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Over the festive period I’ll be recapping some of my very favourite Real Weddings from the last 12 months on the wedding blog. It’s been a tough choice! In true Brides Up North style, each wedding featured on these pages is unique, beautiful and gorgeously personal. It’s been an exceptionally fabulous year! Enjoy…

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As we head into the New Year it’s off to Leeds to recap on the fun filled Real Wedding of Faye & John, sent to me by Brides Up North North Featured Supplier John Steel Photography (click here to read a recent interview with this lovely man).  Get ready to parrrrrrrrrrrrrrty!

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Faye says:  We got engaged in April 2011, whilst on a holiday in Robin Hoods Bay. I grew up in Robin Hoods Bay. John proposed on the beach, it was a complete surprise!

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We were married on 25th August 2012 in Leeds City Centre. We had the ceremony at the Park Plaza hotel, overlooking City Square. We had a drinks reception outside the Loch Fyne, City Square and enjoyed the sunshine. Then headed back to the Park Plaza for our wedding breakfast and celebrations.

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We both wanted an urban wedding. We hold a lot of fond memories of Leeds so it felt natural to celebrate the big occasion in familiar surroundings with such great memories. We looked at a lot of venues in Leeds and really liked the floor to ceiling windows and the natural light that beamed into the building. The Park Plaza was also fantastic value.

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The theme was a huge celebration/party. We wanted our wedding to be a big celebration, lots of fun, very relaxed and full of colour and laughter. We have been to lots of weddings in the past where they are just overly formal. We are not formal in the slightest so didn’t understand why we should behave that way on what is supposed to be the biggest day of our lives. We are used to celebrating in style so arranged for plenty of fancy dress, party poppers and a ceremony with a twist to put everyone at ease and allow them to act how they would at a party not at a wedding.

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I wanted a dress that was simple and didn’t make me feel all trussed up. The dress I chose was a boho style dress, very simple, very light and not at all structured. It was an off the peg dress from Bridal Warehouse in Kirkstall, she has some beautiful dresses and very reasonable prices.

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I asked for a country garden bouquet, one that looked quite natural. Adrianne Florist made me a beautiful, bright bouquet and it was perfect for the day

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Our ceremony was conducted by One Life Ceremonies, who were very professional and really made our service personal. All of our friends and family said what a wonderfully personal and relaxed service we had.

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John and I weren’t overly precious about all our bridal party looking the same, we just wanted everyone one to feel good in what they were wearing and comfortable on the day. The groom and best man bought their suits from TM Lewin. I tried on a couple of high street shops for our bridesmaids, Coast and Monsoon etc. In the end all the bridesmaids liked the same yellow dress from Monsoon. They were very summery and had the same simple style as my wedding dress.

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We worked with a fabulous photographer, John Steel. John has a very friendly and relaxed disposition. He also did a pre wedding shoot with us, and we used these photos on our invitations. He always delivered when he said he was going to. An absolute pleasure to work with and some fantastic snaps.

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We really wanted the day to be as inclusive as possible, and would have liked to have everyone at the whole day. This was not an option on our budget so we decided to have an open ceremony and drinks reception and then invited all our evening guests back for the celebrations and music. This worked really well, particularly as we were right in the centre of Leeds and there was plenty for our guests to do for a few hours whilst the wedding breakfast was taking place.

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We also wanted to get as many of our friends involved as possible. We asked a few of our friends to decorate the room and they did a wonderful job, it looked fantastic. The flowers were bought from Marks and Spencer  on the morning and arranged in vases by my Nan & Grandad. A friend of ours made our cake and My Dad and I got a lift to the venue from a friend. Everyone really stepped up to help and this is what made it special for us. That and a paper bag of pork pies for all our guests during the drinks reception. They went down very well!

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We worked with some great musicians on the day. Music was provided during the drinks reception by Opie Deino , she played a beautiful acoustic set and all our guests really enjoyed her music, both her own songs and the covers she played.

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We asked West Yorkshire Brass Band to play during the wedding breakfast. I love the brass sound, it’s very nostalgic. The band was fantastic and really set the scene. Their music has fun, heart-warming and got the guests up dancing doing the wedding breakfast, They even played a fan fair for our arrival, pure brilliance and absolute value for money.

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During the evening we hired a funk and soul band called Chicago Joes and the Soul Divas. They were brilliant, very high energy and their sound was remarkable.  We asked a friend of ours who is a DJ to close the evening off and he did us very proud. His set was bouncing and so was the dance floor. Thank you Big Jiggy Sniggy Wizzle… you absolutely rocked our party!

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A friend Nina Taylor, a professional cake maker, made our cake for us. We gave Nina full artistic licence and she did not disappoint. The cake was both beautiful and delicious.

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My favourite bit?  That’s so hard! Waking up to Billy Idol, White Wedding really got the day off on a cracking foot! What’s not to love about that, cheers Bro! The whole day was remarkable, getting ready with friends and family, the journey to the venue with my Dad, very special. Missing the music queue and having to request, ‘play it again?’ which everyone got laughing. Catching the eyes of our nearest and dearest and of course my husband whilst walking down the aisle. Noticing guests in fancy dress and wigs during the ceremony, the ’husband & wife’ announcement, the trip through Leeds city centre for photos and mischievous fun. The speeches, the first dance, the first dance off. We loved it all.

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John arranged the honeymoon and it was a big surprise when I found out we were going to Peru, to complete the four day Inca Trail and then on to Columbia. South America is always a part of the world I wanted to explore and it was inspiring, intriguing, relaxing and wild! Peru and Columbia are amazing places to visit. I’d highly recommend them.

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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be that we both wanted to face our guests for the ceremony and I highly recommend this. Being able to see your guests while you’re saying your vows is magic. We all laughed so much during our ceremony and it felt very personal.

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Congratulations Faye & John!

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Get in touch to see your own Real Wedding featured on Brides Up North. Here’s how to do it!

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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2012 John Steel Photography

John Steel Photography is a Brides Up North Featured Supplier, but this is not a sponsored post

Contact Brides Up North to submit your business as a Featured Supplier

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