the bride and groom but all the loved ones who took part.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with Charlotte and Lewis on this design, bringing their dreams and memories to life for their special day. “

Back to Lewis :

The cake's geometric pattern, by ARD, worked well without colours and we gave the bath tiles as inspiration. It tasted amazing too! We got lucky as she moved to Glasgow so it was too far to deliver safely but her sister offered to drive it down for us on the day!

Tell us a little more about your incredible looks!

I (Lewis) wanted a classic suit with touches of colour. We used Hockerty which let us choose the stitching and seam colour to add some Flo pink against the blue and match with his accessories from Francis + Louis. The shoes were a present from Charlottes parents and were made in Japan (pink inside too).

Charlotte tried on loads of dresses but nothing quite felt her. Kerri was the one who recommended Paper to Lace as an option to style it from scratch. It was perfect as they were based just up the road from us. She wanted something lacey that she could dance in, that would suit her shapes with a bit of an 80s vibe (with the puffy shoulders). And in the end it wasn't all that much more to have it designed and made in the UK from scratch Vs alot of the imported off the shelf dresses. She finished off her look with shiny green shoes from Patricia Blanchet Paris (her home town) and a hair band made from the same lace as the dress.