It's rare for a wedding to include three of my favourite decorations in the world - giant fluffy pompoms, a carnival-style sign, and enormous round balloons! But Joe and Mimi have managed to tick all my wedding boxes, with their beautifully styled, quintessentially English big day. Like all sensible couples, Joe and Mimi drew on the talents of many of their friends and family to save their pennies and create a truly personal wedding. Mimi's mother made her wedding dress, drawing inspiration from Phillippa Lepley's designs, Joe's good friend hosted their wedding at his pub, The Duke Of Cumberland Arms, and Joe {yes THE GROOM} made the wedding cake! He is a professional chef, who specialises in cakes and cake decorating, but still - that's some pretty impressive skills. I've fallen for Mimi's pretty 'just-picked' bouquet, her apricot and pastel pink colour scheme, and her beautifully dressed flower girls and page boys. Stunning pictures published with thanks to Chris Giles Photography.
Joe and I got married on July 27th 2013. The service was held at St. Margaret's Church, Fernhurst in West Sussex, and then the reception was at The Duke Of Cumberland Arms, a beautiful 15th Century pub.
I am extremely lucky to have a mummy who was once a professional seamstress - she had made my two other sisters wedding dresses, and so I challenged her to do mine - a combination of a few Phillippa Lepley designs.
I chose a very simple and elegant dress made from ruched silk georgette, which had an internal corset fitted to my shape, which allowed me to eat, drink and be merry and not to worry too much about underwear! My mummy was amazing and the dress was beautiful.
We had a fantastic wedding florist - The Floral Emporium at Secrets, Milford. My flowers had a 'hand-picked' vintage and country feel about them. We chose soft and pastel colours, and florists Karen and Vicky were absolutely incredible.
To complete my look, I bought a beautiful pair of Jimmy Choo's - a pair of shimmering glitter peep-toe heels - a complete extravagance, but well worth the investment, as I can wear them on many other occasions.
I didn't have any bridesmaids - instead my daughter Evie and my niece, Holly were my flower girls. They wore beautiful silk chiffon dresses from I Love Gorgeous, which had a dusky pink satin ribbon tie and hand embroidered roses.
I also had four pageboys - my son, Harry, and my nephews, Tom, Charlie and Zak. They wore Ralph Lauren chino's and white linen shirts and tank tops from Little Linens and little white Converse!
Joe, my father, his best man and two ushers all wore traditional morning suits, all hired from Hugh Harris Designer Menswear in Woking.
I walked up the aisle with my daddy to Canon in D Major by J Pachelbel.
We had three readings during the service, all read by special friends of ours, but our most treasured one was 'A Conversation between Piglet and Pooh Bear', from Winnie the Pooh. This was read by my eldest nephew Tom - a very precious moment that we will remember always.
Joe and I left the church to the traditional Wedding March by Mendelssohn with the church bells ringing - amazing!
Our first dance was Etta James - At Last......very tongue in cheek, and apt for Joe and I - as we've been together for ten years, and have two beautiful children together. It was fitting for us, yet a little magical at the same time.
Our wedding photographer, Chris Giles Photography, was a recommended to me, and I have to say Chris and his partner Laura were amazing on every level and worked so hard for us on the day.
We met Chris and Laura several times before the wedding, and on the day they certainly exceeded our expectations, right through to the delivery of our photos - which we simply love.
Chris and Laura made us feel suitably relaxed throughout the day, and we are thrilled to be able to look back through our amazing pictures, with such fond memories, which we will now keep forever. We honestly couldn't recommend Chris enough.
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Before the Big Day - The Best UK Wedding Blog.
Joe and I got married on July 27th 2013. The service was held at St. Margaret's Church, Fernhurst in West Sussex, and then the reception was at The Duke Of Cumberland Arms, a beautiful 15th Century pub.
I am extremely lucky to have a mummy who was once a professional seamstress - she had made my two other sisters wedding dresses, and so I challenged her to do mine - a combination of a few Phillippa Lepley designs.
I chose a very simple and elegant dress made from ruched silk georgette, which had an internal corset fitted to my shape, which allowed me to eat, drink and be merry and not to worry too much about underwear! My mummy was amazing and the dress was beautiful.
We had a fantastic wedding florist - The Floral Emporium at Secrets, Milford. My flowers had a 'hand-picked' vintage and country feel about them. We chose soft and pastel colours, and florists Karen and Vicky were absolutely incredible.
I didn't have any bridesmaids - instead my daughter Evie and my niece, Holly were my flower girls. They wore beautiful silk chiffon dresses from I Love Gorgeous, which had a dusky pink satin ribbon tie and hand embroidered roses.
I also had four pageboys - my son, Harry, and my nephews, Tom, Charlie and Zak. They wore Ralph Lauren chino's and white linen shirts and tank tops from Little Linens and little white Converse!
Joe, my father, his best man and two ushers all wore traditional morning suits, all hired from Hugh Harris Designer Menswear in Woking.
We had three readings during the service, all read by special friends of ours, but our most treasured one was 'A Conversation between Piglet and Pooh Bear', from Winnie the Pooh. This was read by my eldest nephew Tom - a very precious moment that we will remember always.
Joe and I left the church to the traditional Wedding March by Mendelssohn with the church bells ringing - amazing!
Our first dance was Etta James - At Last......very tongue in cheek, and apt for Joe and I - as we've been together for ten years, and have two beautiful children together. It was fitting for us, yet a little magical at the same time.
Our wedding photographer, Chris Giles Photography, was a recommended to me, and I have to say Chris and his partner Laura were amazing on every level and worked so hard for us on the day.
We met Chris and Laura several times before the wedding, and on the day they certainly exceeded our expectations, right through to the delivery of our photos - which we simply love.
Chris and Laura made us feel suitably relaxed throughout the day, and we are thrilled to be able to look back through our amazing pictures, with such fond memories, which we will now keep forever. We honestly couldn't recommend Chris enough.
Love Before the Big Day? Why not sign up to our free RSS feed on BlogLovin?!
Before the Big Day - The Best UK Wedding Blog.
