It's with such delight that we share another one of our beautiful real weddings with you. In 2020, only a small handful of our brides have been able to get married, and each one has been a beacon of love, light and happiness through this difficult year. Michelle and Charles' wedding is one of these weddings; the beautiful photography, and words from Michelle remind us of what weddings are all about, and the cherished moments that make them so special and important.

After changing their plans multiple times, Michelle and Charles were finally married earlier in the Autumn, with a romantic church ceremony followed by an intimate, private dinner. As Michelle tells us; "we planned about 4 weddings in total, it was an absolute emotional rollercoaster (I know every 2020 bride went through it) ... but ultimately our day became intensely magical, intimate and perfect because every element was filtered, purified and I guess....it was whittled down to the essentials of family and love!"

Read on for more of Tie the Knot Films wonderful images of the day, and some words about the planning process in Michelle's own words.

Jesus Peiro 166 wedding dress

I fell in love with so many Jesus Peiro dresses; mine was style 166.

My mum and bridesmaids came with me to my initial fitting where I fell in love with several. In truth, I was never really sure which was my favourite or indeed if any were ' THE ONE'.

The nation was days away from our first lock down where shops would close and I may have lost my chance to choose a dress which could be made in time / custom fit to me. Emma, gave me a (much needed) nudge towards 166, I trusted her professional judgement and experience as I am totally HOPELESS at making decisions and took a leap of faith. I never really knew if I had made the right decision in the lead up to my day, but with Covid threatening us left right and centre with cancellations/ postponements etc etc, it really was the least of my worries!

When the day came, I utterly, deeply fell in love with my dress. Emma could not have been MORE right, in that this dress was me through and through and I couldn't have been happier with it. I felt like I fell in love with the dress more and more as the day went on! So thank you Emma.

Dress Shopping

My favourite part of the dress shopping experience was browsing the beautiful collection. I honestly felt like I could have considered 80% of the shop.

Rosie, Emma (in fact the whole team) felt like a support network of friends that we could reach out to at any point. This year has been an absolute explosion of stress for the wedding industry, brides/ couples and I feel blessed to have had such an amazing experience with a company that frankly took the situation in their stride and nailing it along the way. I took comfort in reading all of the blog updates, being a part of the FB group created for Miss Bush Brides and generally being kept up to date with all of the plans/ changes/ procedures that came along with the strange climate.

Styling

I kept things quite simple (I am not very adventurous or fashionable or girly even... ) I had a beautiful large flower print veil ..... single tier .... and a pair of simple closed toe low heel shoes from John Lewis!

A beautiful, intimate wedding in Surrey

I am totally useless with styling, creativity etc; I went with the flow, I didn't even really have a colour scheme. I found providers that I liked and trusted them for guidance. Mad Lillies were AMAZING. Thank god for Alison. I feel like a few conversations with her is what actually pulled my wedding together as she prompted me with various elements of the day I would not have otherwise sorted.

Our day was formed off the back of the many changes we had to go through due to Covid. We planned about 4 weddings in total, it was an absolute emotional rollercoaster (I know every 2020 bride went through it) but ultimately our day became intensely magical, intimate and perfect because every element was filtered, purified and I guess... it was whittled down to the essentials of family and love!

The best bits

My favourite part of the day was emerging from the church, and feeling the BIGGEST weight lift from my shoulders, we had done it. I married my best friend and now, nothing else mattered. More importantly, I had done the important part, I did not need to maintain this pristine, immaculate white look... and I could relax. Charles ripped my veil out by mistake ruining my hair.. drinks were spilt, trips were made into the mud and it did not matter!

Along with this, one my favourite parts was actually the couples photo shoot, my sister as maid of honour joined us.. and we just had such fun. It was dusk, my lips were blue from the cold... but we carried on dancing, laughing, running and head sniffing (Charles did a really good job to endure such a process so far from his natural being.. if you knew him - you would be proud) LOL.

Michelle's Advice

I guess what is relevant to me is to talk about is the decision to just do it, and marry regardless of the Covid circumstances (within reason of course if it is allowed.) So many friends said to me, in fact including my sister.. 'are you sure? You might regret this? Not walking down the aisle in front of all of your friends, or having the dancing and partying with everybody.' It seemed Charles and I were the only ones that actually wanted to do it no matter what, and that was all that mattered. It was a decision we made with huge anxiety and certainly not lightly, but once the decision was made, it gave us a focus and a part of certainty that we could hold on to.

At about 4pm on the day, I thought to myself... THANK GOD I don't have to stay up until midnight partying (the 10pm curfew was still in place,) I was absolutely exhausted! Emotionally drained and had not slept the night before of course.

We made our wedding as full as can be, doing everything we wanted but just on a smaller scale. It was everything I dreamed of and more, despite the fact it was worlds away from any original plan we had envisaged. My advice would be to just do it, but do it exactly how you dreamt of doing it, even if there is only 6 people in the wings. We had friends supporting from their cars, the graveyard... over YouTube live play... and it was magical.

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