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There’s nothing I like more than meeting my readers in person during their wedding planning process, hearing their excitement, helping them out with supplier recommendations and lending an ear to any wediquette issues they might have.  Even better if they then share their beautiful real wedding, packed with contributions from fabulous local suppliers, here on these pages. 

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That’s exactly what happened with today’s couple Ste and Sarah, who I was lucky enough to meet last summer at the Brides Up North Battle Of The Wedding Bands with AMV Live Music at As You Like It.  I knew then that Sarah’s wedding would be beautiful, and these images by Becky Mitchell Photography don’t disappoint.  

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Sarah says:  Ste and I have been together for 8 years after meeting through our friends Linda and John and finally getting together thanks to their wedding when I was a bridesmaid & Ste was an usher.

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Ste proposed in December 2011 after a brilliant Kasabian gig in Nottingham. It was a perfect choice as the first gig we ever went to together was to see Kasabian (also in Nottingham!) in 2005.

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We were married on 28th December 2012 at Emmanuel Church in our hometown of Saltburn-by-the-Sea, followed by a reception at Grinkle Park Hotel, a few miles away.

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We absolutely love living in Saltburn so it was important to us to get married here and to be able to capture the beautiful town in our day. We had some great photos taken at home before I left for the church and after the ceremony down by the beach and on the pier – so glad the weather was kind to us!

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As quite a few of our friends have been married already, when we were looking around at wedding venues we wanted somewhere different that we hadn’t been to lots of times already as we wanted our memories of being there to be of our special day. We visited a few possibilities but when we went to see Grinkle we knew it was the right place for us. The staff were so welcoming and accommodating and the venue was impressive yet welcoming. We had sole use of the venue too which was a huge bonus.

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We were able to select our own menu and then guests chose their preferred dishes via their RSVP (cue an impressively complex spreadsheet to keep track of it all!) The service on the day was exceptional and the food was amazing! The staff had spent so much time before we arrived setting everything out just how we had wanted it – the attention to detail was brilliant!

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I wouldn’t say our wedding had a theme as such – I guess I wanted it to be ‘wintery’ which influenced our choice of colours (dark purple and subtle flashes of silver sparkle where we could), but mainly our day was about the things we liked and the people we love.

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We had 90 of our close family and friends there to share in our day, with more joining us for the evening reception and lots of locals waiting outside the church to wish us well. Our family were a big part of the day with my cousin and Ste’s sister being two of our bridesmaids, Ste’s brother being an usher, and our gorgeous nieces (23 months and 4 years old!) were flower girls. 

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I was ridiculously excited to go dress shopping and so I was slightly disappointed to find ‘the one’ in the first shop! I visited a few more places but nothing compared so the decision was made. My dress wasn’t anything like I had imagined getting but when I tried it on it was perfect.

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My dress was called ‘New York’ by Grace Harrington and I bought it from Elizabeth George in Middlesbrough – easily the nicest bridal shop I have ever been in! Katie, Laura and all their staff were so lovely and friendly and made the whole process so relaxed and easy.

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My friend Karen lent me her gorgeous veil as my ‘something borrowed’ and then I wore a Jenny Packham bracelet and an Amanda Wyatt tiara. Ste bought me some beautiful Swarovski earrings for Christmas, which I wore, along with an Armani watch he bought me as a wedding present.

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The bridesmaids wore dark purple dresses by Mori Lee – also purchased from the lovely ladies at Elizabeth George. I commissioned an independent jewellers in the town to make bespoke necklaces for them all from pearls and Swarovski crystals – they are all slightly different so are unique – hopefully something they will be able to treasure forever.

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The flower girls had ivory dresses from Debenhams and sparkly shoes to match the bridesmaids. They had gorgeous purple sequinned heart headbands made by the talented Katy from What Katy Did Next, who also made some sparkly clip on hearts to jazz up my shoes!

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The groomsmen wore silk tailcoats suits from 1860 suit hire by Greenwoods.

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I carried a bouquet of ivory roses beautifully put together by the talented Christine at Flowerbox in Guisborough. The bridesmaids had smaller versions of my bouquet with some purple fuchsias to tie in with their dresses.

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Lovedub Cars provided the brilliant wedding campervans which (somewhat precariously!) transported us up and down the hilly local roads. My niece still raves about them and complains that she doesn’t want to go in a normal car anymore but would rather travel in a “wedding bus”!

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It was ]important to us to choose local suppliers but also people that were genuinely interested and excited about our day.

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I could rave about many of the people we used – the amazing Becky Mitchell was our photographer and she and her sidekick Chrissy put in a looooong shift to capture all the different parts of our day for us.

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Alli from Ruby Shoes Wedding made all our much admired bespoke wedding stationery and a few extras for the day. She is such a lovely lady as well as being talented and very patient (I’m very indecisive!) so I would completely recommend checking out her work and the design services she offers for brides and grooms.

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Our local chocolate shop, Chocolinis, made our favours which were a chocolate heart and champagne cork wrapped inside silver crackers.

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We had a chocolate cake with white chocolate icing from M&S – it tasted amazing and was great value for money, especially considering the cost of cakes from other specialist suppliers. Because of the dates I ended up having to collect the cake on Christmas Eve (!) along with all the people collecting their turkeys and Christmas supplies but it was absolutely fine and the staff were great helping us get it into the car safely! The staff at Grinkle assembled it for us on the day and our customised peg-doll cake toppers (also from What Katy Did Next) stood on top proudly!

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Sophie from Stitch and Glitz made the reception room look amazing with the tealight candelabras and the colour coordinated chair covers.  I also tried to keep costs down my making things myself or buying them from non-wedding suppliers. Ebay was my best friend and saved us a fortune!

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For our table numbers we had photos of ourselves at the age that corresponded to the number – which gave everyone a giggle! We even had a caption competition which were hilarious to read afterwards! We also had lots of photos of family members’ weddings framed and placed around the venue which people loved looking at. 

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There were a few surprises on the day for our guests, such as a sweet buffet (put together myself!), a retro Snaparazzi Photobooths (hilariously brilliant! ) and even a visit from Santa who gave out presents to the children and a few special guests

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We were lucky enough to be able to book the amazing Livewire who we found at the Brides Up North event ‘Battle of the Wedding Bands’ at As You Like It. They were simply brilliant – even our friends and relatives who are hard to impress musically were raving about them!

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I’m honestly not sure what my favourite part of the day was because I absolutely loved it all so much! The ceremony was so lovely – a great balance of happy and romantic – and the speeches during the reception were brilliant – fully but emotional too. Livewire playing our first dance – ‘Happiness’ by Kasabian – was pretty special too. My face ached so much by the end of the day from smiling and laughing so much – it was THE best day ever and everything we had hoped and dreamed of.

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We had two amazing weeks in Mauritius after the wedding – perfect for escaping the horrible British winter and recharging our batteries after all the excitement and hectic time of the wedding. It was horrible coming home though!

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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be to use suppliers and businesses who give good customer service and are interested in you and making your day special – it makes it much easier to part with the cash and takes the stress away! I absolutely loved every minute of planning our wedding so enjoy this special time and I hope you have the wonderful day you wish for – we did!

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Congratulations Sarah & Ste!

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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2013 Becky Mitchell Photography

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