Special date that’s worth the wait
Aug 6 2008 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post
Special date that’s worth the wait
The number of weddings in a single day is expected to peak on Friday when the date is made up of three eights. Laura Davis meets three couples who have chosen it for their nuptials
A QUIET wedding for two became a Capital of Culture-themed extravaganza with 150 guests when Rochelle O’Brien realised she could book Liverpool Register Office on 08.08.08.
When her husband-to-be, environmental project worker Anthony Ellis, 24, first suggested getting married, the couple planned to tie the knot discreetly in Wales, but then Friday’s date caught their imagination.
“We decided to go for a Capital of Culture theme and get in as many Liverpool connections as we could,” explains Rochelle.
“But, as we’d originally decided to have a quiet wedding, we only started planning in February so there’s been a lot to get through.”
For the 40 daytime guests, the day will begin at 8am when the bride arrives at the Register Office, on Old Hall Street, by horse and carriage.
But, for Rochelle, it will start much earlier – at 5.30am when Herbert the Hairdresser is opening his salon just for her.
She will walk down the aisle to Cilla Black’s Put a Little Love in Your Heart and, once the couple have been married, they will leave to The Beatles’ All You Need is Love.
“The Liverpool theme is important to us,” explains the 32-year-old health manager. “A lot of weddings are held in the suburbs but we wanted ours to be in the city centre.
“After the ceremony, we’ll all be going to Ma Boyles Oyster Bar for a full English, because that’s an old Liverpool pub, and then everyone will go home while we go with the photographer to have our pictures taken with eight different lambananas and on the ferry across the Mersey.”
One of the sculptures, loaned by arts organisation Go! Superlambanana, will also be a guest at the evening reception at the Malmaison hotel.
Two lambananas will feature on the cake, dressed as a bride and groom, and the guests will receive engraved lambanana keyrings as wedding favours.
The number eight will also be a key theme of the day. Each of the cake’s three tiers will be octagonal.
“We’ve even got the Lord Mayor coming to see us. We thought we would invite him because of the Capital of Culture theme,” says Rochelle, who lives in Woolton, but will be moving into Anthony’s city centre apartment after the wedding.
“At first, he thought he wouldn’t be able to make it but he’s reworked his diary and he’s coming to see us at six o’clock.”
The couple, who have known each other since childhood, will be serving Champagne and Scouse, as well as a buffet.
Rochelle’s dress is white with a sweetheart neckline, fitted bodice and full skirt, with a pink and sage green bouquet.
But, while the couple will be traditionally dressed, some of their guests have other ideas.
“A couple of friends of ours asked if they could come in fancy dress so I said ‘yes’ – as long as it has a Liverpool theme,” explains the bride-to-be.
“So there could be a rather large Superlambanana walking around town and possibly an ‘O’ and an ‘8’ and a Liver Bird!”
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