Meet the legends: Marnee and Gemma
This December, I’m gifting a little treat every day until Christmas Eve. I want to showcase fellow suppliers, share some stories from some of my clients and give away lots of freebies and discounts. In short, I just wanna spread some festive cheer and celebrate love! On Day 7, we’re meeting two of the kindest, funniest, most beautiful humans that ever stumbled across my Instagram - it’s Marnee and Gemma.
Gem (she/her), Marn (she/her) and I discovered each other the same way most of my initial enquiries go, when the two of them were planning their wedding. I helped design them a full brand that spanned their save the dates, invites, wedding website, wedding day stationery, on the day installations / decor and even some matching tattoos! Yes, really.
From our first meeting, a very special friendship was born, and subsequently the three of us have met, eaten, drunk and belly-laughed all across the country for the last two years. They have amazing nearlywed and newlywed insight that can help those of you planning your own weddings and celebrations, and frankly they just get the air time because they’re fab.
So for today’s treat: wedding planning advice, a little bit of a story and some absolutely stunning photos by Amy Katherine. Grab yourself a hot chocolate, hunker down and let’s jump in.
Tell everyone about how you got together!
Marnee: We were friends at school.
Gemma: When I went off to university, I had a pretty tough time settling in and used to come home every weekend, Marn and I would spend more and more time together driving round and listening to music, going to gigs together and touring the country basically.
Our relationship grew and after one infamous party (those who know, know) together we turned into something more than just friends. That developed too and I had a rather “movie” inducing moment to The 1975’s Fallingforyou in the shower one day where I realised I didn’t want to just fool around with this girl, or just be friends. However, rather than just coming out and telling her properly, we came back from a leaving meal with her work colleagues and I blurted out something about “her not wanting a relationship BUT-“ and she caught me in my tracks, like “what do you mean *I* don’t want a relationship, *YOU’VE* never asked”.
And so I took a chance, asked the question and that was nearly 10 years ago now. Nothing has ever felt more natural, honestly.
How did you get engaged?
Marn: Gem proposed to me at St. Dunstan in the East in London, and I proposed at an All Time Low gig at Wembley Stadium, during her favourite song.
What was the first supplier you booked?
Marn: Technically it was actually our dresses as we were so excited to go trying on… but outside of that, it was our venue, Le Petit Chateau in Northumberland.
How did you decide where to get married, when and who else to book?
Marn: I saw the venue on Instagram, and it just kinda filled the brief for us. A destination wedding but in the UK for all our family to still be able to come.
Gem: Marn’s family are Scottish, and we live in Milton Keynes so it felt like almost halfway between the two as well - and far enough away to clear out some of the traditional “obligation” invitees. We didn’t want anyone there for just the evening; if you’re invited, it’s all in or not at all.
Marn: We picked September as autumnal colour palettes were always on the cards, and our original anniversary (and when Gem proposed) was 1st September. I then chose to propose to Gem on 16th March so it gave the 16th September a bit of magic on its own too.
Gem: In terms of who else to book, we let the venue lead on a lot of the local recommendations as we don’t come from up north. They suggested a list of photographers, make up artists, florists and we went down them and made our choices based on our style and what fitted best, scheduled in some trials and meetings which was great fun, and the rest is history!
Gem: There were obviously some gaps still to fill and we would work together to search Instagram and online to find the right fit. That’s how we found Carly, who was one of the first suppliers we booked and helped us navigate through the many decisions that come with wedding planning, especially as I was so keen to get Save the Dates circulated. Marn was, and is, the vision girl so she’d tell me what she could picture and I would hunt people out. We also booked to go to a few wedding fayres - the traditional ones were fucking shit, not going to lie. But we found Rock and Roll Bridal through our jeweller who made both our engagement rings (Charlie Shires) and that was a god send to finding some more suppliers we didn’t even realise could be an option for us, like Chloe Green our celebrant.
What’s something you’d advise engaged couples to think about?
Marn: When you first get engaged, talk about what is the most important part of the wedding to you - and make sure you’re working together. Your wedding day is about you, you’re the guests of honour! It is not your aunts’ or cousins’ or your parents’ day, so it should feel like it embodies you both.
Gem: I agree. Set a vision, and think about what defines you both as a couple and just make sure that every part of the wedding that can, should ooze the two of you. That way it truly becomes a celebration of you both. Don’t be afraid to say “fuck it” and book something because you want it.
What was your favourite part of wedding planning?
Gem: The stationery and branding! Honestly. Creating our logo with Carly helped us mark every single thing we could with a flavour of the Rutlands and it became a whole thing.
