WWW readers Debbie and Richard married in May in a beautiful garden amongst the bluebells at Crook Hall. With a vision of a relaxed vintage day they had no seating plan, matching suits or formal meal.

They celebrated their wedding with their children and for a real family friendly feel, there were outdoor games, goodie bags and ice cream.

Debbie looked wonderful in her House of Mooshki tea length dress which she wore with Rachel Simpson shoes and pretty birdcage veil. The quirky buttonholes and fabric brooch bouquets worked perfectly alongside the sweet rustic décor.

Thanks goes to the amazing Helen Russell for sharing these delightful images today.

THE PROPOSAL | We were at a wedding of some good friends, Rich had been thinking about how and when to do it for a little while, but the beautiful day and love in the air, promoted him to ask me on the night. We found the engagement ring a few weeks later in an antique shop in Alnwick where we had gone to celebrate the engagement.

THE VISION | A relaxed and informal vintage garden party. We didn't want anything formal, so had no seating plan, no matching suits and no sit down formal meal. It was really relaxed and laid back, but yet pretty.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We knew we wanted to have a wedding that was little different and outdoor related, once we saw the gardens at Crook hall we knew it was the right place. Maggie and the team were so flexible and allowed us to have the quirky garden party wedding we wanted.

I started researching vintage style dresses and found the amazing House of Mooshki, I met with Vikki and she just delivered the exact dress I wanted.

THE VENUE | Crook Hall and Garden in Durham City. Night time at Radisson Blu hotel Durham.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | A House of Mooskhi tea length Deborah in vanilla. Shoes - Vintage Rachel Simpson - Mimosa, they looked like 20's dancing shoes, I fell in love withm the instantly. Birdcage veil.

FINDING THE DRESS | I found the House of Mooshki website, and then couldn't believe they were based 10 minutes away from my home. I didn't even go into any wedding dress shops; I met with Vikki McCarthy and knew they would deliver the dress I wanted.

I knew I wanted to hide my arm and wanted a tea length dress so it was not too formal. Vikki showed me the Deborah (which was quite fitting for my name) and talked about how it could be made for me with longer arms in the vintage lace. It was little scary as I never actually tried a dress on, so when it came to the first fitting I was worried that it might not suit me.

As soon as I put it on it was just as I imagined, totally perfect, vintage, elegant and pretty.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Rich wanted a vintage looking smart 3 piece suit; we decided not to have matching suits as we didn't want everything being traditional. Rich found the suit in Moss Bros and it worked well with the colours of the bridesmaid dresses and handmade bouquets.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | My best friend Angela read - These are the hands. Rich's friend Richard Anderson read the lyrics form 'Mirrorball' by Elbow - one of favourite bands who we have seen many times.

Rich's dad sang before the wedding. I walked down the aisle to 'You are the sunshine of my life' by Stevie Wonder as we went to see him on our first date. We walked out to Nina Simone - Feeling Good.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My sister in law, Carolyn Cunningham was our maid of honour -she wore a beautiful vintage style dress from BHS.

My daughter Jessica wore a suit from Monsoon (to match the other page boys!)

And Ivy and Neve our nieces wore pretty flower girl dresses from BHS.

THE FLOWERS | We had fabric and brooch bouquets and button holes form 'Love is Vintage', they are a beautiful keepsake too. We did have fresh flowers on the table, Donna form the Timeless Table created centre prices with mis matched flowers in birdcages, vintage jugs and mason jars.

THE CAKE | Was a blue vintage style cake from' Let them Eat cake' a local wedding cake supplier in Gateshead. They kept it very simple ad vintage, and it tasted lovely too.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Helen Russell, she had photographed the children when they were younger and we loved her style, we have been blown away by the images we have seen so far. It felt like a friend was attending the wedding, she was so relaxed and excited it really put us at ease as we were a little awkward getting our pictures taken.

THE DETAILS & DECOR | We wanted to have a very informal, vintage look to the wedding. Crook hall and garden are so beautiful so we were very lucky to get married outside. Donna Hartley-Redfern from the Timeless Table dressed the garden and Hall for us. Her unique, quirky style was perfect for the day. She used some of our vintage knick knacks, including my Granddads old suitcase for a card post box and we had vintage frames with photos of all our grandparents who are sadly not with us, and also our parents.

The ribbon trees in the Orchard were so beautiful, we didn't have a colour scheme as such but just wanted all pretty, vintage colours and the ribbon trees and hearts with ribbons on were stunning.

We also had some hay bales with a; little pink lemonade station and sweeties for the kids. We have children ourselves so wanted them to be totally relaxed and enjoy the day. The giant jenga and connect 4 also kept them amused!

We had a sparkling afternoon tea which fitted in perfectly with the style of the day, we had no table plan and everyone sat where they wanted and shared the cream scones cooked fresh that day by Crook hall staff.

THE HONEYMOON | We have 2 small children so we were limited to how long we could be away; we had 4 fabulous, romantic nights in Paris. Then returned home and had fish and chip tea with Jessica and Harry.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | My dad had a massive stroke just less than 2 years ago, we were told he would never walk again. He has tried so hard in his physio sessions and managed to walk me down the last few steps of the aisle. There was not a dry eye in the garden!

Our son carried a 'daddy, here comes your bride' sign by peaches and queen which was so lovely.

Rich's Dad is in a Welsh male voice choir and sang a beautiful solo of 'Nant y Mynydd'.

The birds were singing in the tree's and the sun shining while the ceremony was taking place and seeing all our wonderful friends and family with their eyes shining and smiling.

Helen took us up into the attic room at Crook Hall to get few photo's , we were there with Jess and Harry and the 4 of us were spying out the window at all the guest below gathering on the lawn to get the group photo's, everyone was laughing, drinking and enjoying the sunshine. It was perfect.

Rich uncle snuck in an ancient hip flask, which looked like it had been through 2 works wars, it helped Rich steady his nerves a little and was very vintage!

My brother did a speech on behalf of my dad, as he is unable to speak following his stroke. Every word he said was just perfect and I know my dad approved.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Be confident to have the wedding you want, do what suits you and your personalities. We didn't want to have formal table plans and formal speeches, I think some people struggled with the idea of this at first but it worked perfectly, it just made everything relaxed and informal which is exactly how we wanted the day to be.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Crook Hall and Gardens

Dress | House of Mooshki

Hair & Make Up | Lisa Jones hair and Makeup

Photography | Helen Russell Photography

Bouquets | Love is Vintage

Peaches and Cream

Cake | Let them Eat cake

Styling | The Timeless Table

Oh so lovely, and that afternoon tea looked so delicious.

Thanks so very much to Debbie and Richard for sharing their wedding story with us today XOXO Lou