Yay! It’s Friday!
What have you lovely lot got planned to tick off the wedding To Do list this weekend?
Today’s wedding is by the lovely Lloyd Williams and is a lovely example of a relaxed traditional wedding. So grab a cup of coffee and a couple of biscuits, settle down and enjoy this beautiful wedding.
What was your budget?
We didn’t want to spend a fortune. We very much wanted to have an amazing, special wedding day, but we also didn’t want to spend ridiculous amounts of money! We decided to get married in a venue that we loved and then made sure that we budgeted the rest of the wedding and we were very mindful of what we were spending. 
How would you describe your wedding theme?
I would say we had quite a relaxed traditional wedding! There was no real theme on the day. We had a colour scheme of burgundy and cream and incorporated this in the flowers, bridesmaids dresses, wedding party ties etc.
We decided to base our table plan around photos from significant dates in our relationship. We put photos from each of the significant events on the tables to let the guests know where they were sitting. We had a photo from the day we got engaged on the top table and then on the guests tables we had photos of the day our daughter Ellie was born, our first holiday abroad as a couple, our first holiday as a family of 3, our first home and a photo of us doing it up, a photo from the day we found out we were pregnant and photos from rugby trips we have taken (we both love rugby and try to get to 6 nations games when we can!). 
What was your favourite part of your wedding?
We loved every second of our wedding day! I honestly can’t pick one specific part that I loved above any other moment. It was perfect. I was so choked up waiting outside the door to walk down the aisle with my dad and when the music (Ellie Goulding, How long will I love you?) started I really teared up as I though of seeing Jon! I was so happy seeing his face as I walked down the aisle. I loved the speeches and listening to everyone I love. I really enjoyed getting ready in the morning with my mum, my daughter Ellie and my bridesmaids. It was so relaxed and I felt so at ease! It helped that the prosecco was flowing too!
Jon’s has said that his favourite part of the wedding was seeing me walking down the aisle. He says this was when he felt the most emotional!
The evening was spent on the dance floor and that was a lot of fun. Dancing to our favourite songs with everyone that was love was amazing and such a lot of fun. I just remember that we spend the whole day smiling and feeling full of love and joy! 
Tell us about your Wedding Dress
I was really looking forward to going wedding dress shopping! I think every girl dreams of this from a young age. I decided that I wanted to take my mum, and only my mum dress shopping with me. I wanted my dress to be a surprise to everyone else and I didn’t tell anyone any details about it at all!
When I went to look at wedding dresses for the first time I was really overwhelmed! I had no idea what kind of dress I wanted and remember just standing there looking at racks of dresses not knowing what to do! My mum suggested I just try on lots in my size to get a feel for what style I liked. I tried on one in the first shop that I loved but decided to look in other dresses just in case.
We went to 3 or 4 different shops during our hunt for THE dress! 3 of the shops were gorgeous and really helpful but unfortunately I did have a bad experience in 1 of the shops I went to. I had a very specific budget for the dress. I didn’t want to spend more than £500. We had an appointment in one shop, and they were aware of my budget, but when I arrived and we spoke to the lady about my budget she suggested they didn’t have any dresses to suit my budget and then asked me if I wanted to try on bridesmaids dresses. As you can imagine that did not make me feel very special and spoilt that day for me.
Luckily the next shop we visited were absolutely amazing, and this was the shop I bought my dress from, Laura May on Crwys Road.
The first time I visited the shop I found 3 dresses that I really liked! The shop assistant Francesca was so helpful and let me try all 3 on again and again! I left the shop being torn on which one I liked the most. I returned to the first shop to try on a dress and then back to Laura May and on my second trying on session made my mind up that I had in fact found the perfect dress for me! It made me feel like a princess and I was so excited for Jon to see me in it! 
Who did you pick as your bridesmaids &/or best man and why?
I picked 4 bridesmaids. 3 of my bridesmaids (Viki, Gemma and Kathryn) have been my best friends since school! I went to primary school with Viki and Gemma, they are my oldest friends, and I met Kathryn in Comprehensive school. They have been there for me whenever I have needed them and we have shared so many good times together I couldn’t imagine standing there and getting married without them! My fourth bridesmaid, Sarah, was one of my best friends and a house mate who I lived with in University! We shared alot of laughs and good times and I couldn’t wait to ask her either! They threw me the most amazing hen do and did an amazing job as my bridesmaids and they looked absolutely stunning on the day!
Jon had 3 best man, Rhys, Luke and Gareth. He met them in school and they have been close ever since! They have loads of hobbies that they share (rugby, football, running, gym, drinking!) and do alot together. Jon couldn’t even think how to choose between them so decided to have 3 best men instead, or as they called themselves, the 3 worst best men! They did an amazing job and I have to say their speech was the best I’ve heard! 
Why did you choose your venue?
We wanted to get married somewhere where none of our friends had gotten married. We have been to a fair few weddings over the last few years so this was no easy feat! We visited a few places, but we chose The Manor , Crickhowell because when we went to visit it we fell in love with it! The people were lovely and venue was amazing. We could picture ourselves getting married there and the views were stunning! 
Tell us about your photographer
Looking for a wedding photographer was quite a daunting task. We had a specific budget to stick to but wanted to make sure we were still getting a high quality, professional photographer. We looked online and asked around for recommendations. My brother is a wedding photographer so I had high expectations of all the websites and portfolios we looked at.
