Colourful and kitsch Mexican-inspired wedding at Glasgow Art Club

Maeve McCorry and Ruairidh Wynne-McHardy – now the Wynne-McCorrys!

Saturday 23rd April 2022

Venue | Glasgow Art Club, Glasgow
Photography | Jo + Liam Photography

“We got engaged on 21st August 2020 in Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow. It was a joint proposal, and we had been planning on celebrating it in Seville, but Covid put paid to our plans.

About a week before, we found Jo + Liam Photography online and thought how special it would be to have some photos to remember our engagement by.

We had such a laugh hanging out with them that it was a no-brainer to book their services for our ceremony and subsequent wedding party.

We had a small legal ceremony on 17th September 2021 at St Aloysius Church in Glasgow, then our ‘real’ wedding was on 23rd April 2022 at Glasgow Art Club.

We are both huge fans of art galleries, so loved our venue from the outset. 

The Gallery, where we had dinner, speeches and the ceilidh, has a beautiful Charles Rennie Mackintosh frieze and panels.

Dan, the venue’s events manager, was a delight to deal with. He got on board with our theme and did all he could to bring it to life for us with humour and enthusiasm.

Our theme was ‘Mexicana-Catholic-Kitsch meets Met Gala 2018’. We knew from the beginning that we wanted the look of our wedding to be over-the-top and celebratory, with explosions of colour.

We had been together for over 13 years, so we wanted our day to feel like a celebration of everything we’d done together, and all that was to come.

We wanted the atmosphere to be irreverent and joyful. We think that our extravagant theme encouraged people to let their hair down.

Also, for most guests, it was the first wedding or large event they had been to since Covid, so it felt even more special to be gathered together in our finery.

We had 70 daytime guests, with 30 more in the evening.

We handmade most of our decorations, with help from friends and family. We painted a lot of ceramic skulls during the Christmas holidays!

We used a garden arch for our ceremony backdrop, onto which we tied strings of homemade paper flowers. (Yes, it took forever to do!)

We bought lots of little cacti online for our tables and finished the look with lots of colourful, mismatched candlesticks that we borrowed from friends.

We wanted to recycle or reuse as much as possible, so most of the decorations are either in our home or were given to other people so there wasn’t any waste.

I also made beautiful lino-print place names for the tables, personalised with each guest’s name. My flowers were MUD Urban Flowers’ bunch of the day, arranged by my mum into a bouquet with colourful ribbons (thanks to YouTube tutorials!).

I really wasn’t sure what I wanted dress-wise, but I adored the one I chose as soon as I put it on. I had a great experience at Emma Roy of Edinburgh. They were patient, relaxed and accommodating when I had to buy the dress during the 2021 lockdown. I wore the same one at both weddings. I accessoried with a gold veil by Rosie’s Bridal and headpiece by CalatheaDeco, both of whom I found on Etsy.

We asked our friends, singer Sophia and guitarist Jens, to do our aisle music. They played ‘Hermit’ by Scottish indie band Randolph’s Leap, who we had seen play many times before.

The ceremony was great fun. As we were already officially married, we opted for a non-legal ceremony conducted by our close friend, Thomas Chapman-Raafat. Our vows were surprisingly emotional and came together very well considering we had only finished them a few days before. We also had mezcal from the quaich rather than whisky. Drinking it was quite a shock to the system!

We had a surprise Mariachi band and served margaritas right after the ceremony to set the tone. It got everyone dancing straight away! We served Mexican food in keeping with the day’s theme: slow-cooked beef barbacoa, sweet potato and feta tacos, chipotle chicken tacos, and churros. We didn’t bother with wedding cake; we used that part of the budget on more margaritas!

We knew we didn’t want traditional speeches. Instead, we asked our guests to record some advice or special words that we turned into a video that we played before dinner. My dad, however, did an excellent, irreverent speech and Ru and I performed a joint skit, which went down well!

Top tip: “Guests just want you to have a good time, and for there to be food, drink and dancing. Don’t worry too much about the small details, as they all just add up to the overall picture.”

Venue Glasgow Art Club
Legal ceremony venue St Aloysius Church, Glasgow
Photography Jo + Liam Photography
Wedding film Betty Jnr Co.
Non-legal ceremony Led by Thomas Chapman-Raafat, the couple’s friend
Bride’s dress Emma Roy of Edinburgh
Veil and headpiece Etsy
Earrings Nmarra
Hair and makeup AMM Hair and Makeup Team
Nails NAF! Salon
Groomswear Kilt from Gordon Nicolson Kiltmakers; jacket from Reiss
Rings Brazen Studios; Blair and Sheridan
Catering Really Delicious Catering & Events
Tables and chairs John Brown Caterhire
Flowers MUD Urban Flowers
Ceremony music Performed by friends, Sophia and Jens
Drinks reception music Mariachi Band from The Magic Agency
Ceilidh band The Jiggers
Transport Maeve’s uncle’s vintage Jaguar