Some of The Finer Details

I loved planning our big day.  At times it was very stressful but all in all I loved every minute of the planning.  I've always been a planner and I don't suppose there will ever be a bigger event in my life, than my own wedding, it is something every girl dreams of.  I wasn't really sure what to expect from it all but it was amazing.

The dress shopping was the bit I had been dreading all along but once we had started I actually really enjoyed it.  Even after I had picked my dress I felt tempted to carry on looking at others just because I had enjoyed it all so much.  Maybe it's because I didn't really have any expectations of it, that it just seemed so much better than I had anticipated but I shan't complain.  

I loved it.

I had originally intended on getting a vintage style dress.  Something pretty and lacy, a tea dress kind of length (I didn't want a train), possibly a dress with sleeves but definitely something that would cover my chest (as I get this awful rash when I get nervous or emotional).  In fact the dress that I had my heart set on was this one.

Image sourced from Google images.

But the truth is, I tried them on and they just didn't look right.  I don't know what it was, but they didn't suit me.  I was gutted.  Well until I found the style that did suit me and then I found THE dress.  I was stuck between 2 dresses to begin with but this one won us all over.

We were really lucky with the bridesmaid dresses.  They sort of picked us really.  Originally Marie had tried it on for the style of dress not the colour, but as soon as we see it on, we knew it was the one.  Both my dress and the girls dresses were designed by the same designer, and they really complimented each other.

I don't really know how we decided on the venues, it just sort of happened.  We had looked at a few different ones but settled on Hylands House for our ceremony.  The building and park is now owned by Chelmsford City Council, however the last private owner of the house had a lot of involvement with Trumans Brewery.  Now of course with James being a brewer this had some meaning to him.  I've always loved Hylands.  I used to go to the park with my parents to collect conkers in the Autumn.  Growing up it has always been a place to go to get away from things.  Now it has even more meaning.

As we were trying to keep the price as low as possible we decided to hold our reception in a hall.  We looked at halls close to the ceremony venue and settled on Longmeads House Community Centre in Writtle.  It's a Victorian manor house with some beautiful features.  However over years of neglect, seeing the hall empty required a lot of imagination to visualise what we were looking to achieve, but I'm happy that we managed it.

I'll leave the decoration and the smaller details till another post.  Sorry, I did warn you yesterday that there may be a few wedding posts.

~ Gem x