So this is very long overdue but been waiting on photo's and wanted to make sure I did it properly - hopefully this won't turn into longer then a dissertation or a book!
How we Met
We first met in October 2010 at a kayaking festival in mid Wales, we actually went to the same university, had some of the same friends but I was in the climbing club and he was in the kayak club, in actual fact we had met a few years previous whilst at university but its something my OH still denies as he can't remember even though I can tell him where we were and what everyone was watching on tv (good old neighbors classic student favourite!)
Anyway I wasn't even supposed to go the festival - but my friend convinced me and I'm glad she did! My OH spent the entire river on the saturday trying to chat me up - he definately made me laugh. When we finished our day we decided to jump off a bridge (yep crazy outdoor people) I loved it, my OH scared of heights admitted months later he only did it to impress me as he's terrified of heights!
We actually ended up kissing after a long day of flirting when I got dumped in the mud in the evening to mud wrestle.....yep crazy kayak people it was horrible and my OH convinced me to skinny dip in the lake to clean it off - remember end of October mid wales safe to say there was a few beers involved! Only later did I find out there were hot showers!!!!!!!!!!
We spent the next 2 days inseparable but only one problem he lived far North East Scotland and I lived in Devon - I was told by my friend to forget about as it would never work........
On the train home not even 3 hours in I get a text asking me to come visit in Scotland and as they say the rest is history! I moved to Scotland 6 months later and I have never been happier!
The Proposal
We had been living together for 2 and half years been together nearly 3 when we went on the trip of a lifetime to Vietnam we had been travelling around for nearly 3 weeks when we went on a boat cruise to Halong Bay, whilst moored up for the night underneath the stars and me saying I was tired and wanted to go to bed he replied with you can only if you agree to be my wife.......I told him not to joke and it was mean nope he was being serious so he got down on one knee and asked me again (in between complaining the wood deck was painful!) I said yes and couldn't be happier! We went ring shopping 2 days later in Hanoi.
pic of the bay 
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The Planning
Safe to say I didn't come natural to wedding planning in fact until I met my husband I didn't want to get married it was a long running joke (even on the wedding day!) with my uni friends!
We had been to quite a few weddings over the years and knew a country house or hotel wasn't our style of reception and we wanted something laid back but fun. With my mum being a minister church was always important factor and with OH grandparents being the age they are we knew we would have to do something close by to them so picked Cambridgeshire despite the fact we lived in Scotland. We did speak about a wedding abroad and although even a few weeks up to the wedding I still thought why are we putting ourselves through this sharing our day with so many friends and family especially his grandparents was amazing and I would do it all over again!
So the long onslaught of finding somewhere which would let us do what we wanted but not charge a fortune began - it took months (the church was sorted very quickly in comparison!) but eventually we found an amazing barn which had never held a wedding but gave us free reign with caterers no corkage fee, camping onsite and exclusive hire for 4 days! Only downside hiring in everything from toilet blocks to table and chairs and doing everything ourselves from plates to cutlery and napkins.
The other thing we decided on from early on was getting dresses made so I went on holiday to Vietnam with my bridesmaids and got them made - not for everyone but it was amazing and saved us a lot of money even when considering the cost of the holiday!
Hoi An Pic where we got the dresses made
To say we did a lot of things DIY was an understatement!!!! We decided on a informal vintage style tea party with homemade blackcurrant gin from our garden served out of teapots into teacups with lemonade on the tables and mismatch crazy plates. So between us and my parents, a lot of bargin hunting and car boot sales we pulled it off! We also had homemade bunting, homemade hessian table runners and went for wood slices with wild flowers and shells on.
Another cost saving element we started (after finding out prices of name settings) was making personalised stones as name settings - great until you spend hours doing them!!!!!
The Lead Up
So the lead up was really stressful I was ill the week before, we had an entire venue to decorate and make sure we didn't forget anything in Scotland! I don't think I ate properly at all that week as I was paranoid of eating out and having a reaction as I'm intolerent to wheat! We got it all decorated over 2 days with lots of helpers, lots of fairy lights and lots of sweat I had to leave at 3pm as had spa booked with my BM, mum and FMIL which stressed me out further! But nothing I could do as my BM told me so reluntantly left with the boys in charge!
Pics of venue and tables
I spent the night before with my BM's in a hotel nearby whilst my OH (unknown to me) had joined the Friday night campers! We drank presecco and chilled out!
The Day Itself!
I actually got woken up at 7.45am by my friend calling she was amazed that I wasn't awake but to save me from my cold I had taken night nurse - was brilliant completely zonked out and had a sound sleep!
