Your North East Wedding - November/December 2019 (Issue 35)

Unsure on etiquette but don’t know where to turn? Our North East experts are here to help HOT TOPIC BAKE OFF My partner and I are huge bakers – making cakes is how we met! We want our wedding guests to be surrounded by scrumptious cake but not just in terms of the actual wedding bake. What other fun ways can we incorporate our love of baking into our big day without getting our hands dirty? Laura says: There are so many creative and fun ways to incorporate tasty treats into your big day. Why not consider hiring us to make you a personalised cookie or signature cupcake? They make excellent wedding favours, and we can take inspiration from your favourite cocktails, childhood sweets or even your go-to breakfast bap – maple and bacon cupcakes, anyone? Personalised touches are what makes a wedding, so how about a dessert table too? The perfect accompaniment to your wedding cake, they’re often filled with a much wider variety of goodies for your guests to nibble and graze on throughout the evening. From doughnuts to macarons and pastries to cheesecakes, we can provide them all. Guests can be served by our staff or help themselves to an array of personalised goodies arranged beautifully on our vintage trailer. Laura Ellen Graham| The Sweet Petite Mobile Bakery please thesweetpetites DRINK UP We want to serve drinks at our wedding that will really get the guests talking. What are the best alcoholic and non-alcoholic choices for a summer garden celebration? Charles says : For warm, summer garden celebrations, it has to be seasonal and appropriate for the occasion. We love the fresh taste of elderflower – paired beautifully with cucumber, lime, apple and ice, it’s perfect for a summer’s day. You can add gin if you want to offer guests an alcoholic drink, served in cut crystal high balls and garnished with cucumber ribbons. For a nice colourful contrast, we like a regional taste, and that’s got to be our Durham Summer Cooler. Working with local supplier Durham Distillery, we use its strawberry and pink peppercorn liqueur, served in a champagne flute topped with bubbles and garnished with strawberry and mint. It’s summer in a glass! Charles Elliott | The Guzzling Gander TheGuzzlingGander CLOSE TO HOME My future father-in-law knows a wedding photographer in Brighton – and he’s desperate for me to use them. Should I follow his advice or look for someone in Sunderland, where my fiancé and I live and are getting married? Michael says: I would always recommend that the wedding couple choose their wedding photographer themselves. It may be OK to have recommendations from friends or family, but the photographer will be working closely with both the bride and the groom for the majority of the day, and there needs to be a connection. A photographer can have all the talent and passion in the world, but if he or she isn’t easy to get along with, it will be an uphill battle. A local photographer is also easy to meet – you’ll want to catch up prior to the wedding day for at least a wedding consultation to go over their own thoughts and ideas for the day or even for a pre-wedding shoot. It’s also best to hire someone with knowledge of the area and who has photographed at the wedding venue in question. Finally, a local photographer will have knowledge of what the traffic on the day may be like, as well as inside knowledge of the best locations to use in the vicinity of where the wedding is taking place. Michael Hope | Michael Hope Photography MichaelHopePhotography mhopephoto.com  EXPERT ADVICE 93