Today we had a feast for your eyes with this sensational travel inspired wedding. Lizzie and Tom organised a marvelous day and the brilliant VictoriaTyrrel Photography not only shot all the little details but the thing that I loved was the emotion that she managed to capture betwwen these two. ~ Kate
Our first thoughts when it came to budgeting for the wedding were that we’d probably spend about £15,000. As it got closer, this started creeping up, we actually spent somewhere more like £20,000. We saved like crazy and were very lucky and grateful to have some help from our parents! 
We had a travel themed wedding, all our tables were named after places we had traveled to, with friends, family or together. We used postcards of the places rather than traditional names, and as an alternative to a guest book we asked people to ‘choose a destination and sign our globe’.
There was also a strong focus on Welsh spring time and Easter with it being an Easter Sunday wedding. There were lots of gorgeous Daffodils decorating the venue. Lizzie and the bridesmaids had some chocolate eggs while they were getting ready and guests were given Easter eggs with their place cards! 
For Tom his favorite bit was seeing me come down the aisle (I did ask!) and walking in to the reception together seeing the reaction of all our friends and family.
I loved the reception, and being able to see everyone having a great time. For our meal we had carving joints, and chose one guest on each table to carve the meat for the other guests. It was so much fun to watch them all laughing and encouraging or even hassling the carvers!!
We had a live band for the evening, it was amazing, they had everyone dancing all night!! 
I have fantasied about my wedding dress since I was a little girl with a love of dressing up, and even as an adult pre-engagement I have been known to stare longingly at dresses in shop windows and spend hours pouring over magazines!
When it came to choosing THE dress I had no idea what I wanted, but a clear idea of what I didn’t want. Nothing too fussy, no glitter and it could not be strapless. So armed with this little bit of information I went with my Mum to choose THE dress.
Our first stop was Hannah Emily Bridal in Rhiwbina, Cardiff. I loved everything about Hannah’s botique, she was so friendly and all the dresses were gorgeous (so sad she has had to close). I fell in love with the first one I tried on, but you can’t choose the first one surely?! We carried on, and went to another two bridal shops, but nothing compared to the dresses at Hannah Emily. Back we went and I tried on dress number one again, it was THE one. An Annasul Y Tulle dress, with applique lace, gorgeous key hole back and no glitter in sight.
Choosing my dress was much easier than getting my Mum’s Mother of the Bride outfit, but that’s another story! 
Lizzie’s bridesmaids were Tom’s niece Lucy, and two of her closest friends from university. Angharad, who was actually the first person I met at uni, she knocked the flat door on the Saturday asking if I wanted to go for a drink, we’ve been great friends since. Angharad even had a hand in picking my engagement ring, Tom was brave and took her shopping! Completing team bride was Nerys who I met on the first day of lectures as a fresher, we have been BFFs since!! They are both amazing friends and I knew they’d make a fab team bride!
Tom’s best man was Jon aka Jonners, he’s been a close and reliable friend since university, the day before Tom popped the question, he told Jon what he was planning, his reaction brilliant he was so happy and excited Tom knew at that point that he would be his best man! There were also two groomsmen. Tom’s brother Matt who flew from his home in New York for the wedding, Matt has been a great role model and brother to Tom, even long distance! Bobby, another university friend completed team groom, he has been a great friend to both of us and always so generous and helpful. 
I drive passed Pencoed House on my way to work every day, and had always wondered what it was like as a wedding venue. We looked at lots of venues on line, but nothing seemed to compare to Pencoed house, so we booked a viewing. As soon as we were there we knew it was the one, the grounds and tree lined driveway were beautiful and the great hall itself has so much character, it felt like it would be really special for a spring wedding! The staff were so friendly had helped us with all the little details, we couldn’t have asked for more! 
Ah Vikki! Victoria Tyrell was the photographer for our friends Angharad and Simon”s wedding two years before. We loved their wedding photos, and knew that we wanted her to photograph our wedding as well! We first met Vikki for a quick coffee soon after we set a date, then met her again in January for our pre-wed photos. She was fab, completely put us at ease, and along with her second shooter for the day Tracey took some amazing photos. She wasn’t intrusive at all, guests didn’t even notice she was there, yet we’ve got great photos of all of them :) We can’t recommend Vikki enough! 
