KATY & JOHNNY
Johnny hadn’t bought a ring and told me he hadn’t planned the proposal, he was just going to ask me if the time felt absolutely right. Two days before the end of our trip to Thailand, that moment came. We were walking on the beach after a candlelit BBQ. It was deserted apart from us and one other couple, who let off a lantern and then left. John dropped down onto one knee and neither of us can remember the rest, it was a happy blur!
hello
hello
hello
I hadn’t actually given much thought to what I’d like for my wedding, so I did a lot of research before visiting The Bridal Room in Broadway with my mum one weekend.
“I found the perfect vintage style lace dress by Justin Alexander and Emma at The Bridal Room immediately pulled it off the rail!”
I tried on seven more afterwards, but I knew this was the one for me!
The Bridal Room also supplied my vintage style lace and pearl headband – it was more expensive than I’d planned but it’s going to become an heirloom now. I kept the jewellery simple with a pearl bracelet and my mum’s pearl earrings as well as ivory shoes from Debenhams.
Initially John had really wanted a prohibition-era gangster look for our wedding but we struggled to find the right style. In the end, he opted for a three-piece grey suit from a bridal retailer in Cheltenham, wearing an ivory tie and pocket square to match my dress. The groomsmen and my dad had ties and pocket squares to match my bridesmaids.
My four stunning bridesmaids are childhood friends. I wanted them to reflect their own personalities and look different, but after struggling to find the right dresses we chose a sage green dress from Debenhams that they all looked great in, and then the girls all had different hair and pearl jewellery to make their looks more unique.
I’m very self-conscious so I knew I’d want someone to do my hair and makeup for me on the day. My hairdresser, Bella Bridal Hair, was amazing – I can’t thank her enough! She was so bubbly and eased all my nerves away. My makeup artist, Lauren Mason, used Estee Lauder, MAC, Clarins, Maybelline and Chanel products.
“Get a spare lipstick – it’ll wear off with all the chatting and kissing you’ll do!”
My bridesmaid Rebecca read ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ by John Cooper Clarke and Thom, one of the groomsmen, read an excerpt from Jane Eyre, my favourite book, ending with reading ‘My Personal Penguin’ in a nod to our mutual love of penguins.
 |
 |
“We wanted the day to be as relaxed and personal as possible so that our guests felt like they were at a party in our garden rather than at a wedding, so we loosely used a vintage country garden theme.”
I love being creative so I wanted to make as many of our decorations as I could. I made our orders of service into heart-shaped fans, made hanging hearts out of pages from my favourite books, had photos pegged up and hung pastel paper lanterns everywhere. I saw a real wedding in Wedding Ideas that used LOVE letters for the guestbook and shamelessly borrowed the idea for our big day!
 |
 |
One of my friends at work arranges flowers in her spare time and has a fantastic reputation, so I asked her to do ours. I wanted them to look like they’d been swept up from a meadow, rather than be a structured bouquet, and she created it perfectly! The centrepieces were displayed in gin bottles and we had The Confetti Cone Company dried petal confetti.
“My mum, my bridesmaid and I each made a few tiers, adding a ‘He’s Her Lobster’ cake topper in a nod to TV show, Friends.”
Guests also received miniature fruit and nut cakes in keeping with Johnny’s Greek background. Our save the dates from Tillie Mint Loves and our invitations from Something Kinda Cute both received many compliments.
We played songs by Vitamin String Quartet after hearing their music at a friend’s wedding the year before – they have amazing covers of songs and guests loved guessing which song it was! A friend from work is also a great DJ, so he then took over for the evening.
Originally we wanted MC Hammer’s ‘Can’t Touch This’, but in the end we decided to go with Tom Odel’s ‘Grow Old With Me’ first.
V E N U E Matara Centre, Tetbury, Gloucestershire
D R E S S Justin Alexander at The Bridal Room, Broadway
B R I D E S M A I D D R E S S E S Debenhams
G R O O M For similar, try Moss Bros
A C C E S S O R I E S The Bridal Room and Debenhams
S T A T I O N E R Y Something Kinda Cute
C O N F E T T I The Confetti Cone Company
E N T E R T A I N M E N T Vitamin String Quartet
P H O T O G R A P H E R Gemma Gaskins
