I thought I’d share behind the scenes of our wedding day.
The real story of our day is in the personal details that not every one will have noticed, but I worked hard to weave through our day. We wanted our wedding to be a reflection of our personalities, and also celebrate the people who made us, us!
Being a graphic designer, I designed our invites myself. The invite insert is an exact replica of my grandparent’s invite, and this is the font we used throughout the whole day! (I took these photos) We used this same design through all of our stationery for the whole day (and our thank you cards too!)
Credit: our wedding photos were taken by the lovely HannahMia.com
When I spotted a painted denim jacket on Pinterest I knew that’s what I wanted! I found the very talented Phoenix Hand Painted on Etsy. And Helen painted my invite design onto an Asos jacket! Amazing!(Top tip: I ordered from Asos and got it delivered directly to Helen so I didn’t have to pay postage twice!)
My hair was done by Smiley from Hair by Smiles. And I had the best experience buying my dress from Wed2B in Chesham. The shop assistant, Beth, who helped me was incredible!
The Ceremony
After a 16-week engagement (I know, it was short – more on that later!) we got married on Sunday the 4th of November at 2:30pm. At South Hill Church, where we met (when we were too young to remember) and grew up!
For us, the day was all about the people involved. My Maid of Honour’s younger brother (who has often felt like my younger brother) played the piano as we walked down the aisle.
Bradley’s Grandad is the pastor, so I’ve known him forever and he married us! With the help of Google, we wrote our own vows.
My three brothers took part in the service – one did the reading (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12), one sung during the signing of the register (he was truly amazing – I asked him to learn Brad’s favourite song as a surprise and he smashed it!), and at the end of the ceremony my eldest brother read a blessing he wrote for us. He used words from my Gran’s funeral, and it had me in tears, it was perfect.
Ceremony Decor
Amongst our ceremony decor you may be able to spy:
- my Great-Grandad’s old camera
- the first bunch of roses Bradley ever gave me
- a star map from the night we said our first ‘I love you’ (we were in South Africa on the beach under the stars – life isn’t always movie-moments, but sometimes it happens, and it did for us!)
- as well as lots of photos from all our adventures!
We asked some very special friends of ours who we both see more like family to do our address – it was so lovely: both poignant and funny!
We’ve known our registrar our whole lives and she was amazing through the whole planning process! Brad’s best man & a really close friend of mine were our witnesses.
We bought paper confetti super cheap and our friends who set up for us popped a box on every other seat. Best moment ever! Although, I still feel bad for the person who had to clear it all up! There was TONS!
We went to a nearby common for our photos. Little known fact: this spot is particularly special to us as it’s where we had our first kiss!
Our Bridal Party was the best! Our sisters, and my two besties as well as our nieces and nephew! Brad’s best man helped all day and managed to sort all the audio tech for the ceremony as well as being best man!
Mr Bear even made an appearance – he’s been on many an adventure so couldn’t miss our wedding day!
These flowers of dreams were created by Carly! She did the most incredible job understanding all my waffling about what I wanted. I’ve dried my bouquet and I’ll keep it forever it still looks gorgeous!
The Reception
Reception Decor
Our reception was at the beautiful Milling Barn & we filled it with more personal details…
- We cut out paper heart table confetti from a map of Dorset – our favourite place & where we got engaged!
- Puzzle piece favours because we love a good puzzle!
- Fairy lights – the first gift Brad gave me
- Personalised Lego minifigures cake topper – Brad’s idea! No surprise there!
- My Gran used to affectionately call pretty much anyone: flop’ead! So there was no better way to welcome all our guests to the reception venue!
We shared speeches, feasted on a buffet of pizza and BBQ – the food dreams are made of! And finished off with a slice of cake made by our amazing friend, Rachel! My mouth is watering thinking about it, even now!
Chloe from Soul to Soul Acoustic has the most amazing voice. They actually stepped in for us at the last minute. And they were incredible!
Instead of a first dance we had a game of Mr & Mrs (the guests all had a chance to make their predictions earlier on in the evening – this made it super fun because everyone wanted to know if they were right!)
And finally we made our exit running through a tunnel of our guests to our awaiting car! (Our driver for the day was a super close friend of mine, who lived with my family for a while! We just bought some super cheap car ribbons from eBay.)
It’s your day, do it your way!
We loved our day! We made it ours by taking the ‘typical’ wedding format, removing all the bits that didn’t suit us, and adding in our people! Don’t be afraid to break the mould and do things differently.
Thanks for stopping by, I’m impressed you got to the end of this one! I’d love to hear more about how you’ve made your day, yours! We would love to capture the details and personality of your day, contact us to find out more.
Grace x
