Rebecca and Matt opted for a church-held ceremony conducted by a friend, then headed onto nearby Fairfield Golf & Sailing Club for their reception, with a gorgeous setting and flexible catering (hello, pie and chips) ticking all the right boxes.
This is a celebration that proves the importance of flexibility when it comes to initial ideas versus what actually happens. Rebecca and Nathan’s original wedding theme – namely, lashings of lavender – gave way to a subtle blend of pale purples and greys once the planning was underway. A turning point came when Rebecca realised that lavender suited precisely none of her bridesmaids and so the more subtle lave-grey palette came into being. (The bridesmaids ended up in sparkling grey, FYI.)
Rebecca and her parents made all sorts of DIY details to make the celebration truly unique to the bride and her groom: her dad, for example, handcrafted a postbox for cards, whilst her mum created pew-ends that tied in with that fragrant lavender theme.
Keep reading to see all the photos from this joy-filled day – and to clock Rebecca’s beautiful long-sleeved wedding gown!
With photography by Marina Walker
Proposal
[jennaopne]Rebecca says: We got engaged at Conwy Falls Forest Park in Wales on March 29 2019. On a rare day off, Matt drove me to Llandudno to eat chips on the beach.
Afterwards, we drove to the park where, after a short hike and beautiful words, he got down on one knee. I didn’t know what to do so I got on the floor, too!
Setting
We got married on October 9th 2019. It was exactly three years after we met – also, I had always wanted a long-sleeved wedding dress so didn’t want to get married during the summer.
Our ceremony was at St Clement’s Church Manchester in Openshaw and our reception was at Fairfield Golf and Sailing Club.
We chose St Clement’s because we sometimes go to the church and love the community. Our friend is also a curate there so he married us! We chose Fairfield because it’s near St Clement’s, has a nice room with a lovely view, was reasonably priced and had a flexible caterer (we wanted pie and chips!).
Our parents have the same ‘song’ as us and had requested that we played it at the reception – we actually surprised them by walking out of church to it. It was You Can’t Hurry Love.
Theme
I wanted lavender to be the basis of our theme (purple is our favourite colour and I love the smell) but I couldn’t find the right colour for the bridesmaids’ dresses so it became less prominent during the planning. There were still a few lovely lavender touches. As a result, I also added some grey into the palette – and who doesn’t love grey?
Matt and I travelled around America in 2018 and had the best time visiting places such as Austin, New Orleans and Nashville. As a nod to that, we named the tables after some of the places we had visited.
Dress
My dress was perfect: ivory with a long sleeved lace bodice and smooth full-length skirt. We added an underskirt to make it more princess-y. The designer was LouLou and I purchased it from Blush Boutique in Uppermill. I knew what I wanted and it was the first dress I tried on – I did try a few others afterwards but nothing compared!
Groomswear
Matt wore a grey three-piece suit with a lavender tie, which was from Slaters.
Bridesmaids
My bridesmaids wore grey dresses that comprised a sparkly short sleeved top and smooth full length skirt. They were from ASOS and the brand was Maya.
My flower girls’ dresses were lavender with a sparkly short-sleeved top and smooth knee-length skirt. They were from Debenhams. My youngest flower girl wore an ivory dress which her cousin wore for her mum’s wedding.
Beauty
Karis McDwyer from Hair & Make-up by Karis helped us get ready – she’s a local mobile hair stylist and MUA.
Transport
I travelled to the ceremony in a Mercedes S Class and my bridesmaids arrived in a Mercedes mini bus. It was hired from Swans Travel Ltd. My groom walked. One of my best friends drove us to the reception and hotel in her Range Rover.
Photography
Our photographer was Marina Walker and we highly recommend her. Marina communicated with us really well before the wedding so we knew she would be great. She did a perfect job on the day – she wasn’t intrusive and made us feel comfortable in front of the camera. We received the photos really quickly on a beautiful memory stick and they are absolutely stunning!
Styling
I had a bouquet by Flowers By Harris in Rochdale. I don’t know a lot about flowers but it included: Lavender, white Gemini with black centres, Thistle, white Veronica and more.
I made the table decorations myself and they featured fake Lavender and white Poppies in a vase next to a lavender tea light and miniature easel with the table name on. We printed the table names on beautiful photos from our engagement shoot with Marina. My dad made a mini postbox for our wedding cards. It looked just like a real one and it’s now next to my snuggle chair. My mum made Lavender-based pew ends to decorate the church.
Cake
We had a three-tier cake that was iced with white buttercream and decorated with flowers and a cake topper. The tiers were chocolate, Victoria sponge and white chocolate and raspberry. We also had chocolate orange cupcakes. My godmother and her daughter (I call her my godsister!) own Cherry Blossom Bakery in Macclesfield so they made it, with my godmother adding a cute fairy godmother figure to the cake stand!
Catering
We had cake at the church straight after the ceremony – our friends and family made the cakes and they did this because Matt loves cake.
At the reception, we had pie and chips followed by hot chocolate fudge cake and ice-cream, with hot roast beef and roast turkey sandwiches in the evening. We wanted food that we both liked and would be able to look forward to and enjoy.
Entertainment
We hired a DJ from North West Discos – I used to work in the radio industry so this was someone I knew.
Matt also organised a line-dancing lesson, which was a surprise for me and I loved it because we went to a few while we were travelling America. It was just a shame I didn’t have my cowgirl boots under my dress!
Best bit
My favourite parts of the day were when Matt and I could talk to each other and soak in what was happening. We probably did most of the talking while we were having our photos taken, when I also got lots of hugs and kisses!
Honeymoon
We went to Morocco for 10 days. We wanted somewhere hot that neither of us had been to before and that wasn’t a long-haul flight away. We stayed in two beautiful riads in the medina in Marrakech and spent our time eating and exploring, riding camels and having monkeys jump on our backs in the mountains.
Advice
Plan *your* wedding. Don’t let anyone else tell you what you do or don’t want!
