WEDDING PREPARATIONS

I never imagined that saying "Will you marry me?" and getting a "Yes" in return was going to lead to so much planning and cost for one day.  Mind you, I wouldn't change anything as it is such a special day.

We soon found a church we liked - St Luke's at Wallsend, where Father Catt was the priest.  We discovered our preferred day, Saturday 6th November, 1999 was available and we quickly booked before it was taken. There were two other weddings on that day, one at 3:00pm and one at 5:00pm, so our's was squeezed in for 4:00pm.

Then it was off to find a suitable place to have our reception.  We chose Bimet Lodge in Union Street, Newcastle as it was just the right size, had a bar at one end with the bridal table situated at the other end in front of a floor to ceiling window facing the pool.

We chose a Bentley from Absolute Vintage Elegance for our wedding car.  In fact it was the same as the one the Queen of England was driven to her coronation in.

Next to organise was the photographer and Disc Jockey (DJ). For the task of capturing our special day on film we chose Eric Elbourne from Creative Imagery. Alan Quinnell from Musical Moments was chosen as our DJ.

Obviously there was much more planning than just this. There were flowers to organise, our gifts to the bridal party and immediate family, as well as what Lesley and I and our bridal party were going to wear.

Lesley has two sisters, Tina and Tracey, and we asked them and their partners, Darren and Paul, if they would be our wedding party. For the part of Emcee we asked Darren's father, Tom, if he would kindly do the honours.

How did the wedding day go? Well, let's find out ....