We did it! WE GOT MARRIED!!!!Wahooooo! I am now a Mrs/Wife, how weird is that?! I can’t quite describe how we both feel without sounding extremely cheesy. It’s a different level of loving someone, I absolutely adore Alex & when we became husband & wife we both said the same thing ‘we did it!’ Anyone who has followed ‘our journey’ you will know it’s not been an easy ride & we had drama up until 2 weeks before the wedding. This didn’t effect our day at all, why would it?! everyone who loved us & supported us where there.
This blog post is an insight to our day, who we used to make it complete & some hints and tips for all you brides to be- i’ll reveal those secrets don’t worry!
The Wedding Morning
The wedding morning I genuinely thought I’d be the biggest stress head, surprisingly I wasn’t at all! All my bridesmaids arrived early morning and we cracked open the champers & just enjoyed the morning. My man of honour & I even did a Costa run, I didn’t start getting ready til 12:00pm which was an hour and a half til we had to leave. It all went so smoothly & I think me being calm helped everyone else!
Our makeup for my bridesmaids, Mum, Auntie & Myself was done by Abby Bateman (I will link everyone’s page/website!) who is the most talented lady! Everyone’s makeup lasted all day & night, even my auntie who did the most crying! Our hair was done by Chloe Fox who has been doing my hair since i was about 10 years of age, no one else would be doing my wedding day hair. My wedding hair was so different to anything i’d ever seen on another bride & it’s exactly what I wanted, non of this some up some down or just down and curly! Something for people to be like oh wow how different!
I got all my bridal party hand made dressing gowns from a very good friend of mine who smashed it! They went perfectly with our theme of Royal Blue & my mums being red because of her outfit! Even my little flower girl got a dressing gown, each bridesmaids has slippers which were a bargain from good old Primark! The wedding morning was just perfect exactly how I wanted it to be and everyone really enjoyed it! My advice is to not get stressed because why is there any point? You’ve done everything you can so what will be will be.
The Ceremony
Yes so it rained on our wedding day, every brides nightmare right?! Wrong! Honestly, didn’t bother me or anyone at all, it made it better!
We had the most amazing wedding cars, I was kindly gifted from a friends family a vintage red rolls royce & we also used Churchtown Wedding Cars for our Bridesmaids car we chose a vintage camper van & our Page boy & flower girl went in a convertible beetle! I didn’t want the guest’s to be left out nor the groomsmen so we hired a vintage big Routemaster bus for the journey after the ceremony.
Our ceremony was in St Marie’s Catholic Church we wanted it to be very traditional & the church is absolutely gorgeous and it’s our family church so meant so much to my mum. We had a singer named Sam Bennett who sang Hallelujah as we all walked down the isle, everyone who walked down that isle with us is a huge part of our life & we love dearly.
It was just perfect from beginning to end, there was a funny moment in the church that deserves a special mention, my Man of Honour Stephen we had asked him to read our bidding prayers & it got to the time he was due to read them…. he had in fact forgotten to bring them with him & the priest didn’t have spares, it was absolutely hilarious! I don’t think I’ve laughed so much before. His face was an absolute picture! Luckily we got it all photographed and filmed ha! Because of the weather all family stayed for photos in the church and our guests hopped on the bus and took a tour!
I would highly recommend a church wedding & I know it’s not for everyone but if you were brought up and religion was an active part of your childhood life etc. Then honestly a church service is the way, the vows are so powerful and so beautiful. You go through every emotion & after all people seem to forget that it is all about the vows & not the party and we wanted this to be memorable and something close to our hearts. Every guest mentioned how powerful the service was and how amazing our priest Father John was.
The Reception
So our Reception was held in the ever so wonderful The Bold Hotel in the Red Rum Suite, this room is absolutely breathe taking and our theme was Navy & Gold but mainly we wanted the RAF to run through it. We donated a big lump sum to the RAF benevolent fund which is a charity very close to our hearts, Alex is in the RAF and I am like his little cheerleader and always so proud of him. So our wedding favours were RAF BF badges for each guest to take away, the response was perfect & everyone really appreciated the token which meant so much to us. I would highly recommend your wedding favours being a charity donation for a number reasons but the top 3 reasons being; 1. You are donating to a charity that is close to your hearts as a couple 2. It’s spreading awareness on your wedding day to your loved one’s 3. It’s so much easier than getting a sugar coated almond and hoping everyone likes them. When we contacted the charity they were so wonderful & so so helpful, they were so grateful we wanted them to be a huge part of our wedding day when in fact we are so so happy to help.
The Flowers were out of this world, absolutely breath taking and my main focus was to ensure that the flowers were natural, beautiful and reflected the theme of RAF blue throughout and David Beckham-Doyle was the man to do this. He adapts to any of your needs & with change of circumstances! Huge thank you to him, our house has smelt amazing since!
We had 10 tables of 10 for the day & each table I wanted to have so many personal touches to the day. I feel they are more memorable. Each person had a personalised Navy napkin with gold writing saying Alex & Emily Siddle 27th July 2019 & a Coaster to match. Each guest received a programme of the timings of everything during the day, who was who in each party & a few thank you’s. Of course the RAF benevolent fund badge too. Throughout the whole venue our wedding hashtag was visible of #SiddlesSayIDo ! Each table was named after places we had visited and we had a little easel on each table with a mini polaroid photo of us in that place. I think the personal touch is so so important on your wedding day, celebrating you both as a couple! I swore by Etsy for little things like the Polaroid photos & even our table names which is how I discovered the amazingly talented Vellamaes which blew me away, she is so talented and adaptive to all your needs.
