The wedding was perfect. We had it in November at Ware Priory in Ware. It was the first place that I looked and and whilst we did look at other venues nothing felt as right as the Priory. It was just right for what we wanted, it was neither too big nor too small – just right for the 80 guests we had during the day, plus another 20-30 in the evening. The grounds were lovely – lots of trees that were beautiful in colour for Autumn, with a nice stream in the grounds too. The staff were really welcoming and helpful. Al was away in Afghanistan in the 6months leading up to the wedding so the planning was mainly down to me.

We had our two bridesmaids in an aubergine dress, and we kept the theme throughout – aubergine, cream and gold. My friend and I decided on a design for the invitations, and as she’s very creative she was happy to make them for us.  We went to Hobbycraft and got all the bits we needed, so the invites had a personal touch, and also worked out much cheaper than buying them. My mums friend used to be a florist so she kindly offered to do our flowers at cost price ,  I had a bouquet (cream roses and gerberas)as did my 2 bridesmaids, we had a big arrangement as you walked into the venue (cream) and then another long arrangement on the signing of the register table which we then transferred to our top table. We didn’t have individual arrangements on each table – instead we had two aubergine balloons and a cream balloon with an aubergine weight holding them in the centre of the table.

I had a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud to take me and my dad to the venue, and they waited until Al and I were married and then took us for a spin so that Al could experience the car! Our wedding cake was from Marks and Spencers – we went for a sponge as neither Al or I like fruit cake, and the cake was decorated with an orchid wrapped around. My make up was done by a lady called Jo who worked for Virgin Vie so prior to the wedding I had a Virgin Vie party, and her husband was our photographer.

My wedding dress was one that I’d seen in a magazine, folded the page over and kept looking at thinking how I liked it so much. When I searched for it on the Internet and found a stockist I was amazed at how reasonably it was priced. It was a Romantica dress and I tried it on with my mum at ‘The Silk Box’ in Cheshunt and the staff there were extremely helpful. I knew straight away that it was the dress that I wanted even though it was the first that I tried! I did try another one on but it was just for the sake of trying, no other dress came close!

I picked up details for a lady called Michele Dawn at a wedding fayre and she makes jewellery for weddings and special occasions. I went to her home with a picture of my dress and she designed me a hair slide, and necklace that would compliment the dress. I told her how much my budget was for jewellery and she made the pieces to suit this. They were/are really beautiful. We were fortunate in the savings we made. We didn’t go out of our way looking for bargains but I did always weigh up our options when it came to making decisions. We have both said since, that even if we did have £50,000 (not that we do) to spend on on our wedding day, there is nothing that we would have done any differently!