Your North East Wedding - Mar/Apr 2020 (Issue 37)

REAL WEDDINGS 31  L aura and Matthew’s paths first crossed during the last year of university after they picked the same modules while studying history. The pair were instantly drawn to each other from day one. Laura says, “I was instantly attracted to Matt’s amazing sense of humour and gorgeous dark eyes; he’s outgoing, friendly and ambitious – he’s the perfect man for me.” For Matthew, it was Laura’s beautiful smile that caught his attention.  From that moment, the pair started their journey together facing life side by side. On the 29 th September 2018, Matthew planned a trip to York where he asked Laura to marry him during a romantic walk. Laura recalls the moment, saying: “Matt isn’t great at keeping secrets, I was convinced I would know if he was going to propose as I regularly told my friends and family. But I have to be honest and say that he outfoxed me and managed to organise the ring and get me to York without me having a clue of his intentions.” SETTING THE SCENE The lovebirds fell in love with Laing Art Gallery, which provided the perfect backdrop for their special day. Wanting a wow factor setting, there was no disappointment with the staircase, stained glass and incredible artwork. Laura says: “We knew as soon as we viewed Laing Art Gallery that it was the right one. Many of our guests had never visited Newcastle before and we wanted to give them superb views of the city from the top floor of the building.” She adds: “We also loved how much we were able to personalise the venue – it gave us a blank canvas to decorate it however we desired.” The decorative touches throughout were perfect and highlighted the theme of board games. For favours, chocolate dice and poker chips were given to all the guests to enjoy and each table was allocated a game. Laura says: “We cut down the boards and stuck things onto them to make it look as though the game was being played, such as dice, playing pieces and cards.” Scrabble tiles were used as table names, which created a lovely touch and a vase of artificial flowers were used for the centrepiece.  A personalised game was created by their brother-in-law which documented major milestones through the pair’s relationship. The flowers on the special day were beautiful and the bride wanted a spectacular cascade-shaped bouquet. Laura says: “I felt that because my dress was plain, I could choose some flowers that would take centre stage. We opted for a mixture of purple shades and lots of different types of blooms, which reflected in the buttonholes and corsages too.” The couple picked a two-tiered sponge cake with white