I know Katie and Damien from working with Katie’s mum. They booked me as their wedding guitarist and singer for the full day as a surprise for their wedding guests right from the ceremony through the meal and in the evening too at The Halfway House in Baildon. More on that stunning venue a little later. First I want to talk about where they got married. The ceremony was held at Saltaire United Reformed Church. This is a totally awe inspiring building. It’s close to where I live so I’m aware of some of the history. Titus Salt was a major capitalist around the time of the industrial revolution. He built mills and brought countless numbers of jobs to the Bradford area. He housed his workers in what is now Saltaire. I titan of industry, Titus Salt was also a committed Christian and had SURC built for his workers. You can read more about the rich history of the UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Titus Salt Mill page.
The place is magnificent as you can see from the pictures below. Travelling around so many venues you get such a variety of sounds from your guitar and vocals. I LOVE singing in churches like this. The acoustics are phenomenal and I sounded amazing (if I do say so. Haha.).
Katie hadn’t told anyone I was coming so just as she was to walk through the door she turned to her bridesmaids and said, “By the way, it’s not the wedding march we’re walking in to.” And there they were walking down the aisle to my rendition of How Long Will I Love You by Ellie Goulding.
After the service it was straight over to The Halfway House. This is a peach of a venue who have just recently started doing weddings. It looks like your ordinary pub from the outside but round the back there’s a beautiful function room which is decked out almost like a marquee. A lovely square room which can fit around 120 to 150 people (they may correct me on that). Again, see the pictures below.
I played through the meal for a couple of sets. Katie and Damien’s little baby girl took quite a shine to me. So much so that Katie had trouble getting her food into her so ended up turning her around so I could serenade her for the afternoon. After a beautiful meal we moved into the evening entertainment where everyone was up and dancing after a live rendition of Shania Twain’s You’re Still The One for their first dance before partying the night away until 1am.
Have a look at the photos below. With my iPhone I struggle to capture just how good venues are but this one is a diamond which I highly recommend checking out.
Katie contacted me the next day to thank me for my services and she also left some feedback for me in the North of England Wedding Awards in which I’m a finalist in the best music category. #NOWEA
Congratulations to Damien and Katie. I wish them the longest, happiest life together full of blessings and love.
Source: old site