WWW readers Harriet and Martin chose to marry on the 10th May 2014; hosting their reception at Utopia. It was important that their wedding was not only personal but set in the Yorkshire Dales. They had a whole weekend planned to spend as much time with their loved ones alongside some thoughtful touches. There were graphic icons representing important things about themselves and they chose a poem for each of their guests.

Even the rain and temporarily broken DJ equipment didn't put a dampener on the celebrations, when guests grabbed the mike for impromptu karaoke. Amaze!

Harriet opted for a stunning Justin Alexander gown and romantic veil with the perfect boho hair do. Martin looked sharp in his tweed waistcoat and the maids looked lovely in lilac.

Thanks so very much to the brilliant Paul Joseph Photography for sharing these dramatic and atmospheric images today.

THE PROPOSAL | Martin proposed to Harriet in the Lake District (our favourite place) in July 2013. Under the guise of a last-minute camping trip to Ullswater, Martin took Harriet to a little campsite that overlooked the lake. The next morning (a gorgeous sunny day) we went on a beautiful walk, where, after finally losing some chatty fellow hikers, he found a quite spot overlooking the lake and went down on one knee. Harriet's response was 'oh my god oh my god oh my god' before finally and very happily accepting the proposal. The vintage ring was just perfect and from a lovely little shop called Fusion in Craven Court, Skipton, and Harriet loved it instantly. At this point Martin revealed that a luxury hotel was awaiting our arrival in Grasmere and we were not actually camping that night! We arrived to champagne on ice and strawberries and had an amazing afternoon and evening drinking champagne and phoning our delighted friends and family.

THE VISION | We wanted the day to really reflect our personalities, showcase the Dales (our newish home) to our guests and give our guests a relaxing and brilliant time. Plus we wanted to ensure that all our parents who had contributed so much enjoyed it too. We also wanted it to last a little longer than just the day to give us time to see all our far-flung friends and family - so we planned drinks on the Friday night, a game of football for the wedding morning and a lunch on the Sunday.

We also rented a beautiful big house called Eden on the Broughton Hall estate near our wedding reception venue so that our best men and bridesmaids could all stay on site with us. Plus it looked perfect for an after-party with a hot tub and lots of space!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Theming the day was a great turning point in the planning - we asked our designer friend Clare to illustrate 10 different icons that were relevant to different aspects of our lives together (including a Komodo dragon from our time living in Indonesia, the Tate Modern to represent our life in London and where we had our second date and a sheep to represent our new home in the Dales). We would use the icons in our table plans and our invite - Clare did an amazing job and they were both personal and stylish.

So now we had an element that was so personal to us, but we wanted to do the same for our guests. So we decided to take on the massive but very rewarding task of choosing a poem or quote for every single one of our 97 guests. We spent many a happy evening with a glass of red wine scouring our favourite books (from Roald Dahl favourites to The Unbearable Lightness of Being), poems (including Martin's favourite Robert Frost) and comedy (like Alan Partridge and Summer Heights High) for ideas. Eventually we had chosen one for everyone and we printed them as very personal namecards that doubled up as favours, with the name on one side and the poem on the other.

We used the colours from the icons in the bridesmaid dresses, ties, and decorations on the day too.

THE VENUE | Wedding ceremony at The Priory Church of St Mary and St Cuthbert at Bolton Abbey in the Yorkshire Dales, reception at Utopia at the Broughton Hall estate, just outside of Skipton.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Harriet wore Justin Alexander Signature 9720, shoes by Miss Kurt Geiger, Hair vine by Lou Lou Puchalka in Leeds, Pearl bracelet, pearl drop earrings and pearl and diamond necklace.

FINDING THE DRESS | My mum and sisters spent a day coming around bridal shops with me and the dress was one of the last I tried on that day. I knew I loved it because I didn't want to take it off - it was so comfortable and it just felt easy to wear. My family thought it 'looked dirty' - it must have been the sample I tried - so we went home empty-handed that day. I couldn't stop thinking about that dress though and when I went to the Birmingham NEC wedding show to try to find a bargain I was so happy to find it there and my mum this time confirmed it did not look dirty! When I tried it on again there was no question it wasn't the one - I loved it and people walking past the stand said I had to get it!

