The fifth of our six TNWC Real Brides is here today to tell us about her lovely summer wedding. Sarah married Lee back in August with a very homemade wedding full of child-friendly touches. After the seasonal wedding flowers all grown by Sarah’s mum, my favourite part is the duck race!

Over to Sarah…

Married at last! Our wedding was back in August. The chaos began on the eve of the wedding…

In the morning me and my now husband went to my mum’s house, where, along with my mum and dad, my brother, his wife and my mum’s best friend were all ready and raring to go with the wedding day prep. All of the flowers we used were homegrown by my mum so we set to work on bouquets, buttonholes and vase arrangements for the tables.  After a spot of lunch we loaded my dad’s van with all our wedding day goodies and headed to venue to set up.

As we arrived the caterers were already there, so along with them my mum laid out the tables and the centrepieces as I decorated my old wooden gate with pictures of me and Lee growing up and a kiddies corner, which turned out to be a big success with the children on the day.

Afterwards I headed back to my parents for the night. I was expecting a phone call from my friend who had moved to Australia back in February, I was gutted she wasn’t going to be there. But at the time she said she would call there was a knock on the door, and there she was with a bottle a champagne!

A couple of my other close friends came round and we sat in the garden drinking and having a natter, it was a lovely way to spend the evening and such a wonderful surprise to have my friend here for my wedding.

On the big day everything ran smoothly, I felt relaxed and barely any nerves at all, it had forecast rain but it stayed dry and warm until late evening. The service went well, although I did get a little giggly! And I had another little surprise that my mum had embroidered us a beautiful ring cushion.

Once out of the service guests were handed a cone of homemade natural confetti and the photos began.

There were garden games on the lawn for the children (and adults) to play with. After a couple of hours we headed into the marquee for afternoon tea, it looked perfect with homemade bunting and all our pretty china.

Older children had some activity boxes on the table, babies had some cute handmade doggies, and the bridesmaids and page boy had some gorgeous crochet bunnies all made by very crafty mum! I do often wish I was as good at crafting as her.

From there the day flowed perfectly. After the afternoon tea we all headed outside for the duck race, which involved me donning a pair of lovely wellies, a fishing net and heading into the stream – Lee braved it barefoot! Each table had a different coloured rubber duck and threw it off the bridge, whose ever duck I caught first that table won a bottle of bubbly.

Shortly after the duck race our evening guests began to arrive. We cut our cake, which was a gorgeous Victoria sponge cake draped in lots of lovely fresh fruit. We had our first dance which was Ho Hey by The Lumineers, and then the BBQ and dancing begun.

It was truly an amazing day and I feel so  lucky to have such wonderful and talented parents who helped with absolutely everything.

Images: (1) Illustration by Izzy Burton; (2 – 16) Brides own pictures