My Chief Bridesmaid Wagged Her Tail And…

But this is a wedding with a difference: the adorable springer spaniel Tess - Emma's 'chief bridesmaid' and clearly a character loved by everyone there. I can't help grinning every time I scan through the photos as Tess goes from happy excitement to flopping lazily onto her side in the middle of the aisle for the beautiful church service.

Emma has written a lovely wedding report and I'll leave you to enjoy that along with the photos by Tino and Pip - which I love.

Emma and Will's Sussex marquee wedding: part 1

"It was everything we had ever dreamed of. We wanted a really special magical day, but wanted our guests to feel relaxed. We had all the usual wedding formalities, but the day just had such an easy “flow” about it, which is what we really wanted. My day started very early as I barely slept the night before. My mom and I had a lovely morning with the hairdresser and make up artist and before we knew it Penny had arrived and it was time to get into my dress.

Will started his day with a cut throat shave with his best man and ush­ers fol­lowed by a Full Eng­lish before head­ing to the church.

The men all had their suits from Moss Bros; it was easy to use a national shop as the boys were based far and wide across the coun­try. Will gave his best man and ush­ers a hip flask which he filled with sloe gin to get rid of pre-wedding nerves!

My wed­ding dress was Lan­dis by Sot­tero & Midg­ley, from Pro­pos­als in Chich­ester. Really fan­tas­tic wed­ding dress bou­tique, fan­tas­tic staff and a really warm and wel­com­ing atmos­phere. The best dress shop I vis­ited (and there were many!)

The dress had quite a bit of detail­ing at the top so my acces­sories were kept to a min­i­mum. I wore a pearl neck­lace my fiancé had given to me a cou­ple of years before (my some­thing old) and he gave me the match­ing bracelet on the morn­ing of the wed­ding. I wore some sim­ple pearl and dia­mond ear­rings and I had some faux pearl and dia­mante slides in my hair to set the whole thing off. My shoes were by Gina (I had always wanted Gina shoes for my wed­ding day) and I got them in the Har­rods sale before I had even cho­sen my dress!

My brides­maids and dad then arrived to take me to the church – I was absolutely ter­ri­fied! I was clutch­ing my dad’s hand very tightly as we walked down the aisle, partly because I was so ner­vous and partly because I couldn’t see any­thing! I had the veil over my face and going from the bright sun­shine out­side into the church meant it was dif­fi­cult to see. My brides­maids walked behind me (chief brides­maid was my “sis­ter” Tess, the beau­ti­ful Eng­lish Springer Spaniel you will see in the pho­tos, and she stood on my veil she was so keen to get down the aisle!

The ser­vice was really really spe­cial, the vicar had taken a lot of time to get to know us before the day and his ser­mon was really per­sonal. It was a won­der­ful ser­vice, all the for­mal­ity you need for a church wed­ding, but relaxed and full of laughs at the same time.

We left the church to bell ring­ing and the sound of a heli­copter over­head – my step dad (who works with heli­copters) had arranged for us to be col­lected, flown over the south coast and to land in style at our recep­tion venue.…. ”

.… and you’ll have to pop back tomor­row for part two!

Emma and Will’s rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers

Sta­tionery – My mum’s friend had just set up her own wed­ding sta­tionery busi­ness and she did all of the sta­tionery for us. The invites were beau­ti­ful and unusual and all of the sta­tionery just helped our day come together, start­ing with the Save the Date cards and end­ing with the Thank you cards, we couldn’t have hoped for any­thing bet­ter. Kate’s web­site will be up and run­ning soon (eggseven.com) but in the mean­time can be con­tacted on 07731 467448 (Kate Rees).

The Real Flower Com­pany – they pro­vided really beau­ti­ful flow­ers which helped cre­ate our vision for the day. www.realflowers.co.uk

Choocy­woc­cy­doo­dah – Along with hav­ing Gina shoes, hav­ing a Choc­cy­woccy cake was the one thing I had always dreamed of. It def­i­nitely lived up to expec­ta­tions! www.choccywoccydoodah.com

Embassy – Our band were superb. In fact they were so good that 2 of our friends have since booked them for their wed­dings next year! We booked them through Like it Live Music http://www.likeitlivemusic.com/bands-view.asp?band=6.

Tino & Pip – of course! They cap­tured the essence of our day with beau­ti­ful styl­ish and emo­tional pho­tos. www.tinoandpip.co.uk

More from Tino and Pip for any­one who can’t wait for tomor­row! Emma and Will’s Sus­sex wed­ding (full blog post) and Tino & Pip on Pin­ter­est too!