Clare and Matt chose to marry on the 12th April 2014, holding their reception at The Engine Shop Museum in Shropshire. It was important to them to create a relaxed, natural and fun day for their loved ones with no set theme.

Their priority was the food. With surprise terracotta plant pots filled with chocolate and hazelnut brownie and a street food burrito van... scrummy!

Clare donned a bespoke dress, Matt and the boys went floral and the bridesmaids wore Ted Baker. I love the pretty flowers and the cog table plan too. Gorgeous.

Thanks so very much to Lisa Carpenter for sharing her photographs with us today.

THE PROPOSAL | I had got back to London from a few days holiday at my parents home in Shropshire, we were having a glass of wine at home and then, out of the blue, Matt got down on one knee with a box full of jelly haribo rings. I burst into tears and said 'yes' then, as it was bonfire night (one of my favourite nights of the year) we rushed out to catch the local firework display with a bottle of our favourite champagne. As the jelly haribo rings wouldn't last decades of marriage we headed to Brighton to choose a ring, we went to Goodman Morris and found a ring that they added two smaller diamonds to. It was a red gold ring with a teardrop chocolate diamond, with two smaller white diamonds either side - not something I was expecting to find but it was so delicate and unusual. We returned to the shop for our wedding rings.

THE VISION | We didn't start out with a clear vision but we knew that we wanted a relaxed, fun day for our friends and family to enjoy spending time together with great food, wine and dancing. We didn't want a strong colour theme with everything matching so it was more about bringing together colours and a style that looked natural and not overly styled.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Food food food! This was one of the most important elements of the day and therefore the hunt for the venue was also dependent on the catering options available. It was really difficult to find a suitable dry hire venue so we wanted to find a venue with caterers who were flexible and willing to work with us to develop a great menu, thankfully we did!

THE VENUE | We chose The Engine Shop at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum in Coalbrookdale, it is a really quirky venue which is part of the kids museum, Enginuity. A huge room with stunning arched windows this was used for the main reception and we had our champagne reception in a smaller rustic room called Covered Bays. The venue appealed as it isn't solely used for weddings therefore they were very flexible in terms of setting up a couple of days before, and it felt very personal as there wasn't going to be another bride walking in the next morning. The event manager was excellent and he was so accommodating with the ideas we came up with.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had three bridesmaids and a flower girl, my niece Alice. The search for the bridesmaid dresses started quite early, after looking around the high street shops we went back to the first shop we saw anything we liked! They wore Ted Baker full length pleated dresses with cream belts which were made by my aunt. Our niece wore a little white pleated dress which tied in nicely with the other bridesmaids.

THE GROOMS MEN | We struggled to justify the money to hire very average suits for the five ushers and best man so we asked them to wear their best suit and we had ties and matching handkerchiefs made in Liberty print fabric (from etsy) all in different floral materials. We had a small panic as they were held up at customs a few days before the wedding but they turned up just in time!

MATT'S ATTIRE | Originally we were looking for a blue suit but found a pale grey Reiss three-piece suit which was altered to fit him perfectly. The shirt took a lot longer to find, Matt has a wardrobe full of floral shirts but it took a few months to find the right one for the big day, but it was well worth the search. A trip to Brighton sorted the tie and the handkerchief from a very helpful shop owner.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | I found dress shopping quite hard work as most shops had such a limited choice if you didn't want a strapless dress, I wanted something a bit more unusual but struggled to find it. My sister had had her wedding dress made by, the very talented, Claire Mischevani and she was the obvious choice to make mine too. It was a really special process to visit Claire's studio for fittings, I was thrilled with the final result and it was beautifully finished off with a pearl and beaded comb made by Claire that she fitted with a bird cage veil. Claire also made my Mum's outfit which was a dusky pink dress coat with an incredible grey underskirt. Claire recommended Lauren at the Amber Rooms as our hairdresser, she was absolutely fantastic, my hair was incredible and looked really perfect with the pearl comb.

