An Elegant, Romantic Wedding at The Mere, Knutsford: Natasha and John

Wednesday, September 30th, 2020

We first met in 2014 at a Northern Soul Night at The Greatstone Hotel in Stretford, a very glamorous location and the kind of place you meet a classy girl like Tash!  Although at first Tash wasn’t a fan of me, I loved her attitude and obviously won her over. I later found out that she liked my laugh and confidence. 

Our first date took place at an Indian restaurant called Coriander which was followed by a few drinks in bars around Chorlton. The evening ended with me giving her a piggyback to the taxi rank down the road; a true gent! After a couple of years of dating, we moved in together in Didsbury, the place which we have called home for over two years. 

For Tash’s 30th birthday, we had planned a trip to New York and after four years of being together, I decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to propose. We headed out to Central Park onto the ‘Say Yes’ bridge, and I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. It was the most amazing moment. For the ring, Tash had always wanted a sapphire and diamond ring like her mums, so she chose her dream ring together with her mum when we returned home. 

Once the ring had been chosen, the wedding planning was in full swing and the search for the dream wedding venue began!  We looked at quite a few wedding venues before deciding on The Mere. What stood out to us were the amazing staff and also the view over the beautiful lake which is just stunning.  

We had quite a few wedding ideas in mind for our big day, and we met with numerous suppliers to ensure the right one would help bring these to life.  The most important thing for Tash was finding the perfect bridal shop for the dream dress.  She opted for a Ronald Joyce Design which she found in Cheshire Bridal Wear.

The wedding bouquet was a simple, elegant design made up of white roses and wax flowers complimented with lots of deep green foliage. These were from a great independent florist called Diddibox. The team were great at helping us choose the perfect flowers.  Some of the flowers were delicately placed on our four-tier cake designed and made by Tina at The Cheshire Cake Room.  We hired Superb Events as our events planner who organised everything from the room to the DJ and band – who really made our wedding day so special.  

When it came to planning the bridal party, we decided to go all out.  Tash had nine bridesmaids, two flowers girls, I had my two brothers Andy and Pete as my best men and Tash’s brothers Ben and Jack as my Groomsmen. 

Our bridal party were great and ensured we had a fantastic celebration – especially for our hen and stag do’s! Tash enjoyed a great hen party at Crazy Wendy’s in Didsbury, and had a wonderful spa stay with her closet friends at The Mere to relax before the big day. This was arranged by her two maids of honour, Christina and Susan. My stag do was spent in Benidorm – another glamorous location.  

We said ‘I do’ at St. Vincent’s, Altrincham and it was a perfect ceremony. I knew Tash’s wedding dress would be magnificent because she is a perfectionist, but when I saw how beautiful it was, and how amazing she looked in it, I was completely blown away. Tash was really nervous before the wedding but as she walked up the aisle and saw me waiting for her, it put her at ease. 

We headed onto The Mere for our wedding reception and the décor looked incredible. We opted for cherry blossom trees and lots of romantic ceiling drapes which was inspired by our event planner.  

Our first dance and the build up to it was brilliant. The DJ got everyone up to join in singing Oasis’ ‘Morning Glory’. Everyone in the room was belting it out, and then we came dancing our way through the crowd just as it got to the ‘What’s the story, morning glory’. It was amazing and broke the traditional first dance introduction!  

During the cutting of the cake, we danced to Rod Stewart’s version of ‘Have I told you lately that I love you’.  Tash’s dad created a CD of romantic songs for us when we first got engaged, and we fell in love with that track straight away.  

I’m in a band called The Naughty’s and obviously the band members were at the wedding.  At the end of the evening, the band leant us their instruments and we got up on the stage and belted out an old song called ‘Monkey Man’. All the guests were going mad for it and it was just a perfect end to the evening. .

To celebrate getting married, we will be packing our bags and jetting to Italy for our honeymoon which we are so excited about! We are starting in Florence for a few days, and then will be flying to Sicily for a chilled beach holiday. 

Planning a wedding is always a stressful time, but we’ve been very lucky to have a lot of help from our family and friends, and such good suppliers. It was the best day of our lives; it went so fast and flew by, but we loved every single minute.

Suppliers

Photographer – Charlotte Palazzo Photography – www.charlottepalazzo.co.uk

Venue – The Mere Golf Resort & Spa – themereresort.co.uk

Dress –  Cheshire Bridalwear – www.cheshirebridalwear.co.uk

Flowers – Diddibox – www.diddibox.co.uk