Real life bride Q+A | ASHLEY

Ashley + Joel | 05.05.2018

Today we’re talking to Ashley, as one of the last in their friendship group to get married they wanted to do something a little different…..Cue a caricaturist, a magician and a live band. Ashley and Joel’s stunning wedding was all kinds of grown up fun, as well as being utterly beautiful! Read more about it below…

Team ES | Tell us about your proposal?

Ashley | Joel proposed to me on my 30^th birthday in Brighton. The plan was to do it on the beach but he was worried he’d drop the ring and lose it in the sand! So he did it in our hotel room over looking the beach instead.

Team ES | Did you pick up any tips during the planning stage?

Ashley | Pinterest was my best friend during the planning. I don’t know how people plan a wedding without it! Such amazing ideas and tips to help you along the way.

Ellie Sanderson real life bride

Team ES | What was your wedding dress experience like?

Ashley | I fell in love with my dress instantly! I only tried on 3-4 all of which were in Ellie’s Beaconsfield store. I felt so special. Myself and my Mum had the whole shop to ourselves. As soon as I found MY dress I knew and didn’t want to take it off.

Team ES | How did you choose ‘the one’?

Ashley | I’m not a big shopper so knew I wouldn’t enjoy spending hours and hours trying on endless dresses in lots of stores. I guess I was lucky that I found my dress in the first shop I went in. The service you get while you are there really helps.

Ellie Sanderson real life bride

Team ES | What did you love most about your dress?

Ashley | That I could make it my own.

Team ES | Your third ring, was there a special story/sentiment behind this?

Ashley | The gold ring with the black stones is my Nan’s. My Dad’s Mum is very poorly and we knew she wouldn’t make it to the wedding as daily life is a struggle for her, let along travelling to Tetbury and attending a wedding. She gave me the ring to wear as my something old, I think it was actually my great Nans but Nan couldn’t remember as she has dementia bless her. She just wanted me to have something of hers as she couldn’t be there. The third platinum ring is my eternity ring, we have a little boy who we found out we were having the day after our engagement party!

Team ES | Where did you get your wedding inspiration from?

Ashley | All pinterest! Couldn’t have done it without it.

Ellie Sanderson real life bride

Team ES | Did you follow a theme for your wedding?

Ashley | Pink and gold was the main theme. There was also a lot of homemade touches. Joel’s Dad Keith made the signs, card box and flip flop box. All seen on pinterest again.

Team ES | Love your bridesmaids dresses, was it hard to find one everyone liked?

Ashley | They were all very good actually, I loved the idea of having a top and skirt and they just went along with it. I was lucky they all loved it too. I was nervous about having so many bridesmaids and not finding a dress that suited them all, I guess it was just luck that they all looked amazing in it!

Team ES | Did you walk down the aisle to a particular song?

Ashley | It was an instrumental version of Christina Perri A Thousand Years.

Ellie Sanderson real life bride

Team ES | What was your first dance song and did you practice your dance or wing it?

Ashley | We had lessons for our first dance, nothing flashy, we just wanted to do something a little bit different. We both really enjoyed it, we even had a little lift in there! Only a few people knew about the lessons so was a surprise for most of the guests. We had our band sing ‘You’ve got the love’ by Florence and the Machine.

Team ES | It looked like you had such a fun day, we spied a magician, caricaturist and live music – how did you choose these?

Ashley | We are one of the last couples to get married in our friendship groups so we wanted to do something a bit different, that’s where the caricaturist came in! We love the photobooth photos we have from other weddings and wanted our guests to have something to take home to remind them of our day! He was amazing. We had him for 4 hours and there was a queue the whole time. Our magician was brilliant, everyone still talks about him now. We found him and our singer for the day at the wedding fayre for the venue.

Ellie Sanderson real life bride

Team ES | Most memorable moment of the day?

Ashley | I remember sitting at the table at dinner and looking out at the guests thinking we know all of these faces and they are here to share our day with us. Such an incredible feeling. Also for me, it was seeing Joel waiting at the end of the aisle for me. I couldn’t stop smiling.

Team ES | Did you follow the something old, new, borrowed, blue tradition?

Ashley | Something old was my Nan’s ring, something borrowed was my best friends veil and something blue was a blue heart sewn into my dress from my Grampy’s sock! Sounds funny but I asked my Nan for something blue of my Gramps and all she could find was a pair of golfing socks. He died when I was 16, he was my favourite person in the world so I needed something of his with me on the day. Something new was a pair of diamond earrings that my aunty and godmother bought for me especially for the wedding.

Team ES | Tips for brides to be, what one thing would you recommend?

Ashley | Keep a spreadsheet with everything wedding related on it. Keeping everything in one place and being able to keep track of it all was brilliant and so easy. We knew how much we had spent to the penny, when people were owed final payments, the guest list, table plan, song requests etc etc.

Team ES | What are you both up to now, did you go on honeymoon?

Ashley | We went on a cruise as our honeymoon at the end of May. 10 days visiting Greek islands and a couple of places in Italy. It was amazing. Slightly different choice for 30 somethings but because we had Harry with us it was important that he was catered for too.