We’ve been together for nine years and met at college when we were both dating men who were friends. We connected so deeply and fell quickly in mad, completely absorbing love. We’ve spent the next nine years traveling together. Living in Melbourne, moving to Manchester, building our lives, laughing, and growing together. We always say how lucky we are to have grown up together through such transformative years (16 years old! to 26 now), and we still actually like each other. We’re still absolutely best friends, head over heels, until death, through anything in love.
I proposed at home, on a normal evening, over a BBQ because we are Aussies at heart. We planned to marry with all of our families, friends, and queer family in Cornwall this summer but obviously had to postpone to next year.
However, we decided that we didn’t want to wait that long. We married legally at our local manchester registry office on our original date. With only our parent’s and siblings’ attendance and knowledge. Which happens to be our ninth anniversary!
Alas, mad change of plans takes two. Manchester went into a second lockdown a week before our home garden reception wedding, making our plans illegal. So with a week’s notice, we canceled our home reception, and the restaurant that I work at offered to host our reception at Box on the Docks, Media City Manchester. This is a socially distanced venue on the quay. Which features about fifteen individual artist-designed greenhouses and sheds that people can dine in! Very cool and unique. We could seat our families on tables in greenhouses with only their households, and all enjoy some fine vegan dining together as a family.
It was an absolute blinder of a day. I have never laughed so hard or felt so much joy, and you can see it in the photos. What an absolute joy to marry in such a simple, easy, pressure-free way. Knowing that when the time is right and safe, we can still have next year in Cornwall to celebrate with all of our friends and family. It’s not been an easy journey for us as a queer couple. We really felt like we could just focus on each other and not worry about any other judgments on the day.
Here’s the cute bit, though. Our photographer for next year is a magician, and she works from glorious Snowdonia. So she suggested we take a small adventure mini-moon to Snowdonia after the wedding to hike up into the mountains and say personal vows to each other by a sacred lake just under Mt Snowdon. It was stunning, so emotional, and exactly what we needed after an awkward ceremony at the Bury registry office!
Snowdonia Mini-Moon Photography by Babs Boardwell
Ceremony Photography by Rachel Joyce
Cake Hillgate Cakery
Catering Vertigo Plant-Based Eatery
Ceremony Venue Bury Registry office
Florist Robie Flowers Prestwich
Outfits Asos
Reception Venue Box on the Docks
Rings RA Designer Jewellery
