Last Saturday evening, the
Wedding Guide hosted their first North of England Wedding Awards dinner at Beamish Hall Hotel. The awards wanted to recognise businesses in the wedding industry, who provide outstanding service and inspire their customers to actively and positively promote them.
We were encouraged to ask our wedding couples to vote for us using the following criteria
- Service Excellence
- Excellent Product Quality
- Value for Money
- Outstanding Commitment
Then they were asked to comment on why they thought that business deserved to win.
We had to get a certain number of votes to be a finalist and early in August, I received an email congratulating me on being a finalist! I was so thrilled and promptly booked two tickets to the Black Tie dinner.
We arrived at
Beamish Hall for the reception drinks in the Shaftoe room where they had a photo booth and casino tables set up for later on. Soon, we were ushered into the Winter Gardens for the first presentations.
The table names were all religious venues across the North East, past and present. The tables were draped with black tablecloths, a circular mirror in the middle with pink crystals scattered and tall, elegant five branch candlesticks. We were on a table with
Elise Flowers,
Mia Sposa and
Longhirst Hall.
Julia from the
Brides Up North blog
started the presentations including the winners for Wedding Flowers and
Bridal Gown Retailer. Unfortunately nothing for our table so it was all
down to me and Longhirst Hall.
There
was a break in the presentations to start our dinner. Sorbet with fruit
for starters followed by beef with vegetables. I had a mushroom and
cheese tart with vegetables and a delicious tomato salsa (veggie!).
The next presentation was the Photography category. With six finalists, I knew it was going to be tough! It was - I didn't get it - but I am still very proud to have been a finalist. It means so much to me that my customers felt that I was worthy enough to win the award.
All was not lost for our table though! Longhirst Hall won the Wedding Venue category jointly with Beamish Hall. When the girls brought the glass trophy back to the table, they kindly let us pass it round so we at least had touched a trophy!
Onto the dessert which was a lovely light lemon tart and then tea or coffee. We stayed for another drink and then made our way home.
The night was good because it was businesses from a mix of wedding services. The previous awards we've attended have been Photography awards (I've won two portrait awards in the past!) so it was lovely to network with different suppliers. I've already had some more twitter followers and facebook likers as a result of Saturday night's dinner.
Congratulations to everyone who did win and to all of the other finalists.
Winning would have been the icing on the cake, but as I say, I'm immensely proud that I made it to the final and would like to thank all of the couples who took the time to vote for me.
There's always next year!
♥
