We ask all of our brides to send us photos of their special day and invite them to write a guest post for The Boo Blog, and most cannot wait to revisit their day. It is an excuse to watch the video and flick through the album, and none have gone to such effort as our gorgeous Jenny! Her and Adam both have terribly demanding jobs, yet she found some time to put this together for us.

As we approach their first wedding anniversary, please join with us in wishing them a lifetime of happiness as you settle down to read all about their big day and use her top tips to create your own wonderful wedding!

green shoes, Jo Malone perfume, wedding rings, wedding invitation, bridal hair comb, bridal bouquet

The Proposal

Adam and I met in the summer of 2014. His proposal came as a complete surprise five years later on our holiday to New York City. I always thought that I would know when Adam was planning to propose. One of the many things I love about Adam is his honesty- but this does mean that he is a terrible liar and not very good at keeping secrets! In classic Adam style, he turned up to NYC to propose without a ring. Fortunately, he managed to find a beautiful proposal ring, or ‘cheap ring’ as he likes to call it (!) at a flea market in Chelsea (whilst I was queueing for the ladies!).

We both love animals, wildlife and going to zoos. On the last day of our holiday, we went to Brooklyn Zoo. One of my favourite animals are otters. We got to the otter enclosure- otters love a snooze but fortunately that day they were out and playing. I asked Adam to take a picture of me with the otters. I couldn’t work out why he was being weird and shuffling behind me. The next thing I knew, he was down on one knee, kneeling in a muddy puddle and asked me to marry him. I was completely shocked and surprised, not just by the proposal but also by how beautiful a ‘cheap ring’ could be! Through my tears, I managed to say ‘yes I think so’ and we celebrated in style with beer and burgers.

As the proposal was a surprise, we hadn’t really thought much about what sort of wedding we wanted. We initially bounced around ideas about getting married abroad, or even at a zoo. But then we decided that we wanted to get married a bit closer to home so started looking at local venues.

The Venue

The first venue that we went to see was the gorgeous Hartsfield Manor. We both loved the venue straight away and knew it was where we wanted to get married. Hartsfield Manor offer exclusive use of the hotel as part of their winter package (between November-March). When deciding what time of year to get married, we initially booked our wedding for 20th March 2021. Adam’s birthday is the 19th, March, so we thought it would be good to have a double celebration each year with his birthday and our wedding anniversary. The wedding was all booked in November 2019, so we had 16 months to leisurely plan and look forward to our wedding.

Then, in March 2020, the COVID pandemic took the world by storm. COVID affected us all, but the wedding industry was hit particularly hard. We knew several people who had to sadly postpone their weddings. In the summer of 2020, people would often tell us how lucky we were that our wedding wasn’t until 2021, because everything will have blown over by then!

More restrictions came back in the Autumn. At that point, we were facing only 15 wedding guests. We decided that we would plan to go ahead with our original date, as this meant that we could still have all of our immediate family at our wedding.

In December 2020, I was working in intensive care. There was one day in mid-December, where we had a sudden jump in COVID admissions. I just knew things were going to get bad again. Although at the time, the government were still claiming that things were ‘under control’, that evening I came home and told Adam that our wedding wasn’t going to happen in March 2021 and we should postpone.

The next day, I got in touch with Hartsfield Manor, who were really helpful and offered us some new dates. We opted for 30th October 2021. All of our suppliers throughout were incredible- so helpful and supportive. All of them could make our new date except for our videographer- but she managed to find us an associate shooter instead so that she could still edit our wedding video. Even though we changed from a spring to an autumn wedding, we kept the same colour scheme with lots of foliage and greens. I added in a few small white pumpkins for an autumnal touch. In my bouquet, I had a few memory lane roses for a pop of colour- inspired by the Boo Instagram page!

Dress Shopping

Fortunately, with a global pandemic in between, I started dress shopping very early in December 2019. My mum got married in 2018 and her beautiful dress was from Boo. So for me- there was no better place to start dress shopping! And once I’d been for my first visit, there was no need to look elsewhere. The boutique is just such a gorgeous haven of lace and sparkle and I loved every visit to Boo.

