Fun & Colourful Budget DIY Wedding in Norwich with a David's Bridal Dress | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

Fun & Colourful Budget DIY Wedding in Norwich with a David's Bridal Dress | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

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Having a budget of £3000 doesn't need stop you from having a fun, personal and memorable wedding day and this morning's wedding feature proves just that.

Peter and Deby tied the knot on the 18 July 2013 in Norwich, with a ceremony at Churchman House, followed by a cruise on the Norfolk broads and a restaurant reception.

Peter looked dashing in Marks and Spencer's attire and Deby wore a David's Bridal dress with birdcage veil and colour pop flowers. I so love the balloons, the wild flowers and the shots from the emotional ceremony.

Thanks goes to Fuller Photography for sharing her lovely photographs with us today.

THE PROPOSAL | I'd always imagined myself having quite a quirky proposal as soppy and romantic was never really my style and it's most certainly safe to say that quirky is what I got. Popping the question wasn't a surprise as we knew early on that we'd found our match in each other. Peter and I had been together for around three and a half years when the proposal came around and took place in November 2012 -which just so happened to be a leap year. Lying in bed one night, I just asked him saying: "You know, I love you so much, and I've known for a long time that I wanted to marry you...Should we just do it?"Peter promptly answered, "No, no, no,"and that was the end of that conversation (or so I thought). Fast forward two weeks, over Skype no less, Peter looks at me and says, "You know, I love you so much, and I've known for a long time that I wanted to marry you...Should we just do it?"Complete romantic that I am, I immediately asked if he had just turned me down so that he could ask me himself and after watching the sheepish nod I said yes (but not without dealing out a good ribbing for using the exact same words I had used for the first proposal).

THE VISION | The most important thing for me was that everybody enjoy themselves and be comfortable. I also knew that we had a minuscule budget as Peter and I were both graduating from university (I graduated two days before the wedding), but I still wanted an elegant and luxurious feel to the day. Peter and I decided to take advantage of the fact that both of our families were on the same continent - I'm an American, so my parents and brother were already planning on travelling to Norwich for my commencement ceremony and we figured that it was the perfect timing for a wedding as well. As far as the look goes, I was very inspired by the shabby-chic style and knew that it would lend well to a DIY budget wedding. I have always loved a vintage look so that also went into my vision for the day. I wanted to create a beautiful picture with our wedding, something classic that would be timeless and elegant but also reflect our personalities, joy for life and showcase the love that we share for one another.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | As I was living on my own in Norwich finishing my degree, Peter was in London completing his LPC and my parents were back in the USA, most of the planning took place over web cam and veracious internet searching. After the engagement in November, Peter came to visit my family for Christmas in the states and it was during this trip that I found my dress with my mum. After that Peter and I wound up at a fabric store to pick out some ribbon that we could use for the day. Peter picked out our wedding colours of lilac and yellow (a shock to me as I am more of a green and blue kind of girl, but I'm not too fussy and thought we would make do).

When we returned, we got down to the nitty gritty of deciding where we would be married and setting out a rough itinerary for the day. We decided on an early afternoon registry office wedding, followed by an intimate photo shoot, then on to a cruise and cream tea on the Norfolk broads, finishing the day with a three course meal at a local Norwich restaurant. We wanted to give the day a relaxed but luxurious feel, so finding the perfect vendors who balanced the budget but gave us the look we wanted was essential. I am meticulously organised when it comes to the small details and for the most part we were able to plan in between Norwich and London quite well. For the larger decisions Peter took his reading week to come up to Norwich and we had one whirlwind weekend deciding between two restaurants, checking to see if the boat was up to standard, picking a florist choosing the rings, setting a date at the registry office, viewing the ceremony room and meeting the photographer. We had to make quick decisions as we were generally meeting up with two or three different vendors and deciding after the meeting who was the best to go with. Oddly enough, the second vendor in each category that we met with was the one that gave us the warm and tinglees when it came to the restaurant, florist and finding the rings. We only met with one photographer (Karen from Fuller Photography), but I knew from her online portfolio that I loved her style and the three of us got on so well from the first meeting that we knew we had made the perfect choice.

BUDGET | All in all, our budget came to around £3,000 (including three hotel rooms for two nights along with all of the other expenditures). As we had not preplanned we didn't have a chance to save, but with our savings pot and equal contributions from both sets of parents we were able to bring our vision for the day to life.

THE VENUE | After arriving home to Norwich and London respectively after our Christmas trip to the states, we got down to the nitty gritty of figuring out where we might go to be married. On our budget we couldn't afford too many places and we knew that we would just be inviting immediate family so the registry office seemed to be the perfect option. When I began researching the ceremony room for the registry office at Churchman House (Norwich registry office) I noticed that the room seemed awfully large and in fact is big enough to accommodate around fifty people. Even as a small group, we didn't want for the room to look empty, but through a bit more research I realised that there was a small waiting room and decided to ask if that might be available as a wedding room instead. We were fortunate that the Churchman House staff were so accommodating and set that as the ceremony space. We then used the city centre as our backdrop for our personal photo shoot as this was the city we met it in, Peter and I wanted to use this opportunity to commemorate the first years of our relationship. For the cruise we found the stunning Naiad through the Norfolk Broads Party Charters. The perfect size and stunning interior decor we took a two hour cruise from Wroxham with a champagne and cream tea reception. Our final stop of the day was at the Iron House - a historic pub turned chic restaurant in the town centre. Original wooden beams and a stunning fireplace took centre stage for our evening meal, along with a top class three course meal and with a pastry chef in the kitchen, one of the most stunningly delicious cakes I have had the pleasure of eating.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | The dress was from David's Bridal which is a chain from the United States. Jewellery was a mix of personal items and the long gold chain came from John Lewis. Ruby Shoo shoes were an Amazon find and the lilac flats were an Ebay find. The blusher and sixpence came from The Wedding Party shop in Norwich.

