Morning WWWers, you are in for a treat today :-) Our lovely real bride here at Whimsical Wonderland Weddings, Laura F got hitched in December and today i get to share her real wedding report yay!

Laura and Rich were married at The Barn at Brynich, Becon, they wanted their wedding to be relaxed and warm, which was also family friendly. They had the most beautiful elements to their day, from the purple hued incredible florals, sparkle everywhere, and the cutest wedding party.

Laura looks just amazing in her Oh My Honey dress, sequin jacket and glitter shoes, while Rich went for a brown check suit with purple bow tie and pink suede shoes.. wow. One of my favourite moments from part 1 was their ‘first look without a look’ where they exchanged gifts and cards, it’s the most touching moment.

Thanks so much to the brilliant Amy Lewin Photography for sharing her photographs with us today.

The Proposal…. It was Christmas – we had a 5 month old baby and just put the deposit down on our first house so it’s safe to say that with so much else going on I was most definitely not expecting it! We’d had an amazing morning watching the minis open all their presents, and when the chaos had died down just a little bit and the kids were upstairs getting changed into new clothes and tearing through packaging, Rich presented me with a huge present. I opened it to reveal Cath Kidston packaging and so, thinking handbag, I looked up to say thank you, and saw Rich sat there with a nervous smile and an absolutely beautiful ring. And although Rich will always moan at me for being cold hearted and not crying, (I was far too shocked), the look on my daughters’ faces when I showed them the ring and told them we were going to get married will always be one of my favourite things EVER. (And then the car wouldn’t start. So instead of bursting through my parent’s door with presents and champagne and our exciting news, we had to ask my dad to come and pick us up.)

The Vision for the day…. 

We just wanted to keep it fun and relaxed and warm and personal – without too many formalities and absolutely no wedding ‘pomp’, and with a huge dose of candles and fairy lights and sparklers thrown in. We were always very aware that we had to keep an army of small people happy which played a huge part in shaping the day (essentially there were sweets and treats on tap alllll day…) but really we just wanted everyone to have as lovely a time as we had.

The Planning process…. We spent a good long while searching for our ideal venue but once we’d booked in at Brynich, we had just over a year to pull the wedding together which turned out to be a pretty perfect time scale. Getting married in December meant that we could sit down in January and put together a month-by-month checklist of things that needed doing/booking/making/paying for over the rest of the year. We kept track of the budget using the WWW budget spreadsheet which was great, and really we just worked between the checklist and the spreadsheet to make sure we were on track. Breaking it down that way worked really well for us – we could easily move stuff around to make sure we balanced our finances as well as possible, and we spent the quieter months starting on the DIY projects and getting as much checked off in advance as possible. Obviously things were still pretty insane in the last few weeks, but for the most part we did pretty well in keeping everything together. I know Rich kept expecting me to have some kind of bridal melt down, and it never happened. Smug face!

Budget….  Around £8000. We were really lucky to have a little bit of help from both sides of the family, and winning our photography from Amy was such a bonus – not only because she was amazing, but it just freed up some of the budget which meant we had a little room for negotiation elsewhere.

The Venue…Absolutely one of our favourite things about the whole wedding. We looked long and hard for a venue like Brynich, and we were so glad we persevered and didn’t compromise on anything less because the venue was perfect – exactly as we’d hoped – and the staff were amazing throughout the entire planning process. Simon, the manager at Brynich worked incredibly hard to make sure everything went to plan and we were so pleased to have had him there on the day. It was also amazing to have been able to stay at Brynich for the entire weekend of the wedding with all our family and favourite people – the cottage accommodation there was just perfect and everyone who stayed had a really lovely time. Being able to stay on in our own little newlywed bubble the day after the wedding was really really special, and it also means we can revisit to celebrate our anniversaries!

The Readings + Music….Initially, I really struggled with this part. Like I said, we really didn’t want too much formality, but we wanted to enjoy the special sentiment of the wedding ceremony, so looked for something light hearted but meaningful. In the end, we asked Ella and Molly, my two daughters, to read for us, and let them choose. They both went with Edward Monkton short stories – A Lovely Love Story and Love Monkey – which were totally fitting, and they really did us proud. Their little brother hassled them both the entire way through both of their readings – standing in front of them offering them sweets, trying to see the pictures in the story, and snatching the books away from them which was hilarious – but they didn’t falter once, which was pretty impressive. Anyone who’s met Noah knows he’s not easy to ignore ;) One of my favourite moments from the whole day was the massive hugs they all shared as soon as they had finished. It was really very special.

We’d asked my brother to play some acoustic aisle music for us and so we had ‘The first day of my life’ by Bright Eyes as I walked down the aisle, and ’5 years time’ by Noah and the Whale on our way back up – and I am so pleased that we did. It set the tone of the ceremony perfectly and hearing him start up before I went into the barn is a moment I’ll remember forever.

Credit where credit is due…

Venue: http://www.brynich.co.uk/

Photographer: http://amylewinphotography.wordpress.com/

Videographer: http://www.kaytilaurenweddings.co.uk/

Dress: http://ohmyhoney.bigcartel.com/

Groom’s Attire: Next, Shoes from Topman. Bow ties from Moaning Minnie on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/moaningminnie

Bridesmaid Dresses: Warehouse and Zara

Flowers: http://www.blushfloralart.com

Caterers: http://www.sugarloafcatering.co.uk/

Music: Ceremony – http://www.blankfrancis.com/

Reception music – http://www.functioncentral.co.uk/acts/andy_guitarvocals/

Thanks so much Laura and Rich… part 2 is coming later, and it’s not to be missed ;-)

I will see you this afternoon lovelies XOXO Lou

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT...