How did you two meet and get engaged?

Alfie and I met at Cardiff University when we were studying our undergraduate degrees. We lived in the same block of flats in our first year, fell into the same friendship group, and got together in our second year. After being together for 9 years, and living together for 6, Alfie proposed on my birthday. We’d already talked about getting married but it was a lovely surprise to have a formal proposal and engagement ring!

The dress and the brial look

I knew I wanted a boho style of dress, lots of lace, and was interested in a top and skirt combo. When I was looking for bridal boutiques that stocked a more alternative or boho style I came across Indiebride London, which is fairly conveniently located for me.

First visit at the showroom

Indiebride London was the first bridal boutique I visited and it was exactly how I had hoped the experience would be. The small attic studio is adorned with fairy lights, beautiful rugs and hanging dresses, and generally gives off a romantic and magical feel. I brought my mum and two of my bridesmaids with me and we cracked open a bottle of bubbly whilst browsing through the dresses. I had a lot of fun trying on a range of outfits, and narrowed down the options to my favourite two. Miina patiently stood back and allowed us to browse, helping me get in and out of all the various outfits.

After my visit to Indiebride London, I visited one other bridal boutique closer to home. It was a more traditional boutique and I thought it was worth a look in case I fell in love with the more traditional princess style of dress. The experience couldn’t have been more different. The boutique had multiple clients looking at a time, didn’t allow any photos to be taken, and the sales woman was very heavy handed. The experience felt a lot more pressured and critical, miles away from Miina’s calm and positive presence. Needless to say, I decided to stick with Indiebride.

Making the decision

On my second visit to Indiebride I took two different bridesmaids to help me decide on The Dress. The two options I had shortlisted from last time were: a beautiful lace dress that tied at the waist, had a lovely long train, and was a gorgeous champagne pink kind of colour; or, a top and skirt combo. The top had boho style lace on 3/4 length arms with long strips of lace tying at the lower back, leaving most of the back backless. The skirt had a boho feel, long and floaty, with a long train and lace trim. The outfits were equally beautiful so I chose the one that felt more like me - the skirt and top combo. I felt comfortable in it and it felt right.

The process of having my bridal outfit made

Once I had made my choice, my measurements were taken so that Miina could make the dress to size. I also requested an amendment to the neck line - so that under the high lace neckline was a sweetheart neck line. As Miina makes the dress from scratch for you she can make those kinds of amendments to her designs. At my first fitting of the actual dress I had lost a fair amount of weight since my measurements (without really realising!). Miina dealt with that calmly and made the adjustments. At my second fitting the outfit was completely finished and fit perfectly. We decided it would be that bit better with one tiny, minor adjustment and Miina said she would do it there and then whilst I had a coffee downstairs. This meant I could take the dress home that day, and saved me another journey into London. This really felt like Miina going above and beyond as I had been the last appointment of the day and this meant her working into the evening. I was absolutely thrilled with my finished outfit, and am just gutted that I don’t have an opportunity to wear it again! I felt brilliant in it, I got so many compliments, and I love the photos. One friend said “I’ve never seen a dress that so suits the bride”, and that’s exactly how it felt - it just felt like me, but me at my very best.

Hair and makeup

Helping me look my best was my fabulous hair and makeup artist, Kerstie Ann, who is based in the Milton Keynes area. I went for fairly natural makeup but big on the eyes as I often wear fairly heavy eye makeup anyway, and a half up, half down hairstyle incorporating flowers and plaits. I didn’t think I needed much in the way of accessories as I didn’t want to distract from the dress, but I did get some statement gold and pearl earrings which I adore. For shoes I chose a lovely pair of sandals from Accessorise - I wanted to be comfortable so went with flats!

Please describe your experience at Indiebride London with one sentence

From start to finish, my experience with Indiebride has been a joy; Miina is exactly the kind of person that you want helping you with your wedding - kind, friendly, positive, and calm.

The groom's outfit

Alfie did a fairly unusual thing and got his suit custom made at Nicholas&Harding. One of his friends recommended it, and it’s meant Alfie has ended up with something as unique as my dress (but he gets to wear his outfit again, which I am very jealous of!). Having a suit custom made is tricky, as you have to pick your materials from fairly small sample patches. You need to have a bit of imagination! He went with a deep green, which is unusual enough to stand out but not too out there! I love how we look together in our photos.

