County Brides Magazine 2021/22

"Suddenly it all felt very real,
I was going to be a bride!"
When it finally arrived, wedding dress shopping was a
special day. I took my Mum and sister with me to find the
perfect dress at Fairytale Brides. Given I had never done
it before, after trying on my very first dress, I wasn’t sure if
I loved it just because I was in a wedding dress for the first
time, or it was the one! However, as I tried others on, I just
kept comparing them to that first dress and when I finally
put it back on, that’s when I realised it was my dress. It was
a beautiful lace Lilian West dress (and it suddenly all felt
very real, I was going to be a bride!). When we knew we’d
have to have reduced numbers, I made the decision to not
show anyone else my dress and so I really enjoyed hearing
my bridesmaids and close friends guessing what they
thought it would be like (and all being completely wrong!).
Our favourite parts of wedding planning were definitely
the food tasting with Top Table and cake tasting with
Kerri’s Bespoke Cakes! Both were such high quality,
and it was such fun trying the various options. The final
choices led to an incredible three course meal and three
tier wedding cake for us – our friends keep telling us
how delicious both were! The meal also catered for all
the various dietary requirements of our guests, without
having to significantly change the options available.
When a certain C-word got involved, it threw a lot of
uncertainty into our planning, and we had many more
unexpected decisions to make. It wasn’t until much closer
to the date that we had a clearer picture of how we could
have our day and the biggest decision we had to make
was whether we continue our modified day with restricted
guests or delay it completely. Waiting that extra year meant
we were lucky to only be deciding this rather than having
to cancel altogether. The decision
did make us take a step back and
think about why we were getting
married in the first place, which we
knew was for us and not everyone
else. It helped us decide to continue
with a smaller guest list, made up of
the most special people in our lives.
An amazing addition that the
venue provided was the ability
to stream our wedding ceremony
to the people we couldn’t have
there. With the current situation,
it was a great bonus that meant
our original guests could watch
us and be there in some way.
County Brides 2021/22 113