I am over the moon this afternoon to be introducing you to the lovely Rosie, WWW's latest member of the real bride family. Rosie and Elliot are planning a farm wedding in September but first lets hear about their love story... XOXO Lou

Hello to all the Whimsical Brides reading this blog, seeking inspiration for a Wonderland of a wedding - you are in the right place! I feel so honoured to be writing the first of my blogs for Lou. I visited WWW the day of the 'Yes' and have so enjoyed following so many brides and their journeys to the 'I do'.

My name is Rosie, I'm 24 and I'm the lucky bride to be of Elliot (also 24).

By the time we get hitched in September 2015, we'll have been a couple for 8 ½ years. We now live in each other's pockets in a titchy flat in Brixton, London. But before this, we've been hundreds of miles apart and still managed to stick together - and I can't tell you how chuffed I am that we're where we are now!
We first met when we were 16 at sixth form college. As lots of teen romances happened, our eyes met across the common room. Elliot asked my friend for my number on the Wednesday and text me on the Wednesday night. We chatted at college on the Thursday. We went to the cinema on the Sunday. We said we liked each other on the Monday, and because I just finished dating an old acquaintance of his, we thought we'd be decent and hold off getting together for a little while... We were boyfriend and girlfriend by the following Thursday.

Fast forward 7 years and we'd escaped London life for a holiday down the cultured streets of Florence. On the morning of 4th February, for once, Elliot was the energetic one. He jumped out of bed, showered, put on his gleaming new white trousers, purple checked jacket and said that we were going to walk around the Boboli Gardens. I thought he was just being a bit more eccentric than usual, so we walked across Florence, and into the Gardens.

I don't know if you've ever been, but it's an incredible place. Algae covers statues in the fountains, grass grows a little too high and when we got there on that rainy morning, there seemed to be more wildlife surrounding us than people! To cut a mushy story short, we walked up some steps through a grove of trees. Elliot stood on the step below, and said some sweet things and reached inside his pocket. I froze but breathed as he pulled out a handkerchief. He then proceeded to unfold it, lay it down on the wet step, and in his gleaming white trousers knelt down and pulled out a ring. I burst into tears. I don't think I even said yes! (I must remember to do that on the big day!)

We took these pictures in a photo booth the evening before the proposal. I'm sure my smile would have been even bigger if I'd have known what was going to happen the next day!

Our Wedding
I work in marketing with words, and Elliot having trained as a tailor, works with material and design. Because of this, we have literally no excuse for being as hands-on with our weddings as possible!

We're on a budget and know that we're incredibly lucky to be surrounded by clever, generous people who are offering to pitch in. We will do everything we can to have the brightest, most beautiful day we can.

I'm meeting you all on the first shaky steps towards planning our day. Last weekend, we officially confirmed the date of our wedding - Saturday 19th September 2015. A rustic barn on a working farm a few miles from where I grew up in Hampshire has been booked for our Reception. It's fantastic - an aisle of trees, a firepit, space for camping, a whole field for running about and a gorgeous barn to squeeze all our friends and family into.

That (hopefully) will have been the hardest decision of the whole day. Very early on we decided that a church wedding wasn't for us. This combined with a bit of a budget made it feel like it might scupper lots of other options. But it doesn't. It just means that we've got to be savvy,

Elliot and I do try to do things differently. We love anything that is beautiful. We hate waste, love local and can't wait to start putting our day together. Our hope is that people will leave our wedding thinking, 'That was SO Elliot and Rosie'.

Please join me for brave bargaining, flea-market finds and hopefully have a giggle watching me try to make decisions *sigh*. I can't wait to be inspired by you all too.

Love Rosie XxX

P.S. He doesn't know I'm writing this, but I'll try to persuade Elliot to write a couple of guest entries too. Goodness only knows what he'll decide to write about... Brides beware!