Kate and Craig’s Real Life Wedding

When was your wedding?
14/07/2007

How and when did you meet?
At a Bluetones concert 7 years ago.

How old are you both?
Craig was 27 and I was 18.

Where, when and how did he (or you!) propose?
We were on a two weeks holiday in Italy and on our second night in our hotel room in Pisa he got down on one knee and produced a diamond engagement ring which he had picked out with his mum two weeks earlier in England.

Did you have hen and stag celebrations? If so, what did you do?
Craig went to Barcelona for 4 days with 14 Stags and I went to Rome with eight hens.

How did your groom help with the wedding planning?
Not really until the last few days when there was a mad panic to get the order of services printed.

Did you use confetti to plan your wedding? If so, how did the website help you?
Confetti gave us some great ideas and we bought most of our confetti and table decorations off the website.

Did you buy any confetti products for your wedding? If so, did you visit a store, buy online or by mail order?
We bought all on line.

Tell us about your outfit, and where you bought it
As soon as we landed in Manchester after two weeks away in Italy I bought a wedding magazine, and i saw the dress which i wanted straight away. I went with my mum and Craig’s mum to try different dresses on but as soon as I had tried on the dress I saw in the magazine I knew it was the one.

Did you have bridesmaids? If so, who did you choose and what did they wear?
I had two adult bridesmaids and 5 flower girls (All nieces). We had already chosen a colour scheme which was brown and pink, so I knew i wanted the adults in pink which I got their dresses from a local shop in Oldham. For the flower girls I just bought some plain white dresses from Debenhams.

Who did your groom choose for his best man and ushers, and what did they wear?
Craig chose Louis to be his best man they had know each other since they were about 3 or 4 so there was no other choice really, and we had three ushers Craig’s nephew Isaac and my nephew William and Louis’ son Josh.

Did you have a civil or religious ceremony?
We had a catholic ceremony.

Where did you hold your ceremony?
In the church which Craig went to from being a little boy

Where did you hold your reception?
At The Hey Green Hotel, Marsden

Did you have any special wedding transport?
My mum and dad had organised a vintage Rolls Royce.

How many guests did you invite to your wedding, and did you have a separate evening guest list?
For the day we had 112 and another 50 in the evening.

Did your reception have a particular theme in terms of colour or style?
The colours we chose were pink and brown.

How did you incorporate this in to your table settings?
We had pink and brown heart confetti, with tealights and also pink flowers.

Did you give your guests favours?
The favours we chose were wedding rock with our photograph on and the date running through the middle of the rock, of course in pink and brown.

Describe your flowers (bouquets and table decorations). Who was your florist?
The flowers I chose were very light pink roses for myself and white / cream roses for the bridesmaids. The shop is a local shop called Wild About Flowers in Oldham.

What did you choose to have on your menu? Did you have an outside caterer or did your venue handle the catering?
We had a set menu of: butternut squash soup, Followed by asparagus, poached egg and parma ham, then chicken with madiera sauce, followed by an assiette of four sweets.

What did you choose for your wedding cake, and who made it?
We had a four tier chocolate sponge cake.

Did you have a gift list? If so, who did you have your list with?
We had a gift list with John Lewis.

Where did you spend your first night and honeymoon? Who did you book your honeymoon with?
We stayed in the bridal suite at the Hey Green Hotel.

What was your most memorable moment of the day?
All of it.

Did you experience any ‘nightmare’ moments in the run up to your wedding or on the day?
Just the day before the wedding after having the table plan all framed we got a phone call to tell us we had to rearrange one table.

Is there anything you would do differently, or any advice you would give to other brides?
Just to relax and try not to do everything yourself, i am a bit of a control freak and did mostly everything myself and not taking any help or advice of anyone.