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Martin's navy suit was paired with a lovely Harris Tweed navy waistcoat to reflect our country wedding and he wore brown shoes from Charles Tyrwhitt and some lovely silvery grey socks from Reiss. The ties were Charles Tyrwhitt too - we didn't want standard 'wedding ties' in pink satin or something so these were just perfect, understated and stylish and looked great with the bridesmaids' dresses. He also had a pocket watch borrowed from my stepdad, Dan.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | My sister Emily (a bridesmaid) read Roy Croft's 'I love you' - this perfectly reflects how I feel about Martin and how I feel he makes me a better person just by being himself, I can't read it without it bringing tears to my eyes! Emily read it beautifully even if she did, by accident, in the rehearsal direct it (especially the I love you bits!) with some very intense eye contact at my maid of honour's boyfriend!

One of Martin's ushers Dryw read 'Scaffolding' by Seamus Heaney - a great poem that reminds us of the strong foundations we have built over the last 7 years living in London, Indonesia and now Yorkshire.

Harriet's mum read a lovely bible reading from the Song of Solomon.

Music - in the church the amazing organist placed Pachelbel's Cannon in D for the bridal procession, Toccata Widor for us to walk out to which Martin loved. My grandfather loves the organ (and plays it himself) so it was important we got married in a church and with an impressive organ! We chose Be Still as one of the hymns as my grandma loves it (and Harriet does too), plus Jerusalem (Martin's favourite) and Morning has Broken to signify the start of a new chapter now we're married.

Canape music was a Spotify playlist created by Martin with all our favourites on. We went to great lengths to choose a DJ who was not cheesy and who would not speak over the microphone at all! We found someone perfect but there was a disaster on the night when his equipment didn't work until 11.45!!! We had to have our first dance played on a laptop - SUCH a shame as we had spent many evenings deliberating over this and were so happy with our final choice, James Carr's Love Attack and it would have been wonderful to hear this powerful track in all its glory. Even so, we loved it and hope that perhaps on one of our big anniversaries we may get the chance again! After this, the DJ was still trying to get his kit working but it wasn't happening - so one of our big-voiced friends, Al, took matters into his own hands, grabbed the microphone (which worked!) and launched into his own version of Twist and Shout! The dancefloor filled up fast and our talented friends took over with memorable versions of songs from the Lion King music (my sister's drama student boyfriend!) and Pulp's Common People. I never thought we would have karaoke at our wedding but it really was so much fun. When the music finally kicked in at 11.45 it was even more amazing and we danced until the DJ finally had to pack up at 1.30am.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | Harriet's best friend Ina (all the way from her home in Oslo) was the maid of honour, while her two younger sisters Sophia and Emily were the bridesmaids. They wore gorgeous romantic, floaty dresses from Coast (style called Wiggy) - all a bargain at around £30 in the sale. However, it was lucky they were as these dresses were the second lot of bridesmaid dresses I had bought - the first, stupidly, we ordered from an online Chinese company which I would not recommend at all. They were supposedly made to measure but they didn't fit my bridesmaids at all and the company refused to refund even though the sizes were totally out - I was scammed basically ☹ But it was all good in the end as they looked stunning in their Wiggy dresses even though they are all different heights and Sophia was pregnant at the time too!

THE FLOWERS | We got our bouquets, corsages and buttonholes from Bloemist in Skipton - but the table flowers were all done by the amazing sisters-in-law Corinne and Jo! Our house became like a florist shop the day before the wedding as they worked on their beautiful creations. They looked AMAZING and we are so grateful as it was very hard work!!

