We met in 2000. Nick was on his summer break from university and was working with my mam. I went into the store one day and instantly liked him a lot. We were both in other relationships so it took about a year to get together.
I am 27 and Nick is 26.
He proposed in June 2002 on our first anniversary together. He took me to a hotel that was very special to us and got down on one knee and straight away we popped open the champers!
Yes, I went to Yarm (Teesside) for a girlie night out and Nick went karting and on a pub crawl in York with all his mates.
He sat back and I did most of the organising but I always asked his opinion as I felt it was our day and that it was important we made decisions together.
Yes, we were in the store and online. The website was easy to navigate and helped a lot with ideas.
Yes, lots of chocolate favours, cameras and chocolate trivia, which went down very well!
My outfit was bought at Poppy's in Darlington. It was a Pronovias dress (Ipanema) and was stunning. I had so many comments about the dress and the fact that it was so different.
Yes, I had my three best mates as bridesmaids. They wore dresses from Monsoon. The dresses were chocolate brown, floaty and knee length. They all looked beautiful.
Nick had his best mate Rob as best man and my brother and sister-in-law as ushers. The men all wore ivory waistcoats, cravats and black suits. Whilst my sister-in-law wore a gorgeous chocolate brown dress with ivory jacket.
We chose to have a religious ceremony in a church.
St. Andrews Church in Haughton Village, Darlington. The service was so infomal and laid back. We had great feedback from guests.
We held the reception at Hotel Bannatyne in Darlington. Again the food and service were second to none.
Yes, I had a Beauford, which was simply beautiful.
We invited 90 to the day and another 20 to the evening.
The colour theme was pink, ivory and chocolate brown. We had balloons in these colours and buttonholes to match.
We had fabulous table decorations. Fish bowls with pebbles and floating pink and ivory geberas. They were unsual but looked the part.
We gave our guests chocolates from Confetti. The pink heart shaped chocolates. We also put lots of Confetti chocolate trivia on the table and cameras to capture the action!!
I had pink and ivory gerberas and roses. Whilst the bridesmaids had small ivory gerberas with brown ribbon. Buttonholes were pink geberas.
The hotel handled the catering and we had typical winter grub. We had tomato and basil soup for starters, roast beef for main and sticky toffee pudding for desert. We also had a veggie option as I am veggie. This was goat's cheese tart and was delicious!
Jilly's cakes in Darlington made the cake. It was a three tier chocolate and sponge cake with white chocolate fingers around the sides. We also had a Marks and Spencer fruit cake which we kept out the back for the guests who prefer traditional cake.
We had a bagpiper for the ceremony, which went down well. We also had a saxophone player for the time whilst we had our photos taken. This really set the mood and kept guests entertained at this usually boring time. We had a quiz for the guests in the evening which went down an absolute storm. We had prizes for the best team. The quiz was based on myself and Nick and other things associated with us. This was so much fun and started the evening off with a bang!
We had a gift list with John Lewis.
First night was spent in the hotel and we spent five days in Paris. As I am a teacher I only had one week off work. We are going to Australia and New Zealand for five weeks in the summer though!!
Everything really but the key things that stand out are the getting ready with my mates on the morning, arriving at the church, the ceremony and seeing everyone throughout the day.
No, thankfully it was all plain sailing!
It is your day, you have it how you want it. Don't try to please everyone as it is not possible. Take the day in and have a moment with your husband to take it all in. Relax and enjoy!! |
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