My Rustic, Welsh, barn wedding

Seeing as how I spend all this time photographing, talking about and giving advice on weddings I thought it was about time I told you a bit about my wedding day! First off, it goes without saying that it was amazing. It truly is the best feeling having so many people that you love in one place, it gives you such a buzz and I promise that the moment you get to your husband at the beginning of the ceremony all those stresses and worries about the day disappear.

So, to the details! Well, I got married before the days of wedding blogs such as Rock my Wedding and Love my Dress. When by far the most popular wedding was a church and a hotel ceremony and the idea of diy'ing your wedding was the exception rather than the norm. I used an American website called Style my Pretty for a lot of my inspiration.

I knew that above all we wanted a laid back, relaxed day. We were getting married in Wales, the intention being that people would stay for the whole weekend. We got married on the Friday, had a big bbq by the river, cricket match, party in a pub and house party on the Saturday and lunch and a walk on the Sunday.

Details - we had a small budget. Our priority was that we could have lots of people which obviously meant feeding a lot of people. To enable us to be able to afford lots of people we went for a good old fashioned hog roast as our meal. We found a brand new venue to get married and were one of the first to book it and got a great deal. Luckily, it was a converted barn on a farm so the food they sourced was amazing!

We did a lot ourselves. My bridesmaids kindly bought their dresses themselves. Myself and my mum went to Birmingham flower market the day before the wedding and bought all the flowers for the day which we and then bridesmaids then styled. We made CD's of music from the wedding day as favours. A friend of a friend was in a band and played in the evening. My dress was £200 from a lovely bridal boutique who had a rail of last seasons remaining dresses and never tried to pressure me into spending more. My husband wore a linen suit from debenhams and we had a no tie and flip flop dresscode for everyone. My mother in law made the cake and invites. I did the place names and table plan. There was nothing fancy about the day but it was all about us - not about something we had seen on pinterest or in a magazine. We had a love of Africa that shined through. We are an outdoors, boho couple who love a good party and that is what we had.

Oh and photography...well we were very lcuky and had a friend who was an amazing photographer and offered to the photos for a very low price. I returned the favour this year and photographed his wedding which you can see here: http://www.capturedbykatrina.co.uk/#!Simon-and-Roz-laid-back-beach-wedding-at-Gylly-Beach-cafe-Cornwall/c1v9o/5527c6180cf215f35a54ce8f

Would I change anything about our day now having been to so many weddings? No way - it was perfect for us at the time. Any advice to other couples? Be true to yourself on your wedding day. Don't get sucked in by all the inspiration and advice you can see online and in print. Make sure it is a day that reflects you and what you want - that is best way to have an amazing day :-)