Your North East Wedding news and ideas from around the region

Average ages we are hitting life’s milestones

A new study from Confused.com has revealed the average ages we are hitting life's milestones in England & Wales, including getting married at age 35! So how does your milestone timeline compare? Typically, the first milestone people in the UK reach is moving out of their parent's home at age 20, followed by moving in with their partner at 27. The next life milestone those in the UK usually meet is having their first child, with couples seeming to have children before marriage. The average age for having children is 29, while the average age for getting married is 35. The data also suggests that on average, people are choosing to have children before purchasing a property. This could be a result of house prices continuing to rise making it harder to save for a deposit.

Hexham’s Langley Castle Hotel's helpful guide

Want your fur baby at your wedding? Hexham's Langley Castle Hotel have released a helpful guide to include your faithful friend in your big day. Walk with them down the aisle: why not choose to have your furry companion accompany you to the altar? They could be your ring-bearer and precede the exchange of the all-important vows! Arrange photo opps: Wedding albums are a possession you'll cherish forever, so make sure your pet doesn't miss out on a photo shoot with you and your spouse! Just notify your photographer beforehand, so they can come up with creative ideas from the outset.

Couples are opting for eco-friendly weddings

One of the UK's leading waste and recycling management companies BusinessWaste.co.uk collected data, which shows how much attitudes to environmental and sustainable choices in regard to weddings are changing. According to the research searches for 'sustainable wedding' has skyrocketed by 75% over the last year, while 'sustainable wedding venues near me' saw an 80%+ increase along with 'sustainable engagement ring' which saw a staggering 96% search increase. What's more, us Brits came out on top overall for our eco-friendly mindfulness, with France and Greece also seeing the biggest increase in searches for sustainable wedding venues.

Keep your wedding guests warm this winter

Putting the chocolate back into drinking chocolate with their unique fine beads, Cocoa Canopy are making winter weddings super cosy with its sample-szie offering. Perfect for winter wedding favours, they offer the ultimate in comforting hot chocolates, guaranteed to put a smile on the receiver's face! Cocoa Canopy is the only UK drinking chocolate brand to craft unique fine chocolate beads for beautifully smooth, real chocolate drinks made from only a handful of sustainably sourced ingredients.

New hire items from North East stylist

Looking for a venue stylist with a difference? Say hello to Neatly Seated, a family-run business established from 2009. "We've been growing the business and building up our portfolio across numerous beautiful venues across the North East," says owner Diane Nicholson. "We're passionate about what we do and aim for perfection, which shows in our reviews. Continuing to add to our hire collection, we've recently added a wooden hexagonal arch with flowers, as well as a neon Mr and Mrs sign. Then there's our new green floral wall, which comes with a Let's Party sign."

How to throw an insta-worthy engagement party

You never have to scroll too far to stumble upon a celebrity engagement party on instagram and if you've recently got engaged yourself, you're probably thinking - should I throw one too? The short answer is yes, absolutely. While planning the wedding is always top priority, there's no reason why you shouldn't have a party to get all your loved ones together and celebrate the big news straight away - particularly when most weddings take place a good 12 to 18 months post-proposal. However, hosting an engagement party of your dreams can still be quite a daunting task. To help, wedding jewellery experts, Queensmith have pulled together 11 tips for taking your celebratory soirée to the next level.

Nickynoo Quirky Mobile Bars award win

Last year was a busy one for Nickynoo Quirky Mobile Bars, however, it definitely paid off, with them scooping Mobile Bar Rental Company of the Year 2022/23 by the North of England Prestige Awards.The business, who offer a high quality mobile drinks service for weddings in Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland and Northumberland, are set to expand further still. "We've recently purchased our first mobile bar trailer, the Wandering Barrel, which we're refurbishing for next year's wedding season," says owner Nicola Robson. "The trailer is an impressive 20 feet in length, which will allow us to cater for much larger scale events. Be sure to watch this space!"

