Good evening! Today’s real bride is Mindy – isn’t she gorgeous?!
I found Mindy through the wonderful Natalie of L.O.V.E Bouquets who created Mindy’s gorgeous arrangement. They had such personal details from having their son as the ring bearer to going back to their home town to celebrate at their local community centre which they decorated themselves.
“We met down the beach of my home town back in 2001. It was a nightly & weekend thing that the boys would turn up in their cars & would park up in a line on the grass & have a talk & a laugh & a kick around with a football. We started flirting by playing football & play fighting – I was always giving him dead arms.
One night after a few drinks down the beach, we kissed & it just blossomed from there.
After a year of being together & I had just finished college I fell pregnant with our son, Bowen. It was then that we got engaged & I have been wanting to get married ever since. But affording to was the main reason why we didn’t till now. Bowen is now 9!! We booked the date last year & the date we picked was basically our 11th year anniversary of being together, which we thought was perfect.
“We didn’t want the traditional church wedding so we got married in The Town Hall in Colchester, Essex. The room we exchanged vows in was called The Moot Hall & it was massive but had lots of character. I was nervous about walking in but with the hall being so big it didn’t look or feel like there were 130 guests waiting for me. Lol. It went perfectly AND we didn’t cry! Lol! I was half expecting my husband too.
Our son was in charge of my ring (my husband can’t have one due to an accident several years ago where he crushed his wedding ring finger) and he made us both so proud that day. Firstly for walking in first with our oldest flower girl (his cousin) and then coming up in front of everyone to hand over the ring.
“After the ceremony & photos were taken there we went back to our home town, Brightlingsea, for the reception at our local Community Centre. We decorated the hall over two days before and had transformed it completely. It looked amazing (I loved it anyway!).
The food was a hog roast, with salads, coleslaw & potatoes, then a finger buffet come out later in the evening. We also had a big adult bouncy castle for the children (& adults too of course!)
“When searching for my wedding dress I knew I wanted one with no straps so I could show as much as I could of my tattoos. Even though I knew a few people would frown upon them but I didn’t care. If I’m honest it made me want to get the out even more!
Two of my tattoos I had because I just loved them. First one was down my right hand side, from my hip, onto my ribs then carried it onto my shoulder. There is the letter B also on my shoulder which is our son’s initial. Then I’ve got 4 roses on my left shoulder but have decided to have it extended to make it into a nearly half sleeve. & one on my left wrist which has my husband’s name incorporated into it (I’ve had that done a couple of years now).
“The most recent one is on my right wrist which is our wedding date in roman numerals. My husband also had the exact same one but on his left wrist. He chose to have it on this wrist as it’s his wedding one & as he hasn’t been able to have a ring thought it was more appropriate.
“Our whole day come in around £6000 and the catering took £2000 of that. I just wanted to mention it to show it can be done cheaply & still be the day that you have been dreaming of & waiting for!! It doesn’t have to be a 20k plus wedding to be your perfect day!!
It’s now been nearly 5 weeks since we got wed! To be fair not a lot has changed as we have done everything backwards so to speak! Lol! But it all feels more complete knowing that we all have the same surname after all these years of waiting.”
Wow, doesn’t Mindy look beautiful?! Do leave her some love and be sure to check out the photos from their day!
Photography Credit: True Reflections Photography
