Zoe & Sam - A Manchester Hall wedding where modern bridal style meets bright and bold florals...

First things first...we LOVE a city wedding. Outdoorsy vibes and woodlands are our usual bag, but there is something just so cool about the brick work, busy streets and architecture that you get with a city centre wedding day...and Manchester Hall might just be the perfect place for it!

Things to love about Manchester Hall...

A. It is opposite arguably our favourite spot to get Vegan pizza in Manchester (Crazy Pedros we are looking at you)

B. The dining room is probably our favourite place we have ever photographed speeches (thanks massive windows)

C. There is a super cool rooftop for portraits that overlooks the whole city!!!

Zoe chose to get ready at Whitworth Locke which of all the hotels we have visited for bridal prep over the years might be the coolest...think pink toned walls, gorgeous big windows and a beautiful greenhouse style frontage. The bridal party were armed with coffee tequila and when Emily arrived to start photographing all of the details had been carefully laid out ready to go and there was vegan cake on offer...which is ultimately the way to our hearts to be honest!

Zoe's Aleena Leena dress felt so modern and minimal that the bold bouquet popped so beautifully. Oh and did we mention that she had two different hair pieces for the day. A veil for the ceremony and a pearl hairband for the reception! Who says you have to choose one anyway?

Sam on the other hand decided to keep things a little more low key and get ready with the grooms party at home just outside of town. They cracked into the Prosecco to have a few cheeky glasses of fizz before heading to greet all of the guests and get their buttonholes on at Manchester Hall.

Playing in the background while everyone arrived were The Harmony String Quartet. What is it about a string quartet that just makes everyones eyes a little bit teary? Obviously we wouldn't cry while on the job...no wait we definitely went a little bit too! The song list was a beautiful mix of modern rock classics (the cover of Evanescence's 'Bring me to life' did not go unnoticed) and love songs and it set the scene SO beautifully.

After a ceremony full of lots of big laughs and a gorgeous confetti exit on the way back up the aisle, guests were treated to a temporary tattoo station, more wonderful music and a drinks reception while we headed off with the happy couple to grab their group photographs and portraits. Of course we HAD to make use of the stunning floral arrangement at the entrance of the building, but we also got to use the grand staircase, ceremony room, rooftop and balcony...no spot was left un-photographed!

When it came to the speeches, the main dining room was set up with one huge table so that everyone was sat together which was actually great because it kept everyone chatting and having fun! It meant we could dip between people and run around the whole table to get reaction shots which are our favourite part of the speeches...especially when some of the funnier stories start coming out!

Now when it comes to candid photography we always chat on about how to keep your guests entertained...because lets face it they won't be having fun in the photos if they are sat around on their phones. We've talked before about lawn games, board games, activities...but for this wedding day we only had a flipping casino!

All in good fun of course and no actual money being gambled, everyone got stuck right into the fun of it and before we even realised the winning bets had been placed, the prizes won, and it was time to get to the dance floor. Not before cutting the "cake" which was actually this mega stack of biscuits from Long Boi Bakehouse...best cake alternative ever!

Zoe & Sam decided against having a traditional first dance. This is something we are seeing more and more this year as people choose to swerve a few wedding day traditions...sometimes people don't like to be the centre of attention or really don't love the idea of a 'first' dance. In any case the one thing we always recommend is to still kick the party of somehow...enter The Lost Keys! The band for the night who played some absolutely belter songs to get everyone up on the dance floor and having fun before we left everyone to drink their tequila shots undocumented.

We had SO much fun with everyone at this day that combined everything we love about modern weddings...super cool style, ditching traditions you don't love and having a day that feels 100% YOU. Scroll down to see more images from this day and for the full suppliers list! Thanks so much for having us <3