Emmerdale's Michelle Hardwick and new wife Kate Brooks dance to Dolly Parton tribute act – Daily Mail, Daily Mail

First dance: Emmerdale star Michelle Hardwick and her soap producer wife Kate Brooks threw a lavish wedding reception over the weekend, after marrying at Graceland in Memphis last month just the two of them

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Their friends and family watched from the sides of the dance floor, having not been in attendance at their actual nuptials in September, which remained a one-on-one affair.

Michelle shared ima ges of their wedding on Instagram recently, captioning them: ‘In over 100 degrees heat, on Tuesday 10 th September, I became Mrs Brooks gra #graceland #chapelinthewoods #memphis #nextstopnashville. ‘

Michelle wore a white jumpsuit to say her vows, just like The King himself, and sunglasses as she held onto a bouquet of flowers.

Kate chose a maxi dress as she held hands with her bride and fist-pumped the air with her flowers.

The wedding comes just weeks after Michelle admitted that she still encounters the threat of homophobia when out and about with now wife.

She revealed that she ‘lives in fear ever day’ and that she believes society is ‘going backwards’.

She toldThe Mirror: ‘Sometimes if Kate and I see a group of young lads we instinctively let go of each other’s hands because we’re scared they’ll turn on us. We live with that fear every day.

‘I feel like we’re going backwards in society with our attitudes. People who say, “Gay Pride? Why isn’t there a Straight Pride? ”I’ll tell you why, because you don’t need it.

‘Because luckily for you, you’re able to be affectionate with your partner in public and you won’t be abused for it. It’s absolutely vile what goes on. ‘

Michelle announced that she and Kate were engaged in anInstagramsnap moments after the proposal, just two months after confirming her relationship with the Emmerdale producer on National Coming Out Day.

After previously revealing she had been planning her proposal for months, Michelle said, during an appearance on Loose Women : ‘We met a couple of years ago, across the coffee machine, that’s the only time we ever see each other at work, we started going out a couple of years ago.’

Of the proposal, Michelle gushed: ‘It was the 8th December last year. I hired out a small local cinema, I said can you keep it free because there was a special screening of The Greatest Showman.

‘A couple of my school friends were there, and my brother drove us , what I’d done is hired a flash mob of The Greatest Showman, and I did the “I don’t know what’s going on here”. ‘

The surprises kept on coming as Michelle explained : ‘After the song A Million Dreams, one of the performers gave me a microphone and I said “I’ve got you here for another reason” and said “I’m gonna ask you a question but there’s somebody else to help me” , and our dog came out and he had a little jumper on that said “mummy please say yes!”

‘We had spoken about it. I just wanted something different and she said she didn’t take in what had happened until about two days later. ‘

Michelle added that the couple are not planning an elaborate wedding, and want to keep the nuptials intimate.

‘We discussed it, we’re not going to do a big wedding, we’re going to go abroad just the two of us and then have a massive party afterwards,’ she said.

She has since revealed that they will marry abroad, just the two of them, and throw a big party for friends and family on their return to the UK.

Michelle was married to Rosie Nicholl from 2015 to 2017, and her relationship with the music teacher lead to her publicly coming out in 2013.

Despite the split, the star previously revealed she and Rosie have remained good friends, telling Lorraine Kelly in 2017: ‘We’re still good pals – we’ve got our two dogs.’

Michelle has played Vanessa Woodfield on Emmerdale since 2012, when she arrived as the wild friend of Rhona Goskirk from their university days.

While she has been involved in several dramatic storylines – including her surprise pregnancy after a one night stand with Kirin Kotecha – she is most beloved for her relationship with Charity Dingle (played by Emma Atkins).

Dubbed ‘Vanity’ by fans, the pair began as a no-strings attached fling, but slowly blossomed into a passionate romance.

Vanessa also acted as a pillar of support for Charity after she revealed her horrific ordeal of being sexuall abused as a teenager.

The relationship inspired many fans of the soap to embrace their sexuality, and in January viewers were delighted when they finally got engaged.