Real weddings of HLN – behind the scenes of Rosie and Rachael’s summer weddings

At High Life North, we love celebrating love – and this time, we’re turning the spotlight on two of our own team members.

In this real weddings feature, we’re sharing the love stories of two team members who recently tied the knot (not to each other)…

These real weddings are packed with personal touches and unforgettable moments. Take a peek behind the scenes of these special days, capturing the magic, style, and joy that made each wedding truly unique.

THE BARKER WEDDING

By Rosie Barker

We split our ceremony and party into two parts, firstly focusing on our intimate ceremony and Wedding Breakfast. We spend a lot of time in Northumberland, so Alnwick Registry office was an easy choice, and the team were so helpful. I started off my wedding day at The Cookie Jar, having booked the aptly named Chapel for the night before the wedding. Here I was joined by Zoe Phillipa who did my hair and makeup, and my mother and sister, with Rosie Davison joining us to get some ‘getting ready’ shots.

The ceremony was beautiful, and short, and then we headed off to Embleton for some drinks and our lunch – Michael and I stopping with Rosie at Embleton Bay to get our wedding pictures, with our dog Remy and Dunstanburgh Castle as a backdrop. We then enjoyed some drinks and an absolutely amazing wedding breakfast, catered by Jack and his team at Duck House Pantry, and then we slipped off to Newton Hall’s Garden Rooms for some time together to relax.

The party we held a few days later, and Tyne Bank Brewery was an easy choice – the venue is really cool and needed little to no decoration, and the team were really helpful with drinks choices, layout, etc. We had AMV Live music DJ’ing through the evening, and Jackson’s Catering put on a fantastic barbeque spread for our guests.

We kept people entertained with giant games like Jenga and Connect Four from Rustic Wedding Hire, and kept them fed with a homemade crisp wall, and plenty of delicious cakes from Cake Stories. My only regret is not having a photographer at the party!

THE ELLIS WEDDING

By Rachael Ellis

When it comes to weddings, we knew we wanted to go big – after all, it only happens once. After getting engaged in Italy, we instantly knew Le Petit Château was the perfect spot. It feels like a little slice of abroad right in Northumberland but is still close to home.

Our wedding theme was boho glam, which fits our free-spirited yet extra personalities perfectly. But what mattered most was making the day personal and meaningful for us and our loved ones.

Our ceremony was deeply sentimental. I designed a special print edition of HLN as our order of service. We walked down the aisle to a song performed by the amazing Hatti Acoustic, who learned it just for us. We also included a ring warming, exchanged personal vows and had a touching reading from my mum. It was so much better than scripted vows because they came straight from the heart.

Connor and I are all about living life to the fullest, so we wanted our wedding to be filled with good vibes and have a fun, unique party atmosphere. We had live music outside, personalised cocktails and delicious canapés in the sun (and yes, planting the sausage trick worked!). To keep costs down, I designed signs myself, including a tribute to our beloved house bunny and a pizza sign to honour our Italian engagement. I also wrote sentimental poems for all our guests and used Etsy for scratch cards as favours.

During the wedding breakfast, we mixed things up with a personalised Bongo’s Bingo game, filled with family stories and memories, complete with dancing, karaoke and prizes (all PG, of course). My twin sister and maid of honour, Beth, and my best friend Tom hosted it – it was one of the highlights of our day – and got everyone pumped for the evening.

For the evening reception, after two years of planning, we wanted to unwind and have fun. We got the saxophone involved for our first dance and added glow sticks to the mix. And we danced the night away with Andy Usher’s DJ, saxophone and bongos and DJ kept the vibes going all night long.