An Essex Wedding - Nov/Dec 2019 (Issue 89)

Having access to the venue for three days was great, giving us plenty of time to plan the day down to the smallest touches. It felt like a real team effort, with our loved ones kindly helping us to set up and take down again afterwards. We wanted to break from tradition and have an outdoor festival feel, which was more suited to us. We were inspired by images of boho weddings and built our day around that. We visited Browning Bros’ Teybrook Orchard venue, with the idea that we’d view other settings afterwards – but we didn’t! The site had a large clearing with a marquee and a small glade where we had our ceremony. We loved that it was self-contained and our friends and family could camp. M addy and Ally found love after swiping right. “We started chatting on Tinder,” Maddy tells us. “Although he continues to deny it, Ally pretended that the app stopped working so he asked for my number.” Very smooth! Two weeks later, they met at Zizzi to sample Ally’s favourite pizza together. “He later told me that he planned it so that if the date didn’t go well, at least he had his favourite meal,” Maddy laughs. She wasn’t sure whether he’d had as good a time as her, but something tells us he did as it wasn’t long before he was planning to pop the question. Ally hatched a plan to propose while they were on a family holiday in Walt Disney World in Florida. “His parents watched our daughter, Niamh, while we went for a walk,” Maddy remembers. “He flagged down a photographer and gave me a coin to throw into a wishing well. When I turned back, he was on one knee!” What followed was a tropical downpour and a soggy run back to the car – but not everything can be perfect, hey? Back at home, the pair started planning their big day for 25 th May, 2019. Maddy fills us in on the details… I went to a Grace Loves Lace clearance day in London with my cousin. I managed to get a beautiful bohemian-style dress at a great price, which meant there was enough left in the budget for a sparkly evening number. I teamed it with a bespoke crown and some custom Vans with painted scenes from Disney World on them – including of Ally proposing with Mickey Mouse ears on! 56