A Hackney Magazine Supplement
SUMMER 2018
WEDDING SUPPLEMENT
THE HACKNEY BAKERY MADE HARRY & MEGHAN’S WEDDING CAKE
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wedding cake with a beautiful design and a deliciously sweet flavour is a symbol of the start of a married couple’s new life together. The moment the newlywed couple cuts through the multi-layered cake together is without a doubt one of the most iconic and photographed parts of any wedding day. The couples among you must already have a favourite cake in mind, but don’t make a decision before trying the cakes available at this small bakery which is prepared Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s wedding cake. Claire Ptak the owner of the Hackneybased Violet bakery-café which Kensington Palace has referred to as a ‘culinary gem’, has been selected to bake the cake for the royal wedding. Raised in California, Claire previously worked as a pastry chef for Alice Waters
at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and now focuses on adding organic and seasonal ingredients to all her creations. Before opening her organic bakery in 2010 she used to run a stall at Hackney’s Broadway Market, bringing baked goods in from home. She is also a food writer and food and prop stylist. “All of my cakes are baked with organic and low intervention ingredients. Many of the other ingredients are organic as well, like our Madagascan vanilla pods and pure cane molasses. Limited edition buttercream icings that adorn our birthday cakes, cupcakes, and fill whoopie pies and biscuits, change with the seasons. They are made by whipping up butter and sugar then gently folding in fresh fruit purees, melted Valrhona dark chocolate, freshly brewed espresso, home-made flower cordials or dark caramel made with sea salt” she writes on her website.
Violet is open from 8am – 6pm Monday to Friday and from 9.30 am – 6pm on weekends. You can visit the website violetcakes.com for more details.
LOCAL BANDS FOR A WEDDING HACKNEY COLLIERY BAND
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ining nuggets of funk, hip-hop and hi-octane rock from the musical coalface and throwing in a few chunks of Balkan brass, ska and contemporary jazz for good measure, the Hackney Colliery Band is as diverse as Hackney that gave them their name. A New Orleans-style line up of trumpets, trombones, saxes, sousaphone and two drummers, and a name which
pays homage to the British brass heritage demonstrate that Hackney Colliery Band are rooted in tradition, yet sound thoroughly modern. hackneycollieryband.co.uk
COLOMBOLOCO
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repare yourself for a blitz of eccentric theatricality, wild gypsy beats, virtuoso fingerwork, wanton genremixing, lunatic dancing and inexplicable outfits. Colomboloco shows blend dynamic and eclectic folk Mediterranean beats from across Southern Europe with Tarantella, Classical Opera, as well as Greek, Spanish and Turkish traditional music in
28 HACKNEY MAGAZINE
an epic journey around the globe worthy of Colombus himself. The band’s musicians hail from Italy, Spain, Greece and Turkey, performing in South Italian dialect, Italian, Spanish and also in English, French, Hebrew and Russian. colomboloco.com
SUMMER 2018
EXTRAORDINARY WEDDINGS AT QMUL LONDON, E1 enquiries@qmweddings.co.uk 020 7882 8176 qmweddings.co.uk @WeddingsQMUL
WEDDING SUPPLEMENT
A SUNNY SUMMER WEDDING Gemma Leary and Mark got married at Hackney Town Hall on 5th May 2018
H
ow did you meet? Mark and I met 15 years ago in our first year at Loughborough University, on a night out in the student union. It just so happened that we were on the same course! What did you first think of your partner? My first impression - he was very good looking so I was surprised he would be interested in me! Mark tells me his first impression of me was that I was beautiful and he needed to get my number. How did you start dating? Mark asked me on a date within a few days of us meeting, we went for a few drinks and we never really looked back!
GLASTONBURY PROPOSAL When did you know that your partner was the right one for you? Although we were together throughout the majority of our time at uni, I didn't ever really think I'd end up marrying someone I met at 19. It was when we graduated and were still going strong that I knew there was something there. I moved back home to East London and was so happy that not long after Mark moved from his home in Norfolk to start a life here too. Mark: I moved to London to be closer to Gem, but also to start my career and life after graduating. It was great because whilst we spent loads of time together she also gave me the space to meet my own friends and start a life here in my own right, not just as her boyfriend. That's when I really knew she was a keeper.
How did the proposal happen? Last year at Glastonbury! It was the first time there for both of us, and we went with another couple - really good friends of ours. Mark was apparently waiting for a window to propose when they both weren't around, so took the opportunity on the Saturday night by the side of the Pyramid stage - we were waiting for our friends to come back from the bar and I was talking about how happy I was. Before I knew it Mark was on one knee! How did you start organising your wedding day? Can you tell us about your planning process? Not long after we got engaged we took ourselves on holiday for a week and during that time had a few really good conversations about the kind of wedding we'd like. Luckily we were pretty much on the same page about everything! We quickly had a date in mind and the first thing was to let the absolute most important people in our lives know. Living in London and wanting to get married here made it really easy to look at potential venues, we made a list and saw them all within a fortnight just on evenings after work, which made it easy to make some decisions quite quickly. Is there any specific reason for choosing Hackney Town Hall and The London Fields Brewhouse? We knew we wanted to get married in the area and decided to choose the reception venue first. The LFB ticked all of our boxes, exactly the kind of place we could see ourselves celebrating in, but also not completely dry hire. Then luckily the beautiful Hackney Town Hall -just a few minutes walk away- was also available on our chosen date. How was your wedding day? Did
everything go as planned? We were so lucky, the day went exactly as we'd hoped - really relaxed and just full of happiness and fun. I remember looking around and realising it wasn't just about people celebrating our marriage, but actually weddings are a really wonderful opportunity to bring people together.
Any advice for couples who are planning their weddings? Stay true to yourselves as a couple and don't worry about the things you think you should include on your big day, instead only make decisions based on what you really want and what will mean something to you on the day. We stripped back on so many of the little details that actually had no impact on our day at all, and have no regrets about that in any way. Other small tips - consider dried flowers. The only fresh flowers we used were for the bouquets. You'll save a fortune and will be able to keep the flowers for ages after. Also, build lots of extra time for the morning of the wedding. Aim to be ready much earlier than you think.I got to the Town Hall with my mum and bridesmaids more than half an hour early, which only meant we got to have a quick drink in the Picture House across the road before hand!
“LOVE, RESPECT, UNFORGETTABLE EMOTIONS”
Your Wedding is a special day. Very special day. The only way to remember all the emotions, your guests and the Wedding story, will be through your wedding Album. www.carlodortenziphotography.com HACKNEYMAGAZINE.COM
SUMMER 2018
HACKNEY MAGAZINE 29
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