Real Wedding

Real Wedding

Secret Garden: Allana & Daniel

Allana and Daniel met through mutual friends, they began talking on a night out which led to their first date to the cinema and the rest is history. Allana tells us about Daniel's romantic proposal "it was my birthday; Dan had planned to take me to London to watch Legally Blonde. He had been acting strangely and I had actually began to get worried something was wrong, now I find out that it was because he was preparing himself to go and ask my dad before we left and was extremely nervous!

I was getting ready in my dressing room to leave for London and running late as usual! Dan came into the room, at that same time I remembered it was bin day and asked if he had put the bins out. He replied no and walked back out to go and put them out quickly! Little did I know that he'd spent an hour building himself to come in and ask me and I had scuppered his plans and he had to go and work himself back up to it again.

He eventually walked back in the room and handed me a Lovelinks bag and sat down on the sofa next to me. Asking why he was giving me presents now, he casually replied 'just couldn't wait to give you this one' so I opened it still none the wiser, to reveal a diamond ring charm. At which point he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. First words were 'are you being serious' followed by complete tears of joy and excitement. Oh and I did eventually answer the question and say yes.

The reason for the charm was Dan felt he wanted us to pick a ring together and also he bought me a Pandora bracelet which had followed our life together. He bought me a car when we got our first car together, house for our house, and 2 dogs when we got them so for me it has very sentimental meaning."

The Theme

"The theme for the wedding was secret country garden, I love roses and really wanted a classic theme with a contemporary twist. Our colour scheme was purple which was really classic and striking. We got married at St Michaels Church in Macceslfield and the reception was at the picturesque Heaton House. The setting on the day was perfect, there was a mixture of roses, pearls and soft diamante details; it looked amazing. St Michaels church is sentimental to Dan and his family, his parents married there and both him and his sister were christened there."

The Brides Outfit

"My dress was a Maggie Sottero dress, from Maria Modes Bridalwear in Macclesfield, I love her style and I tried 3 on all of them Maggie Sottero. The one I fell in love with was a sample dress and was a size 18; my dress was a 6! It was pinned onto me so I had an idea of how it would look, when my mum and sister shed a tear I knew it was the one! I wanted Christian Louboutin shoes, but budget wouldn't allow. However I picked up some absolutely gorgeous ones from Schuh they were perfect and just what I was looking for with gorgeous diamante detail on the heels and they were really comfy too. I had been given two sixpences, one from my father in law and one from our close friend Sue Flower on my hen weekend, I decided to glue them to my wedding shoes, one heads up, one tails up for good luck, it must have worked!"

The Entertainment

"We were lucky enough to have a family friend who was the executive chef for a supplier to our venue. Andy was great he asked us to name all the things we liked to eat and from this created a menu with 3 different options. We decided on antipasti sharing starter with selection of meats, melon, olives, oak smoked salmon and prawns, which was an amazing selection and a fabulous starter and helped initiate conversations around the tables. For main we decided on slow roasted English sirloin of beef, potato & celeriac dauphinoise with green beans and shallots.

Dessert went down a storm as we decided on a trio of white chocolate and Malteaser cheesecake, Blackpool rock ice cream and raspberry and champagne jelly. We got our cake from Cherry Blossom Bakery, choosing our cake was a hard decision, but we went with chocolate sponge with a nutella centre for our bottom tier, a lemon sponge with a lemon curd centre for the middle, and a vanilla sponge with a jam centre for the top tier. It was classic 3 tier with roses and ribbon."

The First Dance

"We decided not to choreograph the first dance, Dan was already really nervous about dancing so we decided just to make it up as we went along. We chose Courteeners 'Rule the World', as we had seen them in concert together and we loved the song! On the night the dance just flowed so I'm glad we didn't put pressure on ourselves to learn a routine. Our entertainment for the evening was supplied by Superfreak. They were amazing and got everyone up and dancing, there was a fantastic atmosphere and they played a range of songs in their set from 70s to present."

"The most memorable part of the day was the overwhelming emotion and excitement of being stood at the top of the aisle before I walked down. It felt like a dream, I turned to my bridesmaids and said ‘are we ready team', I laugh now as I have no idea why I came out with that. I had expected for the emotion to get the better of me as I walked down the aisle but instead I boasted the biggest Cheshire Cat smile as I walked towards Dan. Also my Dads speech, he is quite a shy person and had opted to get his speech out of the way before the meal. But he spoke with such confidence and humour and it was such a beautiful speech I will never forget it, I was so proud!"

The Location	St Michaels Church & Heaton House
The Budget	£20,500
No. of guests	85 to the day & 150 to the evening
The Honeymoon	2 weeks in Cancun, Mexico

All images courtesy of tracyellisphotography.co.uk

Ideal Bride Magazine brings you real brides, real weddings & real stories. Delving into every detail of our featured brides weddings. So if your a past, present or future bride and are interested in featuring your wedding and would like more information, get in contact at tracy@idealbridemagazine.co.uk

1st June 2012