You'll have to forgive me if I completely lose the run of myself while gushing about today's real wedding, because the bride and groom, Hattie and Brendan, are close friends of mine, and I was actually lucky enough to attend their sensationally chic celebration at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London! This means that I can say, with complete confidence, that this was a gasp-out-loud kind of wedding (my other half will tell you that I did a lot of this over the course of the day!) Between the next-level bridal style, the epic florals, the sweet DIY details, and the magical setting, Hattie and Brendan's Kew Gardens wedding is a joy from start to finish. And thanks to the lovely Mark Bothwell Photography, I get to share it with you today!

Personally, I feel like Hattie's bridal look is best described as a contemporary Audrey Hepburn fantasy! She paired her Valentini Spose wedding dress, featuring colourful floral embroidery, with Castañer heels, a second-hand veil, a Dolecka hair vine and vintage jewellery. And yes, I did cry when I saw her (it was the veil and hair vine combo that tipped me over the edge!)

This ceremony set-up proves that you can never have too many flowers!

Irish groom Brendan tells us that he met British bride Hattie when they were both attending the Oxford School of Drama. "I was doing the one-year postgrad course, and Hattie was starting the second year of the three-year degree course. We noticed each other during our first week (Hattie even tried to make a joke about a bin) before we drunkenly kissed on the Saturday night at the end of the first week of term, at a friend’s birthday party in The Grand Cafe in Oxford. During that first encounter, I announced to one of my classmates outside the cafe that I was in love with Hattie, and the rest is history."

Thankfully, Brendan managed to stop himself from proposing right then and there, but, some years later, he decided on a low-key engagement at home. "I proposed with a beautiful ring which belonged to my great aunt," he tells us. "I had cooked us a meal and got down on one knee to surprise Hattie after she had popped upstairs."

Their engagement sounds so lovely, but, as Brendan explains, it wasn't without its stressful moments! "Before I proposed, I met with Hattie’s dad to get his blessing and he was delighted with the news. However, this led to a farcical series of events in which I thought Hattie had been accidentally cc’d into a email about the surprise proposal from her Dad to her Mum (she, in fact, had not!) I spent the best part of three weeks acting very weirdly around her, trying to suss out why she hadn’t mentioned it!"

If you look this chuffed on your wedding day, you married the right person!

The couple list their priorities for the day as, "venue, music, dress, personalisation, creating a relaxed and fun atmosphere for our guests, and a big bar allowance!" I think this nicely sums up why I'm pals with these guys!

The drinks reception was held in one of the greenhouses at Kew, and soundtracked by a swing band, and it was every bit as dreamy as it sounds!

Hattie tells us that the couple started their venue search by creating an inspiration board on Pinterest. "There were a few recurring pictures of the same beautiful-looking venue, which turned out to be images from Kew Gardens. We loved the idea of a place that was already beautiful, to minimise time, energy and costs around adornments. I grew up in a house with a big garden with the parish church across the road, which I’d always half-thought would be the place I got married, but my parents moved away from that family home in 2013. As getting married in a garden went, Kew seemed a pretty good second choice!"

The couple describe their wedding as "elegant but/and fun! We wanted lots of personalisation as we knew we were slotting into the well-oiled machine of Wedding Events at Kew Gardens, where they have quite a strict protocol and timeline for the day. We wanted to stop it being too ‘cookie-cutter’ and inject our day with our own creativity, chances to relax and have fun for the guests, and personal touches from us as a couple. We really leant into the garden theme with lots of beautiful flowers, foliage and even indoor trees, as well as Hattie’s wedding dress being covered with embroidered flowers."

One of the many personal touches the couple brought to the day was a unique take on the traditional ceremony booklet. "The Order of Service was a newspaper we had created," Brendan explains. "It included ‘The Story So Far’ with a timeline of our relationship, ‘Meet the Parents’ with photos from our parents weddings, a comic strip of the proposal story, and a double page spread of quizzes and games we made (personalised pencil included!) to ward off boredom before the bride arrived!"

Brendan and Hattie celebrated their love of Dad jokes with a pun-themed table plan! Guests were invited to find the punch line to find their table, highlighted by illustrations by the groom.

Hattie's advice for engaged couples is to get organised and book your venue and suppliers quickly. "Everything is fun after that, rather than a scramble." She also has a few Don'ts to share with brides and grooms-to-be. "Don’t agonise over too many different vendors," she says. "We picked from Kew’s supplier list and they were great, and they also knew the venue logistics, which turned out to be very important. No vendors will be absolutely perfect, all of them will be good enough. Don’t feel obliged to have millions of bridesmaids. I had none - two close friends were my unofficial bridesmaids in the run up and on the day. And don’t try a dress or suit that’s out of your price range! It's heartbreaking stuff."

After the wedding, Hattie and Brendan jetted off to Italy for a relaxing minimoon. "We spent a week at Il Salviatino in the outskirts of Florence. It was very lovely and we would highly recommend it, although there were quite a lot of children there, so if you're looking for an adult-only place, this might not suit."

I know I'm biased, but is this not one of the most beautiful weddings you've ever seen!? We have to say an enormous thank you to Hattie and Brendan for sharing their gorgeous day with us, and to Mark Bothwell for providing the incredible imagery! You'll find lots more photos from the wedding in the gallery below.