Happy Friday lovely lot - we're rounding off the week with a rustic tipi wedding from the Bride's rather gorgeous family home.

Emily & Brandon managed to avoid the temptation of getting married in Vegas and held their wedding at home - they wanted the occasion to feel natural, rustic, whimsical, relaxed and fun. And I don't think I could actually think of four words that sum up their big day better.

Guy Collier has captured the love perfectly and I think the first image of Emily in the slider above is one of the happiest Bridal images I've ever seen! Wouldn't you agree?

Emily The Bride: Brandon and I had been together for four and half years when we got engaged last August. We had known for a while we wanted to get married. I had tried to convince him a few summers before that we should get married whilst in Vegas. As much as we wanted to, he rightly thought it would be best to celebrate with all our family and friends - a decision that after we got engaged I realised was 100% the right thing to do.

After the initial excitement, and lots of excuses to celebrate the engagement with friends we started looking for some inspiration (Pinterest mainly). Many hours were spent looking at lots of pictures and ideas that we eventually worked into our own day. The first thing we stumbled across that we loved was a 4 tier naked cake. Next was the idea of not having a formal, conventional marquee, so we decided a tipi was much more in keeping with the type of day we wanted, and from there our theme of natural, rustic, whimsical, relaxed and fun naturally evolved.

The Venue

We were in a very lucky position that my parents have a beautiful garden that overlooks the Essex countryside, and a paddock at the end of the garden, the perfect spot for our tipi!! We knew instantly that it would be a perfect wedding venue and my parents were completely on board. However my Mum wasn't keen on having to oversee all the wedding suppliers that we would need to deal with when it came to deliveries, set up, dismantle etc. so we begun our search for a wedding planner. We spent a long time looking and struggled to find anyone that didn't look very 'blingy' (not really our style) or very expensive! We were starting to lose hope when we found Lisa's website - Just Bespoke.

From the moment we met Lisa she was on the same page, she was enthusiastic about our ideas and gave us absolute expert advice and guidance. We knew how we wanted the day to look and feel. Lisa made it happen. We are so glad we found her.

The Photographer

We are also very happy that we stumbled across the fantastic photographer Guy Collier, all of his images were amazing and beautiful, he really captures the love and fun on all of the Bride's and Groom's faces. It was a no-brainer for us to book him straight away! He captures moments throughout the day that are completely natural. We Skyped him a couple of weeks before the wedding and he put us at complete ease about potential fears we were starting to get! I think a couple of weeks before the wedding every couple should Skype Guy, just for a quick chat about life.

The Dress

We got engaged in the August before we got married, and a few weeks later I was keen to try on some wedding dresses. I'd heard lots and lots of great things about The Bespoke Wardrobe from friends who had previously purchased their dresses from them, and they were not wrong. I actually ended up buying the first dress that I tried on, even though I was only trying it on to keep my mum happy and was planning to rule it out.

The whole experience was fantastic - from choosing the dress, to attending the designer days they host where I found my beautiful Emmy shoes, my headpiece, and also the designer that created my bridesmaid's headpieces. Having purchased my dress nearly a year before the big day I did get a bit freaked out as more and more people asked me what it was like and I couldn't really remember! I was probably over keen and in hindsight wished I hadn't gone so early, but I really wasn't expecting to buy the first dress I tried on.

The Boys

Brandon and his Best Man are not very traditional and Brandon knew straight away that he didn't want to wear a top hat and tails, he quickly begun channelling a casual summer look, consisting of a jacket and trouser rather than a suit. Most people couldn't get their heads around this and questioned him and myself endlessly "What do you mean he's not wearing a suit!?!". That was fun. But I think the boys looked awesome, it was completely their style and they received so many compliments on the day. Our advice would be go with what you want, everyone will have an opinion and feel the need to tell you it!

However, Brandon and his best man going off piste as such with their outfit did cause a few problems with the Groomsmen's suits. We struggled to source a suit that was a similar colour to Brandon's trousers and that suited them all. We ended up buying two suits from Burton and one from M&S. I'm not sure how, but in the end it all came together and they looked great.

The Bridesmaids

My beautiful bridesmaids wore a dress from Ghost. I wanted to buy something that suited all of their different skin tones, but also that they could wear again. They all looked so elegant, I couldn't have been happier.

The Flowers

Our florist Lily & May was recommended to us by a friend. The flowers were simply stunning. Our brief to Claire was fairly minimal as we don't know much about flowers (we were quite bamboozled by the many possibilities!) but as with Lisa, we found that we loved Claire's style and just knew she'd do a perfect job.

The Rings

My engagement ring is a vintage ring from the 1920s. It's amazing, but not very traditional so we knew we needed someone special to help us with our wedding bands. We found Maria via RMW. We spent an afternoon at The Langham with her, talking about life and rings. She was so much fun, that we couldn't wait to spend another afternoon at The Langham with her when our rings were ready to pick up. If you want something hand made with care and passion that won't break your budget meet this lovely lady.

The Food

We found our first caterers in November, following the best tasting we booked them up, only to hear in April they had gone bankrupt. It was really unexpected as they were a well established business with a great reputation. This was followed with a disastrous tasting with a local firm in Chelmsford (the food was either raw or burnt!), but it did lead us to the wonderful Kalm Kitchen. The food couldn't have tasted any better and the canapés were served in bird cages and other vintage styled boxes that worked amazingly with our theme.

Our Naked cake was lovingly handmake by Yum Nums. They re-created the cake of our dreams with 4 different flavoured tiers. Trust me, it tasted as good as it looked.

The Music

And our DJ Lucy, from Wedding Smashers was exactly what we wanted; a DJ that didn't just play the usual wedding faff, it was a brilliant mix of old and new but not the obvious stuff, she turned our amazing day into a proper party in the night.

Our Wedding

The day before the wedding all of our bridesmaids, groomsmen and close family friends were on hand to help us with the final last minute details, such as putting up bunting in the courtyard, laying out hay bales in a seating arrangement, setting up the trees in the tipi, endless shuttle runs of moving quite a lot of booze around and many other things. We couldn't have done it without their help.

Brandon created all of the blackboards the day before, even slicing his thumb at about 8pm on the final board! The plaster holding his thumb together can be seen in some of pictures - typical Brandon.

We were so lucky to work with some of the best wedding suppliers in the business, which allowed us to relax and enjoy the whole day. They were true professionals in their element. We honestly feel it couldn't have gone any better and would recommend everyone that we chose to use.

Our tip to people planning a wedding - If you can push your budget invest in a wedding planner. Lisa saved us money, time and provided guidance and advice that was priceless.