All this week I’m sharing snippets from my wedding with tips and advice for planning, finding suppliers, setting up and creating a day you’ll remember forever.

After 12 months of hard work, stress and many (many) wedding meetings, when the whole thing was over there was nothing Rob and I wanted to do more than… well, nothing. Nothing at all.

Luckily, just a few days after the wedding we headed off to Santorini. A place where doing nothing is not only possible but highly enjoyable.

Oh, Santorini. You are so beautiful.

We spent a couple of days in London (watching Les Mis, eating steak at Hawksmoor) before flying from Gatwick to Thira. From there we travelled to Oia where we spent 5 days eating, drinking and snoozing in the sun.

We stayed in Theodora Suites in Oia – self catering cave apartments that are carved into the mountainside, with the most stunning views across the Caldera and of Santorini’s famous sunsets.

Our apartment was beyond perfect – we had a small terrace with sunloungers and a private hot tub, with a direct view of the sunset every evening. Our host brought us breakfast each morning and a glass of wine as the sun dipped below the horizon each night – amazing.

One thing that really struck me about Santorini was how beautiful the buildings are. Every single structure – whether an ancient church or a shop selling postcards – is spectacular. White-washed curves, intricate carvings and pops of colour everywhere, blending seamlessly with the endless blue sky.

Oia is a small town on the tip of Santorini island. Everything has been built into the mountain, and it’s a steep climb up stone steps from the port at the bottom. Our apartment was about halfway up, but those steps were an absolute killer in 30 degree heat!

Of course, the climb is entirely worth it when you discover the winding streets and hidden nooks of Oia. Cute and quirky shops sat on every corner, mixed with friendly bars and the most delicious restaurants.

Our days were spent discovering hidden doorways and climbing up to castles, admiring the view while eating Greek salad and drinking white wine. And our nights…

It was quite hard to pull ourselves out of that hot tub, but Oia has so many gorgeous restaurants – dinner was my favourite part of every day. The food was fresh and delicious, the wine was always flowing and the streets were buzzing with such a great atmosphere.

Spot the dog…

Santorini is such a glorious place, we never felt the need to stray too far. For us the honeymoon was all about relaxing and having some time to ourselves after the wedding. Despite being popular with honeymooners, Santorini doesn’t feel touristy at all and has just the right mix of the familiar and the exotic. It is a gorgeous, gorgeous place I hope to visit again and again.

Take us back!

All this week I’ve been writing about my wedding – catch up with all the posts below:

The Ceremony
Hair, Makeup and Outfits
The Reception
Flowers and Food
The Evening

As the light started to fade and the formalities were done and dusted, our wedding guests let down their hair and geared up for a night of partying. The Hendrick’s was in full flow, the fairy lights twinkled and I kicked off my Louboutins on the dance floor. Here’s what we got up to after 6pm…

After the speeches in the marquee, we spilled out to enjoy the early evening sun and were treated to a fantastic performance by string quartet group, The Abraxas Ensemble. Like most things at our wedding, there’s a lovely story behind our discovery of Abraxas – back in February Rob and I spent a weekend in London with his parents and sister Jen. We were wandering around Covent Garden and stopped to watch a performance which was attracting a lot of attention. It was Abraxas, soaring through popular songs in a string quartet style and dancing around their instruments. We all adored the fun, quirky style and mix of classical and modern music, so Rob’s mum chased down their manager and a week later we had them booked.

They were absolutely brilliant on the day – they played us through the food then moved outside to get us all roused up and kicking a chorus line on the grass. Excellent people.

Rob’s dad Mike is the groundsman of the cricket club our wedding was held at, and he keeps the place spotless. The immaculate field was a perfect setting for outdoor games – my mum brought Giant Jenga and we hired croquet from Add Vintage.

Mike and the boys worked so hard the day before the wedding, cleaning the cricket dug-outs and setting up fire pits for people to gather round when the sun had set. The final effect was so striking – the roaring fires and twinkling lights cast a gorgeous glow across the whole wedding. And the deck chairs we hired from Add Vintage made perfect sitting spots for people to enjoy our evening food – a massive hog roast. Yum.

One of the absolute best bits of the wedding was the photo booth. Last Christmas, my girls and I went to Papa Christmas where there was a photo booth run by Booth Revolution. We were in and out all night, having an absolute blast wearing silly hats and pulling even sillier faces. The day after I booked one for the wedding and it had the same effect on our wedding guests!

We choose a Classic Booth and went for the Wedding Package which included the most beautiful leather book with all our photos and personalised messages from our guests. Rob and I looked through the book the day after the wedding, sitting in the sunshine outside the cricket pavilion while our beautiful friends and family cleared up around us. It was one of my favourite moments and the book is something we’ll treasure forever. Despite the handwriting getting more and more illegible as the evening went on!

As the night drew in, we moved a few tables outside the marquee to make way for dancing and a performance from The Daze, our wedding band. We’ve known these guys for a long time so it was great to have familiar faces celebrating with us, and they played a range of 50s and 60s rock and roll covers that everyone busted a move to. There was even time for a guest appearance from Rob’s band and a drum solo from the man himself.

Here I’ve got to mention our superhero photographer, Phil Drinkwater. Phil arrived at 9am and left at 10pm, working like an absolute trooper every second in between. He captured every perfect moment, every special glance and every raw emotion. He was funny, warm, so friendly and fitted seamlessly into our day. The photos speak for themselves (we hear they’re the best wedding photos ever), but on a personal level too, Phil comes highly recommended by me and Rob. A talent and a gentleman to boot.

Our evening celebrations ended with a DJ, plenty of pop and some very loud screaming to Limp Bizkit. We drank £250 whiskey and walked back to Monk Fryston Hall at 3am, me dragging my bouquet behind me.

Words can’t ever express the magic of our wedding day – I’m sure every single bride feels the same. The 12 months of planning – which we couldn’t have even attempted without Team Wedding and our beautiful friends – just made the day sweeter, as all our hard, hard work paid off a million times over.

It was truly the best day of my life (and I’ve heard, many other people’s!) and one Rob and I will never forget. Thank you to all who helped, who contributed, who came and enjoyed. We love you.

There’s one more post for Wedding Week – on Sunday, I’ll round things off with some Honeymoon snaps. 
All photography by Phil Drinkwater.