I so love this couple :-) Groom Jon is a policeman and his bride Annie is a paediatrician, and her love for children shines in her wedding, for there are many smiling, beautiful children at their wedding. They are the sweetest people, with smiles planted on their face the whole day through, even when disaster strikes and they need to get married twice in one day!!! {see Annie’s report}

Annie wears the most beautiful bespoke Sassi Holford gown and her dear Emmy shoes, which are simply stunning i must say. One of my favourite elements from their day has to be the blush toned florals and that beautiful cake.

What a personal, touching wedding full of emotion.

Thanks so much to the brilliant Richard Skins Photography for sharing his work with us today, here is what he had to say about the day;

“Anne & Jon’s wedding was at Doddington hall near Lincoln; Both the location and the weather helped in creating a really stunning wedding. Anne created a lot of the nice touches you see in the photographs and combined with some great guests and the lovely couple themselves help in making a very rememberable day for everyone!”

Names: We are Jon and Annie. Jon’s a big tough rugby playing policeman (or so he’d like to think!!) and I’m a paediatrician.

Proposal: Jon proposed in Lumley Castle – following a series of elaborate fibs about us going on a camping trip (whilst I was think “Oh crap, he clearly doesn’t know me at all if he thinks I want to go camping” but putting a brave face on things, packing pointless items like pillows and toilet roll (FYI Lumley Castle has both of these) and when we arrived insisting we were actually staying in the non-existent campsite (much to the amusement of the hotel staff). He had also sneakily asked my grandma if we could use one of her rings as our engagement ring. The ring was bought for her by my grandpa, who sadly isn’t with us anymore, when he returned from war. Ever since I was little I’ve put that ring on my finger and pretended I was getting married. It’s very dear to me as it represents the love between my grandparents, rumour has it Jon shed a tear or two when Grandma gave it to him (see I told you…total softy). Jon proposed in our room before we went down to dinner. I proudly (and rather smugly) donned my precious ring and we prepared to inform all the staff in the restaurant and clearly then to lap-up their congratulations and adoration. I sat there, expecting them to notice our new-found rosy glow of togetherness, waiting for the opportune moment. Then….what’s this I see….a smartly dressed young man at the table next to us is moving….getting down on one knee….taking out a small square box….tears….joy ….congratulations….and a very annoyed Annie who feels it would now be churlish to muscle in on someone else’s special moment!

The wedding date: 10th Sept 2010. I got married twice, within 5 minutes, to the same man. Imagine the scene – 10 minutes to kick off, champagne in hand, not a hair out of place, relaxed, ready to go. Or not as the case might be. Along comes a very upset wedding co-ordinator to break the news that owing to a small issue with our notice of marriage we couldn’t get married in the Coach House on Doddington Estate but only in the Hall itself…..where neither Jon, our guests, nor the 300m of bunting I had grudgingly handmade were. Cue Bride / Best Woman Counsel of War. The resulting decision was to walk down the aisle in the Coach House with my Dad (something I desperately wanted to do), nip off with our mums and my sister to legally seal the deal in the porch way of the Hall, then walk back down the aisle together to say our vows and complete the ceremony with our family and friends.

If you’d told me this hiccough would occur 6 months ago I would probably have died. No exaggeration. But minutes before marrying Jon it all seemed pretty clear – as long as I could marry Jon nothing else really mattered.

Vision for the day & a bit of advice bride to bride: We didn’t really have a vision for our day….we just wanted a small wedding surrounded by our family and friends…and our merry band of nieces, nephews & godchildren! You could say the ethos of our wedding was simply– Don’t Sweat the Little Stuff – Unless (of course) it Really Matters. Which transpired to be a very useful ethos as our wedding turned out to be chaos – and we loved it!

As well as the minor issue with not actually being able to get married where we’d planned I aggravated an old back injury 8 weeks before the wedding. Cue an inability to put on my own jeans let alone rush around doing the thousands of last minute things we all know exist. Lesson learnt? The internet, your mother, your best women and the friends that you invited to your wedding because you love them, are all there for a reason. They want to help….so let them.

With a little help from these friends (and in my case many painkillers, some intramuscular injections and a healthy quantity of champagne) it will be alright on the night. Sure enough I managed to slip on my Emmy delights and chasse down the aisle (twice in fact – see above) knowing that the people surrounding me had helped make that happen.

And ladies, a minor aside, if life means you’re unable to go to the gym the pre-requisite 5 times a week, or in my case even move, don’t sweat it (pardon the pun!) As my groom so eloquently put it whilst I was sobbing into a Pinot Grigio about my enforced lack of Pre-Wedding-Exercise-Regime-To-Make-Me-Beautiful: “I fancy you in that (scrub bottoms size extra large, inside-out T-shirt, unwashed hair, no makeup) so why are you worrying?” You can’t fault the man-logic.

