The wedding

So i thought it was about time i showed you lovely lot a snippet of my wedding day. We got married on November the 1st this year having been together for 12 years and engaged since January. We always said that if we ever got engaged we would plan a wedding straight away and thats exactly what we did. It seems crazy that this time last year we weren't even engaged and now we are a married couple. Right from when we started planning we knew we wanted a casual yet cute barn type venue and booked the Tudor barn in Burnham as soon as we knew dates. We loved the whole rustic feel the venue had yet it still felt like a great venue wedding. The barn allowed us to run away with loads of rustic, shabby chic and country vibe ideas and we were able to add great little personal touches by making and creating so much of the wedding ourselves. We made everything from the invites and orders of service to the table decorations, table plan and i even baked my own naked wedding cake and cupcakes the day before.  Some people (mainly my Mum) thought i was mad making everything myself but i can honestly say i loved every minute of it. I didn't leave anything to the last minute so there was no panicking and being able to say 'we made that' makes the memories all the more special.

When i first started looking for a wedding dress i quickly realised i hated wedding dresses. I knew i didn't want your typical strapless but never realised that i could be so negative and unappreciative of wedding dresses. I tried on all the different styles and deduced that i was never going to find the perfect one because i just didn't like them enough. I felt like a little girl in a disney princess dress up outfit in most of them (not a look I was personally going for). Basically i wanted a floaty, boho dress with something a little different going on but i just couldn't find that in your typical wedding dress shop. But low and behold a quick browse on the Phase Eight website had me ogling their wedding section and quickly adding a dress into my virtual basket, thinking I'll just return it if its awful. But it wasn't awful... it was bloody amazing (and they had 20% off that weekend) so even more amazing. I really do love my dress it was all i was hoping for. Not big, not flouncy, not stiff or to 'weddingy'. It was different, glamorous and unlike anything i had ever seen anyone else wear on their wedding day. I got so many compliments on the day, I know thats normal for a bride, but they genuinely thought my dress was so different and nothing they ever expected. I love it more every time i see the pictures. Talking of pictures aren't they amazing? They capture the vibe and feel of our day so well and my dress, Lukes suit, and all the other quirky elements of the day from my yellow shoes to the flowers in my hair look more amazing then I could have imagined for all those months when i day dreamed about it all. I used to work with the photographer we chose Mark Sisley, so i knew his work well. See more of my wedding day pictures on his blog here.

Its so true what they say, the day itself whizzes by and you really have to try and remember to drink it all in, which I thought i did at the time but looking back on it all seems so strange now. I'm glad I have loads of amazing photos to help me remember and would advise anyone getting married to spend a bit on their photographer as these are your lasting memories. I loved the whole process of getting married, the planning was fun, the dressing up was fun and I felt great on the day and the day itself was amazing and everyone was so happy for us, but i am glad its now all over and we can continue being us rather then 'how are the wedding plans?' We actually get some physical prints, rather then just digital, from the photographer tomorrow so I can't wait to see them all again and remember.