FINDING THE DRESS | My mum and I actually ended up finding the dress within 48 hours after a bit of a mishap with ordering a dress online. The fit was terrible and I had to figure out how to get it returned and find a new dress all in the four days before Peter and I left my parents house during our trip back at Christmas. Fortunately we found the perfect dress after going to just two shops (but we were on a mission and I don't particularly enjoy shopping). When we entered David's Bridal, I picked a few dresses from the catalogue and then got about trying them on. The Galina gown that I picked was actually the first one that I tried on and I just kept going back to it, so we decided that that was the dress. I didn't want a train as I'm quite clumsy, so I needed to get some alterations done on the dress. Karen (our photographer) suggested Sisters with Scissors, two sisters who have an alterations business in Norwich. They did such a fantastic job on the alterations, listening perfectly to my vision and shaping the dress into exactly what I had dreamed it would be.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Entirely Marks and Spenser's head to toe. Button hole by Pick-a-Lily Flowers in Norwich.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Music played a huge roll throughout the day as we created a playlist for each venue, but as far as the ceremony goes I walked in to "The Prayer"featuring Andrea Bocelli and Céline Dion. During the signing of the register we played "Hoppípolla"by Sigur Rós and for walking out we played "Maestro"by Hans Zimmer from the soundtrack of the film "The Holiday". Throughout the rest of the day we created playlists to play for the cruise and dinner including all of our favourite music (four hours of playlist meant quite a lot of pre-planning for that one). For the readings, my dad took over the first one reading "The Velveteen Rabbit"by Margery Williams and Peter's sister Sarah recited a poem about love.

THE FLOWERS | We were so lucky in finding our florist at Pick-a-Lily Flowers. A perfectly stunning shop, when Peter and I went in for our initial meeting we thought we had an idea for what we wanted and they helped us to bring that vision together. Unfortunately, I decided in the last six weeks that the ideas that I had been putting together weren't quite right and needed to change the flowers around fairly drastically. Everyone at Pick-a-Lily's couldn't have possibly been nicer and in fact quoted me at a lower price than what we'd originally agreed as the flowers were going to be less expensive. The end result was stunning with a wildflower bouquet for me, perfect buttonholes and corsages for the wedding party and a pitcher of flowers that we carried with us to each venue.

THE CAKE | Whilst we were discussing menu details at the Iron House, Peter and I decided to inquire whether they might be able to also create a small cake for our party. Jeremy, owner of the Iron House, happily let us know that one of the chefs in the kitchen was trained as a pastry chef and just to let them know about flavours. We decided on a victoria sponge with a twist: lemon sponge with lemon curd instead of jam and a raspberry cream. We purchased the mini bunting for the extra decoration and the end result was delicious.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | The wedding photograph was an element we didn't want to scrimp on as the photos were what we would be looking back on over the years and after some extensive internet research, Peter and I landed on Karen at Fuller Photography for our wedding photographer. We honestly couldn't have asked for a better experience with Karen, she made both Peter and I feel comfortable from the word go and helped us to create an album that will be with us for the rest of our lives. Karen also helped to make some fabulous suggestions for vendors, including Sisters with Scissors who did the fabulous alterations on my dress. Karen really seemed to grasp both of our personalities and managed to bring an elegant but quirky feel to the photos that we just love.

THE DETAILS & DECOR | As we were moving around so much throughout the day we let the venues speak for themselves as far as décor goes, but we did add couple of personal touches along the way. Pick-a-Lily flowers gave a lift to the entire look of the wedding. We also found bunting that we used to decorate both the boat and the restaurant from Izabela Peters on Amazon. I made the name cards from the ribbon we found in the US and blank cards that I had received as a gift from Marks and Spencer's. And the bunting for the cake came from the Wedding Party Shop in Norwich.

THE HONEYMOON | With no budget post-graduation and post-wedding we had to be a little creative with the honeymoon, so Peter and I decided to take our honeymoon camping in the Brecon Beacons and along the Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales. The weather was perfect throughout and we had such a lovely time exploring the beaches, sightseeing through castles and making campfires to cook our meals.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The whole day was full of memorable moments from my dad and I pretending to do the paso double before heading into the ceremony room to keep ourselves from welling up, the fabulous photo shoot with Karen after the ceremony and seeing one another for the first time in our wedding attire. One rather entertaining moment was the bouquet throw. As all of the women in our party were married (or four months old), no one was able to catch the bouquet. I still wanted the experience and was planning to go out into the street to find a group of ladies, but instead my mum headed downstairs into the restaurant to ask if there were any singles ladies, gathered a group of women and I threw the bouquet from the stairs in the Iron House. On our way out of the restaurant that evening the lovely lady who caught it waved the bouquet at us on our way out the door.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES |Enjoy the whole of the process because it all goes by far too quickly. Also, if you can, try to plan times throughout the day where the two of you can be reflective as a couple and take the time to be together. I know how hard it can be, but it is honestly so worth the time and it is your day after all, take the time to be able to remember the small details. On that note, don't worry too much about every detail being perfect, something is bound to go awry - it's a big party after all - but if you understand that from the off than the imperfection becomes part of the details that made your day as memorable as it was and also allows you to enjoy the spontaneity of the moment.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Fuller Photography

Alterations | Sisters with Scissors

Flowers | Pick-a-Lily Flowers

Cruise | The Naiad Cruise

Wedding Dress | Davids Bridal

Blusher & Sixpence | Wedding Party shop

Just wonderful.

Thanks so very much to Peter and Deby for sharing their amazing wedding with us today XOXO Lou

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