Here come the brides

When five brides-to-be from a Lancashire law firm had to postpone their 2020 weddings due to the pandemic, their employers decided to do something about it.

On Wednesday last week Alexander Grace Law said ‘I do” to a company-wide Wedding Day celebration for Jasmine, Danielle, Kerry, Laura and Jessica to lift their spirits.

The celebrations ran across the solicitors’ three offices in Hapton, Blackpool and Lytham and teams dressed up in their finery for the occasion.

Donnamarie Sturrock, co-founder of Alexander Grace Law, said: “2020 keeps throwing curve balls at us all and we really felt sad for our five brides-to-be who had no choice but to postpone their big day.

“I personally wanted to do something because as the boss of over 100 female staff, I felt we needed to give the brides something to look forward to until their actual weddings next year. So, we decided on a Big Alexander Grace Wedding – socially distanced of course!”

The day started out with a speech and a song from Michael Quigley, of Kataholos, followed by a prayer from Chartered Legal Executive Kate Kendall.

The conveyancing and private matters solicitors provided wedding cakes, bridal bouquets, cupcakes, fizz and favours to its 110 strong team and at lunchtime, everyone was invited to join a virtual ceremony featuring videos from the mothers and fathers of the brides (actually the office managers) as well as family, friends and colleagues.

In the afternoon, each bride and their colleagues stepped outside for the traditional bouquet throwing.  

Jess Turton, solicitor at Alexander Grace Law’s Lytham office, was due to marry partner Danny Penswick on September 18th and has reorganised it for the same date in 2021 next year.

She said: “I was absolutely devastated when we had to make the difficult decisions to cancel our wedding when Croatia was added to the quarantine list 3 weeks before the wedding date.

“It’s nice that we can put a positive spin on what has been a very tough year for people for lots of different reasons.”

Every person participating was asked to donate £5 to the Boot out Breast Cancer, of which Alexander Grace Law’s Lytham receptionist Debbie Dowie is co-founder and for every pound donated the company matched it. The total was £1300.