WHERE WAS IT? The ceremony was at St. Benet's Roman Catholic Church in Beccles followed by the reception in a marquee in a field on Langley Abbey Estate.
THE THEME/STYLE: Country charm and bicycles!
SOURCES OF INSPIRATION: Matt loves cycling so we took inspiration from that. We had a ice cream bicycle giving out ice creams, the signs leading the way from the church to the reception were old bicycles and we even brought our tandem along for some entertainment!
BRIDE’S DRESS: My dress was a Benjamin Roberts from La Belle Angele in Norwich.
BRIDE’S SHOES: I can't remember where I got my shoes from but I do remember wandering around Norwich with Matt's mum looking for them for hours!
JEWELLERY/ACCESSORIES: I wore my own pearl earrings and I borrowed Matt's mums pearl necklace.
BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES: They were pale pink, full length dresses from the Dessy collection.
HAIR: My lovely teaching assistant from work did all our hair.
MAKEUP: Georgia from MAC did our make-up.
WEDDING RINGS: Matt has a simple titanium band and mine is a white gold band studded with diamonds.
GROOM/GROOMSMEN’S ATTIRE/COLOURS: Matt wore a three piece Islay tweed suit with a pale pink tie to match the bridesmaids. Although I was skeptical at first I must admit I loved the tweed!
FLOWERS: Bramble and Berry did all our flowers and hit the brief perfectly! I especially loved the jam jars for the centrepieces as they really fitted in with the rustic theme.
RECEPTION DÉCOR DETAILS: My mum made 150 metres of bunting in a sage green and dusky pink colour scheme which we hung all around the marquee. Our favors were miniature jars of strawberry jam and honey. The lovely ladies in the family came for a day of jam making and cream cakes a few months before the wedding to make all the jam! Name places were vintage style labels tied to sprigs of lavender by my lovely bridesmaid and picked from my parents garden. Instead of a guest book we had squares of fabric for guests to write on which I am hoping to make into a quilt soon! Matt found an old sewing machine at a flea market so we used that as a bit of a prop. We added a lot of little details but my absolute favourite was the table football. We stuck photos of our bridal party onto the men in two teams with Matt and I as goalies!
WEDDING PLANNER: errrm.....that would be Matt and I with a LOT of help from family and friends.
CAKE: Vanilla Patisserie made our cake with each tier a different flavour. It was covered in white chocolate and summer berries.
FOOD & DRINKS: Wickedly Good Food did our wedding breakfast of hot flaked smoked salmon with lemon mayonnaise followed by chicken breast wrapped in bacon served with a summer salsa and seasonal vegetables. The dessert was chocolate mousse with summer fruit compote. The amazing Gill and Adrian Hipwell provided and cooked a hog roast for our evening meal which was an amazing wedding present! We had champagne and pimms for the earlier part of the reception but we decided to add in some more persoanlised drinks too. Matt enjoys his whiskey and so selected a few of his favourites for people to try. We also bought three large drink dispensers which we filled with my favourite cocktails for people to help themselves to.
WEDDING SONGS/FIRST DANCE: Our very talented friend Ollie Gibbs sang his own version of a song that we had a first ever slow dance to! "this is for lovers, dancing the night away....Matthew married Charlotte today......" I also found a busker on my lunch hour from work and asked him to come along with his guitar to sing during the first part of the reception. Our evening band were Scratch the Cat and they definitely kept the party going.
HONEYMOON: A very busy and very hot ten days in Italy, five in Rome and five in Sorrento.
From the very beginning we felt really comfortable with Simon and he immediately understood the style and feeling of our wedding and took photos that captured that perfectly. Nothing we could say would really do him justice, he was just the right choice for our wedding.