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Today’s Real Wedding comes to you from the North East and was sent to me by real bride and Brides Up North reader Kat. Kat and Mike’s wedding was a real mix of traditional and contemporary, the combination creating a beautiful and memorable backdrop to a fabulous celebration.
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Have a great Saturday everyone!
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Kat says: We got engaged on 5th May 2011 in Las Vegas, USA in the middle of the Grand Canyon. We splashed out on a helicopter ride through the Grand Canyon. We landed in the most beautiful spot and after all the tourist shots I turned round to Mike where he suddenly put his arms around me and the next thing I knew he was down on one knee. It was a truly a fabulous way to propose and I will never forget it.
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We dais “I do” on Friday 23rd March 2012. We were limited on time as I work in a school and we only had two weekends to chose from, 16th or the 23rd. The 23rd March turned out to be a very special day for me and my family, as my brother Iain died 13 years ago when he was 18 and I was 14. The 23rd March would have been his 31st birthday after much deliberation with family and friends I thought it was a great idea, what a special day to get married, it was meant to be. What usually is a sombre day for us has now been turned into a celebration and it really just felt like he was there with us.
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Mike and I feel in love with the venue straight away. The Mansion House in Jesmond was exactly what we wanted: classy, stylish and a bit different. I loved all the original features, the decor and also loved the location. The gardens were beautiful and even though it was in a busy area it felt so quiet. There is so much character and I absolutely loved the bedrooms, I could really see me and my bridesmaids getting ready there in the morning. I heard amazing things about the food, the gardens looked beautiful, all our guests were so impressed and the service was amazing.
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We chose another venue for the evening, Mike and I are very social people, we have lots of friends and we basically wanted a venue with space for a band and room for dancing. Now the evening do was more tricky we visited so many venues, I studied Art and Design at University and also went on to study a MA Art Museum and Gallery/Education Studies so I have always had links and love for galleries and museums in the North East. We chose to have our evening do at The Biscuit Factory in Shieldfield. We absolutely loved the venue especially the way the art is kept in view, fairy lights and low lighting, the high ceiling and beams were just what we liked and there was tons of space for dancing. This was a complete contrast to the Mansion House as this was so contemporary and The Mansion House was a traditional manor house.
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I never decided on a theme as such but I suppose it was a vintage shabby chic style wedding with lots of personal touches. I had birdcages for my centre pieces, “Would You Rather?” games on the tables, and different runners with polka dots, roses and birds. Every table was different.
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I decided I didn’t really want a colour scheme I wanted things to be a bit different. I chose electric blue Grecian maxi dresses for my bridesmaids dresses, green and nude bows, and different colour runners.
All the flowers were white so everything looked very classy.
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I never wanted a big or sparkly dress, it is really true you never know what is going to suit until you try things on. I definitely knew I would have to get a sweetheart neckline as it would suit my shape better. For some reason in the shops I was always attracted to chiffon style dresses that sculptured to my body. Even though my dress was plain it had the most beautiful detail with the knotted material at the front and on the back and the long train made it stunning. I also loved the way the material was gathered on the bodice, all these things made the dress extra special. I felt amazing in it and I loved the way it made me feel. I chose to have a veil but ended up taking that off half way through the meal. My dress was from New Beginnings Bridal in Whitley bay by Sottero and Midgley.
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My bridesmaids wore electric blue Grecian style maxi dresses from Monsoon and silver heels.
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I carried cala lilies and my bridesmaids and flower girls carried the same but a smaller bouquet from Flowers By The Bay, Cullercoats. The groom had a lily for his button hole and the rest of the party had white roses. I didn’t want many flowers so the only other flowers were the ones in the birdcages which were minimalistic.
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We used Simply Bows & Chair Covers for our event dressing, The Finishing Touch Company for hiring the trees, tea cups and the vintage post box.
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Our photographer was Roger Burlison Photography, his partner was a very good friend of mine from school so Roger and Vicky took some amazing photos on the day. It was so nice having them there as guests and I think it made it more personal.
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We added lots of personal touches. On the order of services I thought it was a nice idea to write a story of how me and Mike met and this was also displayed in frames with a poem I found.
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We didn’t like the idea of favours so on each tables we had tea cups filled with mini eggs, dolly mixtures and heart shaped mints instead which went down a treat. We also placed several “Would You Rather?” game cards on the tables which we picked personally – the ruder the better for people to have some fun.
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Instead of a message book we had a wishing tree for people to write their messages on.
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My mum is an amazing cake maker so I naturally wanted her to make our cake. At the time I didn’t realise how much work it would be and my mum needs a medal. I knew I didn’t want a traditional cake but I wasn’t sure what I wanted. My mum was amazing throughout and started baking like a mad woman. My mum came up with a brilliant idea. a three tier chocolate cake with chocolate butter icing, The cake was then covered with white and milk chocolate fingers and white and milk chocolate maltesers on the top.
It was absolutely fabulous and delicious.
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I would say the speeches were the best memory of the day. My dad’s speech was great: my dad is definitely a talker, it was funny, emotional and kind everything I expected. Mike’s never been big on talking about emotion but his speech was again perfect, he kept it together until the very end. Mike never met my brother and he touched on that beautifully during his speech. We had two best men: one who didn’t eat any of the delicious food as he was so nervous. I wasn’t sure how they would do it but they really made it work. It was a very funny combination and they did so well.
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We hired a band for the night called The Imposters. We saw these guys first play at As you Like It, Jesmond and we just had to have them for the wedding. They were great they really know how to get people up and dance. The photos are evidence – they play all sorts of music from Kings of Leon to Stevie Wonder. There was people aged 15 to 70 dancing!
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For our honeymoon we went to Thailand! We travelled to a few different places, Bangkok, Koi Samui, Krabi, Phi Phi Island and Phuket. It was amazing, true paradise.
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My top tip for other Brides Up North would be not to get too stressed about all the small things as you won’t notice any problems on the day and don’t worry about other people, it’s your day.
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Congratulations Kat & Mike! 
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Brides Up North UK Wedding Blog – Images © 2012 Roger Burlison Photography
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