Spotify data reveals the most popular wedding songs

Luxury engagement ring retailer, Diamonds Factory, has scraped Spotify to find the top 100 most popular wedding songs to include in your playlists. To do this, Diamonds Factory analysed over 100 Spotify playlists containing the word 'wedding' and found the most featured songs across all playlists. These playlists included 3500 unique songs, and the data scrape also used additional keywords to reveal the top wedding ceremony songs, wedding party songs and top wedding artists, too.

New planner reveals when you can afford to tie the knot

With wedding costs rising by 3,000% since the 1950s, and set to reach an all-time high in the 2020s, making and sticking to a wedding budget can be a real headache for couples. To help would-be newlyweds with the complex task of budget planning their big day, the wedding finance team at money.co.uk have created a new wedding budget planner, to help couples account for all their costs for each stage of their dream wedding. The new planning tool also helps you calculate the earliest date you should set for your big day, based on how long it will take you to save up enough money to pay for your dream wedding. The wedding budget planner page also has lot of tips to help couples save cash, including:

Lyndsey Morgan announced Make Up Artist of the Year

We're pleased to reveal that make-up artist Lyndsey Morgan was recently announced Make Up Artist of the Year 2022 at the North East Beauty Awards. "Held late last year, it was stiff competition, with seven others in the category," says Lyndsey. "After sending in supporting evidence, ranging from client reviews, pictures and videos, it was a case of crossing my fingers! When the night came around, I was a bag of nerves – and to hear my name called as the winner meant I almost fell of my chair, much to the delight of my friend, who was videoing my reaction! I'm over the moon, and feel humbled and grateful to all who nominated me. It makes all the 5am starts to wedding venues more than worth it!"

Win a ‘One Night Luxury Four Poster Hotel Break for Two’ in Essex

County Weddings Magazine has teamed up with The Rose and Crown Hotel to give our readers the chance to win a 'One Night Luxury Four Poster Hotel Break for Two' in their 700 year old hotel. The lucky winner will receive a voucher which can be redeemed any time in the next 18 months. Also included is a bottle of champagne waiting in your room on arrival, breakfast in the morning, early check-in and late checkout, and a delicious three course dinner in their onsite restaurant

The most popular wedding foliage 2022 revealed

Wow, 2022 was quite the year for weddings with a bumper amount taking place. Looking back at what was trending last year, perhaps inspiration for those tying the knot in 2023, wedding insurance specialists Protectivity have researched the most popular wedding flowers, based on UK Google Search Volume. The most popular wedding bouquet foliage was Eucalyptus, with 585,000 searches! Followed by, Ivy 495,000, Jasmine 458,200, Rosemary 374,600, Ferns 351,200, Monstera 319,500, Silver Birch 219,600, Philodendrons 219,400, Olive branches 143,000 and Myrtle 133,300.

Stanley’s South Causey Inn's new Engagement Party package

Engaged and ready to celebrate with your nearest and dearest? Head to Stanley's South Causey Inn and take advantage of their recently released Engagement Party package. "The beauty of our engagement package is that it can be as laidback or as formal as you like," says the venue's Harriet Moiser. "We're happy to discuss any of your personal requirements to build a bespoke celebration perfect for you, however, for £1,995 you can enjoy private hire of one of our spaces, table centrepieces, table runners, candles and tea-lights, a delicious evening buffet, giant LOVE letters, and our resident DJ for the evening, based on a party of 80 guests. You can even add extra friends and family for £20 per person."

Honeymooning in your married name

If you are dreaming of jetting off to sandy shores with your sparkling new ring, spouse and matching passports...then this guide from NameSwitch will tell you how to make your dreams come true. Please do have a proper think about whether having matching passports straight away is really that important to you because, trust us when we say, it's not an easy thing to pull off! With recent changes to how processes work, effects of the Pandemic, and added complications like not being handed your marriage certificate on your wedding day, or needing the name on your NHS records to be the same as the one on your passport, an already stressful undertaking just got even more nail-biting! Now it's not mission impossible, but you do need 3 key things to be aligned (and nerves of steel) if this is going to work...

