Whoa, how did Friday lunch time come round so very quickly this week?! Time for another Lovettes introduction I think! This afternoon, I’m really delighted to be introducing you to another of our brand new Lovettes members who is right at the end stages of her wedding planning journey (remember, we’re sharing stories from all kinds of ladies from all walks of life in all stages of their wedding planning). Jessica is due to tie the knot in August this year – welcome to Love My Dress Jessica!
__________________________
My husband to be is known as Matthew, but to me, he is my ‘Mags’ – an affectionate term coined by his lovely Nannie on the day he was born to represent his initials.. To be marrying Mags on 6th August this year just makes me feel immensely proud. Along with 101 other joyful emotions, I am proud of him, proud of myself, proud of us and of our friends and family. I just know I’m going to cry happy, happy tears throughout the whole joyous occasion, getting ready, walking down the aisle, vows, speeches, first dance, the lot!
Mags and I know each other from college, we were in the same media class and used to film cheesy horror movies and music videos with me always being the leading lady and him behind the lens. We were genuinely just friends, although looking back I like to think that he might have fancied me a bit considering he used to offer me a lift home most nights. He was one of the first lads in college to pass his driving test which I was very impressed with – I’d occasionally accept a ride home in his little blue Clio.
Yet still to this day Mags claims that he didn’t fancy me at college as I was too loud and lairy for him – which admittedly is very true (cringe!). Fast forward five years and after losing touch once college finished, we bumped into each other on respective Christmas nights out in our hometown. That spark people speak of to describe chemistry between two individuals? It definitely sparked that night. I was bowled over and particularly keen as he was donning a pair of rather smart shoes. You’ve got to love a guy who rocks stylish shoes!
We grew close over the coming months, sharing a mutual love for footlong meatball subway – me introducing him to the band The Smiths, him lending me his beloved copy of Jack Kerouac’s ‘On The Road’. We quite intensely fell for each other and quickly realised in all seriousness we were in love.
I do however think we were in denial at the time. There was one big issue niggling away…
Before our chance meeting at Christmas I had already decided to hand in my notice at work and move to Ibiza for the summer. My plans were in place and there was no going back, I had to leave our blossoming relationship behind and we were both gutted and pretty much heart broken. What should have been an exciting adventure for me was tinged with sadness and worry. But as it turns out, I needn’t have worried at all.
Within a matter of weeks, Mags had worked his notice and flew out to be with me, so we could be us again and our love grew stronger spending a spontaneous summer on the magical white isle of Ibiza. Upon returning home from the summer season, the thought of living in our home town just didn’t cut it and we made the decision to move to Liverpool for some city living. Although since, we have gravitated back to Warrington, we both regard Liverpool as our second home and it made perfect sense to marry there as the culture, history, music and people of the city are all amazing. It’s a place that gives you goosebumps. Liverpool has got heart and soul and I’d like to think that so have we, both as individuals and as a couple.
Mags and I live our lives with an open and honest heart. We can read when the other needs support, some time alone, a cuddle, a cup of tea or a right good giggle. We are admittedly a bit bonkers, we have so many silly pet names for each other and we often break out into impromptu song which fast turns into a full on West End show with our beloved pet cat Minnie and dog Buddy featuring as star performers! But on a serious note, we just love being together.
The togetherness we share feels like being in a prize winning team duo where the other person has your back, you’re both sharing the same goal and communication, respect and reciprocity help you on your way in achieving it. Our relationship hasn’t been without it’s lows however – but with a heady mix of feistiness, strength, determination and sensitivity, we have overcome and won against mortgage knock backs, studying for degrees a little later than the norm whilst holding down full time jobs and just general life wobbles.
Anyway, never mind lows, right now we are on a massive high – we started the big count down to our wedding just recently and the excitement and nerves are building.
Mags proposed on August 14th last year in Bali after the most chilled, perfect day where we had drunk beers on the beach and dined out in a fancy restaurant. Although we had chatted about marriage I was still in utter shock and after several shrieks of ‘Oh my god, are you actually being serious?’, I said yes 🙂 And we celebrated with fizzy pop and chocolate peanuts from the hotel minibar.
We have planned our wedding in just less than a year. I don’t want to give too much away just yet but our ultimate aim is to get the right balance of traditional elements and it being a very relaxed, personal and heartfelt celebration of our love for each other, our friends and our family. I’ve got my tissues and waterproof mascara at the ready. I feel so lucky and blessed to be a lovette and I’m looking forward to documenting our journey and my thoughts and feelings about all things wedding over the next coming months.
