Here it is, my final wedding blog post! I can’t believe I’m saying this but it’s a just over a week since the big day, a fact that has made me feel pretty sad this week.
It was AMAZING.
The cool thing about doing this blog after the wedding is that I can include lots of pictures without ruining anything for the guests.
Apologies but it’s a long one.
The Thursday before the wedding me and Sarah started the wedding prep by getting our nails done. We got acrylics with gel polish. I ♡ them.
The Friday before we spent all day at Wantisden Valley setting up. Although at times it was stressful I loved bringing it all together and finally seeing our vision in the flesh.
Here are some pictures of the venue slowly coming to life….
The ceremony room
I loved the pink and green flowers for the chairs and the Daily Prophet programmes.
The table decorations
The flower centrepieces that I made from Pinterest looked fab on the tables, I was really pleased that all the hours of cutting and pinning were worth it, they added a unique and handmade twist to our table centrepieces.
More of the venue including the photo booth & our Honeydukes themed sweet shop
Outside the venue
It took us from 11am until 6pm when the barn closed to get everything ready but it was SO worth it and went really smoothly with all our helpers pitching in.
The next day it was all systems go from 8.30 am! First stop, hairdressers. My friend from work left us a bottle of Bucks Fizz for us to enjoy whilst we had our hair done which was lovely. It was really nice getting our hair done professionally and to see Sarah and Roxys hair as they didnt have a trial.
My hair looked as lovely as the first time, I really started to feel like a bride when they put my veil and tiara on too.
Next stop, Charlotte’s to get ready.
Choccy crossaints, demolished and make up beautifully applied by Demi and it was soon 12.15 and time to leave for the venue. When the car pulled up it was so much more amazing than I ever imagined. Without a doubt it was one of my favourite bits of the day ♡
Wedding car selfie with Dad!
I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous as I was walking down the aisle and standing doing my vows but, it was really lovely too, a special moment between me and Tim. People don’t lie when they say it’s a bit of a blur and that wasn’t just because of the tears!!
After the ceremony me and Tim went for a short drive in the wedding car which was one of my favourite moments of the whole day, it was lovely to take some time together alone on our special day.
Next up it was Pimms o clock, brushetta canapés and photos with our guests.
Once we had taken all the photos it was time for the speeches and wedding breakfast.
The speeches went down a treat as did the food.
Our caterers were the Mobile Pizzeria and the food was fantastic!! We had antipasti to start with pizzas, rosemary & garlic potatoes and salad for main. Dessert was either Eton Mess or baked apples with ginger biscuits. All delicious.
Here is our gorgeous cake made by my mum’s friend Gill, she did such a fantastic job!! We loved it.
I saw the design for this cake in a shop window and gave that design as the basis for Gill to follow. Our little Venetian masks that we got in Venice when we got engaged looked great on top too.
Cutting our cake
We chose Stand by me by Ben E King as our first dance song. It was Tim’s suggestion and I thought it was a lovely and different choice for a first dance song.
I really enjoyed this too ♡ although it’s wierd everyone watching you dance and I kept standing on my dress haha.
You can’t see them, but I actually had cream sparkly converse on instead of my heels!!
All that was left to do after that was to party the night away…
It was lovely to see more of our friends arrive in the evening and we had more yummy food from the Mobile Pizzeria, pulled pork baps and Mac n cheese.
Our DJ Paul Allen was amazing and kept us and our guests dancing all night! Me and Tim even had a game of Mr & Mrs which was a lots of fun.
Iyla (my sister Sarah & her husband Dans niece) caught our bouquet! She was so excited bless her.
At the end of the night we had our final song Never Forget by Take That and Paul let off two confetti cannons in our pink and green colour scheme, that was really cool and an awesome way to end a fantastic day!
It was the best day of our lives and was as amazing as we had hoped. The planning, preparation, money and stress were more than worth it ♡
I loved this little summary of the big day from Tim’s cousin Emma…
Tim and Roseanne became Mr and Mrs Byford with an amazing, original and heartfelt wedding. Roseanne was the chilled-est happy, beautiful bride – Tim was a beaming, witty (seriously loved your speech) and proud groom. The cake was awesome (who made it?!) the wedding breakfast was Pizza!!! There were chocolate frogs and it was in middle earth. Roseanne won Pinterest. Pimms and canapés in the sunshine. Big group pictures and a baby A who covered his suit in smears of goats cheese. Fast forward to chocolate fountain, delicious pulled pork baps and tasty mystery meat pies and some class music and dancing. Dancing to a bunch of early 00s hits, so glad to hear year 3000 played.
Meanwhile Tim is in the midst of becoming a Pokemon master. Suddenly everyone has put their tie around their head, crazy wedding tribe. Particularly great with Tim’s bow tie. Glad we got Stacey’s Mum and some sk8er boi in there. Classic disco. Beautiful Congo line.
All tied up with Take That ‘Never Forget’.
So how does it feel to get married?
I’ll finish with this quote from Giovanna Fletchers latest book ‘Always with Love’
‘I needed to know that I’m unequivocally and unquestionably loved, and that whoever I choose to give my fragile heart to can be trusted to house it and keep it safe alongside their own.’
Until next time,
Mrs Byford 🙂
Roseanne Byford 