WWW readers Clair and Dan have the sweetest love story. They were friends for 10 years before they got together and after their gorgeous daughter arrived they got engaged.

They chose the 18th July 2015 to say their vows to one another at the stunning Secret Garden in Kent. Clair runs The Chalk Spot and her creative flair was evident in their super pretty décor. With a Victorian botanical theme she went all out with the quirky stationery and signs, which completely transformed the venue. LOVE. It was super important to Clair and Dan that there was a relaxed atmosphere and so they chose a picnic meal, live music and a bake off contest.

How gorgeous did Clair look in her Gemy Maalouf gown with fresh blooms in her hair? Meanwhile the gents went for navy suits with colour pop yellow ties and tan shoes. And all on a £10 000 budget. Perfect.

Thanks so very much to Livvy Hukins Photography for sharing these delightful photographs today.

THE PROPOSAL | Beautiful :) In Greenwich park, our favourite park, that we have visited together for 12 years, with our daughter (asleep, just 9 months old) and although we had discussed getting married when we fell pregnant it was still a wonderful surprise - we even brought the ring together but I was told not to touch it, even though I knew where it was in the house - that was painful but I played the game :) and I was still surprised when it happened, Dan picked a bench overlooking the London skyline and he laughed when he asked me the question, I didn't even dare to jokingly say no, because I was so thrilled that it was unexpected, in a wonderful location we can go back to time and time again. Dan has been my best friend since school, and although we dated for a whole month when I was 18, we both decided it was weird... we were friends and wanted to remain friends - which we did for the next ten years, we stayed close, we partied, we visited each others universities, we spent Christmases together, and although our friendship groups changed and we started to see less of each other, we always made time to catch up and keep in touch as often as we could. We have a lot in common and I've always found that Dan knows me so well that he was always the best person to go to for advice. It brought us really close together a few years ago when big changes in both our lives meant being in each others company we felt ourselves and made us both realise what was truly important in life, and if we couldn't be apart for 10 years then maybe it was worth a go. We announced our engagement on social media with a quirky photo which caused a brilliant stir :)

THE VISION | We took a typical modern day wedding day, and we stripped it back to the essentials, which we decided was a venue, food, a registrar, and some music for the evening. We decided anything else we could afford was a bonus :) but if we couldn't, then it was okay, because we would have everything we needed. We wanted to break tradition a bit, no cake, car or traditional wedding photos, we wanted somewhere outdoors, we fancied a picnic breakfast, and we were really keen on live music. We didn't want anyone to be hungry, nobody wants to go to a wedding and have one roast potato on your plate - we wanted lots of food and drink :) and no top table - we wanted to sit with friends and really mix up the chemistry in the room a bit.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | I haven't been a little girl with a big dream of what I wanted for my wedding day, (and neither had Dan I might add!), which made planning a lot less stressful for us as we could be flexible. We gave ourselves a year to plan. We started by looking at fields and renting marquees and tipis, and by absolute chance Dan found our perfect place, by searching online for venues which would do a picnic :) I found us a band who would play an acoustic set before breakfast, but would also host a cracking party for the evening. And then we sat down to decide what else we would like to have :) The whole process was chilled, we didn't go overboard, and it was a joy to find things together, and build up personal details in our day, for e.g we are big fans of the great British bake off in this house, and Dan is a great baker. So to incorporate a bake off into our day, which not only saved us on buying a cake, but also meant we had months of competitive chat going between friends and family which was fantastic. Even our venue and photographer joined in the fun by donating fantastic prizes which really egged everybody on (no pun intended).

BUDGET | As cheap as we could, we were keen to keep it under £10K, and we are very proud about what we achieved with our day, for 90 guests, because we had everything we wanted, it was beautiful, and it didn't cost the earth when we are saving for our little family.

