Our visit to the showroom, drinking bubbles and being guided through our list by Georgie - it was the best way to get a feel for what we liked, and we could really imagine our home and future together.

Our favourite brands were definitely Pooky lights, Bramwell Brown Clocks and Weaver Green.

They had been recommended by many friends, and when we saw the scope of their brands on their newly revamped website we knew they were the only gift list for us. We booked an appointment with them at their beautiful showroom and the rest is history! 

We had some of our presents delivered early. Our wedding was delayed by 2 years because of Covid, but gifts had already been bought, so when we bought a new house we decided to have some of our presents delivered. It was such an exciting day when they all arrived, and even though Covid hadn't let us have our wedding on the original date, it felt so good to get a little piece of it! 

Kieran surprised me with a trip to Edinburgh for my birthday- it was where I went to Uni but I hadn't been back in years and was excited to show Kieran around my city. The weather was classically gloomy and misty - I suggested we climb Calton Hill before going back to the hotel, little did I know that Kieran had been subliminally guiding me towards this very spot all day. He had us climb up to the National Monument and then gave me a poem he wrote about our lives together which finally led to a Harry Potter book he handed me. At the chapter called "The Unbreakable Vow" the pages were hollowed out, and there sat an engagement ring. Obviously, I was sobbing at this point! We toasted our engagement that night at The Witchery on the Royal Mile before flying home to celebrate with friends and family. The ring he proposed with was from Monica Vinader, he then took me to Hatton Garden to choose a proper ring together, a yellow diamond surrounded by white diamonds, which we affectionately named 'Lady Bianca'...long story! 

We love festivals, particularly Glastonbury, and this was the inspiration for our wedding. The most important thing for us was having a venue with no curfew, so we could stay up all night, and somewhere that would allow us to really make it our own. 

Once we found our venue in Cornwall, we realised that we knew very little about businesses in that part of the country, so relied a lot on recommendations from the venue, local people and from websites like Rock My Wedding and looking at suppliers that other venues used a lot.

Fee's Food was highly recommended by our venue, as well as other venues and hotel owners that we stayed with - she's a local legend!

Our wedding was moved 4 times due to Covid, and in the moves we lost our photographer, florist, band, and photobooth. It was extremely emotional, particularly the first time we had to move it and lost our florist - we both cried on the phone as the decision was made. We were so appreciative of our venue and suppliers who all did everything in their means to move plans for us, and we know how devastated the wedding industry was by the pandemic. Every supplier we worked with went above and beyond for us, even if they weren't able to be there on the final day, and we loved all the suppliers we worked with on the day but know that the ones we lost in the moves would also have been incredible. 

Pencarrow House and Garden, Bodmin, Cornwall - Weddings at Pencarrow.

We visited Pencarrow in January and even in the cold with no marquee up, we instantly fell in love with the venue, particularly as Nico really painted a picture of the possibilities. Pencarrow offers so many different locations within one venue. The wisteria laden arbor where we had our ceremony, to the house itself where beautiful, manicured lawns and fountains hosted our champagne reception. Then moving through the walled gardens to where they erect a beautiful silk marquee, and behind that the glamping field where shepherd's huts, bell tents and yurts hosted our guests for the weekend.

There's a hidden bar in the woods, 'The Nightcap Bar' where the party moves after the official wedding is over, where we envisioned our guests dancing around the fire pits with silent disco headsets on. Nico helped us make all our visions and dreams come true for this venue, so we could truly create our festival vision, it was absolutely beautiful on the day, and every part of the venue delivered what we had imagined. 

The venue was so stunning that it really didn't need a lot of dressing, but because we had a festival theme in mind, we did add a few touches to bring this to life. We hired big festival flags from Event Flag Hire which led our guests to the marquee.

Our friend Ciara is an incredible artist and she painted us a signpost that represented all the different places in the world that are meaningful to us, from Costa Rica to Hogwarts!

The final piece, which 2 of our guests bought us through the Wedding Present Company was a bespoke neon sign, which hung behind the dance floor at the wedding, and now lives in our kitchen. 

Helen at The Velvet Daisy was my 3rd florist, and it was certainly the third time's charm! The flowers were inspired by my wedding dress, which was adorned with a wildflower design of blues and reds, so this gave us the perfect flower design to draw from.

