Most weekends I find myself travelling to far flung areas of the country to serenade couples on their big day so it was a welcome change of pace to participate in a wedding just three miles from my house at Heaton Mount on Saturday.

Kayleigh and Andrew booked me as their wedding singer and guitarist way back in 2015, two years before their wedding in August 2017. For a number of reasons they had to bring it forward to March and thankfully all of their suppliers were available on the date including myself. March is usually the calm before the storm when the wedding season hits in April so it was a blessing for them that they had very little trouble with suppliers being available. January, February and March are usually dominated by corporate events, birthday parties and bars. It was lovely then to be back on a full day wedding singing at the ceremony, drinks reception and evening reception.

Heaton Mount is a property of the University of Bradford next to the picturesque Lister Park. It's a beautiful large location if you have a wedding party with quite a few people. I played for the ceremony as guests arrived creating a relaxed, romantic atmosphere. Kayleigh had contacted me a couple of days before the wedding asking if she could change her first dance to This I Promise You by Ronan Keating. I told her it was a bit late to learn a new song but when I listened to it I realised it would probably not take me long. You often find this is the way. Some songs take a long time to get in your head while others are quite straightforward following a formulaic process. I secretly contacted the groom and asked if he thought it would be a good idea for me to learn it as a surprise and he agreed it would. So Kayleigh was expecting to walk down the aisle to A Thousand Years by Christina Perri but did so to the song of her choice without knowing. She was very pleased and had some choice (but friendly) words for me about it afterwards.

A couple of sets in the drinks reception before the evening kicked off with the cake cutting and my rendition of Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran. The crowd were interactive and a real partying type. It's good to be back in the wedding season again after a long break. This was a great start to my season of being wedding singer and guitarist to over 50 couples (so far).

Suppliers included Yorkshire Booth Brothers and Richard Farndale Photography.

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