THE VENUE | Our venue were perfect from the word go. From our initial meeting when Stephanie (one of the venues wedding planners) gave us some examples of what they could do, they were just describing to us the silly ideas we have jotted down when we discussed what we would like. They sung our language, and they have (in our opinion) the most humble and beautiful venue we have ever seen. Working kitchen gardens, surrounded by red brick walls, on the Mountbatten Estate (oh yes, royalty), the best florist - on-site! Amazing locally sourced food, and a marquee which they own themselves. Their staff were fabulous, and took on so many roles, even down to handing out confetti, everybody was looked after and nothing was too much trouble. All our guests could help themselves to a drink after the I Do's, they set everything up beautifully on carts and crates, the band played their acoustic set and everyone complimented their talent (the drummer played a wooden box he sat on, just brilliant). It set the mood for our relaxed day, and guests laid on the grass, chilled, played with the children, and because we chose to not have any formal photos just then, it allowed us to be with our guests and enjoy the music (and the mojitos!) The food was wonderful, and plentiful. Lots of the fruit and veg from the gardens themselves, the rest all from within a 15 mile radius, and also produce from Stephanie's husband (the local farmer!) We chose one guest per table to be 'chef' and gave them an apron (comical, of course). We had huge hampers which were carried to the tables, and the staff helped the table chef unload the endless picnic foods. The highlight was the Pie, handmade by the chefs on-site, layered with chutneys and cheese, just delicious. I haven't seen a pie bigger, they were huge and fed the whole table. There were cheeses and hand cut crisps, meats, pate, hummus in teacups, olives, bread - it was endless.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | The Dress was by Gemy Maalouf, and was a sample sale dress, which was pretty much perfect condition anyway. It had beautiful beading around the neckline and round the back - which not one part of it matched any other part, it was all quirky and mismatched. The material floated, and it was comfortable and easy to move in. The shoes were Roland Cartier, which I chose to match the beading on my dress, they were quirky and beautiful, and had a lovely vintage feel to them. Dan won at the online searching game again, and managed to find a perfect set of earrings, and a ring also. I chose to just wear my wedding band on my left hand, but wanted to wear something a bit different on my right, instead of my engagement ring. I wanted to have something to walk down the aisle with, but also to just enjoy my wedding band on the day. Pandora had the perfect vine leaf set which matched our botanical theme perfectly.

FINDING THE DRESS | I have always admired a bridal shop local to me, which always seemed to have the prettiest dresses, with lots of little detail, it looked 'different' before you even stepped inside. And it was different. Sadly the shop was closing down, but that meant a great opportunity to find a dress in sale. I tried on dresses I thought I would like, ones I have seen in magazines and thought that was the style I would be comfortable in. The dress I ended up in, chosen for me to try on by the shop staff, was so far from my ideal that it was just right. I felt like me, but I also felt like I was making a bit more of a statement. It was a nerve wrecking decision, but I was so happy with my choice, and after a few fittings it began it really feel like it was the right dress for me.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Dan found a blue suit from Moss, and chose a similar but slightly different suit by Ted Baker for the groomsmen. We said to the groomsmen (Dad's included) to wear it however they want to. The Dads went with 3-piece and the boys just had waistcoats. They were comfy and happy, so we were happy :)

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Our reading, was in the back of the ceremony guide, given to us by the registry office, it was the first one on the list, titled 'The Walled Garden' - perfect! Especially as our venue was a walled garden :) which also happened to be the name of the Hen house I stayed in with the girls, total chance, didn't realise until we go there :) I loved walking through the garden to James Bay's version of (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher, and Dan's surprising choice of Hearts and Colours - Steal My Girl, a One Direction cover, which coming from my 80's rock loving guy, was a particular highlight to walk back down the aisle together to.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My beautiful cousin Abbie was the perfect bridesmaid, she created the best hen weekend in Ramsgate, she made gifts and goody bags, and she was a superstar getting me ready for my big day. My honorary bridesmaid Erika, my bestest friend from uni, came to stay with me in the week leading up the wedding and was the biggest help, especially on the morning of the wedding, she did the most running around I have ever seen anyone do :) Our little girl Alba was our adorable flower girl and she was a superstar the whole day. Bridesmaid dress - Tesco (! - £50!). Shoes - Jenny Packham. Flower girl - BHS.

THE FLOWERS | Our poor florist worked so hard as I was so vague with my initial requests, we didn't have a colour scheme, I just knew I wanted something to reflect our botanical theme so to include ferns, and that I wanted a lot of flowers. What Fi did was simply stunning, the decoration at the venue was breathtaking, she worked hard during the day to move pew flowers around the venue so they were not wasted, and the individual flowers she chose to go in my hair. Well not one person didn't compliment my hair, I wish I could have flowers like that everyday :)

THE CAKE | We challenged all our guests to bake a cake, with prizes for the best ones! My favourites were from our youngest bakers. We were chuffed with the amount of effort everyone put in. I brought along some cake boxes and we encouraged all our guests to take home a box full of cake slices to enjoy - and the whole lot went :)

