Your North West Wedding - December/January 2024/2025 (Issue 89)

recently done some wedding cakes that had pearl waterfalls on them, which influenced our design. We had a two-tier cake; one layer was raspberry and white chocolate, and the top layer was lemon and poppy seed. After trying so many of Mel’s amazing cake samples, we decided on these two as they felt quite light.” DRESSED TO IMPRESS “I wore a stunning lace gown with a custom veil,” says Sarah. “The veil had matching lace around it and fell slightly longer than the dress. The gown had 3D lace flowers on and had so much going on that I wanted my hair up and just simple pearl drop earrings in; I didn’t feel the need to add anything else. Jack chose a black suit with a white pocket square and a black bow tie. “I gave my bridesmaids free rein for the colour and style of their dresses,” continues Sarah. “I knew I wanted them from Six Stories because they offer a great range of styles and colours. Two of my bridesmaids chose an oyster-coloured dress and my maid-of-honour chose a burnt peach colour, which complemented each other and my dress perfectly. They ended up going for the same style of dress with a V-shaped neckline.” TIME TO CELEBRATE “We had John Paul Gatenby from AMV Live Music sing as I walked down the aisle and he stayed for the canapés and drinks,” shares the bride. “For the evening, we had a DJ from Simon Vogt Weddings who kept the party going the whole time; everyone was on the dancefloor having the best time! We had sent him our music choices and then gave him free rein from there; he did not disappoint! During the canapés and drinks, we had lawn games set up for our guests to play from Yorkshire Games Hire. Finally, what’s a wedding without a photo booth? We situated the photo booth from Studio Social Limited in the reception area, so people were constantly going past it; it was in use the whole time it was there! “The wedding coordinator, Carl, and DJ had planned to finish the music a little bit earlier than needed so that everyone would chant ‘one more song.’ Of course the DJ then told us to ask Carl, to which he obviously said yes. Everyone cheered and then continued dancing for another four songs. I would like to give a shout-out to Carl, who truly went above and beyond from the moment I walked down the aisle until 2am in the morning. He was then back at breakfast at 8am greeting us all.” MEMORABLE MOMENTS “Jack was very overwhelmed all morning; he had taken a walk by himself around the lake to practice his speech and collect his thoughts,” recalls Sarah. “As soon as I walked down the aisle, I could see the emotion and the tears flooding down his face. I tried to stay present throughout the day and take everything in; it had been a year and a half of planning and we both didn’t want it to be over. The love we felt from everyone who truly wanted the best for us was wonderful. We also loved that, as most of our guests stayed the full weekend, we did all of the introductions and general conversation on the Friday, which meant Jack and I felt a lot more relaxed on the wedding day. We didn’t feel as though we had to get back around every single person and say hello again.” FLY AWAY WITH ME “I would recommend going on your honeymoon straight after the wedding, as you get to stay in your wedding bubble for even longer, but those hungover flights were not fun,” reveals Sarah. “We had a multistep trip in America for our honeymoon over 22 nights. We visited Las Vegas, Hawaii, San Francisco, Yosemite National Park, Pismo Beach and LA. We had the best time and it was truly a once-in-a-lifetime trip. It felt extra special that we got to visit Hawaii.” REAL WEDDINGS 33

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