Today's real wedding is the tale of how Laura and Jaime made their fairytale wedding come true in a dreamy country house just down the road from where they met, all the way back in secondary school. For the couple, who now live in London, it was important to return to their home place to celebrate in high style with all their closest family and friends for a full weekend. Theirs is a story of enduring love, through all the growing pains from teenage romance to grown up city life. Their gorgeous wedding is the kind of wedding so many of us dream of. Enjoy their country house floral fantasy come true at Iscoyd Park courtesy of Lisa Webb Photography.

Laura and Jaime's love story stretches back to when the two were teens in school. They caught each other's eye in the most romantic of places, as Laura told us "Jaime was two years older than me and I always thought he was so cool. We got to know each other because we were on the same school bus with friends in common. We eventually had a couple of dates to the cinema, before Jay left to go to University in Leeds. Jay spent most weekends driving up and down from Leeds to North Wales to visit me. I then went to University in Liverpool, and despite living separate lives, having separate groups of friends and enduring the difficulties long-distance relationships can bring, we always came back to each other. After University we moved to London, where we've now lived for almost seven years."

Being together so long, it was inevitable that talk among friends and family about the couple tying the knot, but the couple weren't in any rush. "We had always talked about getting married. Jay endured many years of family and friends asking him when he was going to pop the question, but I always knew Jay would do it in his own time," Laura told us.  "One weekend Jay was being very secretive. We had a trip home planned, and Jay had secretly booked a visit to a wedding venue that we had been looking at together for a while. What I didn’t know was that Jay had secretly designed a ring with a designer in New York and it was being shipped to the UK. But in the meantime the Ring had got stuck in customs and the import charges meant that the cost of the ring almost doubled. He had told my Mum everything before confessing the story to me. When he told me, I burst out in a fit of laughter, it was so typical."

The next day Jay took me to Iscoyd Park, from the moment we turned the corner into the entrance I knew this was where we would finally get married. We spent the train journey back to London looking at all the pictures we had taken, and we were so giddy. The next day whilst chatting about our weekend, Jay asked me if I wanted to get married in Iscoyd Park, I said “Yes, I do I really do” and he said, “Let's book it”. It was so impulsive, but we just knew that it was right, and we knew we didn’t want to wait any longer to book it.

But what of the ring you might ask? Did it make it through customs in the end? Well Jaime made alternative arrangements without Laura's knowledge... "The next few weeks we spent booking all our suppliers just the two of us without anyone else knowing about our plans. A few weeks later, I woke in a terrible mood after working a difficult shift in work the day before. Jay asked me to reach for “something” in the drawer at the top of the wardrobe. I pulled out a ring box, and I jumped up and down on the bed, Jay asked me to open the box and when I opened it, it was empty. When I looked up to Jay he was laughing, and he reached behind his pillow and there it was, the most beautiful diamond ring. Jay officially asked me to be his wife and he placed the long-awaited ring on my finger. That day it was Bonfire Night, we spent the evening watching the fireworks on Battersea bridge with a bottle of champagne. Life couldn’t have been better."

So it was that the following summer, Jaime and Laura's family and friends gathered in the picturesque St. Mary's Church, just 5 minutes drive from Iscoyd Park.  "We both always knew that we wanted a church wedding. The Church ceremony was so important to us." Laura explained, "St Mary's Church which is a small white church set in the most beautiful countryside. Veronica the vicar, is warm kind and friendly and is the type of person that everyone stops and listens to when she talks. Saying our vows, listening to the readings read by our siblings, and hearing the music played by our string quartet is something that we will always remember as being the most magical part of the day."

It's the little details that make each wedding personal. Laura had a reminder of a very special person with her throughout the day as she recalled... "The Pearl brooch that was pinned onto my bouquet passed down to me from my great grandmother (Nain we called her) was a very personal and special touch. She died a couple of years ago at the grand old age of 107. She was a very important part of my childhood and will forever be the heart of our family. I felt that she was definitely with us on the day, especially during the ceremony. Whilst saying our vows the rain was bouncing outside, as soon as we were announced as Mr and Mrs Welch a ray of sunshine shone outside as we faced the door and the rain suddenly stopped, and the sun then shone for the rest of the day. This was definitely my Nain watching over us."

