To end a week of wonderful weddings, I have a super pretty Spring celebration to share.

WWW readers Sam and Mat tied the knot on the 10 ^th May 2014 at The Nottingham Council House followed by a reception at Lockington & Hemington Village Hall. It was important to them that they had a village fete feel to their day with a big party for their loved ones.

They started their planning with finding the perfect Thai meal followed by 50s style rock n roll band for the evening. Then of course they decided to throw some 1950s inspired touches into their wedding, with DIY décor and wait for it.... a scone station... YUM.

Sam looked super gorgeous in a tea length dress made by Mat's mum which she teamed with floral shoes, Mat opted for a sharp suit and the maids were lovely in mint frocks.

Thanks so much to the fabulous Lifeline Photography for sharing their images today.

THE PROPOSAL | I had been trying to get Sam somewhere romantic to ask her for about 6 weeks. I had originally planned to ask her while we were on holiday on the island of Zykinthos, but whenever I had suggested we go somewhere she had been ill or wanted to invite other people with us. After getting back from holiday I tried to arrange something romantic, but for various reasons everything fell through. The proposal finally happened at our friend's house, we had gone round for bonfire night fireworks and a few drinks. Sam and Marie (Our friend and the best mans wife) were watching me and Matt (my best man) setting off fireworks, it seemed like the right time, so I lit a sparkler and spelt out 'will you marry me?' to Sam. It was funny watching her face as she started to realise what I was writing.

THE VISION | We were looking to have a laid back, village fete type feel. We are both relatively easy going and didn't want a formal grand wedding. Just a big ass party for all of friends and family to enjoy!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We started out with a few fixed ideas and the rest was worked out around them.

One of the first was the catering, we wanted something that we enjoyed and that people would remember, Luckily our local Thai (we have been going for years) The Thai Kitchen has one of the best Thai chefs outside of Thailand.

The second was the band. We had both been to weddings where there was a DJ playing very loud music and everyone was sitting watching an empty dance floor. We wanted a band that played music that everyone knew and hopefully would dance to, for us that meant a 50's style Rock & Roll band. After quite a few online agency's and youtube videos we found The Bluejays who rocked the night away, the dance floor was packed from start to finish. Still now our guests keep telling us they have never been to a wedding before where the dance floor was always full.

Everything else was worked around these and the venues, with friends and relatives roped in to help wherever possible.

BUDGET | We didn't want to spend a fortune on the wedding, neither of us wanted to get into debt to fund it, but we also didn't want to comprise our idea of the day because of the budget.

With generous help and hard work of friends and both families we managed to keep the cost down. And a MASSIVE shout out to Toni, Pete & Pearce for all of their help, we can not thank them enough and know our day would not have ran so well with out them!

THE VENUE | The Nottingham Council House, then Lockington & Hemington Village Hall. We had looked at a few different venues (Sam already knew most of them given she is a wedding photographer!) and we couldn't find anything that suited us. Sam had already worked at a lot of the local venues and for her they were all the venues of other couples weddings. We wanted something that would be 100% personal to us.

Nottingham Council House seemed to be the obvious choice for the ceremony as we are not really religious, however wanted somewhere quite traditional.

Sam grew up in Hemington, so it seemed fitting to have the 'do' at the village hall in the village where she grew up.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | The wedding and bridesmaids dresses were made by the grooms mum Sandra.

I knew from the start that I wanted Sandra to make my wedding dress, Since I'd been dating Mat I had been lucky enough to get a custom designed/made dress pretty much every Christmas so thought it would be lovely for us to design something together for when I married her son.

Shoes - Irregular choice and custom designed converse.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Jeff Banks suit, shirt and tie from Next and Jasper Conran Shoes.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Reading (read by Marie) The Future by Emma Salmon. Walking in - Wouldn't it be nice by The Beach Boys. Signing - Make it wit chu by Queens of the Stone Age. Walking Out- Higher & Higher by Jackie Wilson. First Dance - Let's Dance by Chirs Montez.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | Sally (Mat's Sister), Kelly (One of Sam's oldest friends AKA little sis) & Ella (Matt and Marie's daughter who was present during and born a few days after the proposal).

THE FLOWERS | Our very talented friends at Honeysuckle & Castle supplied and arranged all of the flowers for the day & made the most awesome bouquet I have ever seen! We didn't have specific flowers we requested, just whatever was available and in season. Helen and Sally know me & my taste pretty well so I had no worries about just going with what they thought best.

THE CAKE | Three tier naked Victoria sandwich with Raspberries. Made by the Bride and Best Man (Matt) who always seem to end up in the kitchen together rustling up something.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | After spending a long time searching we found Hannah from Lifeline Photography, she has a casual style that we liked and she makes you feel more like friends than clients.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Village Hall spring wedding fete style with a 50's twist. We spend a lot of time on the details. We made masses of bunting (with help from Sam's mum and Matt & Marie), made little black board signs, home-made (& grown!) Jam for Favours and for the 'scone station'. We collected vintage china from car boots and ebay to add to the china Sam and Sandra (Mats mum) already owned. We wanted the whole day to be personal to us so pretty much everything there was made by us with a lot of help from our friends and family.

THE HONEYMOON | An epic American adventure, Nashville, Chattanooga, Memphis, Jackson & New Orleans...

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Mat's - The first was realising I had forgotten the music for the ceremony half way to the venue, with no time to go back. Panic set in as I realised I had 30 min until we were due to get married and I had to find all the songs on CD. The look on the staff members face at Fopp was a sight when I rushed in all dressed up with an entourage including a photographer to see if I could find the songs on CD!

The second and most memorable was seeing Sam walking down the aisle in her dress, she looked stunning and the butterfly feeling I had had for the previous half hour vanished, it just felt right.

Sam's - Seeing Mat for the first time and finally stopping freaking out! And everyone dancing to The BlueJays in the evening. It was really important to me that everyone had a great time and it certainly seemed that they all did!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Everyone will have there own ideas on what your wedding should be like - stick to your guns! They might try to change your mind but don't let them, remember its your day not theirs!

Watch the budget, it's really easy to get carried away and think it can be stretched here or there. We talked about how much we had to spend and where we wanted to spend it. You need to think about what is important to you. For us we didn't have a massive budget but wanted all our guests to have a great time and to have some wonderful photographs from the day, so the vast majority was spent on the food, band and photographer.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Flowers | Honeysuckle & Castle

Photography | Lifeline Photography

Band | The Blue Jays

Caterer | The Thai Kitchen 07976 428235

Bar | The Jolly Potters 01332 811912

Wow what a day.

Thanks so so much to Sam & Mat for sharing their brilliant wedding with us today XOXO Lou