Emma & Matt

We got married at Ufton Court, it's just outside of Reading and it's a beautiful location. It has everything you could possibly want with a manor house and a selection of barns! It's also a not-for-profit which means all proceeds from the weddings go to supporting residential trips for local school children. So it's a beautiful venue that also does good.

We wanted the day to be bold, colourful and fun for our guests. I wore a red dress and our florals were gorgeous bright jewel tones - we also mixed a lot of geometric shapes and gold in to the day as my husband is an engineer. It ended up being a super-hot day in October and we were serving mulled cider! A lot of the decor we made ourselves and we put effort in to small personal touches, such as polaroid placenames for all our guests featuring photos of us and them.

We were originally thinking of getting a ceilidh because I'm half Scottish, but we then went to two of our friend's weddings with live bands and we were completely sold! They were so much fun and it really got people up on the dance floor, so from that point we started looking for a live band.

Our ceremony was really special, we'd got legally married earlier on in the year, but saying our vows again in front of our friends and family was really meaningful. We also never got to have a first dance, so that was a really special moment for us as well. The whole day was a dream really, it was amazing seeing all the individual parts come together - it was magic.

One of our friends had used Function Central to book their band and it was also a recommended supplier from our venue. We found it really easy to use and loved how we could search for types of bands and the location too.

Focus on what will matter to you on the day, what do you want to be the wow moments. For example, some people don't bother about the cake - but I bake for my friends all the time, so having an epic cake that was bespoke to us really mattered to me. We also didn't want any waste at our wedding, so we ditched things like wedding favours and everyone got a personalised polaroid placename instead. We found it helpful to have a few words to describe the vibe of the wedding too, it was helpful when speaking to suppliers.