Hayley and James Barkham were married at Hook Church followed by a reception at the Sotherton Arms in Hook.

Photographer
J Clitheroe Photography. Jackie and Andrew already felt like part of the family as they had photographed two family weddings before ours, and our son Ben. We felt so relaxed and at ease with them. Their shots are always beautiful and natural, which is exactly what I wanted for my wedding day. Everyone felt so comfortable with them and I am so happy they were part of our special day.

Where did you meet
A mutual friend introduced us in our local. We were surprised that we had never met before as we had the same friends and I was a friend of his sister. I had no idea they were even siblings as I chatted away to her that I was going to see this really lovely guy, which turned to be her brother. I had even met his parents without bumping into him.

What attracted you to him
He has a big lovely smile and laugh that is so infectious. Once I got talking to him I realised what a lovely person he is and we quickly became inseparable. We have a lot of fun and laugh together.

Where did he propose
He proposed in our house on my birthday. It was actually a bit of a disaster. He had made me a cup of tea and brought it through, but the lightbulb had gone. He wouldn’t give me the tea and made me go to him, but because the lightbulb had gone I couldn’t see that in the cup was a box with an engagement ring in it.

The dress
I wore a vintage dress, I don’t know the name of the designer, but I knew as soon as I tried it on it was the one.

He wore
We hired his suit from a local shop, Creations. We hired the same suit for the best man and miniature versions for our pageboys.

Bridesmaids
I had my younger sisters, niece and cousin as bridesmaids and they looked adorable in beautiful dresses from Monsoon. My sister who is 13 had a different dress, so she could feel a bit more grown up, from It’s All About The Dress in Hedon.

Flowers
The flowers were absolutely beautiful. The younger bridesmaids each carried a small bunch of sweet peas which smelt lovely. The eldest bridemaid had a smaller version of my bouquet which was full of peonies, hydrangeas and roses, exactly what I wanted. Amy who has a home run business, Posies by Amy, made me feel at ease throughout the whole process and I trusted her completely.

Transport
We travelled in style in a very elegant Bentley. We got to ride around town sipping champagne. I have to say this was one of the highlights of my day. It was one of the very fewmoments I got to be alone with my new husband and take in the fact we had just got married.

Table decor and favours
Angela from Let’s Celebrate, another local company, organised all of my table decor and chair covers and did a fantastic job, I didn’t have to worry about a single detail on the morning of my wedding knowing it had all been taken care of and would look lovely.

Honeymoon
We had a short honeymoon in the Lake District and took our son Ben, a very relaxing week and we can’t wait to go back.