Holy Crap. We're Regional Finalists!

Holy crap. Wow. That was pretty much the reaction when we found out that Yorkshire Magic Mirror had been named a Regional Finalist in The Wedding Industry Awards 2027, in the Photo/Video Entertainment category for Yorkshire & North East. We spend a lot of time trying to make other people's big moments memorable. This one stopped us in our tracks.

We Weren't Exactly Hunting For Another Award

We've entered an awards programme before. It left a bad taste. There was a fee to enter, another cost to attend the evening, and even a chuffing silent raffle. We came away feeling that not taking part in the organiser's wedding fayres had counted against us. Whether that was actually the case, we can't know — but it certainly didn't feel like an experience we wanted to repeat.

So when it came to awards, we weren't exactly rushing to put our hands in our pockets again.

Then A Client Voted For Us

This time it started differently. A client voted for Yorkshire Magic Mirror. We hadn't set out to make an awards campaign the centre of our year. Someone we'd worked with thought enough of what we do to put our name forward.

After that initial vote, we emailed eligible couples we'd worked with and invited them to have their say. We received notifications that people had voted, but not the comments they submitted. And we had 12 replies from couples telling us they'd voted.

We don't know everything they wrote. We won't pretend we do. But knowing people took the time to respond and support us was already a pretty good feeling.

Then came the news: Regional Finalist. And the reaction was exactly as sophisticated as you'd expect: holy crap, wow.

2026 Has Been About Going Beyond Our Own Best

We're proud of the work we've done this year, but not because we've simply managed to do more events or add more equipment. The real achievement has been pushing ourselves to make things that go beyond the usual photo booth experience.

There's the original Magic Mirror, the compact Magic Mini, and Magic Mobile, our roaming photo booth that takes the experience out to guests rather than waiting for everyone to come to us. We've also been building Yorkshire Magic Memories, giving guests ways to contribute messages, photos, audio and video, and Memories Live, which can bring those contributions onto venue screens.

And then there's the creative side: custom print artwork, new AI-assisted experiences and caricatures that have had people queuing at wedding fayres. Sometimes the ideas sound a little ridiculous when we first say them out loud. Then we get to work and see whether we can actually make them happen.

We've even been testing Starlink at wedding fayres. Because apparently, when venue connectivity gives us a headache, our response is to start experimenting with satellite internet. That's a fairly typical Yorkshire Magic Mirror solution. 🤣

Not Just Our Personal Best. The Best We Can Possibly Make It.

One thing we've challenged ourselves on is the difference between doing our personal best and doing the best possible job. Those aren't always the same thing.

It's easy to finish something, look at it and say, "That's the best I've ever done." It's much harder to look at the same thing and ask, "But can it be better?" That question has driven a lot of our development this year. More features. Better experiences. More reliability. More ways for guests to get involved. And quite a lot of late nights finding out what doesn't work before finding something that does.

We're not interested in adding a product just because everyone else has one. We want to make things that feel different, genuinely useful and memorable. That's what we're proudest of: challenging ourselves to go beyond what we've done before — and beyond what people expect.

The People Behind The Votes

Awards are lovely. But a vote from somebody whose wedding you've actually been part of hits differently.

Those couples trusted us to turn up, do the job properly, entertain their guests and create something worth taking home. Some of them then took time out of their day to vote for us. That's not something we take lightly.

To the couple who started this, to everyone who voted, and to the 12 people who took the trouble to reply and let us know: thank you. We don't know what happens next, but you've already given us something worth celebrating.

9 November. And Then?

The Yorkshire & North East regional awards take place on 9 November 2026. Are we going? Probably. We haven't quite made the final decision yet.

Would we like to win? Of course we would. We're not going to pretend otherwise. But we're also not going to act as if being named a finalist is somehow the consolation prize. After the year we've had — and after our previous experience with awards — this recognition means a great deal on its own.

Whatever happens on the night, we'll carry on building, testing, tweaking and trying to make the next experience better than the last. There are still ideas we haven't finished. There probably always will be.

One Last Thing

We've always said we're not here to be the cheapest option. We're here to create something people remember. It's a standard we set for ourselves, not a claim that we get everything perfect.

So yes, we're going to enjoy this. We might even allow ourselves five minutes before getting back to work on the next slightly mad idea.

Yorkshire Magic Mirror. TWIA 2027 Regional Finalist.

Not cheap. We're unforgettable.