So we’ve done the girls getting ready, and you always see loads of photos of the bride and bridesmaids.  For today, it’s all about the boys.

On our wedding day there were four key men in my life: my dad, my little brother Freddie (aged just 15), Alex the best man, and of course Nick (the groom and my ‘husband-to-be’).

With Mark taking photos at the house of us setting up the garden and my gorgeous antique lace dress, I asked my good friend Kate if she would take some photos of the boys getting ready.

She took all these lovely photos – I’ve only just seen them and it’s so exciting to see new photos from our wedding that I’ve not seen before.

In the week leading up to our wedding Nick and I stayed in a sweet little cottage about 10 minutes drive from my parents house.  This little holiday cottage is owned by some friends of my parents, and it couldn’t have been more perfect for us.  This is where the boys and Kate got ready.

The groom

Nick and I met at University – I was 19 and Nick was 21 – we survived 8 months apart when I went to Canada to study, and finally we ended up on 21st May 2011 getting ready to marry each other.  This is us back in 2004 at a ball…

I was in a relationship when we met, but Nick wasn’t deterred and spent about 6 months trying to win me over – turns out he was right that we would be good together.  He studied Engingeering at University and now works for a company in Manchester.  His main love (other than me, of course) is his red Santa Cruz mountain bike.

I feel I don’t talk about ‘us’ very much on the blog, but it felt only right to introduce him a little before I start waffling on about what shoes he wore, and whether we colour coordinated ties etc.

When it came to Nick’s suit we knew a couple of things:

1) There would be no top hat’s or tails
2) We didn’t want to hire a suit, we wanted one that could be used again
3) We wanted something that felt modern but subtle, not too wacky

The suit Nick wore was the first one he tried on – it is a black single-breasted suit (Nick assures me…I wouldn’t have a clue!) with modern tailoring.  It came from Reiss as did the fitted white shirt – both cost way more than we’d budgeted or imagined to spend, but for two people who don’t buy new clothes that often we wanted to feel really wonderful for just one day.

To go with the suit, Nick wore a skinny black tie, black braces, a pair of classic grey wing-tip brogues, a watch given to him by his grandparents, and a pair of initial cufflinks made from old typewriter keys that we bought from an Etsy seller in San Francisco called QA Create.

We discovered that Nick’s suit wasn’t made for cufflinks, so a couple of day’s before the wedding my Granny was busy altering Nick’s shirt…

The best man and the little brother

Nick has known his best man Alex since University – he was an utterly fab best man, is a great friend and is a Captain in the army.  As our budget wasn’t very big and we weren’t that bothered about matching everybody up, we let Alex choose to wear whatever suit he liked.

He went for a black suit (to go with Nick’s), and we gave him a skinny dark blue tie.

I think my little brother Freddie almost stole the attention away from us on our wedding day – it was the first time our family and friends had seen him in a suit and he looked so grown up!  Back in January, Nick and I had taken him shopping to buy his suit and I almost cried when I first saw him in it.

We’ve had our ups and downs in the past year, but he was so mature and utterly wonderful on our wedding day, I am so proud to have him as a brother.  He wore a matching skinny dark blue tie to Alex’s, and they both wore initial cufflinks made from vintage typewriter keys (a gift from us).

Alex also got a bottle of our homemade sloe gin.  In hindsight, I should have made up a bottle for Freddie – he spent most of the evening with a tumbler (yes, a tumbler) of champagne in one hand and one of perry in the other…”best night ever” he told me…I bet…

The ‘father of the bride’

Well, my dad didn’t get ready with the boys – he was too busy checking the clock worked and making sure there were no leaks in his water fountain…  No one even really knew what he was planning to wear!

He spent most of the year leading up to our wedding trying to get the new extension on their house finished, but when the day finally arrived he put down the paint brushes and hammers, put on a lovely smart suit (I’d like to think it just shows you don’t need to faff so much about what people wear or what colour tie they choose), and walked me down the church path…

But more on that to come!

{ Suppliers }

Groom’s suit & shirt ~ Reiss
Groom’s shoes ~ Hudson Shoes
Cufflinks ~ QA Create

Images from top: (1+2) Mark Tattersall Photography; (3) Kate Goodacre; (4) TNWC; (5-8) Kate Goodacre; (9) Izzy Burton Photography; (10+11) Kate Goodacre; (12) Izzy Burton Photography; (13+14) Kate Goodacre; (15) Izzy Burton Photography