Love at first bite

St Luke's CE Church is a stunning building with a great history. It was the church were Emmeline Pankhurst, a political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote, got married at back in 1879.

It was also the church where my children and I were christened. Sadly, it has been put on the at-risk register because it has a leaky roof and there is currently a fundraising effort to help fix it, so it was important for me to support the church.

The cake was amazing! Jen at Daffodil Kitchen saved the day when we were let down by another business just three weeks before the big day. It was a wedding and birthday cake for Mike as we got married on his birthday.

The theme was Leeds United, as that's the team he supports, and Jen even made us a little referee to represent what Mike does in his spare time.

Our reception venue closed down during the pandemic, but we later came across The Lowry. We're so glad that we did as upon viewing the Compass Room, we were blown away by how stunning it was.

The table plan was a heart that I made from a pallet. We named the tables after our favourite albums from The Script and instead of using names for each person, we used headshots.

Our favours were personalised love hearts, bottle openers and activity books and games for the children.

For the centrepieces, we chose ghost candelabra and flower bombs surrounded by tea lights.

Mike and the groomsmen decided on check three-piece suits, but Mike opted for a pink tie and flower to help him stand out.

My maid-of-honour and the oldest bridesmaid wore chiffon dresses with shawls, and the younger bridesmaids and flowergirl had matching gowns from Bespoke Wedding Boutique.

To keep everyone entertained, we hired surprise singing waiters from Silver Service Singers and a photo booth from S And K Radiant Reflections. We also had caricaturist, Caricature with Attitude, and magician, Andrew Dean Magic, interact with our guests.

Everyone loved the entertainment, especially Andrew, who blew people's minds with his tricks and left our friends and family speechless.

Mike and I were relieved to finally get married after postponing twice due to the pandemic. During that time, we had one venue close down, two venue dressers cease trading, a photographer sadly passed away, a cake maker close down, I survived bacterial meningitis while pregnant, and Mike's mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The run-up to the wedding was very stressful to say the least but we were overwhelmed with happiness knowing we were surrounded by our nearest and dearest.

We hired a bus from RM Buses to transport all of our guests from the church to the reception venue. I arrived at the venue in a horse and carriage provided by The Ostler Limited.

Seeing the room decorated for the first time was truly amazing. Clare from Atmosphere Venue Dressing brought my vision to life, and it was amazing seeing it in real life.

We weren't sure if Mike's mum, Mary, was going to be well enough to attend, so having her with us on our big day was wonderful.

We absolutely loved our honeymoon. It was our first holiday without the kids, and we certainly made the most of it.