Charlotte looks positively glowing, and it's not just because of her newly-wed status, she is radiant due to the fact she was six months pregnant when she said "I DO". I love her look, classic and feminine with a sexy swipe of hot pink lipstick.

There is a swing, bridesmaids in peach and a delicious 3 tier buttercream covered cake. Sounds like my kind of wedding then.

Make-Up

I loved the idea of having airbrushed makeup and not having to worry about my makeup all day as the pregnancy hormones had been causing havoc with my skin! Jessica Ava came round to do my makeup trial and it was an all new experience, I didn't want over the top makeup as I wanted to marry Matt looking as he always saw me (with makeup, no-one wants to see this makeup less bride) but with the satisfaction on no reapplying. She did a great job and with a little tweaking of colours to go with it was perfect and I felt so pretty on our wedding day.

The Dress

I never wanted to spend a small fortune on a dress but wanted something I loved. I searched on ebay and found my original dress, I had it altered, adjusted months before , then to our surprise found out I was pregnant so the fitted dress wasn't possible anymore as I was going to be 6 months pregnant. I got back on ebay and looked for a new dress and found the one I wore from Ellis Bridal. I'd hunted it down in my size and found one that was dry cleaned and good as new and the fact it was still in the shops RRP £1,200 I knew it would be as beautiful as the pictures. It needed a little altering and sat lovely over my growing bump and coming in at just under £350 for everything nobody would be able to tell the difference!

The Photography

We'd already booked a photographer solely on recommendation but at the time I knew I wasn't happy because after trying to explain the style I liked he didn't quite suit us.

I now know that it was the soft lighting and naturalness of Jessica Raphael Photography that I loved and after having a very rainy engagement shoot (that we were dreading) with her we knew we'd definitely made the right choice. We felt comfortable so quickly, something that I never thought would happen for the both of us. She directed us and it wasn't extreme so we felt natural strolling and dancing around the woods, gazing into each others eyes every now and then, half the time not even realising she was there. It made it so much easier on the wedding day, knowing how she worked and what to do and we couldn't thank her and her assistant Rob Fuz from FuzFilms enough for everything they did & all the hard work they put in.

The Flowers

Our florist was Matthew's mother Diane, she did an amazing job on the flowers, I wanted artificial as again I wanted to be able to keep them and not spend a lot of money on something that would be dead the next day as I knew I would never actually go ahead and preserve my bouquet afterwards. I had a little bit of gypsophilia/babies breathe in there as I liked the look of it and the artificial types are no good and it lasts a!ges anyway. I bought some hessian ribbon and felt that was all they needed around the bouquets.

The Venue

The grand look and history of The Wood Norton Hotel and the beautiful gardens is what drew us to our venue (plus there was a special offer on at the time), we loved the character of the Wood Norton and that you could put your own stamp on it and not have as many restrictions as a few other venues. We liaised with the wedding co- o!rdinator Naomi Wheeler there who was very helpful.

Entertainment

Sophie Dicks is my friend from school when we lived in Spain. I'd been to see her in shows she performed in over there (Wicked) and her voice is mesmerising, it gives you goose bumps and I'd always said when I get married I wanted her to sing!

We both live in England now and she's now living in London doing her masters. She sang me in to the ceremony with a very special song - Jennifer Rush, Power of Love. I hadn't heard it performed by her before the day and as soon as she started singing I was gone. I cried my way down the aisle with my dad squeezing my hand very tightly and she had half the wedding party in tears.

I hadn't wanted crying guests but she was that good it touched everyone!

We also made a playlist of our favourite songs to play throughout the wedding breakfast. Some that were slightly amusing to people!

Overall, we absolutely loved our wedding day and the look of it, there were things that didn't go to plan perfectly but theres just no point letting it get to you. We booked our wedding exactly a year before the day and arranged a few things from there and I can honestly say we rarely got stressed and i think the laid back approach to it helped, as well as patience (Matts) because not everyone gets back to you or does what you want as quick as you want it. You have to nag people so don't be afraid to do so. !
We got lucky with the weather as every other day in August seemed to be horrible and we had brilliant sunshine, an added bonus of a hot air balloon setting off from a field behind us for great shots.

We knew we wanted it personal, a little DIY and some creativeness without breaking the bank. I'm glad we shopped around for things and didn't opt for the most expensive things out there because we worked hard to save the money for our big day and we're not regretting that now, with no loans and credit cards. We had a little help form our parents and were extremely grateful.

Friends and family supported and helped out making things but it all came together with the both of us putting in effort to get things done and organising each other.