Stoke-on-Trent bride has dad's ashes put into wedding nails Published duration 5 October 2019

image copyright Kirsty Meakin image caption Nail artist Kirsty Meakin put Mick Barber's ashes in clear acrylic on his daughter's nails

A bride whose dad died four months before her wedding still had him with her on the day after his ashes were incorporated into her acrylic nails.

Charlotte Watson and her husband Nick brought their wedding forward when Mick Barber's cancer spread.

When he died shortly before the big day, Charlotte's cousin, who works as a nail artist, had the idea to use his ashes in her design.

"It really felt like he was there," said Charlotte, from Stoke-on-Trent.

image copyright Cara Green image caption Charlotte was walked down the aisle by her mum Joanne on her wedding day

Charlotte's cousin Kirsty Meakin, a nail artist and YouTuber, said: "The ashes were in a little glass pot and we looked through them and picked the pieces we thought would work."

Kirsty, who has more than a million subscribers on YouTube , said she wanted the ashes to be "suspended in clear acrylic" on Charlotte's nails.

"It was a bit surreal - these were the ashes of my uncle Mick. I felt slightly detached from it at certain points because otherwise I'd have been a blubbering wreck," she said.

"It was only when it was completed it sank in what it was. That her dad would be holding her hand on her wedding day."

image copyright Charlotte Watson image caption Mick Barber had been looking forward to his daughter's wedding

Charlotte said she "couldn't believe" the finished result, which was a pink, grey and white design finished off with gems.

She had been planning to walk down the aisle alone but the night before the wedding in Congleton in August, she asked her mum to accompany her.

Her dad was included in the day in many other ways, including in pictures on the back of her shoes, in a pendant attached to her flowers and a teddy made from one of his jumpers and a pair of jeans.

image copyright Cara Green image caption Charlotte said it felt like her dad was by her side as she married Nick Watson