Today I get to share with you the beautiful wedding from Melanie Hart Photography of tattooed bride Clare and her husband Adam who had a DIY retro wedding reception in their local church hall in Preston, Lancashire.

We met very late at night in a pub which Adam described in his wedding speech as a terrible place where people go when they’ve already had a night out! One of our first dates was to a monster magnet gig in Manchester, we’ve been to see the band every year since & Adam even proposed to me on the day we went to watch the band several years later.

All of the wedding was planned by us as we wanted it to be really personal & had certain ideas of how we wanted it to be. We wanted a very laid back & fun atmosphere. I think Adams speech really showed our sense of humour.  He used several props like fake ears & funny glasses. I think this set the tone for the reception & relaxed people. Our wedding favours were beautiful handmade soaps made by Erica at ‘Fizzy Raskals bathbombs’ she made some gorgeous soaps wrapped in beautiful 70’s patterned style paper for some guests.

Most of the Decorations at the reception were DIY , my mum very kindly spent hours helping me make bunting & table Runners from retro 70’s fabrics. We had some really fun time together with her trying unsuccessfully to teach me to cut a straight line !  as it turned out all the table runners had zig zag edges!  I also used retro teapots I have collected over the years as centrepieces, some of my favourite pictures of the day are of how wonderful the Hall where the reception was looks. I feel it really shows all my gorgeous retro items off brilliantly! 

When I went to look for a wedding dress my main thought was that I didn’t want a strapless dress , as it was after id tried on a few dresses the lady suggested a strapless one, me wearing this  dress made my best friend cry & my wedding dress was picked!

Several people said that my tattoo’s were very nice but a wedding wasn’t really the place to show them off so I spent a lot of time & effort trying to find a shrug to go with the dress, in fact I ended up with 2. But on the day of the wedding once I had my dress on I asked my bridesmaids for advice on which shrug to wear if any, the all said not to wear one & I’m so glad! Two of my favourite pictures from the day beautifully show off my dot work mandala on my arm that was done by Deryn at Tenacious Tattoo Sheffield.

I loved being driven to the registry office by mum my in a classic white VW  camper van called dolly, with my dad & best friend with me. My favourite memory of the night was dancing to a great  Wildhearts songs ‘Nita Nitro’  with my new husband & all my friends I literally let my hair down & enjoyed myself knowing all my panning had paid off & the day had gone so well.

How awesome are Clare & Adam? Thank you to them both for sharing their wedding day with Marry Me Ink and to Melanie Hart Photography for sharing their awesome photos with us! Be sure to leave them all some love!