Ella and Alex got married in the spring at the Secret Garden in Kent, where they had a day filled with floral patterns, pastel shades (as well as fresh vibrant colours). The overall feel to their wedding is just pure romance. And by the powers of DIY, they achieved this beautiful day for £10K.

They didn’t really have a theme, the theme was just ‘them’ and the way they wanted to do things. “We had pastels and bright colours, flowers, books and cats”, said the bride. “Nothing matched but everything worked together. The way things should be. We started looking at venues early on – it felt to me that once we had the venue, everything else would work around that. There was a beautiful one just around the corner from us. It was really lovely, but wasn’t quite us, it felt just a little too formal. We just wanted somewhere to have a party with our friends and family.”

“I found the Secret Garden online, and it looked perfect, so I booked in to see it in the August. One weekend, I was down in Brighton visiting my cousin when I found out that the husband of a friend of mine had sadly passed away. He had just turned 32 and they had only been married for three months. I instantly felt like I needed to do something positive and happy, so we drove to the Secret Garden – it just felt like the right time to view it (even if our appointment wasn’t for another couple of weeks). I don’t think I’ll ever forget how I felt when we arrived. I knew from that second that this was where I was going to marry my best friend. It was perfect. Beyond perfect. Its Glass House, where we had our ceremony, was like a tropical paradise, and it was only small but had such character; it was different from anything else I’d ever seen.”

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