Matthew & Adam

These fabulous grooms and their contemporary wedding are so incredibly stylish I honestly don't know where to begin... Lets start with their sleek Tuxedos, both complimenting each perfectly but ensuring they reflect their own personalities. Then there's their magical ceremony at The Epstein Theatre. The atmosphere must have been absolutely electric surrounded by those twinkly lights and vintage vibes, and how cool are the urban portraits captured by DSB Creative Photography with the bright graffiti wall backdrop. After all the epic-ness above you'd think there wasn't room for any more surprises, but then a red bus comes along and whisks guests off to the breathtaking Sefton Park Palm House for a reception surrounded by the botanics. With all its smiles and love this wedding will set you up for weekend beautifully.

The Grooms

Matthew the Groom: We had both agreed early in the planning stages that we didn’t want to wear the same suits and that we wanted to coordinate without being too “matchy-matchy”. We decided that I would wear a classic black tuxedo and Adam would wear an off-white jacket and black trousers with different textured bow-ties (Adam’s was velvet and mine was satin).

The Best Men

We each had a best man, Daniel (Adam’s brother) was his and my best-friend Gareth was mine. We knew that we wanted them in black fitted suits and searched all over the high street to find one that suited them both (Gareth is 5’ 8” and Daniel is 6’ 4”). We eventually found one in River Island.

The Venues

On the day we got engaged, we casually discussed venues and almost instantly we agreed that we both loved the Palm House in Sefton Park. The summer before we had spent a lot of time there walking our dogs and had already fallen in love with it. As the Palm House is open to the public until 3:30pm (even on your wedding day) we decided to find a separate venue for our Ceremony and have our Reception at the Palm House so that we could have a longer day. We found the Epstein Theatre by searching on the local council website of approved venues. The first time we went to look at it we knew it was perfect for the classic, Hollywood feel that we wanted for the day. It was so ornate and beautiful and not too big.

The Transport

We didn’t want a wedding car for the day, instead we had Adam’s best man drive us from the Epstein to the Palm House as we wanted to stop at the Baltic Triangle in Liverpool for Photos. This was the best decision we made as we love the bright, graffiti shots that came from there.

The Flowers

With our reception being in the Palm House we didn’t want bright colours to distract from all the beautiful tropical flowers and plants already in there. Instead we kept the flowers classic and went for a mixture of white and green. The only colour we had was on our buttonholes, were we had a single light pink, avalanche rose. Adam already knew our florist Angela and she delivered exactly what we asked for on the day.

The Décor

As both of our venues were so unique and beautiful we didn’t want to over-dress them and distract from that so we kept the décor quite minimal. In the Epstein we replaced all of the theatre posters and leaflets and made personalised posters for our wedding and shared some of our favourite photos. These were positioned along the entrance staircase so it was the first thing that the guests seen as they arrived. In the Palm House we had a specific vision of how we wanted our tables to look and Rachel from the Yacht Club Catering was so accommodating, even agreeing to folding the napkins in a certain way so that they would hold our printed menus!

The Wedding Party

We decided to stay apart the night before the wedding so I stayed in our house with my best man and a group of friends and Adam stayed at his Mum and Dad’s with his best man. The getting ready part was relatively simple for us as we didn’t have to contend with hair and make-up on the day. We got our hair and beards done the day before by our favourite barber Ben at Strop & Blade and we treated our Mum’s to their hair + make-up on the morning of the wedding.

The Ceremony

I loved every moment of the ceremony. We were kept apart at the Epstein in separate dressing rooms back stage with our Mums (I walked in with my mum and Adam with his) so the first time we seen each other and our guests was when we got on the stage. We walked in to the acoustic version of Sam Smith’s ‘Latch’ and the moment it started playing and I heard the registrar ask the guests to stand I felt so overwhelmed with emotion I had to fight back the tears. I walked in first and Adam followed once I was on the stage. We had two beautiful readings by our friends Rachael and Nicki, “Love” by Roy Croft and an extract from “Now We Are Six” by A.A.Milne.

The Entertainment

We loved the idea of a jazz band to play at the Palm House but didn’t want a full band and didn’t want someone singing covers or a Michael Buble impersonator. So after much searching we eventually found “Straight No Chaser” a local jazz duo. They were so accommodating and even at the last minute agreed to play through our wedding breakfast. As the weather was beautiful they were able to play outside as guests arrived for welcome drinks. In the evening we hired Wedding Jam to DJ. We specifically chose them as they specialise in non-traditional wedding entertainment which was perfect for us as the majority of our wedding guests were our age we weren’t pressured into playing anything cheesy or old fashioned for older guests.

The Food

At the Palm House we had a list of approved suppliers and we eventually chose The Yacht Club as they made everything about us. When we first met with them we sat down with the wedding coordinator and the Head Chef (something which hadn’t happened with other caterers) and the first question they asked us was “What food do YOU like?” They didn’t ask us to pick from a standard list or tell us what we can and can’t have, they made sure that everything they produced reflected us as a couple. For the wedding breakfast we went with a goats cheese tart to start, followed by pork wrapped in parma ham with apple compote, dauphinoise potatoes and winter veg with OMG Chocolate cake as a dessert. Since our wedding everyone has commented on how amazing the food was. Some of our guests have even admitted to requesting more of the OMG Chocolate Cake on the day.

The Photography

I knew that I wanted a modern photographer and nothing really traditional and when we found our photographer Damian I knew that he was the man for the job. So much so that when we first contacted him in December 2014 he said that he was already booked for the date we had originally planned (September 3rd 2016)! Thankfully, after quite a bit of persuading, Adam agreed to move the date back a week so that we could book him – a decision that we now both agree was the BEST decision we could’ve made. Damian made us feel so at ease and really understood what we wanted the feel of the day to be and the type of shots that we love and he more than delivered. We didn’t have an official video, but our friend Paul kindly shot throughout the day so we have some of the key moments captured.