Work mates

Posted by Claire Muffett-Reece on 2 June 2023

Dani met Alex met when he started at the same company she worked at.

“It was his first day and I happened to be covering reception for the morning,” says the bride. “Alex’s manager left him waiting in reception for a while, so we ended up chatting – and got on from that very first meeting.”

Couple laughing Alex popped the question four years later, under the stars at the Grand Canyon. "That's what we tell people, at least!" laughs Dani. "I'd been excited about it being an amazing stargazing location, but after we'd driven out and found a place to park, we looked up to see nothing but clouds! After 15 minutes, a small clearing revealed about six stars, which is when Alex seized the moment and proposed. I had my suspicions he might ask me during the trip, but it was a wonderful surprise at that moment."

The couple set the date of 23rd April, 2022, marrying at Hornington Manor. Here, Dani tells us more about their big day...

We wanted our wedding to be timeless and beautiful, but also laidback, and Hornington Manor was perfect. It even has 19 bedrooms which we were able to book out for the entire weekend.

My dad made a wooden wedding arch from scratch for our ceremony, which my mum adorned with copious amounts of greenery and flowers. It was stunning!

We were both nervous on the morning of the wedding, so agreed to do a 'first look' at each other just before the main ceremony. It really took a bit of the pressure off .

We both decided to write our own vows, and are so glad we did. They were only short but added a personal touch to our ceremony that we'll remember forever.

Bride's Dress I found my Stella York wedding dress at Ava Rose Hamilton in Silsden. The staff were amazing, helping me choose a structured Matte Mikado ballgown with lace overlay on the bodice.

Alex wore a grey suit, opting for tails and ivory waistcoat to stand out from the groomsmen. The guys teamed this with sage ties and pocket squares, plus fresh ivory rose and greenery buttonholes.

My bridesmaids wore maxi-length, sleeveless sage dresses. As they were different ages and heights, I wanted to make sure they were happy with what they wore, so gave them a choice of designs.

The table centrepieces were either ruscus trees or floating candles in longstemmed glass vases, sat on wooden log slices surrounded by greenery. It was a magical sight to see when we walked into our wedding breakfast.

Our chocolate, lemon and Victoria sponge wedding cake was made by Iced Yorkshire, choosing a simple design of white milk wash icing, greenery for decoration and a sparkly gold cake topper.

We hired out a wedding-themed crazy golf course, which our guests loved. There was a lot of healthy competition going on dur ing the afternoon, especially after a couple of drinks!

We booked professionally trained West End singers and musicians as singing waiters, who served canapés and drinks before breaking into song during dessert. Everyone was gobsmacked, and they even got our family and friends involved in their set!

Alex and I are really into gigs, so knew we wanted a live band – and The Bees Knees were amazing! Alex is a drummer and asked to join the band for a couple of songs, which they happily agreed to, even rehearsing together a few weeks before the wedding.

Alex's 87- year-old Gran was on the dancefloor all night, dancing with every family member and friend she could find – including Alex's group of friends who were 50 years her junior!

Sparklers So many guests told us it was the best wedding they'd ever been to! Our main objective when planning was for everyone to have an incredible time, so we couldn't have asked for more.