An Art Filled, Peak District Wedding – Laura & Gary

Today on Marry Me Ink, I get to share with you this amazing tattooed bride and groom from Yorkshire alternative wedding photographers Tux & Tales.. Laura and Gary’s had a Peak District wedding at Cubley Hall. Both of them are art orientated (Gary being a fab tattooist) and Laura designed all of their stationery.

We first met back in 2006 when my friend introduced us and Gary (Brownie) did my first ever tattoo. We didn’t cross paths again until 2008 when I came to Sheffield to study Graphic Design at University. We arranged our first date and have been together ever since! It was like we had known each other for years.

We wanted to try and hand make as much at our wedding as possible, which was really hard but with us both being creative people it felt important to add our own personal touches. I had little mini easels for the table numbers to show our artistic side. The Tea light holders and bunting were made by my amazing Grandma and Mum. I designed and hand printed all the invites and stationery including the signs and table plan. And for favours, my Mum made baileys flavoured cupcakes for everyone.

Anyone that knows us, knows that we aren’t a traditional couple and so wanted to make sure we had personal touches to our day. The cake looked amazing, and I think really represented us well. Seen as we are both very creative people and use ink on a daily basis, I wanted to try and bring this into our design. Claire took this on board and made the best cake I have seen by far. It actually looked like paint tubs with ink running down, and it tasted amazing too!

The flowers were something I wanted to represent our grandparents with. I asked the lovely Tracey from Campbell’s Flowers to include carnations in my bouquet and table flowers as they were my Grandad’s favourite, and Lillies in the button holes to represent Gary’s Grandma Lilly. Pegs were also used as name card holders to represent Gary’s Nana Peg.

Originally I had a bit of a panic with finding a dress. I bought one within two weeks after booking our venue. It was what I thought would look nice, but in the end, decided it just wasn’t me. I wanted to bring my love of vintage into our big day and the thought of a 50’s style dress just excited me even more. I eventually found my perfect dress, showing off my back, arms and legs. The detail on it was beautiful and when I tried it on I felt so comfortable in it. Even though I love my tattoos and I know my now husband did, after years of hearing the dreaded question “What are you going to look like when you get married?”, It does haunt you during your nervous hours. But knowing I have someone who loves me for me and thinks I look beautiful at my worst, made it all that more easier picking my dress.

We do have matching tattoos which we tattooed on each other. I tattooed Mr Pacman on Gary and he tattooed Mrs Pacman on myself. We are planning on getting matching wedding tattoos but I think we are holding out for our first year anniversary, so it’s that more extra special.

The whole day was great and we both really enjoyed ourselves. I think the fact it was so laid back and relaxed made our day. We had our closest family and friends so we were surrounded by people we love and felt comfortable around. I think seeing everything we had been working on over the months come together was so great too!

How beautiful is Laura and Gary’s wedding?!! I love how in nearly every photo, they’re both laughing lots and the awesome pageboys! Thank you to them both and to Tux & Tales Photography for sharing with Marry Me Ink!