Greg and Kate Clark's Perfect Wedding (and Perfect Wedding Entertainment!)

We booked all of our live entertainment through Alive Network. The entertainment element made it so special, and it would not have been the same without it. I'd strongly recommend live entertainment as it really enables you to put your own stamp on your day.

Our wedding took place at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire.  The venue wasn’t particularly local to us but we'd looked around a lot of venues and none had felt right, so we decided to look further afield.  We fell in love with it on our first visit as it had the traditional church feel we wanted without it being a church, and it meant we could have the ceremony and reception all at the one venue.  There were over 40 hotel rooms at the castle so we could party into the small hours, and all of our family and friends could just roll into bed after!!! We had about 130 guests in total.

The ceremony took place at 2.00 pm. I stayed in the castle the night before the wedding with my mother and the older bridesmaids.  My friend, Sarah, did our hair and make-up on the morning of the wedding, and Greg arrived by helicopter at 1.30 pm, landing on the circular lawn in the middle of the castle grounds.

We booked the UK Gospel Choir through Alive Network and kept it a secret, so when everybody was seated and I was waiting to enter the Great Hall, a soloist from the choir stood up on the gallery that overlooked the congregation and began to sing “Songbird” by Eva Cassidy, followed by the Leona Lewis version of “Run”.  I walked down the aisle to “Kissing You” by Des’ree. 

During the ceremony, one of my bridesmaids read a poem and we had hymn books printed with the lyrics to “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles, which everybody sang along to. 

During the signing of the register, we had the cellist from Classic Strings play Bach's “Cello Suite No. 1”, and when we left the Great Hall the choir sang “Higher and Higher” by Jackie Wilson.

We wanted a fairly traditional wedding, so did lots of little things to inject our personality into the day.  The colour theme was red with the bridesmaids wearing red Vicky Martin dresses and nude shoes, and the groomsmen wearing red cravats and hankies.  Greg and his groomsmen wore grey tails, with Greg wearing a cream cravat and hankie.  I wore a Pronovias dress in cream, with a long veil.  The floral bouquets for the bridesmaids and the groomsmen buttonholes were red calla lilies, and Greg wore a white lily buttonhole.  My bridal bouquet was made up of white lilies, orchids and roses.  All other floral arrangements were white. 

At the entrance to the Great Hall, where our ceremony took place, we had a massive archway of flowers, and in the Great Hall we had a heart shaped symbol (as a banner) made up of our initials.  Chair sashes were red, and our wedding cake was white and very modern. 

We had a champagne reception on the lawn outside and Classic Strings played whilst guests had canapés, and we had group photographs taken.  There was a falconry display for the children, although almost everybody ended up getting involved!  Following the photographs we were called in to the drawing room for the wedding breakfast.  The tables were named after places that Greg and I had visited together, and favours were charity pins for Macmillan Cancer Charity.  Speeches took place before the meal with the Father of the Bride first, followed by the Bride, then the Groom, and then the two Best Men. 

The meal was amazing, although unfortunately I couldn’t fit much in to my dress!!!  We started with a warm goat’s cheese tart, followed by a traditional roast beef dinner, then chocolate marquise for the ladies and cheesecake for the men.  Following the meal, we cut the cake with a ceremonial sword(!) and then headed back to the Great Hall for the evening’s entertainment.

The Great Hall had been converted into a modern, funky party space for the evening. We had a white twinkly dance floor at one end, a long cocktail bar along one side with tall white poseur tables and a white sofa area, plus a vodka luge and flair bar tenders. 

The band, Rhythm N Groove, played our first dance, “Greatest Day” by Take That, and then kicked the party off with a brilliant set.  Cocktails were flowing and the dance floor stayed full all night.  At one point, everybody surrounded Greg and I and sang “A Little Help From My Friends” by The Beatles.  In between the bands sets we had a DJ, who is also a friend of ours, up on the gallery overhead, keeping the party going, and he took over when the band had finished. 

We also went outside mid way through the evening and guests released sky lanterns, before coming back in to resume dancing.  There was a quieter bar area outside the Great Hall for those who wanted to chat, and also a brandy room.  We ended the night in the candle lit cellar bar of the castle, with family and friends who were staying over at the hotel.

We booked all of our live entertainment through Alive Network, apart from the DJ who was a friend of ours.  The entertainment element made it so special, and it would not have been the same without it.  The UK Gospel Choir were great, they were a complete surprise to guests and really made the ceremony part of the day very special.  Classic Strings provided great background music for when guests were mingling, and we were having photographs taken.  Rhythm N Groove, the band we booked for the evening’s entertainment, were phenomenal!  They really got the party started and kept the dance floor full, which was exactly what we wanted.  I'd strongly recommend live entertainment as it really enables you to put your own stamp on your day.

I loved every single minute of our wedding day.  Having all of our friends and family together to celebrate with us was amazing, and also knowing that everybody had a great time.  The ceremony was absolutely perfect for us, and we did everything we wanted to do on our day.  Releasing the sky lanterns was also very magical (once everybody had worked out how to use them!), and so was having our friends surround us and sing “A Little Help From My Friends”.  Standing back and watching family and friends enjoy a great party, sipping cocktails, and dancing on sofas, was great!

What pearls of wisdom or words of advice would you extend to future brides/grooms who are planning their perfect wedding?

We were very fortunate to have my chief bridesmaid, Nikki, to help us plan the wedding as she is an Events Organiser, otherwise it wouldn’t have been the day it was.  If money is no object, I would say that you should try to do everything you dream of for your wedding day.  We went over budget on our photographer, but it was something very important to us and we are so happy we did because we absolutely love our photographs.  The only other advice I would give is to enjoy the lead up to your wedding, even when it gets stressful, and take in every moment of the day.  Without a shadow of a doubt, it was the best day of our lives!

I loved every single minute of our wedding day. UK Gospel Choir really made the ceremony very special, Classic Strings provided great background music for when guests were mingling, and Rhythm N Groove, the band we booked for the evening’s entertainment, were phenomenal! Standing back and watching family and friends enjoy a great party, sipping cocktails, and dancing on sofas, was great!