Bride weds in dressing gown, slippers and rollers as 'it's what married life is like'

19 May 2026

A bride wed in a dressing gown, slippers and hair rollers so her new husband could see how married life was going to be.

Ashleigh Stanley did not bother with make-up when she tied the knot with childhood sweetheart Jake Stanley, 29, at Llanerch Vineyard in Hensol, Vale of Glamorgan.

The original plan was to wed in front of 150 guests and walk down the aisle to Calon Lân, a hymn her gran loved.

But because the song is religious she was told it could not be used in a civil ceremony.

So the couple, who have been together for 13 years, decided to hold an "intimate" legal ceremony before a larger celebrant service where the hymn could be used.

To take the pressure off, Ashleigh, 29, decided to keep the first ceremony relaxed, which led to the dressing gown wedding.

While she wore a white robe and slippers, Jake wore a black Under Armour top and shorts with white trainers.

Ashleigh, from Merthyr Tydfil, said both their mothers and her daughter wore pink bridal pyjamas while their dads and brothers dressed casually.

Her family, she said, loved the look. Venue staff told them it was their first dressing gown wedding.

Ashleigh said: "I quite liked the idea of getting married in my rollers and dressing gown.

"I said 'I'll be in my pyjamas most of my married life and this is how he sees me most of the time, so this is how I'm going to marry him'.

"I gave him a reality check of what married life would be like."

They were wed on what would have been her gran's 100th birthday.

Ashleigh said: "If we started to sing Calon Lân, she knew every word.

"It's a very personal song and I wanted to make sure I was walking down the aisle to this.

"We thought, 'Why don't we get married at 10 o'clock in the morning?' And then we had the celebrant service after."

For the second ceremony, Ashleigh had her make-up done, hair curled and wore a white off-the-shoulder gown.

"Our guests said how they preferred our service to any other wedding service as it was done within 10 minutes and everyone had more time to party and get on with the day," she said.

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