Paul and Nikki tied the knot on the 23rd August 2014 at The Minories in Essex; an art gallery with the prettiest garden perfect for a wedding celebration. They hoped to create a laid back, intimate and fun garden party for their guests.

The whole affair was hand made by themselves along with the help of their loved ones. The flower arrangements, cake and sweet décor was all DIYed to perfection.

There was a lovely blush pink colour running through the day, from the pretty maids to the blooms. I adore Nikki's tea length dress and those Flamingo shoes are all kinds of fabulous.

Thanks goes to the brilliant Love That Smile Photography for sharing the photographs today.

THE PROPOSAL | 2nd January 2014 - A romantic proposal, under a tree in the Cotswolds with an antique diamond ring.

THE VISION | Laid back, intimate and fun garden party.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | An addiction to Pinterest really helped to collate all the ideas to create the wedding that we wanted!

THE VENUE | The Minories, Colchester is an art gallery with a café and gorgeous garden. The garden is very leafy with a beautiful old folly. It has a very friendly, chatty and relaxed atmosphere and as soon as we saw it, we knew it was our ideal venue. It was the first venue we visited and we looked no further. Having just moved to Colchester, it was important to us that our wedding was local.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | I knew I wanted a tea-length or shorter dress. I began looking at vintage dresses which were all gorgeous but I ended up with a new dress (LouLou), lacey top (Pronovia) with a nod to the vintage style, from Bridal Rogue Gallery in Marylebone. I changed the top for the evening part of our day, to a more relaxed beaded top which I borrowed from my sister whose wedding was 6 weeks before ours!

Having decided on a short dress the shoes were a real project! I ended up with Sophia Webster Flamingo pumps which I absolutely adore and which got a lot of attention on the day! I then switched into some Vivienne Westwood and Mel jellies so I could bust some dance moves.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Made to measure from Suit Supply - lovely detail such as the wedding date stitched on the inner pocket.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We had a church ceremony so chose some romantic bible verses and our lovely friend Rhiannon Eglin played the Hammered Dulcimer during the ceremony. I came down the aisle to a dulcimer version of "Firework" by Katy Perry which was fun but sounded elegant and magical.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My best friend Francesca and my sister Jo wore really cute little dresses from Topshop (in a sale!)

THE FLOWERS | We had white roses delivered by M&S, and Paul's mum grew succulents for the bride's bouquet. The day before the wedding we trawled the shops for flowers that we liked and made the bridesmaid's bouquets and vases of flowers from these. I have really lovely memories of putting the bouquets together with my bridesmaids and mum the day before!

THE CAKE | We had 6 small cakes all homemade - My sister's mother in law made a fabulous traditional fruitcake, and a friend made 3 delicious, flavoured sponge cakes that looked lovely! I made a couple of cakes too.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Magda Mahdy - Love That Smile Photography. Magda was amazing. We had an engagement shoot in May and we were so pleased with the photos, we knew she would do a great job on the day. We were right! We absolutely love our photos. We feel they really capture the smiles, laughter and loveliness of the day.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Décor was all handmade - paper pompoms, bunting from doilies, paper hearts in the church etc. I made the majority myself - but, as a year 1 class teacher, I also had a little help from my class of 5 year olds!

THE HONEYMOON | Santorini - such a great place! Romantic, fun and sunny!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Walking with the bridal party to the church. We also walked from the church to our reception venue. Was lovely to have a procession of guests following us ... and our balloon up the hill.

It was lovely to arrive at the Minories and see the Garden exactly how we envisioned it. The team there did a fantastic job.

Our speeches were held under the folly and I enjoyed looking around and seeing all our family and friends gathered, laughing together.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Try to enjoy the whole process - the planning has to be as much fun as possible!

We made sure we spent a lot of the day together. Many couples say they hardly saw each other on their wedding day - we were practically glued at the hip!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Magdalena Mahdy - Love That Smile Photography

Dress Shop | Bridal Rogue Gallery

Venue | The Minories

So pretty.

Thanks so much to Paul and Nikki for sharing their lovely day with us XOXO Lou