The proposal
“We were in the second year of Uni and because we were all going home for Christmas, Nath and I had our own ‘Christmas Day’ on the 23rd December,” remembers Lauren. “I was really excited in the morning to give him his presents, but he seemed to be reluctant and was delaying getting out of bed. Eventually, I got him downstairs and we started opening our stockings. The last gift in mine was a small box. I thought it was going to be earrings, but when I opened it, I saw it was a ring! I was completely shocked – I didn’t have a clue he was about to propose. We had only been going out for about 10 months, and although we had talked about marriage, I thought it was a few years off, yet.”
The bride’s outfit
“I started looking for the dress about 18 months before the wedding. One of my bridesmaids was pregnant at the time, and my other lived a little while away, so it became a weekly outing for me, my mother and our friend Linda. We had so much fun looking, I must have tried between 80-100 dresses and we loved nearly all of them!” laughs Lauren. We adore our bride’s choice – she went for Dior by Forever Yours. “The dress looked completely different on, I remember having a fluttery feeling in my tummy, because I was expecting to hate it, but when I saw it on me I really loved it. It was quite a fitted dress, but flattering at the same time. It really suited my shape as it hid all the bad bits,” she adds.
The groom’s outfit
Nathan bought his slim-fit three piece suit from Reiss. This navy blue colour is a huge hit with grooms right now and is set to be a big trend in 2014.
The bridesmaids
Lauren had two bridesmaids to accompany her on the big day, three little pageboys and a baby flowergirl. The girls wore midnight blue floor-length gowns from high street favourite, Coast.
The ceremony
Was a musical affair with some of the couple’s favourite songs, including Heartbeats, Here Comes The Sun, All You Need Is Love, One Love and the Wedding March. They also had two readings; the first was a song written by Nathan’s dad and the second was a personal poem by the bride’s friend.
The flowers
The floral displays were really important to Lauren. Her vision was simple and chic with a focus on a natural look, so she chose Beth from Enchanted Decor to create them.
The reception
“I wanted to do a lot of the decorations myself to give it a personal touch,” explains Lauren. “We collected over 200 bottles and jars that were all different shapes and sizes, and decorated them ourselves with ribbons and buttons,” she adds. Their evening entertainment was provided by an awesome covers band called Jukebox.
The honeymoon
Lauren and Nathan stayed at the Royal Hotel in Cancun, Mexico, for their first holiday as husband and wife.
Real wedding gallery
