Joanne and Jeremy married back in the summer of last year at the lovely Cripps Barn in the Cotswolds. Being a keen gardener Joanne wanted their wedding to have a cottage garden feel, with a relaxed and family friendly atmosphere.

There were such lovely florals; natural looking bouquets and centrepieces of Lavender, Rosemary, Roses, Cosmos and Dahlias adorned the venue.

Joanne looked beautiful in her lace gown, while Jeremy wore a Moss Bros suit and the bridesmaids were in peach. Just you wait until you see their brilliant wedding transport too :-)

Thanks so much to the wonderful Sue Kwiatkowska for sharing her images with us this morning.

On the day of the proposal we went for a long coastal walk, got lost [I did not get us lost!] and caught in the rain, thus I was not in the best of moods! Having found our way, and on the way back to the start of the walk, Jez led me to the end of a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea and a distant castle turret and got down on one knee, getting himself wet in the process!! Obviously, I said yes!

We then found 'Cripps Barn'. Jez immediately loved the style of the menu and I fell for the building, the firepit and the ability to get married outdoors. What I tried very hard to do was to bring an aspect of the cottage garden to the day, incorporating informal flower arrangements and lavenders.

We had a selection of outdoor games on the lawn and roasted marshmallows around the firepit in the evening. We had blankets on the grass and the perfect summers day to enjoy it all. The children loved running around, and this was important for us as our daughter was one and a half at the time. We were fortunate with the weather and able to have the ceremony outside, but the option to move inside if the weather didn't hold was always there.

Finding the Dress... I booked tickets to the wedding show at the NEC and along with my mother and daughter, Isabella, we had a lovely day trying on a selection of dresses. I had a budget in mind and really didn't want to bust it! The show is full of some really good deals and I would recommend going along, even though there wasn't much in the way of bridesmaid dresses. The show is really focused on the bride. I was lucky to fine the lovely ladies at Pink Confetti and the beautiful dress by Lou Lou Bridal. The ladies were so great and let me walk across the auditorium to the Rachel Simpson Shoes stall and make sure that the shoes I liked matched the dress. They did and I was then the proud owner of a dress and shoes!

I always wanted a guitar soloist to be playing while people got settled and for my entrance. We had almost resigned ourselves to not being able to have this as we couldn't find anyone but we were lucky enough to have a brother in law play in the Greg Bish band and Greg Bish himself play this role.

While people settled we had: 1,You do Something To Me, 2, Norwegian Wood, 3, Have I Told You Lately, 4, Delicate, 5, Spanish Romance, 6, Air on The G String, 7, Canon In D, 8, Gymnopedie No 1.

For my entrance and exit I had"I Remember" by Damian Rice. And for the signing of the register Jose Gozalez 'Heartbeats'. Our first dance was "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star We put together our own playlist for the afternoon and had the wonderful band play a few sets in the evening. They really were a highlight and I am so glad that we decided to have them.

Each bridesmaid was given as a gift a personalised clutch bag, which was handmade by me and contained earrings, lip gloss, heal protectors and a pretty mirror.

My daughter wore a pretty dress by Monsoon, it was so beautiful and soft and just perfect as I wanted her to be comfortable and not confined in a stiff dress. She wouldn't wear the shoes we got though, thus an ebay find of soft white pumps!

I am a keen gardener and knew exactly what flowers I wanted to be incorporated and the way I wanted them to be displayed. She listened to me, looked through ideas with me and took everything on board. What was also an added bonus was that she lived in the same small town as us in Northamptonshire and we were able to keep local and give something back to our community. When I saw the flowers in my vases at the venue the beautiful smell hit me and I was so overwhelmed with it. Everywhere was full of soft scented cottage garden plants, lavender, rosemary, roses, cosmos and dahlias. Mine and the bridesmaid bouquets were stunning and just as I envisaged.

The men's button holes were non traditional as I wanted to avoid roses, they matched all the other arrangements perfectly and contained hydrangeas, scabios and ox eye daisies. Very pretty!

We also had cupcakes and cake pops as well as a sweet selection. I am keen to continue baking wedding cakes and have a small home based baking business - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jos-Cakes-and-Bakes/478062025563451

When doing a search of photos of the venue I came across Sue Kwiatkowska. After correspondence we met Sue in May at the beautiful Arlington bluebell walk in Sussex for our pre wedding photo shoot and loved the gorgeous pictures, this cemented my faith in her. It was really important to me that the pictures were as natural as possible and captured the mood of the day as well as incorporating a vintage, romantic feel. My biggest hate is anything that appears overly staged and unnatural. Sue captured our day brilliantly and Caroline second shot the day through a second lens getting some beautiful pictures of not only Isabella (our daughter) but also of the other children.

My mum mad a substantial amount of bunting, which was essential decoration, and I believe that without it the dinning area would have had a different feel. The crockery that I collected was also displayed beautifully and was worth every moment spent at a car boot or a charity shop! I now hire out my crockery and accessories - https://www.facebook.com/myvintagehire

Wedding favours/place settings were baby food jars filled with a selection of sweets bought from a local traditional sweetshop in our town and covered in remnants of fabric with luggage tags with guest's names on.

Each child was given an activity bag that consisted of an activity book, bubbles, how to make a pin wheel, pencils and aeroplanes. The kids seemed to love these and it kept them entertained during the meal.

Save the Dates + Invitations... Hand made by myself, with a little help from Jez! I wanted a natural yet vintage style. So The save the date cards were printed by us on a light brown recycled card by https://secure.eco-craft.co.uk/ and tied together with raffia. The invitations followed this theme, I used recycled light brown card and lace on the invitations with a recycled envelope and tied all together with raffia and a pesonalised wax seal. We both had and still have the same initials 'JB' so was personal to both of us!

The Car... http://jezbraker.wordpress.com/ So the plan was simple one. Rather than rent a car to take the bride to the wedding venue, buy one - and give it to Jo as her wedding gift from me. She always loved VW Beetles and I love tinkering with cars so some German engineering should be simple.The plan was to spend £1000 on a car and another £1000 doing it up over the year - without Jo knowing - so come the morning of the wedding day it's sitting outside the hotel ready to whisk her to the venue - and later in the day get her to sign the v5 as well as the book.

I picked up a '73 beetle in fetching Purple in October '12 which gave me 10 months of secret trips to work on it and get ready for the big day. Engine rebuild, completely new interior, recon wheels, new running gear and a whole heap more stuff later, she was MOT'd just a few days before the big day. A few hundred over budget (although in building the car it started a new sideline business which has since recouped these costs http://retrogearknob.com/ ). My brother in law enlisted to chauffeur Jo the few miles to the venue and after a last minute first drive around the venue car park, it was a nervous wait for me at the altar to see if the car made it!

Jo says she knew I was going to have her arrive at the venue in a VW but she thankfully hadn't worked out it was hers to keep. Pics of the bug here... http://jezbraker.wordpress.com/2014/02/04/the-pics-from-the-day/

Advice for Other Couples... HAVE A HONEYMOON. GIVE SOMEONE ELSE YOUR CHILDREN TO LOOK AFTER FOR THE WEDDING NIGHT. We decided nor to have speeches but in retrospect I think it would have been nice to have had one.

Bride and bridesmaids hair and makeup | Nicolette Culwick [email protected]

Flowers | Ivy Leaf Design

Band | The Greg Bish Blueprint

Cake | Jo's Cakes and Bakes

Crockery | My Vintage Hire

Brides dress; | Pink Confetti

Venue | Cripps Barn

Grooms suit | Moss Bros

Photographer | Sue Kwiatkowska

How wonderful, I so love a relaxed family wedding.

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