I've such a lovely wedding to share with you this afternoon, that was beautiful captured on camera by two of my favourite wedding photographers, Manchester based Pete and Laura Lawson.
Caroline and Matthew tied the knot on 22 October last year with a ceremony at St James' Church in Didsbury, followed by a very stylish reception at Stock Exchange Restaurant in Manchester City Centre.
I love these photographs – I was actually first drawn to them for those fabulous fringed flapper style Bridesmaids dresses, but soon realised I love these photographs for so many more reasons. Not least that Photographers Pete and Laura Lawson have so beautiful captured the emotion of the day on camera 🙂
In planning her wedding, Caroline was inspired by a city style wedding and the notion of 'vintage chic'. She also wanted to weave an element of seasonal colouring into her big day (see those pretty Bridesmaids bouquets).
Caroline was ably supported in planning her beautiful day by her close friend and Wedding Planner, Lucy Playford of Williams Hart Weddings.
Caroline's dress was 'Gabriella' by Charlotte Balbier…..
"Gabriella is a stunning dress and Charlotte Balbier is a designer I was aware of from all my researching. I loved this dress as soon as I laid eyes on it. It was the first dress I saw in the shop and the 3rd dress I tried on. The minute I tried it on I knew I'd found my wedding dress and the look on my parents faces just confirmed it! I did have a split second of panic that maybe I should shop around but I have never been undecisive when it comes to fashion so why start now!!"
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Lawson Photography
I LOVE those red shoes!
"I had always pictured wearing a coloured shoe on my wedding day. I am a shoe junkie and love my heels. I didn't want a traditional style wedding shoe that I'd never wear again so I decided that a pink shoe would really complement the vintage style of my dress.
In the end I went for a suede, open toe pink shoe with a pink rose and sensible heal (completely against what I normally go for, I'm a high heels girl at heart!) – they were totally gorgeous though and I wore them all day without any blisters! I got them in Jones Bootmaker."
Remember to EAT SOMETHING before the ceremony! A cupcake is perfect! 😉
"My accessories included vintage Tiffany pearl drop earrings – they were stunning. I also wore a tiffany charm bracelet that my lovely husband surprised me with the night before our wedding day!"
Caroline had her makeup styled by Professional Makeup Artist Michelle Sisson – her hair stylist was Macleod Bradley in West Didsbury.
"I always knew I didn't want to wear a veil on my wedding day – it's not really me – but I did want to wear something in my hair so I set out looking for a vintage style hair piece. I bought a gorgeous bridal hair clip from Liberty in Love but a few days later I stumbled across the Jenny Packham Acacia hairband on a wedding blog. It was love at first sight and just the look I had originally wanted to go for. After a few sleepless nights tossing and turning over what to do I decided I was only getting married once so I went for it!! It wasn't cheap but it was worth every penny and went with my dress perfectly."
The couple chose Blossom Flowers of Chorlton to provide their wedding day florals…
"I wanted an 'autumn bright' theme across all my flowers – I didn't want them to be too traditional but bright, cheerful and happy. Ashlyn from Blossom Flowers was amazing and really understood my brief from the start. We went for a mix of sunflower yellows (ranunculus), hot pink roses, hot pink freesias and burnt oranges in the bridesmaid bouquets and my bouquet was really traditional ivory roses and freesias, hand tied with lace that complemented my dress perfectly."
The Bridesmaids shoes were also from Jones the Bootmakers – pink leather court shoes that just so happened to match the colour of my shoes perfectly – the pink really set off the girls silver dresses and had such an impact with their flowers.
The girls wore 3 pink fresh stem roses in their hair and long drop clear crystal earrings from Accessorise…"
Ooooh, I love love LOVE this dress and shoe combination!
"We chose navy blue for our Groomsmen suits to match the girls silver dresses. Matthew wore a suit from Reiss.
David Anthony Chauffeurs of Stockport supplied the bridal car, a Silver Bentley Flying Spur…
I just love the Father/Daughter photographs in this feature…
Those fabulous flapper style frocks!
"Our reception was at the Stock Exchange Restaurant in Manchester City Centre. Stock is an amazingly impressive Edwardian Style building with a huge room with a dome shaped ceiling – the features are stunning and it certainly made for a great venue – it is also one of Manchester's best Italian restaurants so it was ideal for us as we wanted somewhere different and the award-winning Ialian food sealed the deal – the food was fantastic (all hand made by their lovely chef Enzo!). Our guests were amazed at how amazing the food was."
"We didn't need to do much to decorate our venue – Stock Exchange is amazing all by itself and needs very little decoration. Alison at Stock was really great and made the space work for us . We had a few little details like a 'love is sweet' sweetie table that went down a treat – but that's about it."
I love this mirror table plan, what a simply yet chic idea….
"Our amazing cake was a three tier chocolate ganache. We discovered Anne's Patisserie at the Llangollen Food Festival.
We met Anne and when Matthew proposed my parents suggested we get in touch to see what she could do. Anne made our cake for us – it was absolutely spectacular and tasted delicious. She just happened to be based in North Wales where I'm from which was perfect."
Words of Wedded Wisdom…
"Keep calm and enjoy every second of your planning. There are times when you'll find planning a wedding stressful but the best advice I can give is to not let the planning take over the reason why you're both getting married in the first place.
Your wedding day will be perfect no matter what happens and it's important that you are true to yourselves and do it the way you want to. it will be the most amazing day ever so enjoy it while you can as it's true what people say about it going too quickly."
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Brides Dress – 'Gabriella' by Charlotte Balbier
Brides Shoes – Jones Bootmaker
Bridal Headpiece – Jenny Packham, Acacia
Brides Earrings – Tiffany
Bridesmaids Dresses – Coast
Professional Makeup Artist – Michelle Sisson
Bridesmaids Shoes – Jones Bootmaker
Photographers – Lawson Photography
Reception Venue – Stock Exchange Restaurant in Manchester City Centre
Flowers – Blossom Flowers of Chorlton
Wedding Planner & Stylist – Williams Hart Weddings
Cake – Anne's Patisserie
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So beautiful, as is anything I receive from The Lawsons! You can see more from Lawson Photography on the Love My Dress Wedding Blog here. I thought I'd include a little note that Caroline passed on to me about these wonderful Manchester based Wedding Photographers…
"The amazing Lawsons really were fantastic and captured the emotion of our day perfectly – we are so pleased with our photos and everyone who has seen them has complemented that they are the best wedding photos they have ever seen. I would not hesitate in recommending Pete and Laura – they fitted into our day and with our guests so perfectly it was like they were part of the family. Such a great couple with an amazing talent".
Much love,
Annabel xXx
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Annabel View all Annabel's articles
Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.
