Real Bride: Afton

Afton and Nathaniel had a beautiful summer wedding in the UK at an absolutely stunning hotel! No amount of rain could dampen this stunning wedding!

Your name: Afton

Grooms name: Nathaniel

Wedding date: Saturday 10th June 2017

City, State: Preston, Lancashire

Tell us more about you!

How long have you been together?

10 years

How did he propose? (Or how did you propose!)

I have wanted to go to Canada to visit Niagara falls since I was young. I don't know why but it's just somewhere I'd always wanted to go. Finally in 2015 we organized a family holiday. With 12 of us altogether and right next to the falls, he got down on one knee and proposed. Little did I know, I was carrying the ring around in my backpack for 5 hours beforehand (he couldn't put in his jeans as you would have been able to see the box, so he hid it in my bag!)

What was your favorite part of the wedding?

Marrying my teenage sweetheart! Also, my mum and brother (my brother gave me away) had rehearsed a dance for me. I absolutely love salsa and they took weekly lessons for 3 months to dance for me in the evening. I loved it! They did so well.

What went wrong with your wedding?

Nothing went wrong. It did rain but didn’t ruin anything. Even made some cute pictures outside with umbrella. The only thing that nearly went wrong was when I was walking down the aisle and my dress knocked over a lantern with a real candle in it! Luckily my uncle picked it up quickly before it did any damage to anyone, most importantly my dress. We laughed about it because it's a typical clumsy Afton thing to do.

Did you find any tricks to save you money?

We made our own favors & incorporated table names in with them. Also a family friend made our cake for us.

If you could go back and redo it, would you change anything and what?

Absolutely nothing!

Do you have any advice for new brides?

Enjoy every moment. Don’t stress over the small things, because at the end of the day you’ll be married to your best friend and that’s all that matters.

Did you over-plan or under-plan or was it just right?

Just right.

Did any of your vendors knock your socks off?

Our venue dressers did go above and beyond. She helped out my family friend with the flowers and placing different centre pieces in place. She also gave us some half-price extra chair covers when I advised her our budget.

Did any of your vendors disappoint?

Definitely not.

What was one (or more!) special element in your wedding that isn’t in most?

We were so lucky to have so many friends & family helping out, from flower girls hair to making the cake. Saved us a lot of money too.

What do you wish you’d spent more on (whether you were able to or not)?

Honestly, nothing. Everything was just perfectly well spent.

Where do you feel like you could have saved money or overspent?

The most we spent money on was the photographer, and it was well above our budget but it was worth it. We always said we had to have decent pictures to look back on and our pictures are fantastic.