10.10.15

I originally wrote this post in celebration of our fourth wedding anniversary, and I look back on it each year. I genuinely wish I could do it all again. It was the most amazing day with all of our friends and family, and I loved every second of it. So, to celebrate, I wanted to take a bit more of an in-depth look on what was one of the best days EVER.

All photos in this post are by Novel Focus Photography.

The Venue

We got married at Wyck Hill House, a country house hotel out in Stow-on-the-Wold. It’s got some beautiful scenery and the interior of it all is so pretty. The bridal suite where I got ready was one of the most gorgeous rooms I’ve stayed in, as you’ll see from the pictures. My favourite part had to be the staircase though, as it was the backdrop for one of my favourite photos, and I’ll never forget walking down them just minutes before the ceremony.

The Flowers

I had no idea what I wanted in terms of flowers. Thankfully, our florist was a family friend of my husbands’, and he put together the most gorgeous arrangements for us. We went with a combination of cream roses and blue delphiniums, and the blue matched our colour scheme perfectly. For the centrepieces, we went with arrangements in huge cocktail glasses (very fitting, right?) and they looked amazing – I especially loved the gems in the glasses! The icing on the cake though, had to be my bouquet. It was stunning!

White roses and blue delphiniums arranged in a cocktail glass with blue beads underneath them.

Close up of my wedding bouquet - white roses and blue delphiniums

The Dress

I’ve talked before about the anxiety and overthinking that came with my wedding dress shopping, but ultimately, on the day, I was in love with my dress. I knew I didn’t really want a big, poofy dress because it would have looked ridiculous on me (it still didn’t stop me from trying one on though!), so I went with a slim fitted dress with lots of lace. I especially loved the sparkly belt! I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted a veil initially, but the second I put it on I knew I had to have it.

Me in my wedding dress, clutching my bouquet, stood at the window of my hotel room

One thing I wanted to make sure I got right was my something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. My something old was my great grandmother’s wedding ring, and I bought a pretty lace garter as my something new. My Mum loaned me one of her rings as my something borrowed, and my two of my best friends bought me the most gorgeous pair of earrings as my something blue. The colour just pops in every single photo you can see them in, and it matched our colour scheme perfectly.

Hair & Makeup

Out of everything I knew this would be the biggest challenge for me. As someone who has never been happy with the way they look I was so nervous about how everything would turn out. Because of timing and the location of my venue, I my hair and makeup done separately. Makeup was done at home with my Mum, and I had my hair done at the venue. Considering my recurring fears that I was going to be orange, or that my hair was going to look flat AF after five minutes, when I was having my veil attached and being zipped into my dress, I genuinely felt pretty for the first time EVER. That’s definitely a sign of a job well done, right?

Me sitting and scrolling through my phone while having my hair done

Music

I loved all of the music we had for our day. Surprisingly, only one Taylor Swift song made it into the mix! I walked down the aisle to Marry Me by Train, which was a song I knew that I wanted for my wedding the first time I heard it. Unfortunately, because I was so nervous I literally bolted down the aisle so quickly that we didn’t get to hear much of it. For the signing of the register, we had Mine by Taylor Swift (obvs), along with 8 Days a Week by The Beatles. My favourite song from the ceremony though had to be our walk out song – I’m a Believer by Smash Mouth – that’s right, the version from Shrek. It went down so well and every time I hear it now, it brings a smile to my face.

Our first dance song was You & Me by Lifehouse – it wasn’t something we initially thought of, but after months of rejecting each other’s choices, we listened to this one properly and it was the first song that we agreed on. Looking back to our first dance, it was awkward AF, but I knew we’d made the right choice.

The Cake

My mother-in-law made our cake, and it was amazing. I was initially hesitant to go for a traditional wedding cake, because I hate fruit cake. However, after a lot of debate with my husband, we decided to go for three tiers – fruit at the bottom, chocolate in the middle, and vanilla sponge at the top. A couple of months before the wedding my mother-in-law made a sample cake, and oh my god, it was so good. I said I hate fruit cake, but the sample cake converted me. I now love fruit cake and I was genuinely upset when we ate our last piece of leftover wedding cake.

The fondant penguins sat on top of our wedding cake.

As for the decoration, my love of penguins meant that they were a must have. We found a picture on Pinterest of two wedding penguins which my mother-in-law replicated out of icing, and they were so cute! To add a little extra, she also made some little flowers out of icing that matched both our colour scheme and the detailing on our invitations. We also decided to incorporate my husband’s love for computers too with some binary, so my mother-in-law cut out 1s and 0s to go at the base of the cake.

Our wedding cake, decorated with white royal icing, blue flowers and binary details

The Wedding Party

Of course I can’t write a post about our wedding without a mention of our two sidekicks on the day. My sister in law, Stacey, was my bridesmaid and she did the most amazing job helping me plan my hen party and making sure the train on my dress was beautifully displayed literally all day long. She also looked stunning in her dress too! On Liam’s side he had Corey, his brother, and our friend Josh as groomsmen, and all three of them looked quite the part in their matching suits. Josh was Liam’s best man and he gave the best speech – it even involved Tilly! – and from what I hear, he organised a cracking stag do as well.

Birds' eye photo of Liam and I stood with all our wedding guests

Favourite Moments

I would love to write a full on account of the day (as you can probably tell) but I’m aware this is becoming quite a long post so before I go, I’ve listed my favourite moments from throughout the day.

Corey arriving at my room with a gift from Liam – a bracelet and my favourite perfume
Coming down the stairs of the hotel before the ceremony – even though I felt nervous AF and random people were watching
My Mum walking me down the aisle
Seeing Liam for the first time
My Dad giving me a hug and telling me I looked smashing when I reached the end of the aisle
Getting to speak to all of the guests as they came out of the ceremony
Liam telling me filthy jokes while we were having our photos taken
Entering the wedding breakfast for the first time
All three of the speeches – my Dad, Liam, and Josh
Greeting the evening guests as they all arrived
The first dance – even though it was awkward AF
Generally drinking and living our best lives with our friends and family
Dancing to Torn by Natalie Imbruglia with my friend Simon (don’t ask, but it was goddamn hilarious and still talked about to this day)

Of course, the whole day was made perfect by our wonderful friends and family. I know it was four years ago, but I can’t thank everyone who came and helped us out every step of the way. And apologies to anyone I was a bridezilla to at any point.