The grooms and the attendants’ attire: We had a lot of people to dress…2 bestmen, 2 bestwomen, 4 flower girls, 3 pageboys and a ring bearer….phew! We didn’t have a colour theme or even a plan! I wanted my Bestwomen to wear dresses that they liked and felt as gorgeous as they looked in – both were high street buys. It was only when they were placed next to each other on the day that we discovered they co-ordinated beautifully! Jon wanted to wear a grey suit so we bought one from T.M Lewin who were able to alter the jacket, the trousers and a dress shirt for him – he’s 6 foot 4 so problematic in the clothes department! He loved it….especially because the sales assistant told him he had a very pert bottom. His shoes were from Ted Baker (and surprisingly for a man who lives his life in trainers) were his choice. Jon’s tie the boys’ suits and the pageboys / ring bearers’ trousers and waistcoats were all from M&S. The little girl’s dresses were a bargain sale spot on a random shopping trip by my sister. Job done.

The Dress: I think it’s really important to do what makes you happy. I took my mum and my sister with me when dress shopping and in retrospect wish I’d gone on my own. Don’t get me wrong….we had a fab time and I love them both dearly but what I forgot is that’s not how I usually shop. I’m really a lone-shopper at heart and it was when I was on my own with Karen at Agape in Knutsford that I found what I wanted. She was totally in tune with me and the dress she suggested was the one I bought. My dress was by Sassi Holford and was bespoke as I’m 5 foot 11 so a little longer than average in all areas! It fit like a glove and felt amazing. I wore it with a Stepahie Allin wrap during the day and a Sassi Holford corsage in the evening. Don’t fret if other brides are raving about finding “The One”. I loved my dress but was also pretty sure I could have tried on another 50 in the style I liked and loved all of them as well. It’s ok to think “Enough with the standing semi-naked in front of a mirror having to dive into yet another dress….I’ll go with this one.” As long as you’re happy, feel like yourself and at the same time a million dollars your way is the right way.

The shoes, however, were another story…this was where my heart lay. A present from Jon, an amazing trip to Emmy in London with my mum and my best-friend and a fantastic pampering experience….The 4-inch Heeled Delights were born!

The Flowers: One of the things I loved the most was the process of choosing our flowers, and in fact our florist. She has a cutting garden on Doddington Estate so over the year we were planning the wedding we could literally watch our flowers growing. Rachel is an incredible florist and because of her style of floristry and creative ability we were able to plan everything in an hour over a cup of coffee and a slice of cake! We had very ‘natural’ arrangements with lovely fresh greenery. My bouquet was very simple with gorgeous smelling herbs. The Bestwomen had wrist corsages, our 10 year old ‘Chief Bridesmaid’ had a miniature version of my bouquet and the flower girls had hand tied posies.

The Venue: We chose Doddington Estate because of the family feel it had. By the time the wedding came we knew everyone….the couple to whom it belongs, the girls who run the farm shop, the builder (who was extending the Coach House in which we were to get married ) and of course the fantastic wedding co-ordinators – Justine and her assistant Helen. We really felt that they invested personally in the process and helped make it the relaxed fuss-free weekend we wanted.

The cake:  I wasn’t overly fussed by the cake to start with. Then we decided my mum would bake it and decorate it with lace from her wedding dress and it became more than just a cake. The day my mum and I spent decorating it was really special and made me feel very emotional. Then after we’d set up the cake table my mum, the florist and I stood back and shed a wee tear…not to be the last during the course of the weekend!

The Details: Some of the little things were very important to us. We asked the acoustic guitarist from the café round the corner from our flat to play and he learnt all our favourite songs. My 90 year old grandma made 200 heart-shaped shortbread as favours – her shortbread being a legendary family favourite! We personalised the ceremony as much as possible – writing our own vows and carefully choosing our readings – one from my favourite book (a present from Jon), another a Pam Eyres poem so apt that when Jon first heard it he asked me if I’d written it and an extract from The Velveteen Rabbit which Jon’s dad sat to read to the children at the front of the ceremony room. However – as cheesy as it may sound – whilst these things are important at the end of the day the only thing that really matters is the moment you agree to spend the rest of your life with your bestfriend. And I’m the lucky girl who got to do it twice.

Credit where credit’s due…

Dress – www.agapebridal.co.uk

Photographer – www.richardskinsphotography.co.uk

Shoes and hair comb – www.emmyshoes.co.uk

Venue – www.doddingtonhall.com

Flowers – www.catkinflowers.co.uk

Thanks so much to Anne and Jon for sharing their totally pretty wedding with us today :-) how amazingly did they cope with their wedding legality issue. Here is proof you need’nt worry about things going wrong, you cannot prevent them, and all you need to do is take them in your stride. Plus you have a great story to tell the grandchildren ;-)) xoxo

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