Jenna and Martyn

29th October 2024 – Newcastle Castle, Keep

How we both met

We first met in high school back in 2002 but lost touch for 14 years. We reconnected through Facebook in 2018 and have hardly spent a day apart ever since.

The Wedding Venue

We chose the Newcastle Castle Keep for our ceremony as we wanted somewhere historic and romantic.

We both have fond memories of visiting as children and were captivated by the history of the building from a young age. That it is positioned just opposite our favourite pub which we chose as the reception venue was quite handy too!

Why we chose to have a celebrant wedding ceremony

We wanted something more ancient and romantic than a traditional registrar wedding, and particularly we wanted a more personal ceremony that could incorporate more ancient wedding rituals such as Handfasting and a Quaich.

Ideas about what our ceremony could have looked like

We had a bit of an idea of how we wanted the space in the Castle to look, with foliage and candles. We didn’t want flower, we wanted a more rustic and medieval look that would compliment the building without being overly wedding-y.

We wanted our ceremony to be more informal, so guests stood where they wanted to and we encouraged everyone to wear what they felt comfortable in and to only dress formally if they wanted to. We wanted everyone to feel comfortable on the day and for the atmosphere to be so relaxed.

The best part of the ceremony for us

The handfasting and drinking from the quaich were our favourite parts.

We didn’t want to exchange rings but we still wanted to incorporate a symbolic ritual that would bind us and Jo understood this perfectly, encouraging us to invite family members to be involved in both elements which made them even more wonderfully special.