What a special wedding celebration I have to share with you this morning. Why I hear you ask? Because it was all crafted and planned straight from the heart.

Ella and Chris were married last summer at Ells'a parents B&B in a meaningful outdoor ceremony. And for the reception? An amazing stripe marquee which set the tone for their pretty as a picture home made décor. I especially adore how all of their family and friends came together to make the perfect day for this lovely couple. Bohemia beautiful.

Thanks so much to Alexa Poppe for sharing these stunning images with us.

THE PROPOSAL | We were on holiday in Morocco with my (Ella's) family, visiting my sister Rosie who is a surf instructor out there. It was our 2nd night and Chris and I were having a drink on the balcony while everyone got ready for a BBQ. Chris asked me to take a photo of the sunset and when I opened up the camera case, there was a ring box inside! He then asked the age old question "so... d'you wanna?" and I did! It was so lovely having all of the family around and made the holiday very special.

THE VISION | We wanted our day to be as relaxed as possible. We knew we wanted as many of our close family and friends to be there, to celebrate with us, so ended up having about 90 guests. We met our wonderful celebrant Kevin Metcalfe quite early on, and he shared our relaxed vision and spent a good few hours getting to know us, this made it all feel so personal. We didn't have a dress code (Dad, and a lot of the guests) wore shorts, and we didn't have specific places for people to sit during the ceremony. We wanted it to be an opportunity for everyone we loved to come together and have fun!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Was made so easy, because of my wonderful Mum and talented sister Rosie. Mum planned every detail, from the marquee, to the flowers, to the delicious gourmet BBQ! Pretty much everything was home made. I made the invites, Rosie made signs and bunting and various friends and family members created other details, from confetti cones to cakes! We collected 100 tea cups from charity shops, so that we could mismatch these for our Cornish cream tea and Dad made a petanque pit and croquet lawn!

THE VENUE | This is part of what made us feel so lucky. My parents own a B&B in Cornwall (which opened after the wedding) and we were lucky enough to be able to hold our wedding here. This meant that we really could make it look exactly as we wanted! We opted for a blue and white stripy marquee, which really completed the scene, and Dad built an arch for us to hold our ceremony under. We only hired one set of chairs, which acted as seats for the ceremony and the food, and Mum even made table cloths from dust sheets from B&Q! The fact that we were able to hold everything in one place helped us achieve our relaxed feel. We had croquet, giant Jenga, football, giant card games and petanque, and we managed to source haybales for free, from some wonderful locals! We even had 3 of the wonderful builders (who have become good friends to Mum and Dad over the past 2 years) offer to don dickie bows and serve prosecco!

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | I had no idea what kind of dress would suit me, other than the fact that I was pretty keen on lace. I tried dresses on in Cornwall and Brighton, and ended up finding one in Cornwall, at Amanda K bridal. Again, what made it special was the personal touches. Chris' sister Abby created a beautiful garter from offcuts of the dress and from lace of their great-grandmother's, Mum made a panel to be stitched in with our initials and date, and I chose not to wear any jewellery other than my ring. I managed to find ribbon online to act as a sash, which saved a great deal of money! (It ended up costing £2.99 instead of the £50 I had been quoted!)

FINDING THE DRESS | Didn't take long! I was lucky enough to find it when my sisters Rosie and Daisy, and my Mum were free, and we all agreed my dress was the one we were looking for. There were bits of it that needed 'tweaking,' but Alexa and her team were brilliant in accommodating these requests.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Chris knew that he didn't want to wear a suit, or a tie. He opted for some tailored navy trousers and some grey braces, with a floral bow tie. We saved money by asking the ushers and best man to wear a pair of their own grey trousers and a white shirt, then we bought them a blue bow tie and braces to contrast with Chris'. They looked so handsome all together! It meant that they stood out from the other guests, but they weren't uncomfortable, and luckily, they were cool enough as it turned out to be scorching!

