How we met...
Although Jonny will tell you otherwise, we met at young farmers club, I was undecided which club to join and went to a new members meeting and he was the chairman at the time. Jonny convinced me to join Long Itchington Young Farmers and the rest is history.
The proposal...
Jonny originally wanted to propose on a hot air balloon, he had the ring bought, tied to a piece of fishing line just encase it was dropped and the hot air balloon was booked. He waited until the date came, but it was cancelled and many months later, after many more hot air balloon rides being cancelled he gave up and decided to take me to an amazing seafood restaurant (as seafood is my fave) and proposed then. I cried like a baby and of course I said yes! It was the most unexpected and beautiful moment! And eventually, once we did finally get on our hot air balloon ride he re-proposed and I said yes all over again.
The dress…
Was amazing. Allure Brides dress 9400 purchased from Gabriella Bridal in Northamptonshire. I saw the dress on Instagram a few times and then decided I had to see it so I contacted many different bridal shops around and Gabriella Bridal (https://www.gabriellabridal.com/) were the only place that would order in a sample and that was it - I fell in love!
Our favourite part of the day...
My favourite part of the day was walking down the aisle to the string quartet on the brink of full blown tears and Jonny turning around already in tears which set me off even more. That feeling was just amazing and I’ll never forget it. Oh, and the dress was also my fave!
Jonny’s favourite part of the day was the day, he said everything ran so smoothly and the buzz of the day was just perfect. But, if he had to pick a favourite part, apart from the surprise Aston Martin DB5 that picked him up, supplied by Special Occasion Classic Cars (http://www.special-occasion-classic-cars.co.uk/), it would be the first dance and how well it went without any practise before hand.
The plan/idea that we felt really worked on the day...
To be honest, everything from the day went so perfectly! I wouldn’t have changed anything, not even the drizzle before the ceremony as it meant we got to do the hilarious wet weather plan with the screen… honestly a highlight! I think the idea that worked nicely was the fact that we didn’t have a top table, we sat with our friends and let our parents host a table. We thoroughly enjoyed our wedding breakfast celebrating with our closest friends, it made the day feel less formal but more intimate all at the same time!
Where we feel our budget was really well spent...
100% the florist. The venue doesn’t need a lot of decoration as it already looks so beautiful, and when we let the florist (http://www.willowandthyme.co.uk/) loose she created the most wonderful floral pieces and it just brought everything together perfectly! The bouquets were more than I’d ever dreamed of and she went above and beyond our expectations!! Worth every penny!
Finally, if we could give a tip to other couples...
Our tip would be this - once you have picked your wedding date the next step is budget, but I don’t think a budget can be set until you actually realise what it is you want out of your day. We had a specific look and feel in mind but set a budget beforehand and were gutted when we went massively over our - it created unwanted worry and stress. When actually, if we had realised our dream first and looked into the costs, we wouldn’t have gone 'over' a budget as we would have set a reasonable budget for what we wanted. So our tip is, create your dream, set a realistic budget and go for it! You won’t be disappointed…. Dodmoor House helped create our dream and for that we will be forever grateful!
And one other small tip - invest in a great photographer, and I 100% recommend having a videographer as it goes so quickly that there will be bits you forget.
Special thanks to Jenna and Johnny for sharing their story and to Simon Brettell Photography for the photos x