Catching up post pandemic

I fell quite behind during the pandemic with blogging my work and so in an effort to catch up a little, I bring you this glorious day celebrating the marriage of Jen & Alex up in Edinburgh, during that magical time running up to Christmas. I sent Jen a few questions as it’s nice to include some words here from the couple. Jen has been very thorough, so I need to stop writing now and hand you over to hear it from them!

Edinburgh train station and Christmas market at night

How they met

We were friends for years before we got together (finally!). We went to Edinburgh for the day on our first date to see the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo and visited the city numerous times over the years. Alex proposed on 23rd December 2017 in Edinburgh so that’s why we got married there, and on that date! Alex proposed with an acoustic version of a song playing called Afterglow which I then went on to walk down the aisle to, played on piano by one of our close friends.

alex and jen look at each other and smile after wedding

The Signet Library Wedding Photography

We fell in love with The Signet Library as soon as we saw it – it’s just stunning. Once we saw it, I don’t think we could picture our wedding anywhere else. We always go to a pub across the road on Royal Mile each time we visit Edinburgh, so we knew we wanted part of our day in that area of the city. We are both huge fans of Christmas so The George for the reception was a no brainer when we saw all of the decorations there!

red buses outside the signet library edinburgh

Wedding details and style

I went shopping with my mum for my wedding dress. I think everybody knew I’d go with sequins and beads – it’s what I was looking for from the start! But the main thing for me was to feel comfy – so many dresses were itchy or I’d trip over! With The George having such amazing Christmas decoration already we really didn’t need to do much work there! For the table centres, which we did ourselves, we used Alex’s late Grandads old books stacked simply with candles. They worked really well with the style of our venues as well as having sentimental meaning.

bouquet with photos attached and penny under brides shoe edinburgh hotel rooftop with bride bride laughs and gets jewellery on view over edinburgh from hotel rooftop bridesmaid gets ready bride and maids get ready together in hotel collage of photos showing scenes of wedding getting ready bridesmaids hug and smile grooms gets ready with his friends loads of groomsmen getting ready in one picture man helps friend with bow tie scene of grooms men getting ready in edinburgh apartment groom smiles outside shots of groomen laughing groomsmen walking through edinburgh alex's friends all showing their matching shoes and socks men putting on button holes before wedding edinburgh hotels rainbow over edinburgh skyline wedding guest laughing bridal prep mother of the bride with hat on bridesmaids see bride for first time fully ready and get emotional bride with mum pulling silly facebride caught in sunlight bridal party in lift bride comes out of lift and decorator is holding paint pointing to wet paint sign in humorous moment bride with father outside hotel in edinburgh with Christmas decorations on hotel conductor on bus old fashioned red bus outside hotel sunlight through street in edinburgh

The Wedding Ceremony

We have many mutual friends, most of which took on one of the roles as best men (there were 12 of them!). One of the best men, Tom Burke, married us which was just absolutely amazing to have a friend prepare for marriage with us and perform our ceremony. It was his first wedding so hopefully equally special for him! As mentioned, another of our best men, Lee Healbury, played our music, which we couldn’t have imaged any other way and he is so incredibly talented. For readings we had another of the best men, David Clayton, and one each of our cousins, George Wilkinson and Allison Smith. George read a couple of Dr Seuss poems and the others picked their own readings which was a really nice surprise for us. We chose to write our own vows.

guest arrive at library for wedding bride sat on bus guests arriving at wedding guests inside library bride with party coming up stairs at the library groom greeting kids pastor hugs bride bride bridesmaids coming down the aisle bride comes down the aisle with father father of the bride comes Down the aisle with daughter bride smiles during wedding ceremony wedding ceremony first kiss couple smile as just married guest plays piano during wedding signing of the register couple sign wedding register guests emotional reactions to wedding The signet library edinburgh wedding photographycouple walk back down the aisle after their wedding the signet library stairs edinburgh guests after wedding guests leaving wedding outside the signet library on the royal mile edinburgh couple in the signet library edinburgh wedding photography couple portrait jen and alex on royal mile tourists take pictures of newly wed couple Jens veil blows into alex's face couple in road on royal mile jen and alex on wedding bus guests greet couples arrival back at hotel wedding bus outside principal george hotel guests throw confetti outside hotel alex with rose petals in his face couple enter hotel

