Adrian (Twig) and Sarah married back in the Spring, with a ceremony at Brympton House, Somerset followed by a marquee reception. Fun was order of the day, with importance on photographs, food and the entertainment.

Their day was a non stop party, with a karaoke band, fish and chip supper and a pub pit stop after the ceremony. Sarah looks so gorgeous in her delicate tulle dress, with an on trend fishtail plait and crochet Toms. While Adrian found his dapper grey suit in Next which he wore with bugandy accessories and Vans. Such a cool pair.

Thanks so much to the amazing Pete Cranston for sharing his images with us today.

 

The Proposal… My Birthday 2011…a surprise trip to Lacock Abbey. Think Twig was sick of hearing how much I wanted to visit where they filmed Harry Potter. I didn’t have a clue where we were going! Arrived nice and early and the penny dropped…I was very excited. We were first in line waiting for the doors too open! I thought Twig was as excited as me…little did I know he wanted to get me in the Abbey before anyone else arrived. We get to the Abbey…almost running…I go one way Twig goes the other, I turned around to find him and he is down on one knee (a romantic after all!) with a sparkly ring in his hand…I cried…mumbled yes…and then he dragged me into one of the magical Harry Potter rooms where I could cry without embarrassing him! :) 2 years on…he has made me a house, we have the beautiful little man and it was time to finally make our family complete.

The Vision for the Day… Fun fun fun…that is what we are all about. Having fun every day is really important to me. There isn’t a single day that goes past that I haven’t laughed at or with Twig. We wanted our day to be exactly as we wanted not having to worry about traditions and what others expected. Important things – Photographs. Band. Food. Making sure everyone we know and love was there.

The Planning Process… We were lucky enough to fall pregnant a year before the big day…this meant that only the important stuff was done in advance. I booked the food, band, photographs and venue and that was it until January 2013. It was brilliant leaving everything until last minute, it made it so much more exciting knowing that it was so close. Being a very laid back person helped here, I didn’t stress about anything.

Budget… Spending 10’s of thousands on a wedding scared the life out of me. I wanted our day to be amazing but without costing the earth. We agreed on ten thousand…still a lot but bearable. I think our total ended up at around £12k but the bulk of the cost was on things we really wanted. Our parents rock…we couldn’t of done it without them.

The Venue… I didn’t even know Brympton House existed! It sits just outside our home town and about 2 minutes from where I work!! It was the perfect setting for our ceremony and the grounds are amazing. We had no decoration in the Castle House where we got married other than some candles, it was perfect the way it was.
Me and Twig agreed from the off that we wanted the evening to be informal and as we wanted no restrictions about food and entertainment. A marquee was the answer, and with my dad being the Chairman of Sherborne Town Football Club the location was easy! So Rayleigh Grove, and specifically the pitch became the location for our wedding party.

The Dress + Accessories… Having Travis meant that the dress had to wait. I didn’t really start looking until 8 weeks before. I wanted a tea length sort of 50’s style dress so found one online that I liked and ordered it! It arrived and was beautiful but I tried it on and looked like a plonker! It just didn’t suit me at all. I headed into Yeovil town and made an appointment with Karen Baker, a local wedding dress shop. Karen made me try on everything, which was great. My sister spotted the dress on the rail, I tried it on and loved it. It was very different to what I originally had in my head by it was amazing and I loved the idea of surprising everyone by wearing something different. I had it customised with straps and had the train cut down so that I could fall over it but other than that it was perfect. I wore it with a simple lace hair band from Primark and some red crochet Toms. Comfort was key

Groom’s Attire… Twig worst nightmare is traditional wedding attire so he wore a Next 3 piece suit with a white shirt. He had 8 ushers so they all wore the same plain burgundy ties, navy and white polka dot hankies and black vans trainers. They all looked very dapper. We even dressed our 3 year old nephew, Dexter, in matching vans and tie…he looked super cute. Our dads and brother in law also wore the same ties and hankies.

The Readings + Music… We didn’t have any reading throughout the ceremony, other than the standard stuff the registrar does, there wasn’t anything that we particularly felt strongly about so we didn’t bother. I walked down the aisle to The Lumineers, Hey Ho – me, my dad and the bridesmaids were too busy dancing outside that I missed the cue to walk in.  We had some friends play guitar (Blink 182  ) as we walked out. It was wicked and suited us perfectly.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… I had my 2 best friends, my sister and Twig’s sister as my big bridesmaids, they wore shirt navy lacy dresses from River Island and I let them add their own touches by letting them accessories with whatever shoes and jewellery they wanted. It was nice that they all looked different. Our niece Georgea was our wicked little flower girl, she worn a monsoon dress and had some bright pink vans for the evening to match the boys.