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | When we made our list of 'essentials' we didn't include a photographer. When Livvy popped up on my Facebook feed, I sat down with Dan, and even Dan agreed, yes, we had to have her. Our meeting was fun and relaxed, we were impressed with Livvy's professionalism, but just as our venue ticked every box, so did Livvy. We are so happy to have found her, she let us scrap the formal photos and make sure we had a happy photo of each and every guest doing something natural. I have no idea how she did it, but our photos, from the engagement shoot to our wedding pics, they are just perfect and such a wonderful summary of our day.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We had no colour scheme... we wanted blue suits for the boys, but that was it! I decided I needed some sort of theme though as creating save the dates and invites needed a bit of consistency. Me and Dan are like peas in a pod, and I settled on a Victorian botanical theme. It gave us a bit more colour, with chose yellow as a highlight, but was happy to have everything a bit mismatched. I drew images for our stationery and produced it all at home. My favourite piece was the order of service with the heart peg :) I wanted a wow factor to our marquee, I fancied doing something none else had done, but that also meant there was no inspiration on pinterest on instagram! 'Frames in marquee' gave me nothing :) I found old looking frames, some I spray painted and I decorated one side of the marquee with song lyrics, time lines, poems, quotes and photos of everything and anything that was important to me and Dan.

Running The Chalk Spot has given me lots of practice for wedding décor, and I was keen create décor for our day that wasn't chalkboards. Not that I don't love them, but I fancied something different and something new. I love our welcome board, chair signs and our table plan, and I love our frames - they are now decorating our house! I picked up botanical themed pieces from charity shops and eBay, my favourite was my white rabbit in a cloche (Asda).

I hand made a version of ribbon bunting with some Ikea fabric which had a botanical print on, the left overs I used in frames. I also sourced some vintage botanical prints (eBay) which I put in frames with small quotes to use on our tables. We chose 3 styles on vases to go on each table for flowers (Asda, Ikea), with some tea light holders and wild seed favours - the bumble bees and butterflies (Ruxley garden centre) looked so cute with our table flowers. I made an led light CAKE sign for our cake table (Hobbycraft and Poundland), and wrote out all our place names on bird themed name cards (eBay). Our guest book (Hobbycraft) I decorated myself, and provided a polaroid printer, which guests could print to from their phones. It made for a quirky DIY Photo Booth, but guests could choose any photo from the day they liked! Our card holder was a wire letter rack (eBay) nailed to some apple crates (venue provided). The confetti I think was my favourite - we put it into a terrarium (Ikea) with flower pots inside, and some old fashioned wooden scoops (Thompson garden centre).

THE HONEYMOON | St Lucia (Swoon) - for 3 days haha - but even the plane journey was bliss, 8 hours just to watch movies?! Yes please! Missed our daughter terribly, she didn't miss us, and pretty sure she wasn't impressed when we came back and dragged her away from nanna and grandad :) We have a weekend in Center Parcs booked for the honeymoon part 2 - with Alba :)

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The day after, driving home from packing up the venue, we wrote a list of our favourite moments from the day. Dan had to chase a bird out of the marquee before the guests arrived. I loved Mum having her hair and make up done, as its not something she would have done usually and it was lovely to see mum look lovely. The florist dropped the flowers at the hotel, delivering them to us, but she fixed everything in the room as we got ready. Dad having a teary moment when he came to the room to get me - naww. My brother drove me and dad (we didn't worry with a wedding car) and we blasted 'Queen - You're My Best Friend' out loud and sang the whole way there. Alba grabbed a bag of pom bears (crisps) during the ceremony and handed them to everyone, including the registrar and Livvy the photographer. The babies sitting on the grass - well the adults too! Enjoying the music. Ice cream in tea cups. Dad, who decided the night before he wanted to make a speech, and it was wonderful, he is such a proud grandad and its lovely to have a family unit with a matching name, truly what our day was about - not just for love, but for our family. The BBQ for our evening meal was like being in a posh gourmet burger restaurant - brioche buns, pimp your own burger fillings, absolutely blooming brilliant. Our last dance to 'Teenage Dirtbag' was more memorable than the first dance :) The cake dance - we don't know what it was about, but it was funny, and dad was hilarious. Sparkler send off :)

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Choose the essentials, anything else is a bonus. Don't worry too much with colour schemes :D Make the most of the day, I highly recommend skipping traditional photos, or having them later (we did squeeze a couple in after food - including 5 mins for couple photos!) The dress may not feel perfect straight away, go with your gut instinct.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Secret Garden

Photographer | Livvy Hukins Photography

Band | 22nd Century (festival anthems tribute)

Flowers | Anemone Blue

Hair | Michelle Vassalo

Make Up | Amanda Scruby

Décor | The Chalk Spot

A joy filled loved up day. My fave.

Clair and Dan, thank you both so much for sharing your wedding with us xo Lou