After the ceremony, it was off to the grounds of gorgeous Iscoyd Park for the celebration the couple had spent months planning in minute detail. Iscoyd Park is a stunning venue, Laura explained what convinced the couple to choose it straightaway without visiting any other venues. "The day we went to visit Iscoyd was a rainy day in September, when we walked through the front door, the beautifully grand hallway was lit with candles. It smelt heavenly and was so warm and inviting. Every room was so grand yet cleverly decorated so it felt cosy and personal. I instantly imagined myself standing in a white dress at the top of the stairs, and knew this was our venue. We loved that the house could sleep most of our family.  To us it was really important to make the wedding a weekend of celebrations with our family and friends and Iscoyd was just the place for this."

Finding the perfect venue is important, but lifting your wedding beyond the ordinary to something personal and beautiful takes creativity and effort. For Laura and Jaime the focus of decor was firmly on one element according to Laura "Flowers were one of the key parts of the whole day. We wanted to bring the outside in, so decided to go with a botanical, relaxed and country garden feel. With our florist Chloe, we discussed the flowers and she instantly understood the look we were aiming for. We chose plenty of soft green foliage, including our favourite; eucalyptus along with soft green ruscus and olive. We added hints of mixed blush David Austin Roses and touches of pink gypsophilia. The main feature in our reception was the most incredibly large suspended feature. Chloe outdid herself. It was more than we could have wished for.?

Jaime and Laura also spent a lot of time and effort on the stationery for the wedding. They handmade the tablenames which incorporated their "much loved city of London into the big day" as Laura explained, and they also worked on the wedding invites, ceremony booklet, welcome sign, place name cards themselves adding a special personal touch.

And family and friends were also very kind and helpful in arranging the decor. Jaime and Laura are really grateful for their help "We spent lots of late nights with our friends and family days and weeks leading up to the wedding making and baking which looking back now added to the magic of the wedding as it was more than just that one day. Our wedding cake was lovingly made by my best friend and her mum. I’d say I was a part of the baking but that would be lying. They stayed up very late two nights before the wedding to perfect the cake, and there were so many comments of how delicious it was."

Spending time with family was an essential part of the day and Laura and Jaime are especially close to the children in the family "Our nieces and nephews are and will always be the most important little people in our lives. We had little lunch boxes made for all the children after the ceremony whilst the guests filled up on champagne and canapes. My nephew was the star waiter and delivered slices of pizza from the pizza van to very merry guest on the dance floor. My two year old niece danced away with us on the dance floor all night, and we were even joined by her 6 week old sister."

"The most important thing to us was to make sure that we had time to spend with each other, and with our guests. We really didn’t want to be taken away for hours, but our photographer and videographer really got our vibe and we were able to spend our day with our family and friends. This was particularly important as some of our special friends had travelled from the other side of the world to be with us on our special day"

So having made their own dream wedding come true, what advice do Laura and Jaime have to share? "Make sure you get to know your suppliers; its really important the the people following you around all day have the same understanding as you do as a couple. Our photographer and staff at Iscoyd felt more like family than strangers. Try to get to know them and make sure you “click”. "

The couple had a second day, though the weather wasn't kind they thoroughly enjoyed having more time with closest family and friends. The couple were then able to escape away for a honeymoon and wind down after the high excitement of the wedding. They chose one of the most beautiful Balearic Islands for a quiet and relaxing break, which they Laura highly recommends: "We had a five night trip to Palma, Mallorca. We stayed in a beautiful hotel in the middle of Palma Old Town with a rooftop pool. We drank way too much sangria, and ate way too much tapas. A perfect way to start married life."

 Massive congratulations and thanks to Laura and Jaime for sharing all the details of their beautiful wedding day with us all. It was a real treat to be transported to a summer wedding, you could almost smell those flowers! And of course a huge thank you to Lisa Webb for sharing her beautiful photographs.