The Flowers… I am not really a flower girl so I didn’t want to spend money on extravagant bouquets. I was shopping with my mum and sister in Bath and walked past a flower stall, they had some lovely artificial (fake as I call them) flowers that matched the boys ties perfectly. So that was that. We added a bit of ribbon around the stem and that was the final product. And they will last forever

The Cake… We wanted to do something a bit different but something that was fun and super yummy. Ordering 250 Krispy Kreme doughnuts was the answer. Very fun and very yummy there were too! So that we could ‘cut the cake’ we had a very talented friend make a giant Simpsons style doughnut cake…also very fun and yummy although we didn’t get round to cutting and eating it until the next day!

Your Photographer… PETE CRANSTON!!! He rocks! We found him at a wedding fair in Yeovil (I am not sure how I managed to persuade Twig to come!) I loved how informal his photos where and he looked pretty cool, so we talked, and that was that. On the day Pete was amazing, I had him running all over Yeovil to capture different moments of our day and he deliver on all of them. He fit in immediately and it was like we had known him for years, there were no uncomfortable moments or numerous posed photos he was just amazing. Pete was worth every penny and the amount of photos we have is awesome. He captured every single detail and moment and he has allowed us to completely relive our day and I have laughed, smiled and cried looking at the photos and I will never be able to look at them enough. He also rocks out…his choice of song with Arctic Monkeys – I bet you look good on the dancefloor went down very well indeed.

The Details + Decor… On our way to the marquee (all of about 10 miles from the ceremony) we made a pit stop at our local pub, it was ace! We drank bubbles and ate tea cakes before heading off again to the main party.

My only real ask from the marquee guy was that it was bright and fun. He delivered! We had ivory linings with lime green swags and a twinkling ceiling above the dancefloor. Lighting came in the form of brightly colour lanterns hanging down from the ceiling and the bar area was decorated with bunting. I wanted the tables to be simple but bright so we had daffodils, a bread bag, candles and a photo of an usher on each. We wanted the boys to be involved in the day so they were each assigned a table that they had to look after, and to make it easy we named the tables after them, that way they couldn’t forget. To personalise the entrance we had a photo line with photos from the last 5 years of our relationship and we put out canvases for people to draw themselves.

Me and Twig like good food but we didn’t want to spend thousands of pounds feeding people. Fish and chips were the answer. They were amazing, all freshly cooked on sight and were the best fish and chips I have ever tasted! Yumm. For desert we had ice cream…everyone loves a good ice cream and Jonathan from Living the Cream was brilliant and the set up was fantastic. In the evening we had hog roast put on by our local butchers, unfortunately I missed out because I was too busy dancing but it looks amazing in the photos!

Last but definitely not least the band…Rockaoke. We have sung with Rockaoke at a couple of festivals and the atmosphere is always brilliant and it is wicked to sing with a live band. It started as a bit of a dream,  “wouldn’t it be awesome if we could have Rockaoke” so I emailed them, and they were free, so I booked them! They did not disappoint. It was unreal. We left the Ushers in charge of picking our first song and we said they had to sing it. It was the best first dance ever and we bopped along to the Ushers belting out the best version ever of cant take my eyes off of you!

The Honeymoon… The night of our wedding we spent in a Yurt, it was brilliant. Would definitely visit them again. We headed off down to Cornwall for our first family holiday. It was relaxed, fun and was our idea of a perfect holiday. We ate good food and did touristy stuff during the days and chilled in the evenings. Just what we needed after the fun of our wedding.

Memorable Moments… The look of my proud Daddy’s face when he saw me for the first time. Walking down the aisle to see my two favourite boys stood there waiting for me. The amount of love shared in my dads, the best man and Twig’s speeches. The pile on started by my dad! Beano’s, one of the Ushers, version of Poker Face…it was scary but amazing. Belting out Teenage Dirtbag with my bridesmaids. Closing the set with Twig singing Don’t look back in anger and living on a prayer.

Advice for Other Couples… Don’t stress…enjoy it. It is your day and you should have it exactly how you want it. Sod traditions and what’s right and wrong. Do what you want to do and enjoy every moment of it. Two things not to scrimp on…entertainment, it is what makes your day rock and a photographer, your photos are priceless.

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Oakleaf Marquees -  http://www.oakleafmarquees.co.uk/

Fish and Chip -  http://fishandchipcatering.co.uk/

Ice cream -  http://www.livingthecream.co.uk/

Pete -  http://www.petecranston.com/

Rockaoke -  http://www.rockaoke.co.uk/index.php

Yurt -  http://www.dorsetcountryholidaysandevents.co.uk/

Brympton House -  http://www.brympton-weddings.co.uk/

That donut cake is immense!! Not to mention how cute their baby boy is, awww. Thanks so much to Sarah and Adrian for sharing their gorgeous wedding with us today XOXO Lou