Darlington Hippodrome just announced The Buddy Holly Story

We might be wrong here at Your North East Wedding HQ, but we don't think elderly relatives are going to be thrilled at the prospect of a Newcastle bar crawl for your hen or stag. Step forward Darlington Hippodrome, who've just announced that The Buddy Holly Story is back in the UK, with tickets available from Tuesday 28th February to Saturday 4th March. Buddy tells the story of the musical icon's rise from his Southern rockabilly beginnings to international stardom, before his tragic death at the age of just 22. In 18 short months the bespectacled boy from Texas revolutionised the face of contemporary music, and would influence everyone from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones.

Now say 'I do' in Ramside Hall Hotel's treehouse

Your head really will be in the clouds when you marry at Ramside Hall Hotel, Golf and Spa! It's all down to the wedding venue's latest offering, with you now being able to say 'I do' in Dove; the latest in a flock of treehouses within Ramside's 350-acre grounds. Perfect for intimate weddings and whimsical elopements, expect reception drinks on the terrace, sublime wedding menus and sommelier-selected wines for you and your guests, set under ambient lighting and fairy-tale foliage. Ramside Treehouse weddings are perfect for couples looking for something a little less ordinary. Whether it's an elopement for just the two of you, or a celebration for up to 40, their dedicated wedding team will be with you every step of the way to help guide you through the planning stages and create your perfect day.

The rise of double-barrelled surnames

n the past couple of years, there's been a continued increase in the number of people wishing to join their names. For example, in November, research by The London Mint Office to mark The Queen's platinum wedding anniversary shows that 11% of married couples between the ages of 18 and 30 joined their names. As the UK's leading Name Changing Service, NameSwitch has also seen an 18% year-on-year growth in couples wishing to adopt a double-barrelled surname, which accounts for 12% of the thousands of name changes we've assisted over the last 12 months. So, why are more of us opting to double-barrel their surnames?

Your wedding, your way

With the Pandemic derailing wedding plans since 2020, the next few years look set to be a busy time for couples celebrating their union. But couples themselves are evolving – from individuals who feel shoehorned into traditions or cultural expectations they don't feel comfortable with, to those who feel more confident creating their own idea of how a wedding should be, encompassing a far wider range of preferences, traditions, and cultures. When NameSwitch was invited to speak on diversity at a recent industry event, Bridelux Symposium, the overwhelming consensus of wedding professionals was that they, too, are seeing a change in how weddings are becoming more individually unique; created to celebrate the heritage (often blended) and preferences of each couple.

Kate Fearnley’s new Platinum collection

We were bowled over when we saw Stokesley wedding dress designer Kate Fearnley's Platinum collection! This six-piece line-up – along with a selection of add-on separates including sleeves, skirts, and capes – was inspired by the celebration of her 20th year in the occasion wear business. The styles draw inspiration from some of the strong silhouettes and detailing used from her design portfolio over the years, featuring her brand's signature style of hand-finished embroidery and unique detailing. Now stocked in 12 bridal boutiques across the UK, including Kate's own North Yorkshire showroom.

Get 30 per cent off tickets to The Northern Wedding Show

Visit the North's largest wedding weekender, The Northern Wedding Show at Utilita Arena, Newcastle, on the 4th and 5th February 2023.

Over 140 wedding suppliers and venues will be showcasing, and couples can expect the very best wedding inspiration! Experiences including make-up demos and offers from Charlotte Tilbury, creative masterclasses, four full production, themed bridal catwalks, £10,000 in bridal giveaways and so much more!

VIP Experience Tickets include a luxury Magic Cream sample from Charlotte Tilbury, several other exclusive beauty products (Florena, Freedom and more), and access to both VIP Zones (with prosecco) and front row seating for the fashion shows.