How we met...
We met in quite a traditional way I guess, in a world of dating apps and swiping right. It was on a night out in Northampton. We had a mutual friend in common and ended up in a bigger group drinking together and having a good time.
The proposal...
Proposal wise, it is a lovely little story I think. Makes me smile every time I think of it. We had talked about marriage but as we had only been together for 18 months, I wasn’t expecting anything to happen anytime soon.
I joined James on a business trip in Dublin one weekend. On our free day from work, I had planned a whole day of roaming around the city - Guinness museum, brunches, shopping etc. - but he kept adding in random suggestions for extra activities. “I don’t want to go to Victorian prison, it's other end of town”, “Why would I want to walk around a park, when we could shopping?” Completely unknown to me, he was trying to create some moments for him to propose, but I kept ruining it.
He tried to propose five times that day! Once even in the Guinness museum, he was down one knee! I didn’t see him and completely walked the other way. Eventually, after our yummy dinner at a beautiful restaurant, two glasses of champagne turned up at the table and he popped the question. I was shocked to my core!
The dresses...
My wedding dress was bought from Serendipity Brides, and the brand was Wtoo by Watters. The bridesmaid dresses were from Warehouse.
Our favourite part of the day...
I think we both agree that our favourite part was actually getting married (funnily enough!). I couldn’t wait to walk down the aisle. We were waiting at the back of the barn and it seemed like all of my bridesmaids were way more nervous than me. I couldn't wait to get to James.
I had the biggest smile on my face as I started walking with my dad. It was amazing to see everyone that we had been thinking about over the months of planning, all together in one room. As I looked ahead I could see James’ face beaming. As I got to him at the top of the aisle, my legs started to go a bit weak. I was truly filled with so much love and happiness.
The plan/idea we felt worked well on the day...
To not have one. We didn’t really have a theme as such, which we found took the pressure off things having to be a certain way. We didn’t feel constrained by tradition or “what you are meant to have at a wedding”, everything we picked was something that we liked the idea of, or felt right. I think some couples put too much pressure on themselves for it all to be 100% perfect, and that is stressful. Planning the wedding together showed me that we can work together, make big decisions, and we found out a lot about each other in the process, which was lovely.
Where we feel our budget was well spent...
Apart from our amazing venue (obviously), the photographer. What is the point of creating a perfect day if you don’t capture it? Having an amazing photographer is super important. As a couple you want to be able to capture those memories forever, and working with the right photographer was super high on my list of things to get right. Hannah Walker of Casey Avenue was brilliant. I loved her style and was very excited when managed to book her. At our practise shoot, she made James feel at ease (I actually found out that he doesn’t like having his picture taken), which was good preparation for the big day. Each image brings back so many individual emotions and moments from the day. Something we will both treasure forever.
If we could give a tip to other couples...
Budget for everything. Obviously you write down the big stuff, but it is the small things that you forget about nearer the time. New makeup, soft drinks x 100, 80 paper pom poms that you just have to have. We didn’t think about as much detail as we should have, and didn’t really budget of all those hidden extras.
Special thanks to Terri and James for sharing their story, and to Casey Avenue Photography for the photos
Comments