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We asked our dear friend Aoife to do a reading, and she chose 'Love' by Roy Croft. She read it beautifully, even through her tears! I also asked my friend Clare to record a song, and she found a beautiful track called 'Be My Forever' by Ed Sheeran and Christina Perry. It was so upbeat and didn't have lyrics that weren't about us! To top that off, Clare managed to get Chris to sing the harmonies on the track, so when I walked out of the house with both of my parents toward him and heard the song for the first time, I was so surprised! It made it feel so special from the very beginning. We walked back down the aisle to 'This Charmin Man' by the Smiths and our first dance was 'Toothpaste kisses' by the Maccabees.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My gorgeous sisters Rosie and Daisy did us the honour of gliding down the aisle ahead of us! Rosie found a dress in 'Zara,' which fitted in with our (loose!) colour scheme. They looked totally stunning and were made even more beautiful by Chris' sister Rosie, who is a hair and make-up artist. I felt so proud!

THE FLOWERS | Were home grown by my wonderful Mum! She planted wild flowers anywhere and everywhere, and managed to salvage a few sunflowers in spite of rotten roots and slugs! We picked a selection of blue, yellow and white wild flowers to go on the tables, and had sunflowers in pots outside of the marquee. We also had lavender lining the aisle, and tied into the napkins, and it was attached to the arch where we got married. Rosie and Daisy held sweet peas and gypsophila and I had a combination of lisianthus, gyp and sweet peas, with some freesias, which is what my Nanny had in her bouquet.

THE CAKE | Was made by my Aunty Sarah. She created us a 3-tiered, 'naked' cake, with lemon and mascarpone filling and fresh fruit. She also made chocolate cheesecakes with various toppings and the guests helped themselves to this after our first dance.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | We were lucky enough to stumble across Alexa while searching for photographers that would capture special moments naturally. She was amazing value for money, and I couldn't recommend her enough! She has a real eye for beautiful shots, and managed to organise our rabble of guests, without structured timings! We felt so relaxed around her and she caught people at just the right time, resulting in shots we will treasure forever.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Were what made it so 'us.' Rosie made signs to line the road on the way to the B&B, and little touches like glass painted jars with candles for the evening made it all feel pretty magical. We collected over 100 jars and tied raffia around these once Mum had painstakingly removed some very stubborn labels! Chris' Mum hand wrote our place names, which we tied to little bottles of homemade sloe gin, which were our favours. My grandmother crocheted blankets, which lifted the colours even more. Our food was provided by Steve and Corrina at Cornwall Chef, and the guests raved about it! It was delicious! It looked exactly as we had imagined, if not better!

THE HONEYMOON | We opted for Mexico, which was beautiful! We were lucky enough to be able to choose an all inclusive resort, thanks to gifts from our incredibly generous friends and families, and had 11 days of ultimate relaxation! All of the weeks of healthy eating, leading up to the wedding were soon forgotten!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The speeches were pretty special! At the end of Dad's speech, he took us over to a granite plinth, where he had carved our initials. This made us both a bit teary! There is so much of the day that was memorable, the ceremony was so personal, there were some brilliant dance moves, and the feeling of walking down the aisle with Mum and Dad on either side, towards Chris and past so many of the faces we adore, really was what it was all about!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | We were told by other people, to stand back and take some time to look at the day unfolding. Chris and I managed to sneak a few minutes, just to watch everyone enjoying themselves, and this was such a special moment. Enjoy every moment of the planning process, it all goes so quickly and it's so easy to wish it all away!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Alexa Poppe Wedding Photography

Venue | Fig Tree B & B (not available for weddings, but they do a cracking breakfast!)

Food | Cornwall Chef (Steve and Corrina, delicious food!)

Dress | Amanda K Bridal

Marquee | Ashley Events

Celebrant | Kevin Metcalfe

So much fun and so many smiles. Just what we like to see :-)

Thanks so much Ella and Chris for sharing your wonderful wedding with us today XOXO Lou