IMAGES: Kevin McEvoy, KM Studios, www.kmstudios.co.uk

About us: I am 25 and Matt is 29. Although I was born in Scotland I have called Ipswich home for the last 20 years. Matt is Suffolk born and bred. I am a  primary school teacher and Matt is a nurse at Ipswich Hospital. We got married on July 30, 2010.

The proposal: Matt proposed on March 1, 2008. He had been expecting a leap day proposal from me and when he didn’t get one decided to ask me instead. I was thrilled and said yes immediately. The proposal was followed by a brilliant day ring shopping!

The planning: We decided to set a date for 2010 as I was about to start my teacher training and Matt was still training to be a nurse. We knew we needed to concentrate on these before the big day. I loved planning the wedding and went into full ‘Monica’ mode with folders full of pictures, price lists and phone numbers.

Matt was also involved in the planning and we both had quite clear ideas about what we wanted. We decided to try to keep the budget low and used friends and family to help us create our day. We made the invitations and otder of servuces with the help of my parents and bridesmaids.

The dress:  Having a really long engagement has its positives – one of whch is lots of time looking at dresses. I went for my first look with my mum in May 2009 and despite insisting I was only looking, fell in love with a one-of-a-kind dress in Beautiful Designs, Norwich Road, Ipswich. They were incredibly helpful and suggested I went to my other appointments and came back to check on it later.

Nothing else matched the dress so we returned in the afternoon and it still took my breath away so we purchased the dress and veil there and then! So much for a summer of dress shopping!

My three bridesmaids Kate, Alice and Sue wore sage green ‘tea length’ dresses from BHS. Our hair and make-up was done by Alison, Chris and Emma at Identity, Kesgrave. Our accessories were made by a family friend and my shoes came from Faith.

The groom’s outfit: Matt always knew he wanted to wear traditional tails and was always certain he would get them from Coes of Ipswich. He went for the Cheltenham tail suit with a black jacket and grey striped trousers. He matched his cravat and waistcoat to the bridesmaids’ dresses. His best man Adrian wore a sage green cravat with ivory waistcoat. Our dads and ushers Iain and Stuart wore ivory cravats and ivory waistcoats.

The flowers: My beautiful bouquets and table centres were designed by Debbie at BOA, Ipswich. The bouquets were pink peonies with ivory and pink roses and ivory freesias. They smelt amazing. The table centres were a similar mixture with added greenery. The vases were filled with ivory pearls around the flowers to match my dress and jewellery. The church flowers were done by a family friend, Maggie Thomas.

The ceremony: Our ceremony was held at St John’s United Reformed Church on Cowper Street, Ipswich. This was the church Matt had attended since he was a small boy and he had been involved in the Boy’s Brigade at the church until his work as a nurse got in the way.

We were incredibly fortunate for the church to allow Matt’s uncle Tony French, a restired pastor, to marry us. He made our service incredibly personal to us because he knows us so well.

Our ceremony was personalised further by friends and family. Paul Benyon, a friend from Martlesham Brass, played the organ, Harry Walker (one of my friends from school) played and sang during the signing of the register, and Matt’s sister Sue Lovei and childhood friend Tom Gunson did readings.

The rings: We both chose simple white gold bands from H Samuels in Ipswich.

The reception: We held our reception at Ufford Park. We were really impressed by the size of the room they were able to offer us and the stunning views of the countryside. We invited everyone to the church and to the meal as it was important to us to have everyone we love with us all day. We were welcomed at Ufford Park with a refreshing glass of Pimms and had time to chat to friends and family, a lot of who had travelled from all corners of the country.

The catering: Ufford Park provided all the food and did a brilliant job of feeding 115. We started with a choice of pate or a selection of melon, followed by salmon with a chive sauce, roast chicken or a Mediterannean vegetable tart, finished off with lemon tart or sticky toffee pudding-  delicious.

The cake: Our cake was made by a family friend Gill Hindmarsh. It was a traditional three-tier fruit cake covered with white flowers and trimmed with sage green ribbon. She also made a ginger cake for those who didn’t like fruit cake and gingerbread men – large ones to go in the children’s activitiy bags and mini ones to be served with coffee. She had brilliant and creative ideas.

The entertainment: Sarah Cutting of Cutting Discos did a disco in the evening. A few weeks before the weddings we sat with all the bridal party and came-up with a list of our favourite songs to dance to. People were dancing all night long. One of the guests’ favourite things was our sweetie bar. We picked all our favourite sweets and instead of favours gave the guests paper bags and they were able to pick ‘n’ mix all evening.

The photography: Kevin McEvoy from KM Studios. We met a lot of wedding photographers but felt instantly comfortable with Kevin, which we thought was important. He took stunning pictures of our day and captured the feeling of it perfectly. A lot of our photos include us laughing which sims the day up perfectly.

Kevin designed a beautiful story book of the day which we show everyone when they visit our house.

Most memorable moment: There were so many memorable moments of the day. My favourite memories are seeing Matt’s face as I walked down the aisle and walking out of the church as husband and wife.

The honeymoon: We had a perfect two weeks on the island of Thassos, Greece, booked through Thomson. It was fantastic to completely relax on the beach after a busy two years of wedding planning.

Plans for the future: We are looking forward to a wonderful life together and will take each day as it comes. Life’s too short not to have fun.