Glittery, Allternative & Boho Bridal Inspiration – Jade Maguire Photography

Today on Marry Me Ink I get to share with you some bridal inspiration full of glitter and boho goodness from Jade Maguire Photography that took place at Allerton Towers in Liverpool. Jade’s planning of the shoot started by planning a low-key shoot that was aimed at the alternative bride, incorporating dark florals and beautiful woodland scenery.

The purpose of this styled shoot was to show how brides who want to wear something different, and be true to who they are, yet have a real low budget could style themselves for a small amount of money and still look AMAZING!

So I set myself up an epic Pinterest board and began searching for inspiration taken from my ideas and began creating this board. My Pinterest board started to grow and it was very clear that if you had tattoos you should be showing them off and flaunting them on your wedding day not covering them up like we quite often see. Tattoos are so personal and unique to you they should be worn with pride and should be appreciated with as much beauty as the person who owns this wonderful ink. 

The outfits we chose were aimed to appeal to the boho and the alternative brides, and the venue was selected because it was dark and mysterious, we found that the long leading corridor was so captivating – it was almost mesmerising. After all, have you seen how stunning Allerton Towers really is!? There’s something so comforting about a run down building, personally I am constantly drawn to older buildings but for this building, it was the idea of bringing a sense of life back into the place, these places always change from one week to the next as more decay sets in, and they should be captured and still be used to make amazing memories.. I truly wish you could actually get married here! 

Continue reading

Gifts For The Guys – Jack Daniels

With just a year to go until our big day (I know, right?! It’s coming around so quickly), I’ve been looking into gifts for our bridesmaids and groomsmen to say thank you for all the group chats they’re having to put up with about dresses, suits and hotel stays for the wedding.

One type of gift I’ve been looking into is one that can be personalised (and alcoholic to calm themselves once the wedding is over!). Rob and one of his groomsmen loves Jack Daniels and is a common and easiest present to gift either of them when Christmas and birthdays come around.

Now, Jack Daniels have different batches at their distillery and I’ve sampled a couple myself – the one they gifted me with in their hamper was their Single Barrel Select. 

“Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel is finely crafted from one specially selected barrel at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery. Not just any Jack Daniel’s Barrel is granted the status of Single Barrel – with only one out of every 100 barrels being hand-selected by the Jack Daniel’s Master Tasting Panel having met the standard. Sent to mature in the highest reaches of the barrelhouse, the extremes in temperature across the seasons creates the bold and robust flavours of the whiskey inside.

With every individual bottle imparting its own exclusive taste, each is hand-labelled and marked with a unique rick number and bottling date.

Single Barrel Select offers a distinctive, full-bodied taste with notes of vanilla, toasted oak and caramel. Harbouring less sweetness and more power than the original Old No.7, the Single Barrel Select offers a much richer variation. With no two barrels producing the same whiskey, Jack Daniel’s delivers a one-of-a-kind gift.”

Thanks to Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel, picking a gift for your groomsmen (or bridesmaid if they’re a Whiskey fan!) is one less thing to worry about! As well as being able to purchase such a one-of-a-kind flavoursome spirit, they can also help by personalising the bottle at the Jack Daniel’s Store.

I’m looking forward to opening this bottle and making myself a Whiskey Sour – What’s your favourite way to drink Whiskey?

A Gamer’s Wedding With A Tattoo Station At Middle Earth – Zarah & Rick

This morning on Marry Me Ink, I get to share with you Zarah & Rick’s wedding that took place earlier this year at Heaton House Farm in Cheshire and photographed by Manchester wedding photographer Cassandra Lane. They’re both avid gamers so their wedding reception was full of retro arcade game machines and being massive Tolkien fans, had their table plan based in Middle Earth. 

I had never experienced the joys of online dating before and my best friend Luke (serial professional online dater) signed me up to a well known dating website so I could be acquainted with the whole process. He had enjoyed several (extremely funny) nightmarish dates which I loved hearing about. We both met at drama school years ago and had the genius idea to write a hilarious play about dating in the modern world but he insisted that before we start writing, I needed some of my own online horror stories. He signed me up when we were chatting about all this at a house party, uploaded some drunk selfies of me pouting and wrote some terribly cheesy things on my new profile about what a geek I am. He then spent the rest of the evening logged on as me messaging boys! The next day after my hangover had cleared and regret had set in, I fully intended to delete the profile and as I was trying to negotiate my way to the ‘delete account’ section (never easy to find!), a little message from a very handsome looking chap popped up. Well, I must say I was intrigued… so I messaged him back and we went for our first date a few days later. That dating app was immediately deleted and we married three years later. Luke was still on that dating website for another year and wouldn’t let me forget it! He was my ‘bridesman’ and took credit for the whole wedding in his speech!

Our wedding was far from traditional and really represented us as a couple which is exactly what we wanted. We just wanted to have fun. Before we met one another we never imagined we’d ever get married and when Rick proposed to me, it was a huge surprise. I couldn’t believe we were going to plan a wedding day! We are both party loving geeks and massive retro video game fans so this is what we wanted to celebrate. I am a huge Tolkien nerd so our seating plan was a huge map of Middle Earth with each table being a place from that world.

We had lots of DIY decorations throughout the venue which were inspired by all the geeky things we love such as a dalek with a bow tie, and BB8 (of star wars fame) in a top hat along with models of Link and Zelda (from The Legend of Zelda) dressed as a bride and groom. The colour scheme of the day was also ink inspired. My favourite colours (and therefore most of my tattoos!) are red and black and these colours ran throughout the day and looked stunning.

Continue reading

A Radiant & Artistic Pennsylvanian Wedding, Complete With A Hand-Embroidered Gown – Nicole & James

Today on Marry Me Ink, I get to share with you Nicole and James’ outdoor wedding that took place at Millbrook Marsh Nature Center in Pennsylvania earlier this year with gorgeous photos from Savita Sittler. Practically everything was DIY.. Nicole purchased her dress off Etsy and then James’ sister hand-embroidered all the cuteness on it, including gnomes and flowers.

We met each other working at a library in college, where James was studying English and Philosophy and I was studying Geography. We shared a desk shift on Thursday nights and connected over music and art, both of which remain a big part of our lives and relationship.

Our personalities definitely shined through many aspects of the wedding. The ceremony was performed by two of our sisters, not only because we love them dearly but also because we wanted a matriarchal presence. Writing our own vows and walking down the aisle together allowed us to embrace each other as equals in our marriage as opposed to some of the traditional symbolism of marriage. James’ brother played a song that James wrote for me as we walked down the aisle, and we made a playlist for before and after the band of songs that we both love and make us think of each other.

Nearly everything was DIY. I love maps, so I used old topographic maps to make pennant banners. A handful of family members made nearly all the food. Though I ordered my dress on Etsy from Pure Linen Dresses by Azulsol, James’ sister spent hours embroidering it with ferns, flowers, gnomes, a moon, and other small symbols that I love. She also did my hair, and another sister did my makeup. I made the invitations, a friend did all of the flower arrangements, and we had a crew of about 30 family members and friends helping to set everything up and decorate. We even had one of our friends, who happens to have been a brewer at a restaurant we both worked at, brew a keg of James’ favourite beer. There were so many other great DIY elements that went into our wedding day, I couldn’t possibly pick a favourite!

Since we decided to walk down the aisle together, we ended up doing a ‘first look’ right before the ceremony started. It was the only part of the day where we were truly able to relax and enjoy each other’s company without being bombarded by guests. We were pretty nervous up to that point, but having an intimate moment together before the ceremony was really comforting.

Continue reading