In today’s real wedding we have not one, but two beautiful brides. Kelly and Lisa had the white wedding they had always dreamt of surrounded by friends and family in the boutique setting of Bannatyne Hotel, in Darlington.

“We were together for six years before we seriously talked about a ‘wedding’. We had talked about marriage before, but for some reason we seemed to have the idea that as two woman we couldn’t be two brides and maybe people would laugh at us. As time went on we realised we wanted a traditional white wedding like all girls! With this in mind we wanted a venue where we would feel comfortable and it was important to us to be able to keep all the aspects of the day as close to a bride/groom wedding as possible while making sure we both got bride status! From day one we had a good feeling about Bannatyne Hotel. We always felt perfectly comfortable discussing what we wanted and they were never phased by anything we wanted to alter to suit our requirements. One of these being that we both wanted to walk down the aisle. This provided the staff with a new logistical challenge of getting Lisa up the aisle without me seeing her and me down swiftly after! They did the job perfectly!”

“We went to a friends wedding at Bannatyne Hotel just before we got engaged. We had a wonderful day and we just couldn’t find a fault with anything, so it seemed like the logical place to visit when we started looking and we looked no further! Selling points for us were the fact that they only hold one wedding at a time, so all the focus is on your wedding. We also really loved the private gardens at the back of the hotel. We were very lucky on our wedding day that we had amazing weather and we could all enjoy it. The staff and the set up was very professional, so at no time did Lisa, or I ever worry that something would not be how we had asked for it. Needless to say, yes of course, we would recommend this venue to everyone!”

Advice for other brides and grooms?
“The same advice I was given for my wedding, just make sure after all the planning, all the expense and no doubt some stress that you both enjoy your day!”

What was your highlight of the day?
“The highlight of the day was definitely having all our family, friends and our beautiful little boy there to celebrate with us.”

For more wedding inspiration, take a look at our dedicated real wedding section. Looking for the perfect wedding venue? We have more than 100 pages of North East wedding venues in the brand new issue of Belle Bridal Magazine.