Grace & Chris

'Be a rule breaker. It’s more fun that way.' LOVE this from today's real Bride Grace. And she's SO right. When it comes to your wedding day, we think you should do exactly what your heart desires. Screw the traditions that don't suit you, and the rule book (unless those are things that are really important to you of course). It's just about the two of you, celebrating your love with your nearest and dearest AND THAT'S IT. You'll enjoy it more that way, Grace and Chris certainly did...

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The Bride

Grace the Bride: I had two main criteria when it came to finding a dress. The first was that it would be something I could dance in. The second was that I’d have to be able to eat a pie in it. Most wedding dresses are quite fitted but I spend my life in smock dresses or jeans so when trying on these stunning wedding dresses I felt very self conscious. As I am only just 5ft I also looked like a child playing dressing up. It wasn’t until I walked into the Orla Kiely shop in Convent Garden that I’d really thought about buying a dress that wasn’t a “wedding dress”. The white silk dress with round neck and lace trim on the bodice had me sold. Buying something from the high street that was ready to wear took all the stress of alterations out of the equation too. After deciding on a simple dress I realised I could be a little more outrageous with my accessories! My shoes were from Ted Baker; they were silver with big pink pom poms on the toe. My headpiece was made from fresh flowers which our florist created so I will tell you more about this later on... I actually brought my whole jewellery box with me to the hotel and decided what jewellery to wear that morning! I ended up wearing my Alex Monroe necklace and earrings which I’d picked up from a sample sale a couple of months before the wedding.  Kirsty McCall did hair and make-up for me, my mum and my sister. I have never felt so beautiful and confident in all my life. She really captured what I wanted; pink lips, winged eyeliner and a lot of sparkle.

The Groom

Chris only owns one suit. It is by Ted Baker and he wore to our engagement party. He looked so handsome that day that we decided it deserved a second outing and that he should wear it for the wedding. My sister works for the tailor Gresham Blake and she suggested that Chris come in to try on shirts and ties at his store in Brighton. Chris loved the smart, fun prints and ended up choosing a white shirt covered in gold fish, a tie (also featuring gold fish) and a gold tie pin. His shoes were a pair of brogues from M&S.

The Venue

We knew we wanted quite a casual wedding and that we wanted it to be easy for all our guests to get to so they could stay and enjoy the party until the early hours. My family and I stayed at The Artist Residence in Pimlico the night before the wedding and getting ready in such a beautiful big room was really fun. We got a black cab over to the ceremony, which was held at Burgh House in Hampstead. We had a drinks reception in the courtyard; drinks were provided by Ideasbox which included a stunning tricycle (we went for the prosecco bike!) and was staffed by two absolute gems, Edd and Isy. All the wedding guests then left on mass to travel to the evening reception by foot and tube (we told all of the guests to bring their oyster cards)! The Prince Albert pub in Camden was an excellent choice and our guests loved it. Big thanks to Alex and Kasia who looked after us and gave amazing advice!

The Flowers

The colour scheme and decor was all down to our incredible florist Joanne Truby. She was so fantastic to have on board. She spent a lot of time getting to know us and what we wanted from the flowers. I can’t believe how well the whole day came together and I think the majority of this was down to her design and the vibrant colours she chose. So back to my amazing headpiece! It was incredible! Joanne’s brief was; the bigger and more colourful the better. It was perfect. I didn’t want to take it off at the end of the night. Me and my mum made some little succulent wedding favours for all the guests that we dotted around the tables. It was really lovely to make something together for the big day. My mum is really green fingered and all the succulents were grown in her garden.

Super Talented Sister

I am really lucky that my little sister, Molly, is very creative and talented! She designed our wedding invitations, our table plan, place settings and the maps directing guests how to get from the ceremony to the reception venue. The day before the wedding she also decided that she was going to make us a wedding cake. A pink and gold carrot cake. It was delicious! We were going to skip the whole wedding cake as it wasn’t high on our list of priorities but I’m so glad we didn’t in the end.

The Wedding Party

My sister also found a dress in Orla Kiely and I ordered our flower girls dress online from Rachel Riley. Chris bought the best men nautical themed ties from Gresham Blake. At this point I think it is also fitting to mention my Dad’s pink trousers...they were also from Gresham Blake. I think he stole the show in those!

The Ceremony

The Ceremony was my favourite part of the day. Chris and I decided to write our own ceremony, which I absolutely recommend, as it meant the whole service was so special to us. I thought I was going to cry from beginning to end (I’m a very emotional person) but it turns out I was just so excited! I couldn’t stop beaming and it was Chris who couldn’t stop crying! We asked our Godfather to surprise us with his reading and he chose Sonnet 116. We asked Chris’ sister to read an extract from Philip Pullman’s “The Amber Spyglass”, a book we both loved growing up. There was so much laughter and happy tears during the ceremony and it felt very relaxed.

The Entertainment

For our ceremony we had Laura singing accompanied by Andrew on the piano. We found them through Warble Entertainment. Laura’s voice was absolutely beautiful, I’m so pleased we decided to have live music. Laura even learnt three songs for us. I walked down the aisle to “Grow Old with Me” by Tom O’Dell. We signed the register to “The Girl” by City and Colour and as a nod to the film “Bridesmaids” we finished the service walking out to “Hold On” by Wilson Phillips. We asked our very special friend, James Moore, to create a pub quiz which took place between the starters and the main course. We got a lot more than we bargained for. It turns out that all of our family and friends had been sneaking around over the last few weeks putting together a video. The video told the story of how Chris and I met and fell in love. There were bad wigs, hilarious anecdotes and awkward dates. It was a complete surprise and totally hilarious. A personal highlight was seeing my nan dressed up as Chris in the mens toilets of the university where we met (just to note we didn’t actually meet in the mens toilets!) All of our guests were crying with laughter. As we were planning on a budget, we were originally going to do our own music playlist for the evening reception but I'm so glad we didn’t. We had Mitch Matthews DJ for the night. The dance floor was full all night and the guests were still chanting for more at 1am!

The Food

Food is an important one for me. Probably the most important thing in the whole day. And we wanted pie. The Prince Albert were able to provide us with delicious Pieminister Pies and were even able to cater to our gluten free guests! We decided to have sharing starters of cold meats, pitta bread, humus, vegetable skewers and olives. This was really nice as it got all of guests talking straight away. As neither of us could decide on dessert we decided to do sharing desserts too - there were piles of brownies, big serving bowls of apple crumble and slice of lemon tart so everyone could have a bit of everything.

The Photography

It was hugely important to us that we got this right. We were so lucky that Dale was available to photograph our wedding. I am so in love with the photographs they have completely captured how happy our day was. Dale’s relaxed approach put us at ease immediately. It felt like a guest at our wedding...who just happened to be an awesome photographer.

Advice

We made a list of all the things we would need for the wedding and put them in order of importance. Things like photographer and food featured high on the list whilst transport and cake were low. This helped keep things in perspective for us and allowed us to manage our budget more effectively. One last thing - be a rule breaker. It’s more fun that way.