Marn: Honestly, getting to meet the really cool people who have changed our lives and become friends for life as result. Choosing your suppliers well can create those connections and make your paths cross with people who help you build the best day of your life, trust them, and invest in them! Telling them things, so they knew us inside and out and could help in creating a day that was, truly and wholly our day. People can have similar schemes, be it colours or flowers or whatever, but I know that no one will ever be able to have our day, because of how much of us came through. I know we feel it, but our friends still say it now too, and that’s incredible to me.
Sum up your wedding style in three words.
Marn: Marnee and Gemma.
Gem: Autumnal cosy goth!
What was the best part of your wedding day?
Marn: Seeing the vision come together… and the beef we had for main course!
Gem: Feeling genuinely, truly and completely loved by my wife, my friends, my family. It was a day that oozed us, and love was truly the main agenda. Marn and I woke up an hour early to spend together before the madness began, and spent an hour in our pyjamas eating wedding cake and dissecting the day at the end of the night, it was those little moments together that made it feel real and soaking up all the little details.
How did you plan the music for the wedding day and what was on your playlist?
Marn: We let people request a song with their RSVP but most of it was curated by us, especially Gemma.
Gem: I split the day into three parts - pre-ceremony, wedding breakfast and then the “must have Rutland bangers” depending on the vibe of the day. I took each guest choice and put them in one of the playlists. Pre-ceremony was instrumental Bridgeton style covers, wedding breakfast was just slower songs that suited being ‘background music’ and then the bangers were to help guide the DJ to fill the dance floor in the evening. I would listen to them all in turn when driving to work or doing tasks to make sure they did fit the moment and it was great seeing guests picks come on in real time!”
Marn: I remember hearing Always by Blink182 and everyone flooded the dancefloor for the Macarena and the YMCA.
Gem: Our best woman Melissa left a message on our audio guest book and you can hear Medicine by the 1975 playing which made us both really emotional.
Gem: In terms of our picked songs, Marn came down the aisle to Fallingforyou by 1975, I came down to an instrumental version of Disconnected by 5 Seconds of Summer. We walked back up the aisle to Everlong by Foo Fighters and were introduced back into the room (for the first time as a married couple) to Starlight by Muse. Our first dance was to Older by 5 Seconds of Summer and we cut the cake to Valentine, again by 5 Seconds of Summer. We also did dances to Just Wanna Dance the Night Away by The Mavericks and Mama by Spice Girls with our parents.
Marn: Music is really important to us as a couple so we also had all our table names as song titles.. and then I think one of the best moments of the night had to be our closing song of the night which was to All About You by McFly. No one had their phones and it was so good the DJ played it twice.
Gem: There wasn’t a dry eye in the house..
Tell us about your matching tattoos!
Marn: We got our wedding logo tattooed on us, because it was sick.
Gem: We also got matching temporary ones for all the guests and that went down a treat after the wedding breakfast. Our bridesmaid Lucy had it on her forehead at one point…
Gem: Polly (@pollythompsontattoos on Instagram) was a natural choice to do it for us as she’s been one of our most trusted tattoo artists to date and it just felt right for her to be the one to immortalise the best day - I added lyrics that were part of the song I walked down the aisle to, and Marn added lyrics that she later used in the archway we had above us whilst we had our celebrant ceremony. The logo was the natural choice of design because it quite literally embodies our whole day.
Marn: We also have each others star signs on our ring fingers - so that we are still branded even when we don’t have our rings on.
How did you celebrate your first anniversary?
Marn: We went back to where it all started! London!
Gem: We ate, we drank, we mooched and we just spent a week in our little bubble. It was great, we stayed in a gorgeous hotel with a very deep bath, called the Batty Langley that I would highly recommend and Marnee got to have a Blank Street Matcha every day.
It wouldn’t be a festive treat without some Crimbo chat. Describe your perfect Christmas!
Marn: Snowy. Surrounded by the people I love, especially my wife (don’t tell her I was that soppy).
Gem: My wife out of working in retail so I could enjoy more than just two days of her company, but plenty of food (cooked by her, with lashings of gravy and roast potatoes by the mountain load), a shitty marathon of Christmas films (especially Love Actually as that’s my favourite film of all time), and free flowing drinks, curling up on the sofa together at the end of a lazy day, in fresh new pyjamas (of course) deep in our Rutland bubble.
Follow along on Instagram every day of December to get more treats, like free art card downloads, alternative wedding playlists and some cheeky discounts on your wedding stationery!
Happy holidays!
Carly ✌️