We decided to only meet 2 photographers that we’d narrowed our search down to. One of those was Lloyd . We loved his style and the photos featured in his website were amazing. He was the second of the two photographers that we met and we found him so personable and down to earth. He really made us feel like he wanted to photograph our wedding and he gave us so much confidence that he was going to do an amazing job. We knew as soon as we met him that he was the photographer for us and weren’t disappointed.
On the day he was fab. You didn’t know he was there! He caught so many special, intimate moments which really do paint a picture of our amazing day and looking through them bring back such strong memories it feels like we’re reliving the day again! He always made us feel comfortable, and had a real eye for a good photo!
I don’t think there is one photo from the day that we didn’t love! He even got the seal of approval from my brother which is hard to get!
Me and Jon love Polaroid photographs and have many of them displayed in our house. Lloyd knew this and brought his Polaroid printer with him to print a few pictures off instantly for us. This was such a lovely sentiment, he really knew us and this showed in his photos!
How did the proposal happen?
For Christmas 2013 Jon bought me loads of presents which I had to open in a specific order. After I had opened them he laid them out and told me that they spelt out a word. After thinking for a while and getting some help from Jon (some of the clues were not easy!) I realised he had spelt out Edinburgh. He was taking me to Edinburgh for New Years Eve to go to Hogmany! We arrived in Edinburgh very early in the morning on NYE and couldn’t check in yet so decided to go to the shops and buy some supplies ready for the evening (Prosecco, glasses etc to drink in the street party). On our way back to the hotel Jon asked if we could stop off in Murrayfield stadium to have a look as he hadn’t been there for a while (it was across the road from our hotel). As it was close to where we were staying I said why not. When we got to the gate it was locked so he said lets try another one. We walked a short distance to the next gate and again, that was locked. I thought that we’d go back to the hotel now as we were carrying bags full of bottles which we quite heavy, but Jon had other ideas. He insisted that we walked through a housing estate to the next gate to see if that one was open. I was getting a little tired and frustrated but went with it! The next gate was the main entrance to the stadium and had a ticket office outside. We went in and Jon asked if we could go in the stadium to which they replied yes and told us which gate was open. We went in the open gate and arrived on the middle tier of the stadium looking over the pitch. Jon asked me why he’d brought me here. I said I didn’t know. He asked me what our proper date was as a couple, to which I replied, Wales v Scotland in the 6 nations (2010). As I turned around Jon was on one knee with a ring box and asked me to marry him and obviously I said yes! He wanted to propose somewhere that meant something to us! We love rugby and regularly go to 6 nations matches together so as the first match we saw was against Scotland and I have always wanted to go to Hogmany he decided to propose in Murrayfield Stadium! It was perfect!
We drank a bottle of prosecco there in the stadium and then as we left told the lady in the ticket office what had happened. She was so lovely and offered to take us on a private tour of the stadium where we went into the changing rooms etc!
We then went on to celebrate Hogmany! 
Any DIY stories/tutorials you’d like to share?
We tried to make a few things in our wedding. We made our save the dates by simply printing out a photo of our engagement with the wording over the top and stuck it on brown card.
We also made our invites. As we share a love of rugby Jon suggested our invites should be rugby tickets! He designed them on the computer and we had them printed. They looked fab!
We also made our place settings, table plan, favour tags etc and packaged our favours too. I did this by buying bulk packs of brown card and some stampers from not on the highstreet. They were really simple to make but looked really effective and fitted in well with everything in the wedding.
My mum also made us some beautiful bunting to put on the top table by sewing burgundy felt hearts onto burlap bunting which cost a fraction of the price that they were selling it on the shops. 
What was your first dance & why?
Stereophonics – Could you be the one?
We always knew that if we ever got married this would be our first dance! We both love the phonics and when we first got together we listened to the album with this song on a lot and instantly loved it.
When planning the wedding it was one thing we didn’t even need to think about! We would listen to it in the car and always say, when we get married, this is the one! It makes me teary when ever I listen to it.
We wanted a band at our wedding and the criteria when booking was that they could sing our song! We booked Bespoke Duo who said they knew the song, and on the day, they played it beautifully! 
In hindsight, was there anything you would have done differently?
One thing, we both would have made sure we ate some of the hog roast that we had out for the evening buffet! We were having too much fun to eat but heard it was amazing! 
Do you have any advice for future couples?
Plan the wedding you want! 
What’s the best piece of marriage advice you received?
Marry your best friend. 
What was your favourite thing about planning a wedding?
Trying the wedding food was up there for both of us!! I loved trying on dresses! The whole thing was magical! 
The Suppliers
Photographer: Lloyd Williams
Ceremony And Reception Venue: The Manor , Crickhowell
Bride’s Dress: Laura May
Bride’s Shoes: Carvella, Kurt Geiger
Bride’s Headpiece: Simply Gold
Bride’s Jewellery: John Lewis
Groom’s Outfit: Next
Bridesmaid’s Dresses: Dorothy Perkins
Bridesmaid’s Accessories: Bridesmaid Own
Cake: Bryn Awel Creative Cakes
Flowers: I Love Lily
Hair: Lisa Bidwell
Make Up: Bride did her own
Band: Bespoke Duo
DJ: Hotels own
Stationery: Made ourselves
The Wedding Album