In the evening the room turned around and we got a donut wall, ‘Siddles Sweet Shop’, our Amazing DJ & Sax Player. The evening was just everything we had ever dreamed of, Our DJ I had seen him do a wedding when I was 19 when I worked in a hotel and I saw Reality Disco DJ at a wedding and I said to them ‘You will do my wedding for sure!” and here we are, Mark part of Reality disco introduced me to Ashley Wood a DJ from London, who everyone is still raving about, I want to do the wedding all over for him again! I had only seen 1 video of Ash and that’s it, as soon as he started I just was gobsmacked, it was like the most amazing thing I’d ever ever witnessed! The way the DJ’s and Sax player worked together was just incredible, this was our biggest investment for the wedding and it really paid off!
We also hired the wonderful Pic & Pose who was so professional and emailed me designed exactly how we wanted the prints to look and it was done! Our guests absolutely loved the photo booth, you just can’t go wrong with a photo booth!?
Advice for Brides To Be
All you Brides to be who are recently engaged & planning a wedding, HUGE congratulations! Now don’t panic about the cost of things or how big your budget should be. If i’m honest we never set a budget in stone because I would over think massively, I did, however knew in my head my ideal cost and that was £8,000 for my dream wedding. Be pleased to know it was just below that, we got everything we wanted & dreamed for and I’m going to show you how to do this!
Firstly, we didn’t do it alone, my mum was a massive help. I worked extra hours & we both did as much as we could. My advice is to make sure you put a standing order together and put in each month then you have no surprises & know exactly what is going in & out.
Secondly, When it comes to deciding a colour scheme & the theme you want to & sticking to it. Do your research, make sure it represents you both as a couple, it get’s forgotten sometime it’s also the grooms wedding day as well.
So when it comes to the cost of things, my first piece of advice is don’t take the first price ever. Do your research and check all the reviews as well of each supplier. Sometimes you mention wedding and it sky rockets the price, this is completely normal for this to occur. Last minute booking (usually 3-4 months before is classed last minute) you tend to get a discount as well or wait for a sale within the business too- there is no shame in wanting it to be discounted as weddings can be so expensive!
Use small businesses & support your friends businesses, I am lucky enough to know a lot of people in this particular industry who I have built a relationship with over the years. They are all SO talented & I like to go with people I can trust when it comes to the biggest day of your life.
A lot of people have asked me about our ‘wedding breakfast’ we aren’t the type to have the 3 course meal and then the buffet in the evening at all. A lot of hotels & venues are now offering a package that is just a ‘buffet’ as your wedding breakfast (I hate that word and like to call it a spread!) so we chose for our guests a European themed buffet, which of course involved pizza, cheese boards & meat boards. It was absolutely perfect and so suitable for us as a couple. Our food and drink as we got drinks on arrival, wine on the table and toast drinks, this was perfect for us.
I said earlier how Etsy was my go to for the whole wedding, It’s amazing what you can get made on the site. This can really help with your budget too, we spent a couple of hundred on our centre pieces, our vintage cards suitcase, bits & pieces for the table and the room. This saved so much money, We still got everything we wanted but we did our research!
Our cake topper was a surprise My mum and I did and we got it from Lucy’s toppers who we found on etsy too and oh my goodness me she was incredible! She is so passionate, we got on like a house on fire too! All the toppers are made out of clay, so you get to keep it forever! It makes your cake!
With our groomsmen 5 of them were not military so needed suits and my man of honour & page boy needed a suit too, I researched so much for this! Slaters was the best bet and if you bought 5 suits you only pay for 4! Which is an absolute bargain and each 3 piece suit for everything cost £84.00 to hire and it comes in a range of colour & you match the tie to your colour scheme.
Bridesmaid’s dresses can be so expensive & I explained to my Man of Honour what I wanted & we got searching, I found a few dresses but they just were not suitable. Then my Man of Honour actually found my dresses on ASOS from a company called TNFC and they were half price, at the beginning I had more bridesmaids (let’s not go there we learnt a lot during the wedding!) so at £35 a pop we couldn’t resist. It was around this time that all the bridesmaid dresses on ASOS were on sale so if you are a bride to be then head there but also if you want to know were the sales are at then head to Cheap Wedding Stuff who is totally in the know and sometimes has extra discount codes!
As a Bride sometimes you can feel the pressure of expense and it’s totally overwhelming, remember you can say no & find it somewhere else for cheaper. There is no shame in going somewhere else for cheaper when it’s the same product. I booked a red double decker bus & I spoke to one company who quoted me over £1000 and I said I’ve found it cheaper somewhere else and when I told them the company they said ‘oh we’ve heard bad reports’ Honestly, it was the best service we received, they were adaptable to the weather & so lovely. They also quoted us a big amount but because I did it last minute & ended up getting such a big discount. Be cheeky, ask if you can go lower! Don’t know until you ask, 9 times out of 10 it works!
Head to your local Home Bargains, Hobbie Craft or The Range, the discounts you get it are absolutely incredible!
Finally, as a Bride to be have fun with it! This is your big day, share the planning & most of all find those discounts!
Our day was perfect, it definitely helped I had worked in the industry & knew what companies I could trust, used small & local businesses and hunted for those bargains!
A very special mention to our photographer & videographer! Joe topping & Emily Topping. They are simply the best in the business, so professional and the most special part I went to school with Emily & it was like childhood friends reuniting! Emily saved the day introducing me to her brother and becoming our photographer, Joe as you can tell smashed it with the photos! Thank you so much both of you xxxx
Almost Grown Up 
Congratulations! Beautiful pics – looks like it was a magical day 🙂
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