North of England Wedding Awards 2020

Behind the scenes of NOEWA2020

Last night I attended the fabulous North of England Wedding Awards. Due to the world being broken and COVID, unfortunately, the massive show that had been planned had to be condensed slightly. Fair play to my friends Wedding Fayres Yorkshire who now host the NOEWA as they could have easily decided not to do anything but they wanted to help out and do something really positive for the wedding industry.

Behind the scenes

As a documentary storyteller I was asked to tell the story of the event. The virtual awards event took place at John Smiths Stadium in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. When I arrived, I saw the rehearsals taking place, although the event had been condensed they still wanted to put on a bit of a show. I was happy to see a stage set up, lighting, lots of streaming and video stuff that I didn’t understand, backdrops and pretty much everything else. It was a great looking scene, even if it did only take up a small area of the room.

Paul Clarke the legend

It was great to see that Paul the Legend Clarke had been hired to come and do some presenting, it was great to see the original team of Wedding Fayres Yorkshire in full swing. I watched Paul and Allan practice their lines and Grant was really busy behind the scenes. I could see that everyone was pretty busy so it was a great time to just go into ninja mode and capture the whole behind the scenes of the event.

3,2,1 we’re live

There was a buzz of excitement and nervousness when the event went live. Would everything work? Would their be people watching? Would John keep his big mouth shut? Would the band width hold up? It was great, to watch. I roamed around capturing pictures of Allan and Paul presenting the awards, I awaited in anticipation as each of the winners were announced and I just captured everything whilst not talking.

Audience participation

As well as capturing the event I was also keeping an eye on the audience who were watching via Facebook Live. It was great to see that lots of wedding suppliers had dressed up and made a little party of the awards. It was great to see the comments coming in.

Success

The whole evening was a massive success, the event went seamlessly, I actually enjoyed watching Grant sweating as he was clicking and dragging and lining things up frantically. Well done to all the winners (I’m not bitter hahahaha) and a massive thank you to the North of England Wedding Awards who could have easily have decided to do the awards but instead they wanted to help the whole industry. I look forward to next years event and hopefully, fingers crossed it will be the big event that everyone is used to.