Sarah + Mark | March 2025
“Sarah made our wedding celebration perfect and all our guests loved it, every detail was spot on!”
It’s important to me to know what’s important to my brides and grooms.
And for this particular bride and groom, Sarah and Mark, it was important for their wedding ceremony to feel homely.
The couple told me - when we met in one of my fave cosy eateries, Flat White Kitchen in Durham - that since the day they met they’ve felt at home in each other’s company. So ‘home’ was a theme to the ceremony and on the day, when we added in the magic ingredients of closest friends and family and their beloved dog Ollie [more on that little guy later], it ended up feeling so gentle and relaxed.
Photos by JWHB Photography
To create that sense of homeliness we included cups of tea and words from their families, Sarah’s mum and Mark’s auntie. Like getting married was another day in their lovely life…just a very special day. But still very them.
The toast - cheers-ing each other with a cup of tea (but no toast) - came after I announced them as Mr and Mrs because, as a true Yorkshire couple, a cup of tea (or five) is a vital daily ritual. It’s comforting; it’s how they wanted to start married life. And the tea was a special local variety - weaver’s blend - that worked perfectly considering the wedding was in The Venue Bowers Mill, an old wool mill. Each guest had their own weaver’s blend tea to take away as a wedding favour.
Guests were welcomed to the ceremony space by the gorgeous sounds of singer Genevieve singing live, and she sang as Sarah walked down the aisle and back out at the end with Mark. The acoustics in the old mill room were beautiful and the warm tones of Genevieve’s voice added to the gentle vibes of the occasion.
Probably the biggest VIP of the day was Ollie, their beloved pooch. Ollie was already in Sarah’s life when she met Mark on Bumble, and seeing him become a devoted dog dad was one of the things that she fell in love with. As a (very!) cute gesture of solidarity - celebrating them as a family of three - we had an adoption certificate for groom Mark to sign, “officially” (I say officially, with my certificate printed off canva) adopting Ollie and giving him his surname, the name Sarah had chosen to take.
It was a first for me, doing a dog adoption in a wedding, and it was really sweet and fun, definitely adding to the feeling of the ceremony being a true reflection of Sarah and Mark and their life together. One - big - thing that unites them is their shared affection for their lil pooch. A very well-behaved boy I should add.
I’ve noticed pet chaperones becoming more popular at weddings over the last couple of years, and For Dog’s Sake chaperone Sara was an absolute delight. She was so brilliant with Ollie, bringing him front and centre when it was time for his star moment. The dog adoption.
These words were perfect for their love story, read by Mark’s Auntie Sue (who, Mark joked, had made him do a reading at her wedding so this was his chance to get her back!). It’s a perfect wedding poem for a couple who find their home in each other. It is called First Meeting by A.S.J. Tessimond.
When I first met you,
I knew that I had come at last home.
Home after wandering,
Home after long-puzzled searching,
Home after long being wind-born,
Wave-tossed, night-caught, long being lost.
And being with you was normal and needful
And natural as sleeping or waking.
And I was myself,
Who had never been wholly myself.
I was walking and talking
And laughing easily at last.
And the air was softer,
And sounds were sharper,
And colours were brighter,
And the sky was higher,
And length was not measured by milestones,
And time was not measured by clocks.
And this end was a beginning,
And these words are the beginning -
Of my thanks.