Wedding entertainment & first dance

We chose One Republic by Counting Stars for our wedding first dance because it was a song that we listened to a lot when we first got together, and we also saw the band live in Dublin years back. We actually had a ‘second first dance’ to follow up too which was Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. This is our song for when we have a car full of people on a long drive and we knew it’d get the dancefloor going – which as you can see from the photos, it certainly did! We had a brass band, Brass Gumbo, during our welcome drinks reception and a DJ for the evening. Alex and I are based in Manchester and once saw a brass band playing funky Christmas songs on a train home from the Christmas markets one year. As a result, we wanted the exact same thing at our wedding!

brass band playing for wedding guests candid moments of wedding guests natural wedding photography documentary wedding photos room set for wedding breakfast at principal george hotel couple enter wedding breakfast wedding speeches couple clink glasses in cheers during speeches fun wedding photography bride tosses bouquet candid moments of wedding guests lots of people laughing man in corner of room taking a video guests laugh at a wedding reception bride laughs bridesmaids drink champagne first dance jen and alex have a dance

Looking back on a happy day

Jen – I loved every moment of the ceremony and particularly enjoyed when Alex and I had a few moments to ourselves afterwards. Walking down Royal Mile with the castle up the road, everyone waving and my veil flying everywhere in the wind was just my absolute favourite moment. We had so much fun! The most overwhelming moment of the day for me was arriving back at The George on the red bus to see all of our friends and family gathered together for confetti – that really got me! Everybody looked so happy! My Grandma couldn’t make it up to Edinburgh but she had spent the past year collecting petals from her garden and drying them to make confetti so it was a really special moment for me.

Alex – Seeing Jen walk in for me, she looked so beautiful and both of us were unusually calm so I felt great to know that at that point the moment had arrived and it was nice to look around and see all our friends and family. I also loved when the music turned off at 1am and we were still singing our fourth rendition of Angels by Robbie Williams 15 minutes later.

evening wedding reception fun wedding photography documentary party moments wedding guests dance in fun moments everyone singing along to the disco guests dance couples friends all with arms in the air on the dancefloor kid body popping dance on floor guests have a merry time

Advice for couples planning their wedding

Jen – I wouldn’t change a thing – the feeling on that day was just incredible. My maid of honour, Roisin Whittle, gave me great advice which was to take as much in as possible and to keep looking around all day. It’s so easy to miss things or to keep your focus on one area so I made sure I looked around all day and really enjoyed seeing everyone having such a good time! I was super organised throughout the whole process so that on the day I could completely relax which was a good job because everything completely left my brain on the day but everyone around me knew what was going on!

Alex – Just remember the most important thing is that you end the day married, nothing else really matters. If you had to get married wearing jeans in the middle of a stormy field but you were still married then it would still be the best day of your life; but everything else certainly helps to make it more special.

The principal george hotel edinburgh wedding photography couple outside hotel

Mike Plunkett – Wedding Photographer

We decided to book Mike because we’d seen his work for numerous friends weddings and met him on more than one occasion already. As well as the photography being amazing, natural and funny (which we love!) we just loved his presence on the days of their weddings. He dressed smart, was super friendly and blended into the day. It was a fantastic decision to choose him and he went the extra mile even attending the rehearsal the evening before and taking a few pictures there!

Some Wedding Supplier Love

Dress was ‘Lucille’ by Eliza Jane Howell bought from Ava Rose Hamilton

Suits were from Next

Cake by Mimi’s Bake House

Bridesmaids dresses from Monsoon

Stationary from Pressision & Entwhistle

Brass Band – Brass Gumbo

Transport – The Red Bus

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