THE CAKE | I used to work at The Cooking School at Dean Clough, and one of the chef apprentices there, Charlotte (age 17) was a bit of a star baker. Her chocolate brownies were amazing so one day I asked her if she'd like to make our wedding cake. She said yes! We knew we wanted a Victoria Sponge (my favourite cake of all time) but just an extra special wedding version! Charlotte was fantastic and did this and more - we had cake upon cake with sweet buttercream and cascades of summer fruits, plus gorgeous lavender cupcakes to go with it! I hope she becomes a wedding cake specialist as she's great, I (and all my guests) would definitely recommend her.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | We chose the amazing Paul Joseph Photography and so glad we did. From our first after-work meeting with them in a Keighley pub to our love shoot in the woods, we just thought they were brilliant, lovely and professional. We are so impressed with our pictures - they're so natural and capture the mood perfectly, plus it can't have been easy with the torrential rain all day!!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Clare's gorgeous icon designs set the mood and then we used a similar colour palette with our hanging lanterns in lilac and white. These were put up the night before by our amazing friends and family, such a bargain yet looked stunning.

We also printed polaroid pics of us and our families through the years and hung them on string with tiny little pegs - they were great for people to look at and spot themselves! Along with the flowers and the icons on the tables, we put a little glass of Yorkshire mix, adding a colourful and edible twist!

Martin also created the other decorations - little bundles of sticks tied with raffia and decorated with moss. We spent many afternoons collecting sticks and moss in Bolton Abbey woods and the woods near us in Embsay, then Martin simply made them into bundles! It was an interesting idea that we weren't 100% sure about but they looked great!

We also had 2 fire pits which lit despite the rain and were brilliant for keeping people warm (alongside our blanket basket!), and we had 10 bamboo lanterns which also amazingly resisted the rain to create a bit of atmosphere.

THE HONEYMOON | We're not lie-on-the-beach people so honeymoon decisions were hard as we were always asking 'Is this right for a honeymoon?!'. We had ideas of Japan, Malawi, Madagascar, Costa Rica - but in the end, only a month before the wedding, decided to go for Nepal. We had always wanted to go to India, but knew it wasn't a good season in May, so found that Nepal would be a bit better.

It was amazing (despite the lady on check-in in disbelief that we were flying to Kathmandu for our honeymoon!), and we spent our 15 days exploring ancient temples, incredible cities, and trekking amongst massive snow-capped mountains, staying in cute little teahouses.

Accommodation was basic on the trek but in Kathmandu we stayed in a gorgeous hotel (Dwarika's) that was a beautifully restored old Nepali building and was stunningly beautiful. Our trek was gorgeous - we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains and the scenery was incredible. We also saw some amazing monasteries, temples and stupas.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The DJ not working so all our friends grabbing the mike and singing instead (in particular Al's Twist and Shout, Rosie's Common People and Ollie's Circle of Life!

Arriving at the reception venue in the back of my dad's car and us literally not being able to get out due to the extreme downpour and flooded car park!

The speeches. They were the most adorable and sentimental set of speeches I have ever listened to - I love them all!

The service at Bolton Abbey - when we first moved here we said how amazing it would be to get married there (thinking we never could) but found it was an option! It's one of our favourite local spots and now will always be the place we got married and it's just beautiful.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Don't stress, it's always going to be the best day of your lives, whatever happens (almost!)

Drag out the wedding weekend as long as you can - we loved seeing people on the Friday and Sunday as on the wedding day itself it's impossible to have a proper conversation with anyone, let alone everyone!

Do what you want - make it feel like your dream wedding, as this is your one chance! When we were considering a church wedding vs not, someone told me they regretted never walking down the aisle, so I'm glad I've done it (and, yes, it was amazing!).

Please the people you love (and yourself). We started off with the idea of a tent in a field, but making my grandparents happy was very important, and I knew they wouldn't find that comfortable - so we compromised and it worked for everyone. Plus choosing little details that people close to you will love/feel involved in is really nice.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photoraphy | Paul Joseph Photography

Bloemist 01756 797911

Venue | Utopia

Cake | Charlotte Clayton 07821 377461

Dress | Courtyard Bridal Boutique

Wow, and what an amazing honeymoon!

Thanks so so much to Harriet and Martin for sharing their wedding story with us here at WWW XOXO Lou