Love Jessicax
A little background on Jessica
As this is Jessica’s first post for Love My Dress, we thought it would be nice to share some of her original Lovettes application with you all – to help you get to know her a little better. We’ll be doing the same for all our new Lovettes when it comes to sharing their first posts.
Jessica Stainton is marrying Matthew Gallagher on 6th August 2015
James Melia will be taking their wedding photographs
How They Met:
We pretty much covered this above 🙂
About their wedding:
Our wedding is being held in Liverpool. We lived there together for a few years after returning from our summer of love in Ibiza. Liverpool holds a special place in our hearts, it feels like home when re-visit. The history, culture, music scene and scouse charm just swung it for us. Our venue is not traditional, I repeat…..not traditional! I’m saying this because we have had a few issues with family members getting their heads round the fact that we are not marrying in a church or country house hotel.
Both lovely options, but they just aren’t ‘us’. It’s called Camp & Furnace (please google it!), a creative space that hosts gigs, club nights, Sunday roasts, street food stalls and shows football matches. Sounds crazy but we’re basically getting married in a massive industrial warehouse. So the vibe we’re going for is glam city chic with some soft romantic elements to contrast the industrial backdrop and some big bold statement decorations to fill the warehouse. No set colour scheme but there will bright pops of coral and shiny glittery sparkly things everywhere. We want to honour our love of music and have some large framed posters of album covers and band shots, we have hired a string quartet for an element of class and tradition but they will mostly perform a play list of indie and pop tunes.
We have ideas of scouring charity shops for bad cheesy outfits for a dressing up box by the dancefloor and also doing a pub quiz for the ‘oldies’ who aren’t going to want to rave to classic Ibiza dance tunes until the early hours! Organised chaos we hope, that’s the vision anyway.
We are experiencing guest list dilemmas at the moment, Matt has a huge family, mine’s only small and we are leaning towards going down the route of feeding everyone once with a relaxed informal bbq in the evening. Watch this space, it’s a bit of a sore subject! But ultimately as long as our nearest and dearest are under one roof, have watched us marry, have been well fed and watered and are ready to party then we couldn’t be happier. A good old northern shindig!
What does marriage mean?
Marriage is a celebration of the journey you have been on so far and the adventures you are heading to next. It’s an opportunity to stop time and reflect on and celebrate your relationship. It’s a jumbled up mixture of this is me, this is you and this is us. For me, marriage is confirming and acknowledging everything I already know, that love, honesty, respect, sharing, compromise and understanding is alive in our relationship. We are having a humanist ceremony to reflect us as a couple more personally. This way, we aren’t restricted or constrained by vows to ‘obey’ and we can sing a Bob Marley tune as our ‘hymn’. I respect religious ceremonies and registry offices (we will have to do the legal formalities at some point, again another dilemma…..before or after our humanist ceremony? Which date will we choose to celebrate our anniversary?), but it’s just not our cup of tea.
Favourite Hollywood Icon?
Oooooooo, can I choose two? Firstly Audrey Hepburn, it sounds so cliché but the sleek, chic glamness that she exudes is something we are trying to reflect in our city wedding. There’s no point dressing an industrial warehouse in vintage bunting, it needs bold statements and I’m definitely channelling her in my style.
Secondly, I’m going to choose Zooey Deschanel, I’m not sure she can be classed as a Hollywood starlet but her off the wall humour and kookiness is so cute. She doesn’t change herself for anyone, she stays true to her individual and unique style and doesn’t follow the A-list crowd. Rather like us choosing an unconventional and non- traditional venue and ceremony with a fun relaxed warehouse party vibe to celebrate our wedding.
Favourite Love My Dress wedding:
I love this wedding so much as I really related to a lot of the aspects that featured throughout Sam and Emily’s post. They met whilst at college and lived abroad together as did Matt and I. They had a humanist ceremony which we are also planning and their fun informal celebration in a pub is exactly what we are hoping to recreate just on a bit of a larger scale!
Their perfect mix of traditional and modern is again something we are trying to achieve but ultimately the personal touches that reflect them and their relationship and the knees up celebration just make it an all round gorgeous wedding. Matt and I both blubbed watching their video and it gave us a warm fuzzy feeling and a sense of despite the stresses and strains of the lead up to a wedding, it can be done and will be everything we wish and hope for and more.