Before my first appointment, I thought that I had a clear idea of what dress I wanted. I like to be organised and efficient, and thought that I knew the dress I wanted, would try it on, love it and that would be that! However, once I tried it on, I realised that it wasn’t quite for me and felt a little bit stumped. Emma was absolutely brilliant and so talented. I tried on different styles to get an idea of what I would like. Emma was very honest and clear about my budget. She asked if I would be prepared to try on a gown that was slightly over my budget and didn’t even show her to me until I agreed. She was Millie by Alan Hannah.

I didn’t have the cliché moment of tears and ‘say yes to the dress’ but once she was on, Millie felt really beautiful to wear and I was surprised by how much her style suited me. I think Emma and my mum realised that she was my dress before I did! We went away to think on things and when I came back for my second appointment a few weeks later, it was clear that Millie was the dress for me. Emma’s knowledge as a seamstress really shines through. She helped me to choose a beautiful applique to help make Millie my own, as well as a sparkle veil for a bit of glitz to complement Millie’s silk.

Emma was so supportive during our postponement and looked after Millie for me whilst waiting for our new wedding date. My first fitting and first time wearing my own Mille was on my birthday- otherwise now known as ‘birthday princess day’! Due to Emma’s expertise (and my complete inability to lose any pre-wedding weight), my Millie fitted perfectly, even the hem was spot on so the only alterations I needed were my applique and bustle!

I was lucky enough to have Emma and Aimee come to dress me on the morning of my wedding. They both brought such joy to my wedding morning and made sure that I looked amazing! I am so grateful that they were a part of my wedding day, as my visits to Boo had been some of my favourite moments during wedding planning. Emma and Aimee were so helpful and went above and beyond- helping to tidy up, dry my bouquet and to check the corridors were clear when I needed a wee!

Our Wedding Day

It is really difficult to choose the most memorable moment from the day, it was just magical and there are so many! With COVID numbers ramping up that autumn, I had been so worried that it was going to spoil the wedding somehow and was just so happy that we made it! I also managed to break my hand the month before the wedding, and although it gave me more time for planning, the caveat was it gave me more time to worry too!

I particularly remember the moment standing waiting to walk down the aisle. I felt like I could just burst with excitement and happiness! As well feeling relieved to finally be about to walk into our wedding after all the stress. Even though Adam and I had a first look together, I didn’t feel like that took anything away from the aisle moment for me. We also both took a moment during our wedding breakfast, where we could just feel the buzz and energy from the room, and how wonderful it was to see all our loved ones together, enjoying our wedding.

We did a few things a little differently on our day-

-Adam and I had a ‘first look’ together. This was a really special moment and definitely helped with my nerves. It was really lovely to spend some time together before being swept up in the day!

-I decided not to have bridesmaids as I couldn’t pick between 5 friends and felt that would have been too many for me.

-I walked down the aisle with both of my parents because I am really close with my mum.

-Our mums gave us the wedding rings during the ceremony so that they could be part of it as well.

-I also gave a speech- not being one to sit quietly and listen whilst all the men speak! I got a few laughs with our engagement story, but also wanted to remember my Nan, who sadly died at the start of the pandemic and was probably Adam’s biggest fan. I know that she would have loved our day.

Tips for Other Brides

-Get a videographer! We initially didn’t think we needed one but were so glad that we changed our minds. Our photographs are absolutely incredible and we treasure them, but we have both really loved having the videos as well. We’ve really enjoyed watching them and reminiscing- particularly about the ceremony as it felt like it went by so quickly. Definitely worth the investment if you can do it!

-Get more confetti than you think you need! I thought a confetti line would be a lot of hassle, but I actually enjoyed it much more than I was expecting to. Katie, our photographer, was fabulous at getting everyone organised efficiently. It was lots of fun and meant we then could easily get a picture with all of our guests too!

-The veil- I loved wearing mine and for me, it was what made me feel like a ‘bride’. I took it out before the meal as I was worried about it getting caught under a chair etc. We have some amazing golden hour shots but I do regret that I didn’t put my veil back in for them!

Our wedding was such a magical and happy day. I loved wearing Millie, felt beautiful and had so many compliments. I feel very privileged to be part of the Boo Bride family!