Beauty and The Beast Inspired City Wedding in Manchester

We head to Manchester today for a beautiful dark and dreamy Beauty and the Beast inspired city wedding. Coordinated by the The Urban Wedding Company it has a dark romantic vibe with seductive lighting and a Gothic edge. With a beautiful colour palette of black, deep reds and golds it exudes opulence and shows that a Disney princess theme can be both luxurious and grown up when it comes to planning your wedding day. We catch up with the team behind this city wedding shoot…

“The concept for the shoot was to show how you can take a theme or something you love and include it into your wedding day without it being tacky or overpowering. We chose beauty and the beast, not your typical Disney version though! For Zoey Beauty and the beast is a love story. It shows how love in the end is about the two of you, taking other opinions and superficial looks away from it all. Celebrate being you as a couple and your love for one another. Meaning the design for the shoot had to be bold and different but also focus on true love. ‘A tale as old as time’ was a key feature and softly intertwined throughout the shoot to hint at the theme but not overpower.”

“We love a moody palette and as a winter shoot it was the perfect option. All fairy tales have a dark side to them and this was our chance to show the darker side of beauty and the beast. Zoey used key features throughout the design but with a modern twist. For example the rose, Glart works provided us with the most beautiful metal handcrafted roses. These were used throughout the shoot.

“It is really important when working with a theme for your wedding to first start with your venue. Working with your venue to enhance its beauty is key to a well designed wedding. So make sure your theme fits with your venue if already chosen or still looking to choose your venue with your theme at the front of your mind. When I design any wedding I find out as much about the couple and their vision as I can. You need to really get clear on your theme and why you chose it, what feelings and memories it relates to. Then work on including and recreating these throughout the day, less so on adding themed items all around. Less is more with a theme, especially when avoiding the tacky look! Take two or three key ideas and research how to include but with a modern twist. Draw up a moodboard or even better a full design plan and stick to it, don’t let yourself get distracted. Sticking to a design is the best way to make sure your themed day turns out perfectly.”

“It was important to us to find the perfect city wedding venue and after a good search in our home City of Manchester we found it! Cheetham’s Library is a beautiful 15^th Century public library which was built in 1653. It is the oldest building in Manchester, could it be more perfect for a tale as old as time theme? Being a library, it also linked to the fact that Beauty was a bookworm and loved to read. We lucked out with this one! They are the perfect venue for a couple looking for a space steeped in history, a city wedding and little different from your normal city centre venue.”

“Frain and Grain created stunning stationery for the shoot, everything had a subtle nod to beauty and the beast without being too much. Mark created a full stationery set up, as well as menus for the table and an absolutely stunning table plan, it was huge and looked fabulous next to the wedding table.”

“Kate from The Perfect Bouquet created the most amazing florals for the shoot, of course there were lots of red roses! She created the most desirable wedding bouquet which was full of deep red roses, complemented by purple’s and greenery. Zoey and Kate wanted to create a really old castle, fairy-tale feel to the shoot with the florals. They came up with the idea of the roses growing through the wall like as if always been there, beauty growing through an old, weathered building. Kate did an insane job setting up different areas inside and out of the roses growing, they looked so organic and like they were always there.”

“For the table we wanted a big long decedent affair. Low florals running down the middle, lot’s and lot’s of candles as nothing says romance more than candle light! Then we used fruits from the fest cake table. Using fruits in styling is a great way to add extra textures and colours. Velvet tablecloths for a luxury feel and stone black crockery and crystal cut glassware from Whitehouse Event Crockery Hire. It was all about opulence, over indulging, a feast for the eyes!”

“We had the most beautiful dress and cape supplied by Legend Bridal Designs, Charlotte is just amazing at what she does and when we briefed her on the shoot, she immediately sent us a dress that was perfect! The steel grey was just perfect and the hooded cape that came with it really was the wow factor it was just perfect!”

“When choosing our models we wanted to try to capture the beauty and the beast parts whilst still showing them as a couple. We cast carefully and fell really lucky with Victoria and Charles, they really suited the brief and fit together perfectly. With their looks we kept them both as natural looking as possible, Victoria is just stunning and had the most beautiful features and dark hair. Jacqui our HMUA kept her hair natural adding large curls and a natural makeup look. For Charles we just kept him natural, he had long hair with a wave.”

“Lisa from Urban Cake House created us a cake that fitted our brief perfectly. Lisa absolutely wowed us with her black on black cake! Lisa even incorporated the rose onto the top with broken shards of sugar glass to tie in with the enchanted rose in the glass casing. This was then set up on a feast table from little green platter. We wanted the cake area to be a huge feature and what say old castle style dining than a feast! Sharing platters are really popular choices for weddings, little green platter did an awesome job of creating a modern day feast for us.”

“Lighting is always an important part of a wedding; it sets the tone of each area. Zoey wanted to create something different than the usual Edison drops, working with Kate and Peter. The Edison lights were hung on the venue’s chandelier and Kate draped with Spanish moss adding that always been growing there feel we wanted with the florals mentioned above. It looked incredible and the perfect accent to the dancing scene. Peter Lockwood set up another lighting feature outside, this was just stunning, and the perfect romantic couple shot area. A tip from us, make sure you always plan some romantic areas to take couple pics.”

“Wow is all we can say about Marni V Photography. Marni just knows how to capture everything perfectly; no detail goes unnoticed and she has great ideas on where to shoot. Your photographer is an important part of your day and making sure you pick one that suits your style is key. Marni was the perfect fit here; she understood the concept and was able to tell the story through her pictures.”

“We also had the expertise of AMB Vision on the shoot with their drones! They captured the shoot perfectly, and at such a different angle having never shot with a drone before it was just fantastic to have so many options of images and the video they created of the shoot was just perfect!”

The Team – Beauty and The Beast Inspired Manchester City Wedding

Photographer: Marni V Photography @marni_v_photography

Facilitator: The Urban Wedding Company @theurbanweddingcompany / Planner: Michelle Amy Weddings @michelleamyweddings / Concept & Design: Zoey Louise Design @zoeylouisedesign / Florist: The Perfect Bouquet @perfect_bouquet_full_of_flower / Cake: Urban Cake House @urbancakehouse / Videography: AMB Vision @amb_vision / Stationery: Frain and Grain @frainandgrain / Metal Flowers: Greanleaf Artworks @glartworks / Feast: Little Green Platter Company @little_green_plater_company / Dress: Legend Bridal Designs @legendbridal / Female Model: @victor1a_b Male Model: @vegan_viking / MUA & Hair: @jq_bridal_mua / Venue: Library Chethams @chethamsevents / Lighting: Peter Lockwood @peterlockwoodevents / Glassware: Whitehouse Event Crockery Hire @whitehouse_crockery