Stephanie in a 70’s Inspired Ghost Dress for her Manchester Art Gallery Wedding

Stephanie, a Civil Servant, married Sixth form tutor in photography and art, Rory on 22nd July 2023 at Manchester Art Gallery in the L.S. Lowry and Dutch still life exhibitions, followed by a reception at Seven Bro7hers Brewery.

I could not adore this gorgeous, laid back wedding more, or the sensitive way within which the incredibly talented photographer, Monika Chatterton, has captured the sense of joy, love and human connection so effortlessly (the photographer is a former Love My Dress bride herself and has observed all those magical moments on this wedding day so beautifully).

Stephanie wore a 70’s inspired Ghost dress and, with a little help from Birch Farm Flowers, styled all the flowers herself.

Bridesmaids Dresses

I didn’t want the traditional bridesmaid dresses and I wanted my Brides to be comfortable in whatever they chose to wear. I had initially decided on green and pink as the colours but struggled to find dresses that complimented each other.

After months of searching and many failed attempts. My Bridesmaid Olivia wore a pink H&M limited edition tiered maxi dress and Bryony wore a olive green silk oversized sleeve dress from ASOS (via Vinted). We had found both dresses online but they had unfortunately sold out so we were on a mission to locate them.

Photography

As Rory is photography teacher it was always important who we selected to take the images for our wedding. Our friend followed Monika on Instagram and had told us how amazing her pictures were and that she had recently reached out on insta to say she was wanting to start shooting weddings.

We loved her instinctive style and the way she managed to capture intimate and meaningful moments.

We knew from Monika’s Instagram that she loved capturing her clients and this made us relaxed about booking her for her first wedding. Being camera shy people we knew we didn’t want traditional wedding photography and someone who could capture moments throughout the day without us feeling like we had to spend lots of time away from our guests. 

We would 100% recommend Monika, we were absolutely blown away be the photographs and she made us feel so at ease during the day. It was clear to see her enthusiasm for the art of photography and love of storytelling through images.

Visit monikachatterton.co.uk

Flowers

I knew early on that I wanted to do my own flowers, we originally had our own allotment and I planned to grow them all there. But after having Freddie it became increasingly hard to designated the amount of time the plot needed and we sadly had to give it up. Undeterred, I set about planning to grow some of the flowers in our small terrace garden and researched how to buy the rest of the flowers.

After taking a course by Wolves Lane Flower Company, who encourage people to use British grown flowers and local flower farmers, I found Elizabeth at Birch Farm Flowers.

Elizabeth was a local grower only a few miles away from where we live, growing the most amazing seasonal flowers. We went to visit the farm Elizabeth’s passion and love for the craft was infectious. I had complete faith in her and gave her free rein to choose whichever flowers looked best at the time she was cutting.

The flowers were delivered on Thursday evening and me and my mum set about preparing them with a glass of fizz ready for a full on day arranging with my family and bridesmaids the next day.

How They Met

We met in 2015 on Tinder, back when Tinder was a thing. We both had a love for art and music and which created a close connection straight away. We both agreed to meet in Manchester city centre after speaking on the app.

Married couples who met online

In 2018 we decided to quit our jobs and go traveling across the world. We worked our way through south America growing closer with every mile. We concluded our trip in the north of India, Nepal and Sri Lanka where I proposed to Stephanie on a beach as the sun set.

Rory’s suit was from Moss Bros. Rory hadn’t seen my dress but I had hinted heavily that it was 70s inspired. Rory gravitated towards the double breasted suit despite the initial moans from the parents that it was old fashioned! He looked great and the style went perfectly with my dress. 

Evening & Dancing

We arranged our own music and created a Spotify playlist over the last 3 years. The guests loved being able to choose their own songs towards the end of the night which guaranteed dancing. We used Rory’s uncles sound system which he used to set up gigs with his friends. His background as a sound and lightening engineer for BBC and Granada had later developed into a house full of speakers and musical equipment. Barry passed away during Covid, so it was very special to us that we we’re able to have his sound system (his party set) on the day.

We love John Cooper Clark and (following on with the Manchester Salford connection) we especially like Arctic Monkeys reedition of ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ – and used it for our first dance.

This song has always had significance to us and we have often danced in the lounge with this record on. On the day that we made our wedding rings, we went to see Arctic monkeys play this very song at Old Trafford Cricket ground. 

Words of Wedded Wisdom

Your wedding is your day to shine as a couple so don’t be afraid to do your own thing, have the food you love, the music you want, the décor, grow your own flowers and make your decorations!

Your friends and family all want to help so include them in the preparations it just makes the day more special. 

I visited Love My Dress when planning – I found the blog featured more unique weddings. Seeing other couples have such beautiful personalised weddings and not necessarily having the biggest budget gave me confidence to try different things. Our wedding budget was £5,000 and we ended up spending around £6,000. It was quite literally the best day of our lives.