Our real bride feature today focusses on the lovely Sophie, who married Adam at Cowley Manor country house in The Cotswolds. Taking place at the end of September, the day was a glorious explosion of colour, with contemporary styling, tons of beautiful flowers and thoughtful personal details.

Sophie wore Suzanne Neville's Hailey wedding dress, which she fell in love with online before even seeing it in person! The only issue was that Sophie also really wanted to wear a dress with chic puff sleeves; we made this a reality, adding delicate silk organza sleeves to her Hailey dress, matching the soft, billowing skirt.

Sophie styled her dress with romantic tumbling curls, which she enhanced throughout the day with a variety of accessories; a veil for the ceremony, adorable hair bow for the reception and a glittering headband for the evening party.

Read on for the full gallery of images and to find out more about Sophie's dress and wedding in her own words.

Suzanne Neville Hailey wedding dress with custom sleeves

It really was my dream dress. Before coming to Miss Bush I'd been on the hunt for a gorgeous simple square necked dress. The only issue was that the Hailey didn't have sleeves and being a huge puffy sleeve fan I really wanted to see if this could be an option. When I started my appointment with Ben at Miss Bush I told him that the Hailey really was a dream of mine and expressed my love for a puffy sleeve. He totally got my vision and once in the Hailey he started adjusting and applying different sleeve types to the dress. After a few different options, it all fell into place when he brought out a silk organza sleeve which was the exact same material as the skirt....IT WAS PERFECT and from then just knew this was the dress I had to get married in!!

I brought my mum, my stepmum and my Nani to the appointment with me - I'd been sharing pictures of the Hailey with my mum since I got engaged so we were both so excited when I put it on. We both knew as soon as i was in it. Everyone knew this was the dress for me

Dress Shopping

OMG I'd heard from friends at how amazing the experience was but I really didn't think it would be as good as it was. I loved that you had the option to take a look at dresses online first so when you get to the chapel these are already pulled, it can be quite overwhelming when there are so many choices. My stylist Ben was just incredible and suggested I try on lots of different styles to really know whether the Hailey was the one. As you know it was and Ben really brought my vision to life with the addition of the sleeves - I felt so relaxed compared to other bridal stores and just knew that I had to be a bush bride.

Ben and then Jo who did all the fittings were amazing. I absolutely loved every moment and to be honest I'm really sad its all over and I don't get to do it again.

Styling

Jo at Miss Bush recommended the most perfect veil, a simple veil which complimented the dress perfectly. I then wore a beautiful pair of sequence diamond earrings which my best friend loaned me from the Jeweller she works for Fernando Jorge - they were beautiful timeless/modern earrings. I was pretty upset when I had to give them back. Accessories were a big part for me and after our photos, I switched into a gigi & olive hair bow for the wedding breakfast - it was the perfect girly modern twist. Finally I changed into a crystal headband from etsy which was a Jennifer Behr Dupe.

As you can tell my focus was more on hair accessories, so I simply went for Valentino/Barbie pink kitten heels from New Look - they were a steal and added a great pop of colour.

A colourful Cowley Manor wedding

Our day was just amazing, we wanted a traditional setting but with a massive pop of colour. We went bright and bold with our flowers, a mixture of pinks, corals, lilacs and they truly were amazing. We had exclusive use of Cowley Manor and loved getting ready with my mum and best friends in the house, drinking champagne on the terrace and blasting out whitney houston. The ceremony was perfect, some fab singing of the hymns and then we surprised our guests with two opera singers who sang my favourite song 'the prayer'. After we headed back to Cowley Manor and the celebrations really did kick off, the champagne reception was great, our guest enjoyed playing crazy golf, taking in the grounds, jigging to tri-tones the jazz band and then as one of our favours we had an amazing illustrator who drew all of our guests.

For the wedding breakfast, we headed into our marquee and kicked straight off with the speeches, they were all incredible and the room was filled with laughter. My three bridesmaids were our MCs and they ran the smoothest operation and got everyone ready to party. In between main course and dessert, the opera singers kicked back in and sung an amazing 20 minute party set, including Queen, dean martin to Disney classics. Everyone was up, dancing and having the best time.

Then we kicked into the evening where we had an incredible 9 piece showband, we danced the night away and the party went on until late. Adam and I are both party people and we just had the best time dancing the night away with our friends and family.

The best bits

Apart from of course marrying my best friend, seeing all our favourite people in one room having the best time. The dancefloor was pretty wild!

That 5 minute drive down to the church with my dad was pretty lovely too, joking and trying to breathe.

Sophie's Advice

You have to go to Miss Bush, there is never any pressure but they really are the best in the buisness, their advice and vision was just incredible.

Also if you know that dress if your dress, just go for it. There is no need to stress yourself by shopping around loads. Also make sure you only have people who make you smile and laugh throughout the journey, be selfish and invite who you want!

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