Giles and Yasmin's Wedding in Amberley, West Sussex

Our Real Wedding

It was such a beautiful day- we were both so excited to finally be married after a long 6 year engagement! Our celebrant was the grooms late Father's best friend whom he had encouraged to pursue his passions and join the clergy. He gave such a sweet sermon and lots of our guests said afterwards that they'd never been to such a love-filled wedding ceremony.There were tears from the maid of honor during her reading in the church and our dear friend stood in at the last minute when our photographer cancelled on us. Our elderly dog dog, Mischa, did a fantastic job as ring bearer, and our flower girls were absolutely beautiful as they scattered flower petals down the aisle.It seemed that someone or something was truly watching over us, as everything we needed seemed to come when the time was right.All of our decor was either handmade, upcycled or bought second hand- bunting made from our daughters old duvet covers from when she was a baby, handmade flower confetti cones, hand painted blackboard signs.. I even made the cake and grew the flowers! My dress was bought second hand for less than £100 and his suit was hired. Our wedding favours were cuttings taken from our numerous house plants, wrapped in brown paper with custom wedding stickers. Every detail down to the help-yourself open bar and my daughters godmother doing a bubble show and the grooms best friend being the wedding DJ... it was 100% home grown and a total collaboration.My bridesmaids were monumental in making the buffet table look like we'd had the professionals in and we couldn't have done it without my sister, cousins, mum and dad and aunts and uncles coming together to make the Reception hall look perfect! Lots of spreadsheets and team efforts involved but it really paid off.My wonderful Mum added some extra dazzle by bringing white Tablecloths and chair covers and hiring a sweets trolley, and it all looked pretty well put together for something that was entirely DIY. The entire thing cost us around £3.5k.Although we didnt use any listed vendors, it was extremely useful to have Hitched to rely on for our checklist of things to do. I had no idea so many things went in to making a wedding happen so it was great to reference the list to get the essentials down, but also all the little extra details that really made the day so special. Thank you so much!