We’ve got a lot of white wedding warmth today as we bring you the stunningly simple details of Abbie and Robert’s glorious big day in the big city.
We love so much about this one! From the romantic New York City proposal, to the inner city Manchester venue that really made the most of the epic urban backdrop, as evidenced by the amazing photos. Get into the true vibe of the day, the simple all-white colour scheme, the abundance of fresh floral arrangements and that incredible party that followed! If you’re planning a wedding in town and are still on the hunt for your wedding planning inspiration, look no further!
We’ve been chatting to bride Abbie to get her top tips and find out why it doesn’t matter if things don’t all go right on the day, as long as you’re together and married by the end of it.
With photography by Kate McCarthy Photography
Proposal
It was in New York, on the 29th of September 2019. Robert said that as soon as we had booked New York, he knew he was going to propose there. He walked around for two days with the ring in a bag on his back and I’ve no idea how he hid it from me as I packed the bag every morning for the day!
We had a lovely day sightseeing and having drinks in Battery Park and on the Staten Island ferry. Apparently Robert was nervous and couldn’t decide where to propose but finally, after a New York measure of whiskey for Dutch courage, he proposed outside of the Dead Rabbit! It was such a lovely location and it was just the two of us which made it even more special.
Setting
We got married on the 4th of September 2021. We met in September of 2014, got engaged in September of 2019 so we always knew we’d like our wedding to be in September as it felt like a special month for us!
We got married in the lovely Castlefield Rooms in Manchester. We have loved visiting Manchester since we first got together in 2014. We always spoke about how amazing it would be to get married at The Castlefield Rooms since seeing a wedding there a few years before. We loved the idea of taking our families and friends to our favourite city to celebrate with us!
Most of our guests travelled from Cumbria as that’s where we are from so we had a full weekend of celebrations around Manchester!
Theme
Our colour scheme was really relaxed and simple, with just white chairs and tablecloths and a lot of greenery and white flowers around the venue.
Dress
I wore the Kirsten gown by Anna Georgina, which I purchased from The White Gallery in Ramsbottom. I had an image in my head of what style and colour dress I wanted, and this went against so many of those! One of the girls in the shop actually chose this dress and as soon as I put it on, I just knew it was the one I’d get married in!
Groom
Robert wore a three-piece suit by Marc Darcy which was purchased from Goodfellows Menswear in Carlisle. They also provided the navy ties and pocket squares for the groomsmen.
The groomsmen wore the same Marc Darcy suit as Robert from Goodfellows Menswear in Carlisle.
Bridesmaids
My bridesmaids wore the Vienna dress in Concrete from Rewritten. My Bridesman Daniel wore the same suits as the groomsmen.
Beauty
Our hair and makeup was done by Jodie A Smith Makeup & Hair. Jodie and Rowena, from her hair and makeup team, knew exactly what we wanted and they made us all feel so amazing on the day. They made the wedding morning so relaxed and fun, we laughed all morning! I couldn’t recommend them enough!
Transport
We stayed in the Lock Keeper’s Cottage which is just over the canal from the venue, so we hired black cabs for the short journey. These were provided by Mantax.
Photographer
Kate McCarthy! I would absolutely recommend Kate; she was amazing from the day we first facetimed to discuss what we wanted. She made everything relaxed and fun and she took the most amazing photos.
Styling
I carried a bouquet which was heavy foliage with white floral aspects. Northern Flower provided all our flowers for the day.
The pew end, table and copper arch flowers were all provided by Northern Flower. These were a mixture of foliage and white flowers. We also used glass cylinder vases filled with water and added floating candles to them. The vases were from IKEA and the flowers were from Country Baskets. Our amazing wedding coordinator Hannah and manager Dan dressed the room for us on the day.
All our stationary was from Papier. The personalised robes that myself and my bridal party wore on the morning of the wedding were from Once Upon a Wedding. Our cake topper was made by Etch Twenty Eight and SMR Styling printed names on wooden hangers, prosecco flutes and glass mugs as gifts for my bridal party.
I loved reading the Brides Up North and UNVEILED blogs about other people’s weddings and looking at photos to get inspiration for our styling!
Favours
Our cake maker made us shortbread biscuits which were personalised with our wedding date and our initials. We also had charity pins for Cancer Research UK and PAPYRUS which are charities close to our hearts.
Cake
Fancy Little Bakes’ Beth made our cake and favours. She also made a graze box for my bridal party for the night before the wedding. For the cake we chose a semi naked marble cake; one layer was filled with salted caramel and the other was Oreo! The florist arranged flowers around the bottom too.
Dining
We had a BBQ for food. We wanted something more relaxed so people could eat as and when they wanted to. There was a selection of burgers, hot dogs, chicken, prawns and lots of salads and sides to go with it. We also had hot sandwiches in the evening. We had welcome prosecco and beer, prosecco for the toast and house wine on the tables for our guests.
Entertainment
We originally had Luke Matear who is an amazing singer from Cumbria but unfortunately, he had to isolate due to Covid-19, 24 hours before the wedding! Moz Abrahams from Ice Entertainment stepped in at short notice, thanks to our wedding coordinator!
Special touches
We had canapes and welcome drinks on the balcony of The Castlefield Rooms which was such a lovely start to the day.
Thanks to
Fancy Little Bakes’ Beth, thank you so much for our beautiful cake and for all the little extras I kept adding on for the day and beforehand!
Kate, you’re amazing at what you do! Thank you for making us all feel at ease and for capturing our day perfectly.
To Jodie and Rowena, thank you so much for making us all feel and look amazing on the day. We had such a fab time in the morning with you both.
We would also like to thank our venue! Everything was just so easy and flexible with them, nothing was too much trouble. Hannah and everyone else in the team were really easy to talk to and they listened to everything that we wanted which helped the day to run really smoothly.
Best bit
I honestly loved every moment of it but walking back down the aisle and seeing all of our friends and families so happy for us sticks with me. We both smiled and laughed from start to finish.
Honeymoon
We had originally planned to travel around Italy for a few weeks but with the pandemic still ongoing, we decided to change our plans. Instead, we stayed in the Sensatori Atlantica Dreams in Rhodes for ten days and it was beautiful.
Advice
Enjoy it! What will be will be. That’s our advice! I always thought I’d be really stressed on the day but when it came down to it, I wasn’t at all. My suppliers and my bridal party made the morning so enjoyable and I didn’t feel nervous at all. Even when things went wrong, we were both just so happy to be getting married on our original wedding date after so much uncertainty.