Wedding venue

We wanted a barn wedding and found the perfect venue in Newton Park Farm, based in Newton Blossomville. They have the option of marrying outside, in a beautiful setting, grassy areas for the champagne reception (if the weather is on your side), and a large barn for the wedding breakfast and the evening party. We had 100 guests in the day and around 40- 50 more joined for the evening. Rain was forecast but we were extremely lucky and it held off until the wedding breakfast, causing minimal disruption.

Decor

If our wedding had a theme, it was “relaxed”. The bridesmaids were all in mismatched dresses that loosely tied together as they were all blue, floor length, and if they had a pattern, it was floral. I asked my bridesmaids to choose their own dresses after giving them this brief (and providing some options!) as I wanted everyone to love what they were wearing, and wear something that reflected their personalities. I had last minute nerves about whether this would come together but on the day it worked brilliantly; they looked so great. To match this, the groomsmen wore their own suits (any colour and style were fine by us) and were given a blue floral tie and pocket square alongside their flower button hole pieces (all mismatching). The venue is so beautiful it needed minimal decoration - we just had flowers in as many places as we could afford, and a bit of bunting. Our flowers were from Howbury Farm Flowers, a florist service that grows their own flowers in a beautiful walled garden you can visit beforehand. We asked for a relaxed, English country garden vibe and they absolutely nailed it!

Food and cake

We used Leon Caterers for our catering (they have since changed their name). We had four different canapés circulating during the champagne reception, then Mediterranean style sharing plates for our sit-down meal. I’m a fan of sharing plates as they give a relaxed and sociable vibe, and also mean that people have a bit of freedom over what to eat as they can pick and choose from a range of dishes. It’s a fairly easy way of catering for different needs. Our speeches came in between the main meal and the desserts, and for dessert each table was given two options to choose from (with enough for people to have one of each if they wanted!). The food went down very well and we got a lot of compliments. We decided we didn’t care too much about the cutting of the cake tradition (or photo), so got a brownie stack from Gower Cottage Brownies https://www.gowercottagebrownies.co.uk/ instead (these also received a lot of compliments!). For evening food, we had pulled pork or pulled jackfruit burgers.

Entertainment

Alfie sings in a band in his spare time and his bandmates agreed to play during our ceremony. They played whilst guests were taking their seats, for me to walk down the aisle, and for Alfie and I to walk up the aisle at the end of the wedding. It was lovely to have live music and even nicer for it to be friends who were performing. In the evening we booked a band, The Soul Thieves, who we had seen at a friend’s wedding and really enjoyed. They are excellent at getting the party started if that’s what you’re after!

Photography and videography

Our photographer was Taylor Wood. He does journalistic style wedding photos, aiming to capture candid moments. We were keen not to spend too much of our day posing for photos, and Taylor was great at keeping the posed shots short and sweet. He has captured beautiful shots of us laughing together and with our guests, which is exactly what we wanted. We didn’t have a videographer, but we did have flip video cameras circulating during the reception for people to record their own messages or film elements of the wedding. These were hilarious, and a really fun thing to look through the next day!

Was there anything that went wrong on your wedding day and how did you deal with it?

By the time the evening food came out day guests had been drinking a good while and this led to a bit of confusion! Whilst the intention was for people to have either a pulled pork burger or a jackfruit burger, meat eaters were happily helping themselves to both (and complimented us on it the next day!). This meant the jackfruit ran out before some vegan and vegetarian guests had eaten. We’re still not sure how many people went hungry! At the time, there didn’t seem much that could be done so I just apologised and forgot about it (I had also had my fair share of drinks!). Hopefully no-one holds it against us!

Apart from saying yes to your husband, what was your favourite part of your wedding?

Although it’s a cliche, I really did have the best time ever at my wedding. It’s all a bit of a blur other than the fact I was enjoying myself so much. I think my favourite moments were during the ceremony and the speeches. Both moments felt so special and I’ll remember them forever.

What advice would you give other brides who are still planning their wedding?

Try not to let everything stress you out! The build-up is all part of the fun. Having said that, a spreadsheet is a must!

- Katherine -