This Norfolk bride shares her secret to keeping things personal
We had been together nearly 10 years when Joe surprised me on Valentine’s Day morning last year. He had a big card waiting for me, with the words “Will you marry me?” inside. We went straight out to pick a ring – he left me to choose, because he knows I love shopping!
Looking for a venue, we came across the Thursford Garden Pavilion purely by accident and I fell in love with it instantly. It had an amazing marquee with clear walls, a barn-style ceremony room, fantastic rides including the carousel and a hidden dance floor which opened up when our first dance music played.
When it came to picking my dress I went out twice with my mum and future mother-in-law. Second time, while wearing what I thought was going to be my choice of dress, I saw another one that was nothing like I thought I wanted, but I tried it on anyway . . . it was, of course, “the one”, and as my “something old” I wore my mum’s veil.
The bridesmaids’ dresses were all black and bought online, and our colour scheme included shades of pink, with touches of black and gold. These were echoed in the flowers, groomsmen’s suits, bridesmaids’ dresses and our wedding invitations, which we made ourselves.
I also decided to make my own wedding cake, as I have my own cake business and my standards are pretty high. I created a novelty themed cake inspired by our honeymoon destination, New York, plus I made cupcakes as a little treat for everyone to take home.
We decided to share Joe’s love of spicy food by having a curry buffet, and later served a four-tier cheese stack with crackers, chutneys and grapes.
As well as writing our own vows, we also wrote a set of promises for each other to make - mine included for Joe to promise to watch Masterchef with me and pretend to love every minute of it!
My favourite moment of the day was hearing Joe refer to me as “the wife” for the first time, and we both loved having all our friends and family together, dancing and laughing the night away - it was just the best day.
Emma and Joe recommend
Hair: Heart of Dixie, Norwich; facebook.com/heartofdixiehair
Make-up: Sacha Brooks from All Starry-eyed; www.allstarryeyed.co.uk
Flowers: Blossom and Bows Florist, Hellesdon; www.blosssomandbows.co.uk
Cake: NC Cakes; www.nccakes.co.uk
Bride’s dress: Beautiful by Enzoani- from La Belle Angele, Norwich; www.labelleangele.co.uk
Jewellery: The Wedding Party and Debenhams, both Norwich; www.theweddingparty.co.uk; www.debenhams.com
Venue: Thursford Collection; www.thursford.com
Food: Back To Your Place Caterers; www.backtoyourplace.co.uk
Photography: Tatum Reid; www.tatumreid.com
Wedding video: Potion Mixtures Productions; www.potionmixtures.co.uk