Tom proposed the day after Valentines day 2015. We were staying in Woodstock for the weekend and had been to a friends pre wedding get together the day before.
In hindsight I should have realised something was going on, Tom had requested the Sunday Times be delivered to our room for the morning (something he never does!) and when we arrived at the hotel he started unpacking (again very unlike Tom) it turned out he was hiding the ring in his toiletry bag!
On the Sunday morning Tom woke up earlier than usual and asked if I would like a coffee, he rang room service while I settled in bed with the news paper, after about 30 minutes and no coffee he was getting a bit restless and rang reception to hurry it up, I was oblivious to the panic, enjoying The Times Style magazine! When coffee finally arrived, Tom poured and ‘pretended’ to find the valentines day card he had ‘lost or forgotten’ the day before. As I was looking at the card I could just see him coming towards me through the corner of my eye, he got down on one knee, said something lovely (but I can’t remember what!) and asked me to be his wife, I was so shocked all I said was ‘oh my god oh my god are you serious!!’ He had to ask again for me to say yes!
That afternoon we surprised Tom’s parents who were enjoying lunch at their local pub, and spent the evening celebrating with my parents which added to the already perfect day. 
We are really lucky that Tom’s mum Sue does flower arrangements for her local church and golf club events. We asked her to do the flowers for the service and wedding reception. We had a mini practice the Easter before, early I know but daffs were in season! Operation flowers began on the Thursday before the wedding, she tuned her dining room into a florists studio. She did an amazing job, filling 8 jugs and rustic bark containers, with Daffodils, tulips and other gorgeous spring flowers.
For our place cards, we ordered map covered match boxes from China (cheap!) and my mum worked out a way to pimp them, with various buttons/beads and ribbon. As the wedding got closer she developed a production line, to print names, decorate and fill with mini Easter eggs even getting my dad to help!!
Tom and I made our map table plan with a little help from Pintrest and Ikea!
We had everyone we know saving Jam jars for us, my mum pimped them with buttons, lace and ribbon. We used them to decorate the bar area at the wedding venue. 
What was your first dance & why?
Our first dance was to Mr Jones by Counting Crows. We wanted something a bit different from your usual wedding song. Its a song we both love, and is loved by Tom’s friends, to whom he is known as Jones or Jonesy (don’t be fooled his surname is James not Jones). I remember my dad playing the song when I was little so it had connections and meanings on both sides.
When it came to the actual dance, we are both pretty clueless, unless its jumping to music we don’t have much rhythm. We had ballroom lessons form Edwards Dance school in Whitchurch. Christine taught us a ballroom routine to do, it was great fun learning to dance, and we loved doing the dance on the day, even though it was a lot harder in a dress than my usual skinny jeans! There was plenty of whooping and whistling from the guests so I think they enjoyed it too :) 
In hindsight, was there anything you would have done differently?
Only one – we bought some fake tea lights in Ikea for the pimped up Jam jars, but it turned out they didn’t have batteries!! In hindsight I would have checked they worked first.
Other than that no, we had a great time planning and enjoying the wedding. 
Do you have any advice for future couples?
Enjoy the planning, you’ll miss it once the wedding is gone!
Make sure you take some time out during the wedding day for just the two of you to be together, it goes so quickly its hard to take it all in! 
What’s the best piece of marriage advice you received?
Be honest with each other, and have a regular date night! 
What was your favourite thing about planning a wedding?
Wine, food and cake testing! Yum! 
The Suppliers
Photographer: Victoria Tyrell Photography
Ceremony and Reception Venue: Pencoed House Estate
Bride’s Dress: Annasul Y
Bride’s Shoes: Hobbs
Bride’s Headpiece: Emma Hall Designs
Bride’s Jewellery: Earrings – Astley Clarke, Other jewellery brides own
Groom’s Outfit: Ted Baker
Bridesmaid’s Dresses: Coast/John Lewis
Bridesmaid’s Accessories: Emma Hall Designs
Cake: Zucchero Patisserie
Flowers: Bouquets – Flower Lodge Rhiwbina
Hair: Amy-Adamson Bridal Hair
Make Up: Jody Amner MUA
Band: The Story Goes
Stationery: Pretty Lane Weddings
Caterers: EJ Catering
The Wedding Album
