For the 7th wedding of the week… yes the 7th!! You have been spoilt hehe ;-) I have the lovely wedding of Kelly and Ashley to share.

WWW readers Kelly and Ashley were married at their local church followed by a barn reception at the Rockingham Arms, Wentworth. They wanted their wedding to be meaningful, relaxed and personal to them as a couple, keeping within their £7000 budget.

Kelly looked so beautiful in her Ian Stuart dress with platform shoes while Ashley when for a slim fit grey suit which looked very dapper. The sunny sunflowers were silk and looked just wonderful, they crafted some lovely rustic decorations and that victoria sponge wedding cake looked scrumptious.

Thanks so much to the lovely Emma Richards for sharing her images with us this afternoon.

Names…. Kelly and Ashley

Wedding Date…. 2^nd June 2012

The Proposal…. It wasn’t particularly romantic, in fact it was rather cringeworthy. After a night out in Sheffield for Kellys 23^rd Birthday, Ashleywent over to the dresser in our living room, got something out, got down on his knees and crawled across the room to propse with his carefully chosen words ‘Marry Me Duck’…not sure whether it was drink or nerves which meant he got down on one knee at the opposite end of the living room rather than walking across the living room to me and then getting down on his knee.

The Vision for the day…. I knew all along that I wanted a very meaningful wedding day, one that was about us, rather than one where we please everyone else and follow trends. I really wanted something relaxed yet traditional but something which said ‘ Kelly & Ashley’, that you could see we had planned it, rather than just every other wedding with a colour theme, yet the same vintage transport, the same hired suits and the same posh flowers, tealights and favours. I wanted something else!

The Planning process…. I began with a mood board. I scrolled the internet for hours, reading blogs, jotting down ideas, printing off pictures, cutting bits out of magazines and eventually creating an a3 sheet which had my vision on it. This made it easier to show people what I was thinking, to give them an idea on the things that I liked. My friend gave me some advice of using paint charts to find the colour I liked and then using this for my colour theme, however this didn’t really work for me as I didn’t have a colour theme, more of a ‘theme’. I then scrolled the internet for wedding planning books, so that I had a ticklist to follow, My Mum bought the book for me as it would become something rather sentimental and I worked through the list ticking things off as I went. It was really helpful to see visually what I needed to do and where I was heading.

Budget…. My budget was £6000. It is what we had saved between me and my parents, although my Dad said all along that if I needed any more then let him know as he didn’t want me to do without on my special day. We had a few setbacks with cancelled wedding transport, which lost us money and cost us an extra £500, but in all we did a full church wedding, 3 course meal for 70, bought all the grooms men and bridesmaid outfits, decorated the venue, paid for flowers and transport and honeymoon for £7000.

The Venue… We chose wentworth church at Rotherham mainly because it is very grand and set beautifully in the village of wentworth. Living in a wentworth cottage we felt a certain pull to the church and this is why we chose it. Costing us nearly £1000 it took a chunk out of our budget just for the service, but it was well worth it. The reception venue we chose was across the road from the church, a converted barn belonging to the rockingham arms. The function room is pretty much what it says on the tin and was perfect for our theme. It was also really practical as it was local, walking distance from the church and big enough yet small enough to create the atmosphere we were hoping for. It also had a garden which meant I could create the outdoor space that I also wanted with bunting and hay.

The Dress + Accessories…. Having seen the dress on Don’t Tell The Bride in 2009, I knew that it was the one I wanted, however I never anticipated how difficult it would be to find. As it was aired in 2009, it was filmed in 2008 and therefore was a 4 year old design by the time I looked for it in 2011/12. I watched the episode of Don’t Tell The Bride again to identify the dress shop and rang the dress shop in Wales to find out the designer and make. Which was Ian Stuart Rock & Roll. As the dress was quite unique and I didn’t want to follow the traditional diamonds and pearls kind of look, it took me ages to find accessories to match. Eventually I went with my Mum to Liverpool, a city close to my heart where I lived for 3 years through my studies and spent my hen weekend their too. We shopped in the little boutiques and on the markets and eventually I found the most gorgeous pair of cream and tan shoes with the biggest heel….they were £35 and I just had to have them….they were perfect, although at the time nobody could see my vision. I also stumbled across a cream fascinator, again, I loved it, I knew it wasn’t the right shade for my dress but figured it would probably go with the theme as I wasn’t meant to be a polished bride! In the end it looked perfect!!!

Groom’s attire… I knew all along that I didn’t want the men to wear proper suits. When we looked closely into it, I loved the idea of them wearing braces and quirky ties. It also worked out much cheaper and the men could wear the trousers and shirts again after the big day. Ashley (husband) and my Dad both had full suits, but the same shade grey as the trousers, and the groomsmen just had trousers, shirt, braces and tie. We found some polka dot ties in the sale at Burtons whichw ere perfect £6 each. Trousers and suits from River Island, Next and Burtons. We bought a metre of newspaper fabric too from ebay, which was quite quirky and replaced the handkercheifs from the suit pockets, adding the the theme, just a bit of something extra. I had a tiny Usher, aged 3, and his outfit mirrored the big ushers, except from having a bow tie rather than a tie and we made this from material we bought on ebay which resembled the polka dots on the tie. We also gave him a flag which we made, with ‘no crying’ printed on it. We felt that he needed something to occupy him during the service and this did the job perfectly. Groomsman were made up of brothers and friends.

