Tag Archives: Chester Wedding Photography

A Summer BBQ Wedding In Chester – Jenna & Tom

Jenna and Tom were married last summer at the gorgeous Oddfellows in Chester (which only took them 4 months of planning!) where their day consisted of a laid back summer BBQ with donuts on the terrace.

Their favourite part of the day was having their photos taken by Helen Jane Smiddy Photography – “We did these before the ceremony in Chester city centre. We knew Helen our photographer had figured out some really cool locations to shoot and she did not disappoint. She took us to the graffiti’d car park across from our venue that had Mutley from wacky races on the wall to match the one on my sleeve.”

“When it came to the finer details of the wedding, me and Tom always referred back to whether our decisions would make everyone feel laid back, ourselves included. We wanted our friends and family to grab themselves a beer from the buckets, get a burger and a donut, sit where they wanted to and listen to the sax in the sun on the terrace. I think creating a laid back atmosphere made it easy for friends and family who didn’t know each other to strike up a conversation, over a donut or a bowl of popcorn.”

“When shopping for wedding dresses, I wanted the dress to be simple and non-traditional enough to compliment my tattoos and make them stand out. Flamingo Boulevard Bridal Studio made this so easy – I could have happily worn all the dresses I tried on in her boutique.”

“Our top tip would be to only follow tradition when you want to – It was important to me that my Dad walked me down the aisle, but one of our favourite parts of the day was also myself and Tom poorly attempting to iron the wedding dress the morning of the wedding – It’s okay to pick and choose the bits of tradition that you like!”

Thank you to Jenna and Tom for sharing their laid-back wedding day with Marry Me Ink – You can see a full list of their suppliers at the bottom of the post. Would you opt for a terrace BBQ over a traditional wedding breakfast?

Photography – Helen Jane Smiddy Photography
Wedding Venue – Oddfellows, Chester
Jenna’s Dress – Flamingo Boulevard Bridal Studio
Tom’s Suit – Noose & Monkey
Bridesmaid Dresses – Maya
Flowers – Flowers by Jenny Penny, Frodsham
Make Up – Katie May MUA
Wedding Cake – Ben Read Cakes
Donut Wall – Events By Myla

Love Letters – “The Best Present Of My Life”

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Today I get to share with you Katie and Oli’s engagement shoot, who have the cutest proposal story ever by the way, from the super awesome  Dan Hough Photography, one of my favourite Manchester based wedding photographers.

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Well, we definitely don’t have a love at first sight story.. I’ve known Oli since i was 16 when I worked as a waitress at a local bar and restaurant and he was training to be a manager. He’s always made me laugh but I’d never looked at him in any other way than a friend until about 7 years later. Oli went to Australia for a few years and when he came back in 2010, we had the same group of friends so we spent a lot of time together hanging out and then, as they say, the rest is history.

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All of our friends had already called it between us and not one person was surprised when we got together. I think they all saw the spark before we realised it.

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Oli proposed on Christmas Day 2012. He told me he used to play this game when he was younger with his sister at Christmas where they would blind fold each other and have to guess the presents that were being passed to them. So that happened to me, I was handed presents with clues and then had to guess what each one was. The final present was silence and I couldn’t feel anything, so I took my blindfold off and there he was on one knee with this beautiful ring and on our chalk board next to him read ‘fancy spending your life with me’ and that was that! The best Christmas Day of my life! We still have that chalk board with those exact words on. It turns out he never use to play that game with his sister and it was just a way of blindfolding me so I didn’t think he was being weird!

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I cant say that tattoos have affected choosing my dress as I only have a tiny circle behind my ear that I will admit I had done a little bit tipsy at a festival. I was having such an amazing day with my friends so I wanted us all to get ‘the circle of trust’. 5 of us did on the day and now I think nine of us in total have it somewhere on our bodies, including Oli.

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I guess that would mean we have matching tattoos, but they were done when we were just friends. Tattoos wouldn’t have affected how I chose my dress as they are there for a reason – why wouldn’t you show them off. I do have a bridesmaid who is covered in them and her dress will be showing all.
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One of Oli’s friends who is a tattoo artist drew us an engagement picture and a couple of months later, Oli got it tattooed on his forearm. That’s a very special one to me.
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How cute are Katie and Oli? I do love their engagement story. Thank you to them both and to Daniel Hough Photography for sharing with Marry Me Ink today. Be sure to leave them some love!
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