I was amazingly calm just pottered about really went for breakfast, read the news etc everyone said it was a bit unerving but I wasn't nervous at all! My friend arrived to do my hair at 9.30 and the laughs just kept coming! She actually also did my BM hair too even though it wasn't planned!
After that my friend arrived for makeup and then flowers arrived with my parents - my mum had to rush to the church as she was doing the service!
I opened my presents from my hubby to be - a hit flask saying keep calm and marry him and a garter with built in hit flask (we are big whiskey fans and had to get the scottish element in somewhere!)
We had a couple of photos taken at the hotel and sure enough it was time to go to the church
Will have to leave it there until tomorrow evening sorry Downtown is nearly on and photo's are taking at while!
Part two!
My dad and me rode in a 1950's Bentley to the church which was a surreal journey - partly because I was attempting to put a plaster on my foot and the other as my Dad was coming out with some classics like just need to check you still want to get married - this was probably because I was having a swig of whiskey but that was more at the thought of walking infront of 120 people and trying not to fall over 
Hubby not to be outdone by the bridal car had already arrived in his best man's Triumph Spitfire the nosiest little car ever!
I met my mum and second minister at the front door and the bells started ringing for a few minutes before we all entered the church I was last and although the aisle was short I wanted to run down it just to get to my hubby although in my very high handpainted shoes I probably would have fallen flat on my face!
We had a beautiful service including a sermon from my mum, some entertaining singing - note flower of scotland doesn't translate well into organ music and my hubby even mucked up his lines much to the amusement of everyone when he responded doh!
soon enough we were married and signing the register whilst our friend played the cello which I loved hearing - she had been playing before I arrived which obviously I missed it all! We were soon leaving the church and out to the bells which was awesome for the first 5 minutes then couldn't hear a thing and everyone was shouting in each others ears!
We had some group shoots and people disappeared off to the barn to get a well earned drink - it was 24-26 degrees and sunny afterall!
Picture of the bridal party complete in all head to toe Vietnam tailoring!
Our friends chilled out whilst we went to have photo's done. When we arrived the barn had done an amazing job setting up hay bales as seats with planks on wood to form tables and a outside bar for serving pimms completely made of hay bales!
This pic really doesn't do the outside justice at all but it was amazing! We had gone a little bit out of the norm with food having paella but everyone loved watching our amazing caterer cooking it and it smelt amazing!
The journey from the church to the venue was incredibly special and also gave us breathing space and actually enjoy being alone - brides to be do not underestimate the need to steal 5 minutes alone with your hubby - in a 10 hour day I think I managed a grand total of 20 minutes!!!!!
Soon we were wondering through fields trying not to laugh but we managed one good picture!
We were so happy when people liked our venue some members on here will remember my stresses thinking it was going to look like a scouts jamboree! They also loved the blackcurrant gin out of the teapots, this went down incredibly well infact so well one set of friends wouldn't relinquish their teapot all night and just kept making different cocktails!
After some amazing food (and seconds by many tables) we cut our cake made by our friend which was amazing - I've only put a pic of the cake rather then us cutting it to show it properly, our other friend had knitted some awesome cake toppers for it!
Soon the dancing began - our first dance was very us - special in that we can't actually dance but it was played amazingly by our friend my veil fell out half way through I tried to style it by flinging it whilst leaning back to much laughter and also making my husband twirl after I had done it about 5 times!
This pic probably sums up our inability to dance!!!!!
But people soon joined in and then it was ceilidh time! Most of our friends were completely new to it and we thought it was either going to be hit or miss! After some coaxing for the first one or two majority joined in and enjoyed it, I think I ripped my dress in about 6 places (but was having too much fun to care!) and all too soon it was time to call it a night not before cheese though!!!! 
The taxi's arrived to take us home but not before our some of friends filled with alcohol stripped off and had a picture taken in our makeshift photo area with props covering their bits - to most people this would probably send them xrazy to us it was hilarious especially when hubby's grandmother (who had dropped his grandfather home before coming back to the party!) commented of well that's interesting!
I'm not going to share that pic with you all!
Safe to say by the time we got back to the hotel we were knackered, a bit drunk but extremely happy - everything which was stressful was well worth it as everyone seemed to have a great time and told us how relaxed and fun it was which was our main aim!
The next day we went to clear up only to find our friends (who were camping onsite) had already done it for us!
Thanks for getting to the end of this - it did turn into an essay, I hope the photo's kept you entertained though, we definitely had an amazing day!
DIY is tough going as was our tightish budget (under 9K) for 120 people all day but it can be done if your prepared to think outside the box and take the time to haggle and find alternatives!
Xxx
