Jess + Mark | April 2023
“Sarah, just by nature, is a romantic, positive and warming soul to bring life to your ceremony without effort or force. She really wants to understand her couple’s journey so she can curate the perfect celebration for you both without it being cliché.”
It was as guests together at a friend’s wedding in the summer of 2019 - sat outside under twinkling lights in the fading Spanish sun - that I got to know Jess and Mark. Cut to a few years later and I got a message from Jess, out from her home in Dubai, that she’d love me to lead their British wedding celebration.
All photography by the wonderful Waterfall Weddings
And what a celebration it was! The personal touches were threaded through the whole day: from their adorable ring bearer nephew hovering in on segway skates to the tear-jerking surprise poem Jess had written for her groom, and from a loved one on the bagpipes to place setting bunnies for the children, hand-sewn by the mother of the groom.
A candle lighting ceremony with the one of the bride’s brothers and the groom’s sister
For the ceremony itself guests were sat in-the-round (I’ve been to many, many weddings and that was my first in a circle) in the dark, panelled ceremony room upstairs in Pleased to Meet You, Morpeth. Jess and Mark - both experienced and celebrated event planners themselves - had such exquisite attention to detail, and the dark room glowed in the light of dozens and dozens of floor-height candles. It was a drop-dead gorgeous sight to behold - almost theatrical; guests sat, their faces glowing in the low light, as the flower girl and bridesmaids processed in around the circle of dried flowers and flickering flames, followed by the bride and her father.
The couple sit, encircled by their friends and family, as I tell the tale of how they fell in love
One of the (many, many) things I love about being a wedding celebrant is that no two love stories are the same, and no two wedding ceremonies are the same. There were real live camels present when Jess and Mark first clapped eyes on each other, at a work event in an Abu Dhabi amphitheatre…and their candle-lit ceremony had the same sense of occasion. Bagpipes and segway skates instead of camels, but just as memorable.
These are two people who know how to put on a show. And the main event? Their undeniable love for each other. With the Riverdance cast making a surprise appearance at the reception a very close second.
“Sarah is an all-round superstar celebrant and we couldn’t have asked for anything more”