Cass and Rich finished their legal ceremony and headed straight for the bumper cars. Still in their wedding outfits, which for the bride was a suit from ASOS, they spent Friday at the funfair outside the register office before going for drinks. Then, the next day, they took over Crookes Social Club for a big party with a £10,000 budget, a ceiling full of tinsel and a vision of a camp music video.

The working men’s club had a stage backed by red velvet curtains, giving them a ready-made setting for the ceremony and the party. Bunty Decor dressed the ceiling with streamers, while custom beer mats, heart-shaped place cards and signage carried their ideas through the room. Cass wore a dress bought on Vinted for £90 with a custom-made cape.

With the paperwork sorted the day before, they could write Saturday’s ceremony themselves and have a friend lead it. Guests arrived, got a drink and chose somewhere to sit, cabaret-style, facing the stage. At the end of their vows, Cass and Rich fired money guns into the crowd, blasting out notes printed with their own faces.

“We wanted friends involved as much as possible,” they explained. “As we’d already had the legal ceremony, we were able to get a friend to be the celebrant on Saturday which was lovely and personal. We then had a roster of friends doing various different DJ sets for the reception, and Fun Again designed a custom poster for them which we printed loads and stuck all over the venue.”

The couple wanted to invite “basically everyone we know”, so they kept the food and seating flexible. Sharing platters came out after the ceremony, catering for everyone’s dietary requirements, and guests could tuck in, move around and catch up. There was no seating plan or formal sit-down meal to organise, and the venue was free to hire because of the money taken behind the bar. Later into the evening they had woodfired pizzas come out.

“Whilst the main thing is obviously getting married, for us the party was really the centre of the whole thing,” Cass said. “We’re both very social people and love a party so it was important to us that this went off!”

When asked which wedding rule they would change, Cass replied: “That they have to be formal – absolutely fine if that’s what you want, but don’t be afraid to have fun and be silly either. I also spent a lot of time on various wedding planning Reddit and Facebook groups and I personally would like to ban plastic tat from Shein with circuit stickers on in that same italic wedding font. Nobody needs flip flops from your wedding!”