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It was their way or the highway for Laura and Simon’s simple yet gorgeously gothic Real Wedding in Manchester city centre, with beautiful results. With images by Brides Up North Featured Supplier Andy Wardle Photography this black and white and red all over wedding (organised in just four weeks!) is a little monochrome masterpiece.
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Laura says: Simon asked me to marry him on my birthday at a little pub in Rowley near Matlock which is special to us and we tied the knot on 30th of August 2012. The ceremony was at Manchester Town Hall and our reception was at Malmaison Manchester.
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We didn’t want to get married in a church as neither of us are religious but we did want a bit of gothic grandeur so the Town Hall was the perfect place. We also spend a lot of time in Manchester so it was nice to have our wedding venue as somewhere we pass on a regular basis. We chose Malmaison for the reception because we love the bold style of the decor. We also wanted somewhere we could go back to on our anniversary – oh! and they had to make good non-alcoholic cocktails which was essential as I was five months pregnant!
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We wanted laid back and intimate, city centre chic with an edge which Andy has captured beautifully in his photos. Neither of us wanted a big production, so we kept it simple and did everything ourselves. We built everything around us as a couple – the venues, the music, the guest list, the decorations – if it didn’t mean something to us it wasn’t part of our wedding.
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I bought my dress online from a bridal shop in Kent, I wanted a Grecian style dress and I fell in love with the simplicity of this one. Simon wore a Ted Baker suit. We didn’t have bridesmaids or groomsmen as we wanted to keep things informal.
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My bouquet was really simple red and white roses with beargrass and green foliage .
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Andy Wardle Photography was our only supplier – it was important that we got a set of photographs that told the story of our day, with a style that we loved – Andy was the perfect choice.
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We tried to do as much as possible ourselves because we wanted our wedding day to reflect us – we even dressed the rooms the night before the wedding ourselves.
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Our special touch was to select and mix our own music – music is important to both of us so we spent a lot of time getting it just perfect.
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We had three playlists – one for the ceremony, one for the meal and one for the party. We made the mixes from songs that meant something to us, it meant we had the perfect atmosphere and gave the guests something to laugh at when the more embarrassing selections got played.
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We had a Daisy and Donald wedding cake, made by Simon’s brother in law. I didn’t see it until the day and I was so happy, he did such an amazing job.
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The whole day was really special – it is really difficult to pick one highlight. We had some time to walk around Manchester’s Northern Quarter with our photographer to get some shots of just us – that was fun and we got some great photos.
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After the wedding we honeymooned in Paris and Disneyland Paris.
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We organised and had our wedding within four weeks of setting the date and got everything we wanted. We worked really hard and everything fell into place. The best thing about doing it this way was that there was no post wedding ‘come down’ as I think some people get, we were so happy to have pulled off our perfect day in such a short space of time!
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Congratulations Laura & Simon!
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Get in touch to see your own Real Wedding featured on Brides Up North – here’s how.
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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2013 Andy Wardle Photography
Andy Wardle Photography is a Brides Up North Featured Supplier, but this is not a sponsored post
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This morning, we meet one of the fabulous Brides Up North 
