phase eight for a summer wedding in manchester

Editor’s note: We were saddened to wake up this morning to the horrific news of the Manchester arena attack. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families on this dreadful day. We hope that our readers – no matter where you live – all draw your loved ones close for an extra kiss or hug this evening. Love always x

It’s always refreshing to see a bride and groom do things a little differently on their special day. And today’s couple, Alex and Pete, did exactly that.

Firstly, let’s talk about the dress. Forget your classic white, ivory, champagne or cream tones – instead, Alex plumped for a gorgeous bronze gown that perfectly complemented their navy and blush daytime colour scheme.

Gone too were the traditional favours and cake, instead our couple served up a scrumptious selection of desserts and a Mexican themed reception complete with a tasty buffet. But, as Alex reveals, there are a few nods to all things traditional, too – including a vintage convertible car which, we have to confess, has got us dreaming of driving off into the sunset with our veil blowing in the breeze…

alex says: We got engaged in December 2014 in Edinburgh. We went to a cosy whisky bar to escape the rain when Pete surprised me with a beautiful ring!

We got married on 6^th August. The 7^th was the day we met and sits right between our birthdays so this had always been a special weekend for us.

We tied the knot at St Mary’s Church in Davyhulme, only a two-minute walk from our house. The church is beautiful and we wanted to keep the ceremony as close to home as we could.

We chose a traditional ceremony with a Mexican fiesta theme for our reception. We didn’t want a typical ‘out of the box’ wedding and the theme suited us perfectly – our aim was for everyone to have a great time and celebrate with us. We were imagining a Mexican cantina on a hot summer’s night!

We had our reception at The Grill at 27 in Urmston. Martin and the team were more than accommodating and enthusiastic about letting us decorate the venue whichever way we wanted. The food was fab and the drink was flowing! We can’t thank them enough!

We decided on navy, bronze and blush colours for the daytime part of the wedding, and then bright colours for the evening. We wanted a classic colour scheme that could translate to the evening. The metallic and navy sat great alongside our Mexican theme, too.

I wore a bronze floor-length slim-fit dress from Phase Eight with lots of beading. As soon as I tried it on, it just felt right, even though the style and colour was as far away from the traditional white wedding as you could get. I like vintage styles and this was exactly that!

I also used KG Makeup for the bridal makeup – Kayleigh was really professional and made her way through all five of us in the bridal party in great time. Our hair was done by Stacey Parker, who was fantastic! I would choose her again anytime! She made us all look our best.

Pete wore a navy suit from Moss Bros, slim-fit but with no top and tails. Again, classic and stylish but not fussy! The tie and pocket square was a bronze shade to match my dress.

The groomsmen wore the same suit as the groom and our bridesmaids wore blush pink dresses with a low back lace detail, purchased from Coast.

On the wedding day we travelled in a vintage cream convertible and were lucky enough to have the roof down. The bridesmaids, meanwhile, travelled in a Rolls Royce shadow. Both cars were hired from Broadoak Wedding Car Hire.

We booked ER Photography to capture our day. They were fantastic – so professional and friendly, and we got some great shots. All of the guests complimented us and said how Jo and John blended in to the party, which is exactly what we wanted.

My bouquet was made by Patricia’s Florist. It consisted of white roses with gypsophila. Simple but beautiful and it looked amazing on the day. The bridesmaids carried the same.

Our wedding reception was dressed by Eventures, Urmston. They did an amazing job in translating our vision for a Mexican cantina into reality, and with no moustaches or sombreros in sight!

We didn’t have a wedding cake, instead we bought a selection of desserts. Again, not traditional, but we wanted to make sure that our guests could choose between a brownie, cookie or whatever slab of cake they fancied!

For the wedding breakfast we had a buffet, again to allow for choice, and to enable people to mingle. We thought it gave a more relaxed atmosphere.

Entertainment-wise, we booked Sugarfoot DJs. We chose Latin funk for the evening and our guests loved it!

We also had a fantastic presentation from the best man, which had us all in stitches!

We tried to keep the day as informal yet modern as possible – we left a lot of the traditional aspects out but felt that it reflected us completely – and think our friends and family got this too!

The whole day went exactly as planned, we loved the speeches and enjoyed spending time with our friends and family once the formalities were out of the way. Driving off in our car with the roof down in the sunshine was another bonus!

For our honeymoon, we travelled around Scandinavia visiting Denmark, Sweden and Norway. We had a mixture of city breaks and more relaxing locations and it was a perfect way to finish off our wedding celebrations.