Finally, you say, the post about the dress! I wanted to save this one until near the end of the series! I was very lucky when searching for my dress actually! I used to walk past a shop called Orange Blossom Bridal Boutique every day on my way to work. There was a certain dress in the window that made me slow down slightly every time I went past there as it was so beautiful and my perfect dress! It was close fitting down to the bottom where it flowed out in beautiful lace. I emailed the owners, Christina and Michael, to arrange a trying on session and within a couple of weeks I was searching through the rails trying to find The One!

They advised me to pick around 6 dresses, some that I loved and some that I didn’t think I would necessarily like. I thought this was weird at first… surely I knew what style of dress I would like? How wrong was I! So I picked out 6 dresses, one of them being the one from the window that I fell in love with. I tried the first 5 on, saying a definite no to some and a maybe to others. I then tried on the ‘the dress’… and hated it! I felt frumpy and uncomfortable in it… and I was devastated. I didn’t like my dream dress! Christina was great and bought me out a similar but slightly different style and I loved that one… but I also loved a dress that I would have never even thought about looking at and that was the dress that I chose. The dress was a Sincerity Bridal dress and the strapless sweetheart neckline bustier had beautiful pearls and sparkly details on it, which nipped in at the waist and then spilled out beautiful fluffy tulle into a full skirt. The fact that it was strapless and a big full skirt was something that I had never thought I would wear; but I loved it!

My lace covered shoes were from Monsoon. I wanted something that matched my dress but wasn’t ‘bridal’ in a way of pointy toes and kitten heels. They were really comfy and last all the way to the party, where I swapped them for a pair of vans so I could dance!

When trying on my dress, Christina showed me some veils. I hadn’t really thought about wearing a veil and definitely didn’t realise how many styles and lengths there were to choose from! I tried my dress on with a mid length veil with tiny sparkly details on it, which matched my dress perfectly and I went for that one for my big day!

I wanted classic jewellery, nothing too over the top, but enough to give a sparkle. I didn’t want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on it, so I went to monsoon and found this vintage style set of earrings, necklace and hair comb.

We bought our wedding bands from H Samuel. We both went in with an idea of what we wanted; simple and gold. However, a soon as I saw the band that I came away with, I was in love! I wanted a wishbone style ring to accommodate the shape of my engagement ring, and they had plain ones which I happily tried on and thought looked good. Then I saw the sparkle; the same style but with a small section of diamonds on the top, which perfectly matched the length of the amethyst and two diamonds on my engagement ring. I was sold!