Jess and Craig met on a night out. “We shared common interests and quickly became inseparable,” says Jess. “I felt comfortable with Craig straight away. Our relationship has always been based on laughter, and we encourage each other to be the best version of ourselves.” Craig popped the question in 2019. “He proposed overlooking Machu Picchu in Peru,” shares the bride. “I had no idea that he was planning to ask me. We had just arrived at the top of the mountain, and as we posed for a picture, I turned around to see him down on one knee. It was the most overwhelming moment, and I couldn’t help but cry tears of joy. I was so impressed that he managed to carry an engagement ring in his luggage for 10 days, through three airports and multiple cities and hotels, and I had absolutely no idea. He created the ring box by hand, with the letters J and C engraved on the top. I had previously mentioned that I wanted our engagement to be a complete surprise rather than on a predictable date, and Craig definitely took that on board. It was truly magical.” Here the bride shares some of her favourite moments from their big day... We’d never been to Craig y Nos Castle before, but as soon as we mentioned we were wedding planning, many of our friends and family suggested it. When we walked into the theatre, we looked at each other and knew it was the perfect venue. We recently returned to participate in a ghost tour, which was fantastic. There really is nowhere like it, and all our guests agreed that it suited us so well. We are both obsessed with the derelict parts of the castle, so the opportunity to have some photos there made us very happy. Karen from Poppies Florist worked closely with us to make our vision come to life. I requested an enormous, dramatic shower bouquet with Gothic dark roses, and she really did deliver. Craig’s buttonhole used the same dark rose with a thistle and fern. The bridesmaids’ versions contained a large single white rose, as did the ushers’ buttonholes. We kept our favours simple and chose a miniature bottle of Jägermeister with an engraved wooden heart wrapped around it. We also placed some personalised sweets on the tables as a little treat. For our card box, we sourced vintage suitcases, and Craig created a letter-box in one of them so that our guests could post their cards. This design worked well and tied in very nicely with the overall travel theme of the wedding. The centrepieces were beautiful candelabras provided by Craig y Nos Castle. Craig made the wooden base to support each of these to give it a more rustic feel. Craig was a bit of a groomzilla with the tablecloths and insisted that they were black, so we hired these from Emma Hall Designs, and they looked fabulous! Our cake was fairly traditional-looking, with a travel twist. It was a four-tier white iced design, with one tier containing a world map. Our cake maker, Bella Cakes, decorated it using ivy which tied it in with the centrepieces and flowers. 42
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