Published at 12:52, Monday, 26 November 2012

MANDY Louise Beaton, 33, a revenues officer at South Lakeland District Council, from Ulverston, and Benjamin Andrew Park, 35, a BAE principal manufacturing planner from Barrow, married at St Mary’s Church, Dalton, on September 1

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How they met: The couple originally met in 1997 on a blind date that their friends Christopher and Kirsty set up. They then lost touch until 2008 when Ben messaged Mandy on Facebook. They arranged to meet for a drink and that was it.

Proposal: In May 2010 they had their first child, Lydia, and it was then Ben proposed to Mandy in the maternity ward of Furness General Hospital. The couple had their second child, Kian, in October 2011.

Venue: The couple were married at St Mary’s Church, Dalton, and held the reception at the Whitewater Hotel, Backbarrow.
It was to be a double celebration as they had son Kian christened after the wedding ceremony.

Theme: The colour scheme for their wedding was red, white and black and the theme was love.

Bride’s outfit: The bride bought her dress from Marrime in Kendal and it was a Maggie Sottero gown named Florencia.

Groomsmen: The groom’s best man was his younger brother, Jamie Park, and ushers were the bride’s brother, Andrew Beaton, and the groom’s friends Christopher Durkin, Neil Harris, Paul Fugler and Paul Riley.

Bridesmaids: Chief bridesmaid was the bride’s best friend Alex Taylor, the groom’s sister Katie Park and Gina Preston. The bride’s sister, Maddison Beaton, and the couple’s daughter, Lydia Park, were flower girls.

Flowers: Flowers were from Efflorescence in Barrow who did an amazing job and the couple were very pleased with them.

Transport: A Rolls Royce and a Daimler were provided by Gordon Hall cars in Barrow.

Table settings: The table settings, favours and cake were all made by the couple’s bridesmaid, Gina Preston, who has her own shop in Grasmere called Cocoa Hearts. She also made their invitations, table plan and Kian’s christening cake. To go with their theme of love the couple hired two living statues to stand next to their table plan. The guests were stunned and shocked to see them move every so often!

Reception: Both the bride and groom have Scottish ancestry so they decided it would be a nice touch to have a bagpiper play at the reception venue, Whitewater Hotel. Bagpiper Mike Ramsay piped for the wedding party while having drinks outside. He also piped the couple into the wedding breakfast.

First dance: The DJ was Pete Murphy and the couple started their first dance with Next to Me by Emeli Sande and then halfway through they went into LMFAO’s Bodyrockers. The couple did a choreographed dance to it, which none of their guests knew about!

Entertainment: During the wedding breakfast Ben and Mandy organised a surprise for all their guests. They’d organised for three singing waiters to perform. They waited until guests had finished their starters before bursting into song. They even got the best man up, Jamie, to sing with them.

Photographer: Steve Hillman Photography who, the couple said, did an amazing job on the day.

Videographer: Brian, from Safe Harbour Productions in Kendal, who did a brilliant job on the day.

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk