Category Archives: Inspirational

Miss Jo Black’s Tattooed Tales – The Proposal

She’s here! Marry Me Ink’s blogging bride of 2015 – Miss Jo Black! I’m a regular follower of @missjoblacktattoos and one day, I saw the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen appear in my feed. That’s where it all started. I contacted Jo and got her to enter her engagement story and Pinterest board to be Marry Me Ink’s new blogging bride. I’m SO glad she did – Jo and her fiance Leigh are due to get married at the end of the year with the most awesome theme I’ve heard of. This is where I now hand you over to Jo..

joleigh1

I guess this is my hello to the world of internet blogs and my first post as a “Blogging Bride” for the lovely folk at Marry Me Ink!

So… I’m Jo Black, or JoJo to my fiancé Leigh, I own and tattoo at a studio called Black Inc. Tattoo in the sleepy countryside town of Frome, Somerset… and that is exactly where and how we met.

Leigh, my bearded babe, came into my studio on a sunny morning with his son Finn to book himself in for a large tattoo on his back. He must have prepped Finn for their visit to impress me and the other ladies in he shop because Finn repeatedly told Leigh how much he loved him and what a great dad he is… come on what woman doesn’t melt when they know a man is a good dad! But anyway, after some time chatting about what he wanted and where, he and Finn went for a wander around Frome, when he left me and the other girls in the shop Alison and Neko joked that he was gorgeous and one of us could end up marrying him, I believe Neko’s words were “He’s RED HOT”.  A while later I went to get a round of coffee for the shop I noticed them waiting in line for milkshakes, I went over and chatted some more… And that’s where it all began.

pub

For the next couple of weeks leading up to his tattoo we spoke almost every day, joking and chatting via text and Instagram.  When the weekend of the tattoo loomed we had come to the decision that we just wanted to spend a bit of time together and instead of doing the tattoo we went to the Frome World Food Festival and ate and drank and fell in love! It took me almost a year to actually get round to tattooing him at all and still to this day we haven’t done the one he booked back then!

Two years on and Leigh and I are living together in a flat in Frome, with our dogs Spike and Bobbie and more in love than ever. My family adore him, and would probably rather spend time with him than me! And I adore his family too, he has rather a lot of family!

leigh my mum finn

So, with being so happy and on track, when we went to watch Funeral For a Friend play in the local venue just before Christmas 2014 and he started acting very strangely, ducking out here and there, whispering to people, taking phone calls and texts in private… I started to think something was up… I actually said to a friend that evening ‘I reckon he wants me to think he’s going to propose tonight and then he won’t do it’. That friend, who knew what was going on, laughed at me.

holiday Continue reading

A Colourful, Woodland Trash The Dress Shoot

browsholme-hall-trash-the-dress-wedding-photographer_0019

Amanda decided even before the wedding that she was going to do a colourful trash the dress shoot! Zoe of ZT Photography sent me the shoot over and I loved it straight away! What isn’t there to love about copious amounts of paint and smoke bombs?!

browsholme-hall-trash-the-dress-wedding-photographer_0011

When we photographed Amanda’s wedding last summer, she had already informed me she was planning on doing a Trash the Dress shoot afterwards. Words we rarely hear before the wedding takes place but we were so glad we did! Amanda was up for any ideas, so what better than to go all out with our concepts and get involved with water, coloured flares, paint and our fave…levitation! Yes!

browsholme-hall-trash-the-dress-wedding-photographer_0008

We’ve done a shoot at Browsholme & Tithe Barn before, it’s a fantastic wedding venue…so were thrilled when let us use their beautiful grounds and lake again.

browsholme-hall-trash-the-dress-wedding-photographer_0012 Continue reading

How To Be The Best Bridesmaid Ever

This year, my little sister gets married (in about a month too!) and this infographic from Bespoke Diamonds couldn’t have come at a better time! Here is a full list of stats, jobs and little things that’ll help your sister or best friend on their wedding day if you’re one of their bridesmaids. I know that having the emergency kit will definitely come in handy! 

Bespoke-Bridesmaid-Battles-Infographic

Hitting The High Street For Your Wedding Dress – PHASE EIGHT

It’s that time again where I’ve been searching my favourite high street stores for low cost wedding dresses. Last month we looked at Coast Wedding Dresses and this time, I’ve been looking at dresses from Phase Eight.

Again, I’ve selected a few of my favourites in neutral colours and also coloured wedding dresses and some sequin wedding dress options (I love sequins!).

HighStNeutralMMI_3793

ELIZA WEDDING DRESS £495
SALLY TULLE WEDDING DRESS £250
HOPE WEDDING DRESS £595
ELBERTINE WEDDING DRESS £650

HighStcOLOUR MMI_3794

LUNA SEQUIN FULL LENGTH DRESS £350
COLETTE SEQUIN FULL LENGTH DRESS (RED) £295
COLETTE SEQUIN FULL LENGTH DRESS (SEA GREEN) £295
MARIELLA EMBELLISHED FULL LENGTH DRESS £250