We are on RMW home turf this morning with a beautiful contemporary wedding in the midlands... Centre of the UK, centre of the universe and (for this morning at least) centre of the party. Kate and Dev married at 11am which, subsequently culminated in a bit of an 'all dayer' for their guests! Kate and Dev's choice of entertainment combined with regular breaks for fine food kept the party raging into the early hours... Well done guys!

Kate The Bride: I'd say I probably wasn't the most conventional bride when it came to finding my dress and to be honest, I didn't really enjoy the process. I had no idea where to start as I've never worn a gown before in my life so didn't really know what I liked or what suited me! I was two and a half stone heavier when I first started looking and I felt really uncomfortable trying on dresses that were often too small for me. So, I only tried on about 4 dresses before I made my decision.

I knew I wanted to lose weight for the wedding, but didn't really have that much faith in myself succeeding so I started looking for empire line dresses as it would hide my figure a little and I loved any dresses with capped sleeves, so that was the only criteria! Immediately, lots of vintage style Jenny Packham dresses kept catching my eye, but a lot of them were out of my price range. Then the 'Syrie' popped up on the search and it was exactly what I'd had in mind! It was a very simple, 1930's style with vintage capped beaded sleeves except it was from an older collection and was almost extinct! I contacted all the Jenny Packham stockists I could find and eventually discovered that The Wedding Club, in Birmingham could get a sample in for me! So, I went to try it on and it was just a lovely in real life as in all of the pictures and seemed to suit me and because of its simplicity, I could go a bit mad with the accessories! The girls at The Wedding Club were so lovely and made me feel really comfortable and gave me great advice throughout!

My engagement ring is a 1915 art deco filigree design and I wanted my accessories to match. I went to the Jenny Packham accessories boudoir and decided on the Wonderland III. The ethereal floral design matched the pattern on my ring and suited the hair style I had in mind, slightly messy and undone and not too typically 'bridal'. For the shoes I chose the Ivory 'Mimosa's with deco t-bar from Rachel Simpson. The girls there were so helpful and kind! I used local makeup artist Rochelle O'Brien for my make up after a brilliant trial and she recommended Amie Kent, our hairdresser for the day. They were both so lovely and relaxed and created the exact look I wanted. The Groom's navy suit was from Zara Man and shoes were for Topman. His buttonhole was made from peach avalanche rose, dressed with greenery and herbs.

For the ceremony we chose The Guildhall in Leicester, my cousin had got married here a few years ago and we both thought it was an amazing, impressive building which was steeped in history. We hired a vintage bus to transport most of the guest to the reception. We decided we wanted a marquee after we'd attended my Bridesmaid Natalie's wedding the year before, which was amazing! One of the main reasons for choosing a marquee was to give us a blank canvas, enabling us choose all of the details ourselves, without any formalities or restrictions that you might have in a hotel or stately home. We really wanted a free bar too, as so many people had travelled from London for us and we didn't think they should have to pay for the party.

We didn't really have a 'theme' as such so just stuck with the colours that we'd chosen for our invites, designed by my friend Stuart which were rustic woody colours; orange, peach, olive green and white. I guess the closest to a theme we got was a Bruce Springsteen theme! We are both huge fans of 'the Boss', I walked down the aisle to his music and it was also our first dance and for our table scheme, we had prints of Bruce's album covers made and displayed on each table using crocodile clip stands. It was lovely to see his face all over the marquee!

Our florist was recommended to us by a friend. We simply showed The Flower Company a picture of bouquet I liked and they recreated it.

To match the colour scheme, I started looking for a light green colour for the bridesmaids and ended up going for old faithful, Coast. I was a bit savvy in an ongoing attempt to save money with 6 bridesmaids(!) and bought 3 of the dresses direct from Coast and managed to find the other 2 on eBay! We hired the groomsmen's suits from Formally Yours. This was a great service as we live in London and most of the groomsmen are based in the midlands and Formally Yours delivered the suits and picked them up after!

We wanted a totally relaxed wedding, where our guests could do as they please with not much structure which really seemed to work, as it was a long day (we married at 11am). It was nice to see our family and friends mingle and do as they please for the most part of the day, but to keep them entertained we decided to have the band (Off the Record) play in the afternoon, rather than at night as we wanted a bit of a summer daytime festival feel.The party continued into the early hours with our fantastic DJ, Harry from Disco Wed.

The Dimblebee Catering Company provided the food and service and they were absolutely fantastic! We wanted to reflect our different cultures so the main menu was traditional English, rustic food and then for the evening 'buffet' we had traditional Indian Curry, which seems to have been the highlight of the day for most people! All of the food was delicious and so many of guests complimented us! I can't recommend The Dimblebee Catering Co. enough!

The cake was designed and baked by our good friends Fiona and Steve as a wedding gift! Fiona is a scenic artist so she used her skills to sculpt and airbrush the beautiful edible roses and Steve baked the incredible madeira cake! This was accompanied by cupcakes, again, the kids loved this. We chose Holly, from Belle and Beau for our photographer after spotting her work on RMW! I loved the soft pastels and the light in her photography. So glad we booked Holly and her husband Phil, they were so lovely and sweet and also did so well putting up with us joking about all day long. The photos turned out lovely and everyone compliments us on how beautiful they are (Holly is definitely responsible for making us look half decent!) and they're enjoyed so much by our family!

Belle and Beau Photography
Gown Jenny Packham | Boutique The Wedding Club | Jewellery Lu Lu Frost | Accessories Jenny Packham | veil The Wedding Club | Florist The Flower Company | Make-up Rochelle O'Brien | Hair Mon-Amie | Cake Fiona Stewart (Scenic artist) | Catering The Dimblebee Catering Co | Maids Coast | Stationery Stuart Wilson | Entertianment Disco Wed & Off The Record | Transport D & M Classics Ltd