The ultimate DIY wedding: peaceful preparation

And finally we have it!! The big day itself. Our vision was for a fun, loving, relaxed and cuddly day. To bring a bit of glamour and vibrancy to the field, to create a sense of occasion and round it all off with a fabulously boozy and banging knees up!!

These are the first selection of wonderful photos captured by the gorgeous Anushé Low. As you can see, her style is light, airy and relaxed and exactly what we were looking for. Inundated with over 700 photos, the exercise of picking out our favourites has been agonising! (Hence it's taken me so long to share and the multiple posts to come!!) But I'm sure you'll agree that Anushé has done a fabulous job of capturing the love, fun and laughter that abounded on the day.

We did so many things for this wedding ourselves, that the few weeks leading up to it were a complete frenzy! Izzy calls me a little whirlwind on a regular day (creating a swirl of energy and chaos everywhere I go, apparently!), so I can only imagine what sort of weather phenomenon I resembled in those weeks...a full on tornado I imagine!! Anyway, I'll share those projects next, but on the morning of the wedding a calm descended on me and despite running around town, decked out with our coiffured hairdos and diamante accessories, to grab a few last minute supplies nothing seemed to be able to ruffle my feathers (thank goodness!). 

I enjoyed getting dressed up and was so pleased I'd decided to do my own makeup. We had a few practice runs, swotted up on tips from a series of makeup blogs and bought an array of fancy makeup from Selfridges to add to my collection gifts from my mother-in-law. :) I didn't go crazy and make any statements, but tried to do all the basics very very well (emphasis on the 'tried'!).

  

My wedding dress was designed and made by my dear Ma. It was a true labour of love and a real team effort! I'll share more about the process as it deserves it's own post it was so involved! But suffice to say, it turned out better than I could have imagined! :) My something borrowed and old were the gorgeous pearl and diamond earrings that my sister in law so kindly lent me. She had worn them on her wedding day too! I completely forgot about my something blue, but luckily realised I'd picked out some blue lacy undergarments for the day. (Not pictured!) ;) Phew!

The heart locket was a lovely gift from my God Father the evening before the wedding. I hadn't really formulated a plan as what to wear, with all the bling on the dress I had even considered going naked! But the locket was a perfect fit, bold enough and simple enough to really work with the bling rather than fight against it! It was empty on the day, but I shall definitely fill it with mini pictures of my loved ones to wear on special occasions going forwards. 

The garter was my Mum's idea - she found it in my sewing kit (I'd been planning to use the lace on it for another project!) and whipped it out on the morning! It was fun to put on but slipped down after about three steps!

The colour of choice was coral - although I really couldn't restrict us to one colour on most things!! Side note for future brides to be, pick an easy colour that isn't absolutely impossible to match!!! Izzy had a lovely silk maxi dress from Boden in coral that we jazzed up with some leftover diamantés from my dress to tie it all in.

The flower girl dress was also made from leftover silk from my dress and embellished with little coral roses. So cute! Isn't our flower girl an absolute sweetheart, she was good as gold all day! She kept telling me I had 'such a big dress!!' She would run over for a cuddle every five minutes - she certainly knew something out of the ordinary was going on and that she was a big part of it!

We arrived in our Landrover Discovery, just visible in the background there - glamorous eh?! But luckily it is super roomy inside for all those underskirts and a fetching champagne colour that went well with the colour scheme! All part of the grand plan! ;)  

This view when I finally looked up from the bottom of the path really got me. Knowing that Ben and all our guests were hiding inside, awaiting out entrance. Suddenly it all felt like a BIG DEAL. Isabella joined the wedding party and seemed to approve of us all, so we figured we must have scrubbed up ok and were fit for the day ahead!  

As we approached the steps of the church with Dad doing a fantastic job with the flowers! We had no time to catch our breath or have a pep talk amongst us. Felicity, the curate, promptly flung the doors open, announced our arrival and started off the procession. Dad and I took a big deep breath and stepped into the church...

And I'll leave it there for today! We'll be back with the service next!

A few key links below for the curious:
Photos all courtsey of Anushé Low
Isabel's coral maxi dress
Flowers ordered from the Triangle Nurseries
St Peter's and St Paul, Wadhurst

Mum's coral Topshop jacket