Jess in Suzanne Neville Rosa for a relaxed, elegant Hothorpe Hall wedding

Suzanne Neville Rosa wedding dress

I ended up choosing the Suzanne Neville Rosa dress. I first tried it on during my first ever dress appointment, it was the complete opposite to what I thought I wanted but as soon as I put it on it was amazing. I was originally worried about going for a fuller skirt but I loved the shape that it gave me and although it was a full skirt it was so easy to wear and super light I felt amazing every time I put it on.

The first time I tried it on my Mum, Sister who was my maid of honour and my mother-in-law were all with me. They all said as soon as I came out they knew it was the one based of the expression on my face.

When I came for my second appointment following going to one other store just to make sure I was making the right decision it was with my Mum and Sister and they both knew the dress was me and they loved it.

Dress Shopping

Dress shopping was amazing, however working in weddings and seeing so many brides in dresses over the years I thought I knew what I would end up choosing, however as soon as Corinne started pulling dresses it changed and I knew I found the perfect dress. Also the first time I tried on my dress when it fitted correctly was amazing!

Styling

Because the dress was full I decided to go simpler on the accessories, firstly the veil I wore was actually my mums she had for her wedding over 30 years ago it matched perfectly with some flower detailing on the veil that was pretty close to the dress. For the headband Rosie was great at helping me pick a ivory and co headpiece, this was my little bit of bling that was on show and had some rose gold through it which worked really well with the colours on the day. My other jewellery I wore was a pair of Diamond tiffany earrings my parents had bought a few years ago, a bracelet from Steve which was one of the first items of jewellery he ever bought me and on the day my wedding present from him was a tiffany necklace that I wore as well. For the shoes again I went for a little sparkle in the form of my Michael Kors heels, they were the perfect height and very comfortable.

In regards to hair I knew I didn't want a real sleek look as I would be worried the whole time, so I was so happy that the dress worked perfectly with a slightly messier updo style of hair which suited me better. For my make-up again I didn't want to be worried about touching up my lipstick so we decided to go for a more dramatic eye look and keep the lips very natural.

There wasn't a theme really, we had a colour scheme which was burgundy, blush, gold and greenery which we used throughout the day flowers, cake, groomsmen, bridesmaids etc but our aim was for everyone to enjoy themselves as well as us having enough time to spend with our guests throughout the day.

The best bits

My favourite part of the day was the ceremony and we had five minutes afterwards just to ourselves which was amazing as we cod actually just talk. Other than that I would say the evening our band was amazing.