The Readings + Music…. We had one reading in church, read my a bridesmaid, it was a quirky poem which gives a modern take on love and marriage, within church we chose 3 hymns which were rather upbeat, in fact they were hymns that I remember singing in primary school. We had give me joy in my heart, one more step along the world I go and hes got the whole world in his hands. Music for the afternoon and evening was put together from a playlist on our wedding website. We asked guests to request a song, and therefore we knew everyone would have music they enjoyed at some point in the day.

Beautiful bridesmaids….. We bought the bridesmaid dresses from ebay, they were made to measure from china and they were perfect. As we had some bridesmaids more body conscious than others and some with larger busts and so on, we needed a style to suit all and so we opted for a one shoulder, full length flowing number, aiming to hide curves and provide support at the same time. They were a perfect fit and teamed with yellow shoes and sunflowers, they looked fantastic. I had 3 grown up bridesmaids, two being school friends of over 20 years and the other being a close work friend. The mini bridesmaid is the brides goddaughter and she worse a gorgeous dress from Monsoon. This was the most expensive of the 3 dresses but worth it as it tied in the bridesmaids by colour with the polka dot of the mens outfits. We bought wellies and jelly shoes (for added quirkiness) from ebay for the mini bridesmaid. Older bridesmaid shoes were from new Look.

The Flowers… My Mum made my flowers for me as I had silk. A Hayfever sufferer I felt it best to have silk flowers and it also cut the cost massively too. We went to wholesalers Country Baskets and chose my sunflowers and some white trailing flower to mingle in. We also bought some yellow buds which eventually became part of the mens corsage. With florist tape and safety pins we made gorgeous corsages for the men. My Mum made the bouquets ready….for a grand totally of £90 for flowers. The remaining flowers were used for table deocrations.

The Cake… Having seen rustic Victoria sponge cakes on wedding blogs and google images, I decided early on that this was what I wanted….to my delight, this was also a much cheaper option as the icing is what costs on a wedding cake. 3 tier of Victoria sponge with seasonal fruits scattered around it looked good enough to eat!! We also used some of the left over flowers to decorate the cake.

Your Photographer…. As we had sourced everything locally we searched the internet for photographers who were local and within our budget. We stumbled across Emma Richards website and what sold it to us wasn’t her pictures and previous work but the fact her name was written in bunting across her webpage. A really polite young lady who was new to the business she listened to what we wanted, looked at the picture we showed her and researched the styles we discussed and she pulled it off. Out pictured are lovely. We didn’t want any posed pictures as such, not family pictures meaning waiting around and reeling off a list of people to stand and smile….we wanted natural pictures and so Emma followed us around all day snapping the things that were happening, the pictures are a true reflection of our day.

The Details + Decor… I wanted shabby chic, vintage, rustic country, I wanted it to scream Yorkshire and country bumpkin…and it certainly did. Outside in the garden we had bunting made from net curtain and lace doilies, died with tea-bags and hung from the trees, we had jam jars which had wired wrapped around them hung in the trees with tealights too. We had hay from the local farmer creating a photo booth area with feather bowers, blow guitars etc and a basket with disposable cameras so that people could take pictures of themselves. Inside we had lots of different chalk boards which I had written the menu, table names and so on. They really set thescene. I bought a pack of 6 vases in the sale at B& M for £3 to put the spare sunflowers in, in the centre of each table and used the jan jars for tealights too. All in all it looked fantastic. We bought some potato sack Hesian to line baskets with for added effect and made more bunting for the top table with ‘live, love, laugh’ penned into it. We had homemade jam for favours with ‘spread the love’ written on it and novelty ideas such as a basket of dancing shoes, lucky horsehoes for people to take home, as basket for cards and a basket of tags for the wish tree which we had.

The Honeymoon…. We hired VW Camper and went on a honeymoon road trip to Cornwall. With my Grandad passing away in recent years and being named ‘Reggie’ it was inspring to stumble across a VW called Reggie, and this was what I decided to have. We didn’t look particularly for a VW, but as it was called Reggie we had him as wedding transport and also took honeymoon in a vw camper too to complete the theme. We stopped in a different place each night visiting an array of places during the day. We had a fantastic time.

Memorable moments…The Lucky Chimney Sweep who appears in nearly every photo, just peeping and spreading his luck. Ashley signing the wrong part of the register in church, voiding our marriage almost instantly. Our first dance…we did a medley of songs, beginning with Olly Murs (my fave) and then breaking into golden oldies like twist again, YMCA, Birdie Song, MC Hammer and so on. Nobody was expecting it and it was so funny, the response we got was pure comedy.

Advice for other couples… Relax and enjoy it, it goes by in a flash. Have what you want not what you feel that you have to. Please yourself and don’t worry about the guests. Make sure you spend time with your husband rather than tending guests and making small talk….we totally enjoyed ourselves and danced the night away….our guests were quite happy to join in or watch from afar.

Credit where credit is due…

www.next.co.uk

www.burtons.co.uk

www.newlook.co.uk

www.riverisland.co.uk

www.countrybaskets.co.uk

www.ebay.co.uk

www.emmarichards.co.uk

www.dubtrips.co.uk

www.vwcamperhirecornwall.co.uk

www.bigalsfunhouse.co.uk

Just lovely. Thanks so much to Kelly and Ashley for sharing their gorgeous wedding with us today. Happy Friday lovelies XOXO Lou

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