So Shani and Dan got married at St James Church and The Cotswolds House Hotel in Chipping Campden. I didn’t meet Shani or Dan in person before the wedding as they were so far away but I knew from our Skype call that it was going to be an epic wedding day, not just because Shani and Dan had organised such a wonderful day for all of their guests but because they are such lovely warm fun loving people and guess what?! I was right. It was absolutely perfect, such a relaxed and fun feel to the day, everyone was having the best time and the setting was beautiful, it felt like we were in some gardens in Italys countryside.

I also had the pleasure of working alongside a fantastic team for the day including Ben from Tynegate Films, Richard , The Gloucestershire Magician and my awesome second shooter Siobhan McGill of MgGill Sister Films.

I’m going to let Shani and Dan tell you all about it in their own words.

Thanks for having us Shani and Dan. Lots of love xxxxx

Shani and Dan’s Story

We met at high school and fell for each other whilst in the process of failing A-Level Biology. We were both so terrible at the subject that the teacher sat us together and from that moment on, we didn’t get very much work done! We then completed our A-Levels, took a gap year and travelled to Asia and went on to study Business Management together at University - we really were inseparable!. We graduated with our degrees a few years later, somehow ended up gaining three crazy dogs in that time and continued to do some more travelling, our favourite being a road trip across America. We've now been together for almost ten years and live in the quiet Cotswold town of Chipping Campden, where we got married.

Getting Engaged

Dan took me to Paris for my 21st Birthday and proposed on the Champ De Mars, it was magic! When we returned our family threw us an amazing surprise engagement party. We were quite young when we first got engaged and we decided that we would get married a 'couple' of years later. This somehow turned into a 5 year engagement! So the wedding day was very special for us as we had been planning for it for a long time.

Shani’s favourite thing about Dan is how kind and selfless he is, always helping other people and looking after her in particular! Shani also love how passionate he is about his hobbies.

Dan’s favourite thing about Shani is her smile and how driven she is in everything she does. Nothing phases her and she's such a strong woman.

St James Church and The Cotswold House Hotel in Chipping Campden.

We got married at St James Church in Chipping Campden, which is close to our hearts from our childhood. We had our reception at The Cotswold House Hotel in Chipping Campden. The most important thing for us was for our guests to have a great day. We were so lucky with the beautiful weather that we were able to have our wedding reception outside in the gardens. There were moments throughout the day when we both stood together and looked around at everyone, it was such a lovely feeling watching people enjoying themselves, with the the kids running around the garden, the magician shocking everyone with his entertainment, people tucking into their food and lots of free flowing drinks! Overall there was a really lovely feel to the day and we are so happy with how it all turned out.

The Wedding Dress.

I wore an English Rose Bridal dress from The Bridal Room Broadway. The ladies in the shop were so amazing helping to choose my dream dress and the whole experience was so wonderful, they really made me feel special.

https://www.thebridalroombroadway.co.uk/

A Shout Out to Our Wedding Suppliers.

My mum did my hair for the wedding day, I knew I didn't want anyone else to do it! She's the most wonderful hairdresser and it was so special for me that she was the one helping me to get ready in the morning. She did an amazing job, even though she was so nervous!

Christine Cara was my makeup artist, she was so much fun to be with throughout all of the trials leading up to the wedding day. I chose Christine because of how amazing other people had told me her work was, she didn't disappoint at all! She made me feel confident and helped me to create the look I wanted, even when I couldn't articulate it very well myself!

http://www.christinecaramakeup.com/

Our flowers were by Charlotte Gabb, we chose Charlotte because of her wealth of experience and knowledge of the church. Charlotte was brilliant and we were so happy with the beautiful arrangements.

We had The Gloucestershire Magician, Richard Parsons for our wedding reception entertainment. He was absolutely amazing! Our guests are still talking about how they can't believe the tricks he did. We are still talking about it too! Richard helped us to create that fun, relaxed feeling that we wanted to achieve on the day.

http://www.gloucestershiremagician.co.uk/

Sally Potter made our wedding cake. Sally has been making my birthday cakes since I was 4 years old, so it was really special for me that she did our wedding cake.

Our wedding stationary was made by Cherry Press. We chose Cherry Press because they are a local business who create traditional letterpress stationary the good old fashioned way!

http://www.cherrypress.co.uk/

Ben Tynegate was our videographer. We chose Ben because my sister showed us some of his work and we fell completely in love with it. We knew that his cinematic films were what we wanted to capture our day. We now can't stop watching them and will treasure our beautiful films forever.

https://tynegate-films.com/

We chose Katie Dervin as our wedding photographer as she was recommended by a friend. From the moment we saw Katie's photos we knew we didn't want anyone else to capture the wedding. The lighting and the way they are edited are so beautiful and we wish we could frame all of them and have them all displayed in our house!! Katie was so lovely on the day too, helping us to feel so relaxed and at ease in front of the camera.

We tried to keep the wedding and the decor low key and not too over the top but still with a classic, pretty feel to it. We had lots of fairy lights and candles everywhere to create a nice warm glow, but the venue spoke for itself so we didn't have to bring in too many other decorations.

We put a lot of effort into personalised touches throughout the day, for instance, we made all of the centre pieces ourselves, our wedding guest book and our polaroid timeline and it was so rewarding to see how it all came together beautifully on the day.

We wanted to have a really relaxed day so we chose to have a BBQ instead of a traditional three-course meal, which worked really well. For music throughout the day we made a playlist of our favourite songs growing up together and then we had a DJ in the evening for everyone to dance the night away to!

Shani and Dan’s Stag and Hen Do:

Dan went to Amsterdam for his stag do, he was amazed that he survived the weekend! It consisted of beer, beer tours and more beer. He loved it there and hopes to one day go back to enjoy the city a bit more sober!

I was truly spoiled as a hen, having three wonderful hen do's! The first was a bottomless brunch with all of my lovely girls. The second was a trip to the beautiful Greek island of Mykonos with my bridesmaids. The third was organised by my lovely mum, who got all of the ladies in my family together for a weekend in London and a party boat on the river Thames.

There isn't anything we would do differently really.

The only minor thing is I wish I had kept my veil on for longer! I took it off as it was getting caught on the floor but wish I had kept it on all day!

What would your advice be to couples planning their wedding day?

Enjoy it, it really is so much fun! Don't get too bogged down in the detail and lost in small stuff that doesn't truly matter, try to be well organised in advance and that way you can enjoy it as a couple.