THE CEREMONY | We had a church wedding at the local church near my parents home, the ceremony was so special and was our favourite part of the day. I think because there is only a limited amount you can add to the ceremony, it was the part of the wedding that we had the least input in and was the most enjoyable part. My close friend sang a song we'd chosen called 'Something So Right' a Paul Simon song which was a real tearjerker. We came out of the church to find my Dad had arranged with the wedding car driver to be dressed up as Stig from Top Gear, very bizarre as neither of us particularly like the show but it was hilarious seeing the double takes from people as we drove to the reception venue!

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Our friend Kate read a native American poem that she chose and we also had a bible reading read by Matt's Australian cousin, Claire. It has become tradition that my school friend Amy sings at our group of friend's wedding, after a lot of searching we chose a Paul Simon song called 'Something so Right' and it was sung beautifully, we have a recording of Amy's version which will always bring back happy memories.

THE FLOWERS | I wanted a bouquet of wild flowers which was quite tricky in April, the florists worked hard to bring together similar flowers with an array of colours to contrast with the bridesmaids who had simple white hydrangeas. My parents planted hundreds of spring bulbs in wooden crates, made by my very clever Dad, which we dotted around the venue as well as troughs filled full of herbs, they smelt amazing. A close family friend decorated the church with a truck load of gypsyphila which looked so pretty.

THE CAKE | Matt's Mum made three wonderful fruit cakes which were transported to my Mum for her to ice and decorate. She is very talented at making delicate sugar flowers which were set on top of the cake. She also made hundreds of pieces of sugar lavender that we used for the table settings and the table centre pieces.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER | Lisa was recommended by the event manager at our venue and we are so thankful to him for this! Lisa has a very distinctive style, we didn't want reams of formal photos and she was great at getting a more unusual angle. She worked tirelessly through out the day and was really keen to use the venue to get some really interesting shots, very imaginative and talented. The venue was perfect for some stunning shots of the raw industrial original iron foundry. We have had so many compliments on the photos and we will treasure them.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | The personal details of the wedding day seemed to come about very naturally, for example Matt has a friend that has a shellac record player in a pram so we asked him to come along for the reception drinks to play some laid back music. The room was too big to make a real impact with decorations therefore we hung bunches of coloured lanterns from the lighting rigging but did little else. The guests were able to go into Enginuity, the museum, after it had closed the public and it was great fun for the kids too.

The main detail was focused on the food... we wanted to do something fun and interactive with the dessert so we developed a recipe that we could put into a plant pot and use as the table centre piece for each table. The caterers bought terracotta plant pots which were filled with chocolate and hazelnut brownie, we topped them with edible soil and more of Mum's sugar lavender. It was kept top secret and it wasn't until we brought gardening trowels to each table that people started to catch on that they had to dig for their pudding!

Mexican Bean are a street food burrito van and they provided our evening food, they were fantastic and parked inside the Covered Bays ready to serve the masses! They served beef brisket and pulled pork burritos, they also set up a tequila table which was very popular!

The cog table plan was Matt's project, he worked with a friend to make cogs that would join together to create an interactive table plan, it was a real talking point and worked really well with the industrial feel of the building.

THE HONEYMOON | Two incredible weeks in Vietnam travelling from north to south basically eating our way round.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Photographs on the Ironbridge with the wedding party driving past beeping and hollering. Amy singing so beautifully and watching my Dad wipe away a tear, Finally walking up the aisle and seeing Matt after all of that planning and preparation, well worth every moment.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Call in the favours, it's amazing how talented and helpful your friends and family are. It also makes it feel like a joint effort to make the wedding day feel so special.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | The Engine Shop

Dress | Claire Mischevani

Photography | Lisa Carpenter Photos

Hair Styling | Lauren Gwilt @ The Amber Rooms

Music | The Wind Up Merchant

Street Food | The Mexican Bean

Absolutely stunning. How brilliant were those puds too?

Thanks so much to Clare and Matt for sharing their wedding with us today XOXO Lou