The wedding of Amy Ewing and Alex Simmons has broken the world record for the number of Bridesmaids in attendance – 130 in total!
The British couple tied the knot in their hometown of Leeds and the groom made sure he wasn’t outdone by having 103 groomsmen – two of whom are rather high profile sports stars in Australia!
Amy, 26, and Alex, 32, are believed to have broken not one, but two official world records on their big day. The previous records for bridesmaids –126, was set in November 2013 in Sri Lanka by Champika Shirani Siriwardana. The most groomsmen or ushers stood at a 47, a record set by Arulanantham Suresh Joachim at a 2003 wedding in Canada.
So many of their guests were either bridesmaids or groomsmen that there were only 20 people in attendance as simply guests – and all of those were on standby in case one of the official ones dropped out.
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In order to qualify for the Guinness World Records though, the pair had to personally know all of their helpers, which proved challenging as Amy had friends spread all over the world whom she called in for the occasion.
For her outgoing sports-presenter groom though, things were a bit easier as he called in his rugby player pals for the occasion – they even included Australia’s own adopted footy stars – twin brothers Tom and George Burgess of the Rabbitohs.
Former Rabbitohs stars who’ve now returned home to play for England, twin Rugby league champs Tom and George Burgess, were amongst the groomsmen in attendance, helping smash the record!
“We knew we had to take the opportunity,” Alex continued. “There is no way with kids we would have been able to afford this ourselves.”
The pair won their big day in a competition on Facebook and so every element of their record-breaking nuptials were supplied by local businesses. This included 130 identical bridesmaids dresses worth $70,000 and suits worth $26,000 for all the men.
Their prize also saw them supplied with $1,500 worth of cupcakes for their guests, along with $7,500 worth of fireworks and $6,500 worth of floral decorations.
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The bride also received a $4,000 dress and a ceremony and reception that totalled $30,000 in value at the Rudding Park Hotel in the British countryside locale of Yorkshire. Other freebies included free photography, a choir, gold chair hire, a firework display, a magician and a fire eater
The groom Alex said: “It’s been a whirlwind. I wouldn’t say I had to convince Amy but I hadn’t known her long. When we entered the competition we weren’t even engaged.”
The couple, who already had four children between them, had only met the previous year at the local radio station, All Star FM, where Alex worked.