This colour palette carried from the bride and bridesmaid bouquets through to the meadow of arrangements which lined the aisle to the altar, and to the arrangements on the tables in rustic urns.

Helen and her team also created stunning hoops of green foliage which hung in the marquee and really added a wow factor to our reception dinner, set against the festoon lights and printed silk marquee ceiling. 

Myself and my father travelled to the wedding in a Silver Shadow Rolls Royce from The Wedding Car Hire People.

As the venue itself was quite large, we also hired a classic Indian tuk tuk to transport some of our guests from the reception drinks to the marquee. This came in particularly handy when I was fed up with wearing heels, so we hitched a lift to the tent! 

I originally chose my wedding dress in 2019, at The Dress in Teddington. The dress was called 'Verity', a mikado silk gown from Sassi Holford, and I cried when I put it on. I picked up the tailored dress the night before we went into lockdown in 2020, and she sat in my mum's wardrobe for a year as our wedding was pushed and pushed, finally into 2022. In 2021, I was pregnant with our son, and saw the most stunning new Sassi Holford dress on The Dress's Instagram - it was unlike any dress I'd tried on. 'Iris' was everything I'd always wanted but never found, ivory with colourful wildflowers all over, long sheer sleeves, and a crossover neckline - I knew that it was absolutely the one, and when I sent to my mum and she suggested I try it on. I tried the dress on at 6 months pregnant, and even then, it was perfect. I decided to keep the new dress a secret from my bridesmaids so that I could surprise them on the day, and it was my favourite moment of the morning, and the first time I cried that day as they all were so visibly surprised and emotional.

My wedding shoes were a last-minute purchase from Kurt Geiger - the most beautiful (and painful) shoes I've ever worn!

I had pearl hair grips from Gillian Million in Teddington, and these matched the pearl earrings from Tiffany that my mum gave me on my wedding morning.

My necklace was my something borrowed from my maid of honor, as well as a Monica Vinader bangle from my bridesmaid Sarah, which I lost on the day and had to buy for her after the wedding!

Knowing that we would be dancing in the woods late in the night, I wanted to change for the dancefloor, and found the perfect bridal party dress from the wedding collection at Rixo, which I paired with bespoke Converse trainers, with silk laces. 

Kieran had a bespoke suit from Tailor Made in London - a forest green, woolen three-piece suit, with a navy tie and a burgundy pocket square. In the lining of the jacket, he had monogrammed '305 Til We Die' - a reference to where we met in Miami, and a theme that carried through the whole wedding.

His shoes were brown monk shoes from Zara, and the finishing touch was a gold pocket watch, which was a wedding gift from me, engraved with a lyric from one of our wedding songs - 'Always Remember Us This Way'. 

Despite all the changes to our wedding date, I was lucky enough to have some local legends doing our hair and makeup on the day. Charlotte from 'Hair by Emma C' did our hair, and she styled us beautifully.

I was very nervous about my makeup as typically I don't wear a lot (or know what I'm doing!), but I had Ione from Ione Makeup and Hair, and she made me completely at ease, and I was so happy with my look on the day. 

The bridesmaids' dresses were the first thing I bought, when I saw navy blue lace bodice dresses from Monsoon and knew that they would suit and flatter my 6 bridesmaids. On the day, after a four-year engagement, half of my bridesmaids were pregnant, but luckily the dresses were still able to fit, and they all looked beautiful.

Our son, Leo, wore navy shorts with braces, and a white shirt onesie, with his first ever pair of navy shoes, with his signature lion on them!

Our flower girl Jemima wore a navy dress from Monsoon which matched the bridesmaids, and she was over the moon about it! 

Fee's Food is well-known for catering for many weddings in the Cornwall region and for having a deli in Rock, which we visited on planning trips to Cornwall. She was open to all our suggestions and helped us craft our perfect menu. The canapes (our favourite part of any wedding menu) were delicious, with bowls of honey mustard sausages, Yorkshire puddings with roast beef and horseradish, fish goujons, pea and mint crostinis to name a few - the best part was, they didn't run out! For dinner we started with sharing boards of delicious bread with mackerel pate, black olive tapenade, camembert and charcuterie. Our main course was butterflied Cornish lamb, with delicious roasted potatoes, griddled summer vegetables and salsa verde.

We had a dessert table, which featured a selection of treats, with a donut wall centerpiece, with Krispy Kreme donuts that flew away immediately!

