Beckie + Adam | December 2024
“We can’t even express how incredible the day actually was. It was genuinely so perfect and magical. And you were such a huge part of that. The ceremony was perfect!! We had so many compliments and people saying that had never been to a wedding like it before.”
It’s my job to match the vibe a couple are envisaging for their ceremony. Whether it’s relaxed, sentimental or fun (or all three!) it’s up to me to not only suggest ideas that might fit, but bring that particular energy to the day. So when Beckie and Adam told me they wanted a “spooky, festive” feel on their December day I was excited. This sounded a bit different. We were having brunch together, planning ideas, and they showed me their invites: tarot-looking black cards “summoning” guests to their day. I was starting to see what they meant by “spooky”.
Now, this was a challenge. A fun challenge but a challenge nonetheless. I don’t celebrate Halloween and I’ve never watched a horror film. If the bride Beckie is Broomstick Beckie (Bewitching Beckie? Bloodchilling, black-cat-loving, “Boo!” fan Beckie?) …I’m Basic Brenda. She’s indie, I’m ABBA. She’s mosh pit, I’m comfortable chair. She’s cool as a cucumber, I’m a lukewarm courgette.
But BOY was I excited to write this ceremony. All my ceremonies - like my couples - are different, but this one was going to take the witchy biscuit. For starters - with their vows - Beckie and Adam didn’t want to promise “til death do us part”. They wanted longer, promising to roam the earth as ghosts, still loved up and hand-in-phantom-hand.
Exquisite imagery from Photos by Hash
As mentioned, it wasn’t just spookiness the couple hoped to conjure…they are also huge fans of Christmastime. There were to be twinkling fir trees at the top of the aisle and we devised a little section in their ceremony where their closest loved ones would bring up special baubles they’d bought for the bride and groom, place them on the trees (while Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree played) and the baubles would become keepsakes to come out each year.
On their wedding day - as guests began to arrive at Shortflatt Tower - there were excited whispers (OK, it was mainly me being a gossip but friends were joining in too): would Beckie come down the aisle all in black? In red? What would she be wearing?
In the end we saw she was in white - a bigger surprise than if she’d been in black - and she looked ethereally beautiful, with a pair of iconic white platforms hidden beneath her dress. And her stunning “coven” (witchy besties, not bridesmaids) were the ones in black.
Everything about Beckie and Adam’s ceremony was done their way, as it should be. With their vows, not only was the content cute and spooky, but the delivery was their way too. Neither Beckie nor Adam wanted to speak much in the ceremony, nervous of being nervous, so I read their vows and they each replied with just two words: “I promise”. Then, for a further festive touch I held mistletoe over their heads for the first kiss (which was no mean feat by the way, Adam is 6ft5!).
You can plan moments you hope will be meaningful - and bring the energy you know will suit the pair - but things can happen in the moment you could never orchestrate. Even if you wanted to. I told their guests about some of the supernatural signs Beckie and Adam had felt when they first discovered each other - signs they were two souls meant to meet. And I told the tale of how, on realising they used to go to the same club on nights out, one day Beckie and Adam trawled back through the online gallery, years and years of dancefloor photos, and found a photo of a young Adam and a young Beckie, dancing back-to-back and almost ready to spin into each other’s lives. Goosebumps.
But what I couldn’t have planned is the butterfly that landed on Beckie’s veil as I spoke. And I paused. And we all watched in awe at this crazy, magical moment - a butterfly indoors on a December day. A butterfly that chose to alight only on the bride.
I’ll still never be a horror fan, and skeletons don’t do much for me, but over the last couple of months if I’ve seen anything remotely boo-ish, I’ve smiled and thought of this beautiful pair and the day that was oh so them.
“You truly captured the essence of our relationship”