Tom and Annabel's Wedding in Oldwalls, Swansea

Tom is considerably less organised than I am so suits and rings were more of a challenge for him. I left him responsible for his own parts of the wedding. He went untraditional with a blue suit jacket from M&S (which was an impulse buy a few days before the wedding!) with a beautiful bow tie and braces. His ring was bought on Etsy, made by a company called BoardThing, out of recycled cardboard.

We didn't have a specific theme. We just picked colours that we liked and in general it was the more colour the better. I gave this same brief to our florist and they did an incredible job on our floral moon gate. It was bursting with beautiful pastels and was exactly what I wanted without even knowing it.

Our cake was vegan, like we are, by Vic's Vegan Bakes. We met Vic many years ago when my husband started his vegan burger business and Vic's cakes have always been the best. She made us a 2 layer cake with gorgeous dried flowers. The top layer was chocolate and hazelnut, the bottom layer was a vanilla and raspberry. This may sound a bit strange, but we didn't cut the cake for our guests. We cut it for the photos, and then we divided amongst our immediate family. The cake was too good to share!

During this time planning, COVID-19 hit the UK like a tonne of bricks and we went into various lockdowns. We tried to stay positive throughout, but as the day drew closer, we were losing confidence. We made the decision only a few weeks before that we would go ahead regardless of restrictions. Fortunately at this point, things were easing up as vaccinations were increasing. Unfortunately in Wales, things didn't become restriction free in time for our wedding day but outdoor restrictions had lifted. We prayed for good weather, but the forecast wasn't looking good with the yellow warning of thunderstorms.

Everyone will tell you that the lead up to a wedding will be a stressful, and they're not wrong. We hit a few bumps in the road with guests dropping out due to COVID isolation requests and some other issues with the venue. I tried not to let them get to me, handled them as best as I could and moved on!

People will also tell you that the day of your wedding will fly by. And it does. I barely slept the night before, woke up early for preparations, and before I knew it, I was taking the tiara out of my hair and hopping in the shower before going to bed with my new husband.

Being a woman as independent as I am and trying to bring down the patriarchy, I walked myself down the aisle (my dad didn't mind or care for that matter) and I kicked off the speeches. It was the perfect opportunity to thank our guests and convey my feelings towards Tom without interruption. We had a sweetheart table during the wedding breakfast for just the 2 of us. It was so nice to spend time just the 2 of us and watch our guests enjoy themselves.

The entire day was amazing. Some small bits didn't quite go as I expected but I didn't care. It was all about us, our love and we were so happy. That's what I remember. Being surrounded by our loved ones, celebrating our love.

Some pieces of advice I would give to future couples based on my experience:

- Hire yourself an excellent candid and natural photographer. Our photographer, Andrew Keher, was brilliant. He was barely noticeable amongst our guests but captured so many beautiful moments throughout the day. The candid shots are always the best ones.

- If you're unsure about a videographer, do it. We were unsure about booking one but after watching home videos of ourselves in the 90s, we bit the bullet and hired one. Fleur De Lys Films, like our photographer, captured so many beautiful and candid moments. Our wedding video has made many of our guests cry.

- Venue with lakes or by water? Bug spray! My one and only regret was not being prepared with bug repellant.

- Concentrate on yourselves and have the most incredible day. It's about the 2 of you and you won't even notice anyone else.