Our cake was by Oona's Cakes, a local business in Penzance. The flowers were planned to reflect the flowers on my dress. 

Our wine lived in my parent's garage for 2 years, with intermittent tastings throughout the years to make sure they hadn't spoiled during the pandemic delay - it's a miracle we all managed to resist a lockdown binge! We bought most of our wine and champagne from Majestic in Calais, and the white in particular (Macon Lugny) only improved from 2020 to 2022.

Our champagne was Nicolas Feuillatte, and my personal favourite rose was Pure Mirabeau. For the top table we had a special bottle of red from Domaine Drouhin in Oregon, which was a firm favourite amongst myself and my father.

Each table had a centre piece of Ferdinand's Saar Quince Gin, which Kieran raised as a toast after his speech. This was the gin that we drank together on our first date and has been a favourite ever since. 

Our photographer was Stuart Dudleston, and he and his colleague captured so many wonderful moments on the day. We particularly loved that Stuart didn't shy away from capturing all the amazing moments on the dance floor, and we had so many amazing shots of our friends and family dancing into the night.

We didn't initially plan to have a videographer, but over the years our resistance wavered, and we decided to go for it. We were so excited that we were able to book Baxter and Ted - Kieran loved how they used a Super 8 camera as well as more traditional shots, and we can't wait to see the footage when it is delivered. 

We had several musical moments throughout the day, starting with a harpist, Jessica, who played for our guests as they arrived, and played Canon in D Minor as I walked down the aisle.

As we signed the register we had a friend, Mans Zelmerlow, sing Always Remember Us This Way, accompanied by another friend, Phil Mitchell on the piano.

After the ceremony we walked up the aisle to Come and Get Your Love by Redbone.

Our ceremony drinks were accompanied by the beautiful acoustic singer and guitar player, Daisy Taylor, and our band was The Wanderful Four, a Mumford style band.

Jessica, Daisy and The Wanderful Four were all booked through The Alive Network.

Finally, there was an incredible musical surprise planned by my parents - secret singing waiters from The Opera Boys who had masqueraded as waiters all night, and suddenly serenaded us after dinner. They sang opera, some Franki Valli, and finally a Les Miserables medley which had the myself and my family in tears. It was one of the best moments of the day, with our guests all up and dancing on the chairs - a truly unforgettable highlight. 

We didn't book an official wedding planner but were supported by Nico and Jasmine from our venue. 

We commissioned pieces of graphic design from Ella's Books - Ella created bespoke illustrations for our invitations, order of service, table name cards, and our seating plan - this was our favourite piece, as she interpreted our favourite board game, Catan, into a totally unique seating plan, which now hangs framed in our house. We were over the moon with all the illustrations, which tied the whole wedding together, and felt so deeply personal. We treasure all the designs Ella created. 

Being surprised by the singing waiters after dinner is a moment we will never forget, as it was so unexpected, and brought out so much joy for all our guests. I will also never forget migrating our guests from the marquee to the Nightcap Bar - when our groomsman pulled a smoke flare and held it to the sky to lead the way, and we danced in the woods, singing to our silent disco headsets - it felt like the festival we had always wanted.

With all of this though, the best moment of the day was the ceremony - finally after 4 years saying our vows to each other, and having our son join us as we signed the register, it was so special to have him there with us, and feel our family officially come together after such a long wait. 

If you are booking a venue like ours that is 'DIY' and 'make it your own', I would book a wedding planner. We had so much to pull together on our own, and it was lucky that I was on maternity leave during the final push because it really was a full-time job making sure that everything was ready. 

Gift List: The Wedding Present Company

Photographer: Stuart Dudleston

Catering: Fee's Food

Bridal Fashion: Sassi Holford at The Dress,  Kurt Geiger, Gillian Million, Tiffany & Co, Monica Vinader

Groom's Fashion: Tailor Made, Zara

Florist: The Velvet Daisy

Cake: Oona's Cakes

Furniture Hire & Decor: Event Flag Hire

Location & Marquee: Weddings at Pencarrow

Transport: The Wedding Car Hire People

Music: The Alive Network, The Opera Boys

Hair & Make Up: Hair by Emma C, Ione Makeup and Hair

Bridesmaids: Monsoon

Stationery: Ella's Books

Videographer: Baxter and Ted