Today’s real wedding was a really colourful affair where the reception was held in a beautiful Grade II listed building called The Monastery. Captured by wedding photographer Mr Sleeve, I’m loving how the natural beauty of this wedding venue does all the talking.
Katie and Matt also took a unique stance when it came to ‘performing’ their first dance. They got down and busted a few moves to Superfreak, by Rick James. Love it!
Words by Katie. Images by Mr Sleeve.
We chose our wedding venue The Monastery in Manchester as it’s really unusual.
It was bought for £1 more than a decade ago when it was falling into ruin and in danger of being pulled down. For a time it was on a list of the hundred most endangered buildings in the world, along with the Taj Mahal, because it is so architecturally impressive.
The owner worked tirelessly to secure millions of pounds of funding and the money from events run there is planned back into the continued renovation and upkeep of the building.
My wedding dress was Freya by Stephanie Allin from Agape Bridal in Bowden.
I wanted something elegant and sophisticated and this was the only dress which ticked all the boxes for me.
The styling for our wedding day just kind of came together quite naturally. I didn’t want anything fussy, so we just went with bright colours and relied on our venue to blow people away.
I gave our florist Laura a cheque and told her to get a mix of whatever was in season. We wanted bright colours and nothing too contrived and she did the most fantastic job.
I knew as soon as I met her that she’d be great. She’s completely mental but an absolutely lovely lady.
My Dad walked me down the aisle to the ‘Bridal March’.
Matt and I met in 2007 while working together, I was going travelling 3 months later and it didn’t seem like ideal timing. We emailed every day while I was away and spoke every three. I even flew home in the middle to see him for a fortnight.
People might have thought I was crazy because we’d been together for so little time but it was obviously worth it! We spent a month together in America at the end of my trip and one of our favourite places was Chicago. It was in Chicago just over 6 years later that Matt proposed to me.
We’re so pleased we picked Steve as our wedding photographer. He was a pleasure to have around, and yet somehow made himself invisible on the day so that he took some beautiful photos without anyone ever feeling like they had to pose.
The photographs really sum up the essence of the day. The shots of the people and of the venues are natural and creative. We particularly love the way he has captured the glorious light in our reception venue.
One of my favourite things about the day was people’s faces when they saw the reception room. Everyone was having drinks in the courtyard and assumed the food would be in the marquee. When they were led through to the beautiful room their faces were a picture.
My sister’s friend Amy Voinquel made our wedding cake. She quit teaching to make cakes full time and is incredibly talented.
We gave everyone a little bottle of tequila and a lemon to get the party started. We made them ourselves with tequila brought over from the USA by a friend (it’s miles cheaper there), bottles we bought from eBay and personalised labels with our names and the dates on them.
The Monastery were great about allowing this, I can’t imagine all venues would be as understanding. It went down a storm.
If you could impart any words of wisdom to a future bride planning her marriage and wedding day, what would they be?
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to make everything perfect. I spent a fortune on some things I don’t even remember from the day. The fact is, you can’t fail to have a brilliant day. You get to be pampered and preened probably more than you ever have in your life, you marry someone you adore, all your family and friends are there, everyone tells you that you look amazing and you can have a few drinks and a good dance.
So if you’re worrying that you need to spend more, have something extra or make something a bit more perfect, don’t. You will have an amazing time, I promise, and when it’s all over and you come back from your honeymoon you’ll be pleased you have a little extra in the bank to put towards that next special occasion.
What was your most memorable moment of the day / evening?
It’s difficult to pick but I think our first dance has to be up there. We didn’t want to do anything romantic where we swayed awkwardly round the dance floor for 5 minutes. We asked the band to learn Superfreak by Rick James and we spent a couple of minutes doing the most ridiculous dance moves we could think of before beckoning everyone else on.
Our first dance was to Superfreak by Rick James. We are both known for being silly dancers with no co-ordination.
On the night we got engaged we put this on in our hotel room and danced stupidly around the room before we went out. It seemed a natural choice for our first dance because it was something a little bit different.
What an amazing wedding venue The Monastery is! And I’m loving the party hard wedding favours.
As usual a massive thanks goes out to the wonderful wedding photographer Mr Sleeve and thank you so much Katie and Matt for sharing your wedding day with the Want That Wedding blog!
wedding credits / photography: mr sleeve / wedding venue: the monastery / wedding dress: stephanie allin via agape bridal / grooms suit: slaters / bridesmaid dresses: dessy / florist: laura coleman flowers / cake: amy voinquel / hair & make-up: flossy and leigh
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Gorgeous color palette! Love the couple dancing!
Gorgeous wedding dress!
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