Chelsea + Michael | September 2024
“From the perfectly coordinated pink suit to the beautifully printed vows, and all the supportive DMs in between, Sarah quickly became a trusted friend who made the entire process so much more special”
For our first meet-up Chelsea and Michael welcomed me into their home for tea and muffins, and I got to be nosey (I’m excellent at nosiness) and pore through the photo album they had made of their engagement trip away in snowy Scottish hills. Their kitchen fridge was bedecked with dozens and dozens of polaroids of other memories together, they finished each other’s sentences, giggled as they showed me printed out evidence of Michael’s first messages to Chels on Tinder, and were just damn adorable. The type of #couplegoals pair who - when it came to their wedding - wrote sweet, decorated notes for each other to open on the morning. The type of pair who co-baked their own (incredible) wedding cake. The type of pair who even grew flowers for the centre pieces in their back garden.
I haven’t implemented it yet but I’ve come away from having met them, and got to know them, wanting to start baking with my husband…and taking polaroids to prove it. Our fridge is integrated so I’ve got nowhere to display the polaroid snaps, that’s the only thing stopping me from being that wholesome.
There was a real attention to detail with Chelsea and Michael’s wedding; they are two people who appreciate beauty and personal touches. And their chosen venue - The Secret Tower in Newcastle - is SUCH a fabulous, all-white backdrop for an intimate wedding with beautiful detail - any colour against the white ceiling, walls, floor and windows just POPS. And the colours Chelsea and Michael chose - fuchsia, peach and cornflower blue - really popped. A dazzlingly pretty array of colours on a sunny September wedding day in the city.
And it wasn’t til I arrived that I saw how perfectly my bright pink suit matched, as you’ll see below!
Photography by Little Miss Boyco
Chelsea walked - glided - down the aisle to Birdy’s Quietly Yours and Michael took her hands and they enjoyed a minute or two of just taking each other in, and settling into the wedding, as the song played out. It was a song that played the night they got engaged so it’s incredibly special and I knew they wanted to enjoy the whole song before we proceeded.
The bride and groom wanted an unplugged ceremony, with phones away, but as I announced for phones to go away, I also announced - on the couple’s request - that I would take a selfie of us all from the front.
But, in true Chelsea-and-Micheal-style - and to take pride of place on the fridge - it was with a polaroid camera. I popped the picture down to develop and then caught a glance at it a few minutes into the ceremony and couldn’t help but stop and laugh.
What I wanted to capture was a moment in time that can never be recreated: a bride and groom at the top of the aisle, just about to begin their wedding ceremony, framed behind with the beaming faces of everyone they love.
What I got: pitch dark…other than my looming face.
No bride, no groom, no guests, just my incompetent muggins peering into the lens.
I held the photo up to show Michael and Chelsea’s friends and family and everyone was laughing. That’s what I love about weddings - even when things go “wrong” they tend to add to the vibe rather than take anything away.
But other details were exquisite: Chelsea and Michael lit a unity candle with hot pink, tapered candles, the perfect match to the bows on the chairs. I’d brought a lighter but Chelsea (Queen of Aesthetic Detail) had brought a box of those posh vintage matches. We popped a bottle for the bride and groom to toast each other, but not just any bottle, a six-year old champagne gifted to the couple on their engagement from Michael’s brother and sister-in-law.
They wrote their own lovely, long vows, needing no assistance from me. They both seem to share “words of affirmation” as a love language. That and being super hot and both able to bake.
One other - gorgeous - detail was one I was able to explain to friends and family from the front. Michael’s wedding ring is inscribed with a line from their very first date, when the bartender opened a new bottle of gin and gave them the ring from around the bottle neck. She said it was tradition to give the ring from a new bottle to whoever ordered it, and that they must go back to their table and translate the Latin inscription: “E Pluribus Unum”.
“Out of many, one” they discovered it meant.
Out of many - one.
And with over 8 billion people in this world, they found each other. The delicate details of who they are, and what makes them tick, are a perfect match.
“The ceremony was the most important part of our day and we have Sarah to thank for making it better than we ever could have imagined”