We met by chance whilst on holiday in Tenerife, Phil is from Solihull and I'm from Caernarfon, North Wales, so we would never have met otherwise. Phil proposed while we were on holiday in Vilamoura with my family, he held our son in one arm, who was 9 months old at the time, and the ring in the other – it was so wonderful!
I was a very organised bride-to-be and knew pretty much what I did and didn't want right from the start. I even had a particular dress style in mind.
By the time I found my dress, at Brides of Solihull, I had tried on about 15 different dresses. We were hitting a bit of a wall with the dresses I'd been choosing, and it was actually the sales assistant that pointed out my dress out on the mannequin. I had seen it but didn’t instantly love it, but she said it might be worth a try as the strapless styles I had in mind just weren’t suiting me. As she was pinning me into it, I could just tell we were onto a winner!
The dress I chose was the Nadia dress (style 69312) – it has a beautiful sweetheart neckline and beaded tulle over the chest and shoulders which really flattered me and gave the illusion of a more shapely chest. The organza is just such fabulous material, it holds the shape of the dress so well and as I was walking around the shop the train just followed perfectly! Being a bit of a perfectionist, I loved this as I liked the thought of my dress keeping shape without someone following me all day sorting it out! The beaded belt flattered my waist and it was just so comfortable to wear. I absolutely loved that the buttons ran all the way down the back of the dress as well.
I wanted to keep my accessories as simple as possible as the beautiful beading on the dress speaks for itself really. I opted for a plain, cathedral length, ribbon edge veil and some sparkly stud earrings that Phil bought me for the day.
The first piece of advice I can give any bride-to be is that things won't go 100% to plan no matter how meticulously you organise everything, so try not to get too hung up on the details. You'll have the best day no matter what and that's all that matters really. The second piece would be to wear the comfiest shoes you can find no matter what they look like, I bought proper ivory wedding shoes which were off by the end of the ceremony as they rubbed, and opted for my Mum's tan brown wedges that are the comfiest things ever! I danced the whole night in them and wasn't tripping up over my dress as I still had a good heel on them!
Our vows that we wrote ourselves was definitely my favourite part of the whole wedding, just a moment that I'll never forget.
Photography by Tony Morrison