Claire and Joseph's Cambridge wedding couldn't be more quintessentially English - classy and sophisticated, yet modest and wholesome.

Clare College Chapel is a beautiful ceremony venue - with it's ancient wooden pews facing the aisle and the sound of the choir creating a magical atmosphere.

The reception was held at Claire's parents house, in a marquee filled with blue and white details, candles and flowers.

If you've never been to Cambridge - please go. Just breathe in some of the history of our country, go punting along the River Cam on a summer's day and have a Pimms picnic on the riverbank. I promise, you won't regret it. Claire and Joseph's wedding will show you why...

Claire The Bride: My dress was from Browns Brides and by Dephine Manivet (the dress design is called Lubin). My mother and I went to her trunk show at Browns and Dephine was actually there and helped me try the dress on!

We nearly missed the dress because someone else was trying it on but as we left my mother caught sight of it on someone else and we asked if I could nip back in to try it on. It was the first day we had been dress shopping and only the second shop but it just felt so very me.

I wore some blue diamond and sapphire earrings my Grandmother lent me and a full length veil from Browns. One of my friends, a shoe designer, Charlotte Staniland, designed me the most beautiful pair of shoes. I was very lucky!

One of my friends, Miriam, very kindly came with me to do a Bobbi Brown free make-up session and then she did it for me on the day. She is very talented! And it was an excellent way to bring costs down slightly as I wanted a very natural look so was keen to remain light on the make-up. I used Bobbi Brown products as well which I am still using everyday which you wouldn't get from a professional make-up artist.

I also used a lovely hairdresser based in Cambridge, Heike Martin, who did both my hair and the bridesmaids. She was excellent and such a calming influence on the day. We went for plaits in all of our hair with mine down and the bridesmaids up.

Our florist, Tolly Considine, was AMAZING!!! He did everything from my bouquet (lily of the valley) to the button holes, cake topper, chapel flowers and table centres (which were amazing). I could not recommend him more highly and he was also so much fun!

Joseph wore a lovely navy blue three piece suit from Jaeger and he looked very handsome! It wasn't too much of a surprise though as I made sure I helped him choose...

Amy of Especially Amy was our photographer. We actually found her via Rock My Wedding. I love her photos and she could not have captured the day more beautifully. My favourite photos are the ones of everyone laughing and just enjoying themselves.

My Mum made our cake from scratch - it was a fruit cake and she was feeding it booze for months in advance! It was delicious and all her fears about not being up to the job were dispelled. She always makes the family Christmas cake but I think the sheer size of this made it more of a challenge. I also insisted on her making the icing from scratch because it tastes so much better than the bought stuff!

We had a great band called Wandering Hands who wandered around during the drinks reception playing requests. They were brilliant and I think one of my favourite parts of the day. We booked them through Sternberg Clarke. We also booked our DJs Freight Train through the same company and they were also great.

Our first dance was called 'I Love You' by the Bees. We asked the DJs to only play a little bit of this and then launched into 'Chicken Payback' also by the Bees to kick off the dancing which was really fun!

As favours we ordered personalised seed packets from Not On The High Street which had little motifs on them and the date of the wedding.

My mum also made hundreds of pieces of fudge which we bagged up for each guest. This went down a treat! We decided to have favours people might actually use and I think most of the fudge was actually eaten on the night!

I have always loved blue and white stripes and although there wasn't a theme exactly things were slightly centred around this. The most amazing thing was that my Mum (again!) handmade hundreds of metres of bunting! She really was a wedding machine but it made everything so amazingly personal. She is one of a kind- I am very very lucky to have such a talented mother who actually enjoys being exploited by her demanding daughter!

I think the best piece of advice I was given was to make sure my hair/make-up and dress were very 'me'.

I also really wanted there to be a very relaxed vibe throughout the day with everything as personal as possible and I think we managed this - I travelled to the church in my Dad's 20 year old Volvo that he refuses to get rid of and has been the family car most of my life (and is a running joke in the family) and Joseph and I travelled back from the chapel on the back of a bicycle!

Photography by Especially Amy
Dress Delphine Manivet | Boutique Browns Bride | Hair Heike Martin | Venue Clare College Chapel | Florist Tolly's Flowers | Bridesmaids Ghost | Groom Jaeger | Band Wandering Hands | DJ Freight Train