Great big smiles. If there's one thing that really stands out from Sally and Simon's wedding then that's it. Their day is just full of happy smiley faces.

I suppose with a theme of fun and games, there was only really one way their wedding was going to go and The Secret Garden in Kent looks like the perfect place to host such a occasion.

A private space with gorgeous gardens, pretty brick walls, a glass house AND the food sourced from Stephanie the Wedding Co-ordinators husband's farm?!?

I can completely see why Sally and Simon fell in love with the place.

The lovely pair have used an awesome selection of vintage items to decorate their marquee too - I'm particularly loving the vintage dress patterns.

Enjoy Sally and Simon's big day lovelies, hopefully it'll bring a smile to your Monday morning faces!

Sally The Bride: The theme for our wedding was 'fun and games' with a vintage twist. We wanted our guests to grin from ear to ear and embrace their inner child. From our save the date card based around a ladybird children's book titled 'play with us' to lawn games, table games and activity books at the wedding venue; fun and games were at the centre of it all.

We chose Ben Wetherall as our photographer because of his unique approach to wedding photography - able to capture natural beauty and joy, avoiding the usual posed awkward wedding photos, tailoring his approach to each couple and wedding. When we look back at our photos they aren't mirror images of everyone else's, they are uniquely ours and that's thanks to Ben.

Matthew Carvosso, a very talented friend of the family who is a freelance camera man/ director/ editor/ writer, to name a few of his talents created our wedding video. It was a delight to have him record our ceremony and edit it for us.

We were married in our local church (only 5 minutes from our flat) which is a magnificent building and allowed close friends and family who we weren't able to invite to the whole day come and see us get married. The church was packed and it was so lovely seeing so many of the people that have influenced our lives and supported us. Our church band played the music for the hymns and our church leader made sure everything went smoothly.

After googling venues with chintzy china which would work for our vintage feel wedding, we were rather excited about going to see Secret Garden in Kent. We fell in love with it straight away. A beautiful Victorian walled garden where butterflies were all around, a coach house and a quaint glasshouse...it was perfect. The venue were totally laid back about all of our ideas, the food is lovingly prepared and all ingredients locally sourced.

Stephanie the manager and wedding co-ordinator was amazing and did everything humanly possible to make our wedding day everything we wanted it to be. We opted for the marquee reception on the lawn of the garden which was perfect for a July summers day. Her husband owns the local farm where the produce for the wedding was sourced and she coordinated with a local wine dealer to allow us to try and choose wines for our guests and the top table. They even surprised us with jam jar vodka shots infused with classic sweets and handed out joke moustaches to people with their drinks.

We were introduced to Fiona our florist at the wedding fayre held at the Secret Garden and fell in love (a recurring theme) with her delicate and unique arrangements. Our flowers were so perfect and exactly what we had wanted! Natural hand tied peonies in pale pink and ivory with pale green sempervivum's to tie in with the mens button holes, daisies, and white asparagus all looked incredible together and very ethereal.

Iain from Glitterball Disco was amazing. From our first meeting we got on so well; Sally and I have an eclectic music taste and Iain was able to splice in popular crowd pleasers with our favourites seamlessly. His website allows couples to add songs to their playlist and they can also give a password to their guests to request their own songs. Needless to say the list changed on a daily basis! He provided radio microphones for speeches and ambient 'speakeasy' music for the meal. He worked tirelessly throughout the day ensuring that everything went smoothly.

Simon's sister Amanda made our cakes. She designed a top tier cake for us to cut under the gazebo in the garden complete with Lego zombie bride and groom. Simon is of the opinion that zombies make everything better. The top tier was positioned above over a hundred cupcakes.

We handmade each of our invitations in the style of an old book titled 'The Wedding' by Sally and Simon. Inside, the RSVP was a brown Kraft tag held inside an envelope to look like an old library book. We hand stamped the date of the wedding and photoshopped the page of an old book found online for our wedding menu.

We used lots of bits from home to style the venue such as old suitcases to put our wedding cards in, and I cut out letters from floral wrapping paper to make 'card' bunting to put on the case. This was then put in the glasshouse along with a white wishing tree (eBay) and kitsch tags so that people could leave their messages and wishes. We felt this made a nice alternative to the traditional message book. Floral Bunting and paper hanging decorations in pale pink, mint green and beige purchased from eBay were hung in the marquee to add some colour. Sally and Simon's Mum hand made pinwheels from vintage patterned card and Beano annuals. They also made vintage Beano paper chains to hang across the bar area.

Our table plan was handmade by using a type writer font to put our guests names on to brown tags and then pegging them on to a metal bird cage. We used mini Mr & Mrs bunting to hang across the top, purchased from East Of India.

We collected vintage tea caddies and jam jars to be used for our table flowers, and added stickers and ribbon from Wedding In A Teacup. Our table centrepieces were different on each of the 12 tables and were all based on games or things that we both like. We kept the vintage style and used old VHS tapes, comics, annuals, old gaming devices, battleships, an old chess set, a gramophone, vintage sewing patterns and ladybird books for a talking point. These all added a fun element along with the giant wooden garden games we had on the lawn (available at our venue) and tied in the theme from our save the dates which were handmade Ladybird 'play with us' postcards which we printed off the internet and photoshopped.

Thank you to all our friends and family for their contribution to making our day the most splendid of all days.

Photography by Ben Wetherall
Bride Pronovias | Boutique La Boutique Bridal | Bridesmaids Debenhams | Groom & Groomsmen Next | Venue & Catering Secret Garden | Florist Anemone Blue | Sweetie Cart Wedding Sweet Cart | Photo Booth Picture Blast | Videography Matt Carvosso | DJ Glitterball Disco