It seems we have a little seaside theme going on here today. Oh I do like to be beside the sea.

Sally and Matt were married on the 21 ^st June 2014 and decided to hold their reception in a quaint village hall in beautiful Devon. With a budget of £6,000 they decided to get crafty and they DIY'd much of their gorgeous décor. From the amazing sign-age by Matt, to the cake baked by Sally the night before the wedding and the bunting and pom poms.

Matt donned an amazing bright blue suit while Sally had her lovely dress custom made. I adore the coral Peony bouquet and the transport, which belongs to the couple themselves. Amazing.

Thanks so very much to Nova Wedding Photography for sharing these wonderful photographs.

THE PROPOSAL | We met through a love of Volkswagens and we were camping at a local VW festival when I decided it would be a really memorable place to get engaged so I suggested we go for a walk down to the lake. It was a beautiful moonlight evening what could be more perfect so I asked Matt to marry me, he looked devastated, not quite the reaction I was hoping for. It turned out Matt had had a gorgeous Justin Duance engagement ring made for me months ago but had been waiting for the right moment to ask. Determined to do it properly the next night Matt got down on one knee and asked me, obviously I said yes! We loved the Justin Duance rings so much that he made our wedding rings, they had oak inlaid in them which came from a tree in the field we got engaged in.

THE VISION | We have two young boys who on the wedding day were going to be 3 years and the other 11 months, we knew we wanted them to be really involved in the day and with most of our friends also having children we decided quite early on that we wanted an informal relaxed day where the children could run around and have fun and parents didn't have to worry.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Three months after getting engaged we found out we were having a baby so that put the wedding planning on hold for a year. Then when I was on maternity leave I stupidly thought I would have loads of time for wedding planning so we decided to book it. We knew that our chosen venue, photographer and band were our three must haves so we found a date they could all do and went with it, Mid Summers Day. That gave us nine months to plan the whole thing so the internet, excel and Pinterest soon became our best friends. Wedding blogs and Pinterest are amazing for inspiration.

BUDGET | We were determined not to spend a fortune on one day when we have the rest of our lives to think about so we set a budget of £6,000. We did find it quite challenging as there is so much you can spend money on for a wedding and you can't help but want it to all be perfect. Thankfully we have lovely family and friends who worked really hard which made such a difference to keeping us within budget.

THE VENUE | We found Salem Chapel, a chapel owned by the Historic Chapels Trust by chance, we had only just got engaged when they had an art exhibition. We popped in to look at the work of local artists and for the tea and cake, we both knew straight away that this was the place we wanted to get married. It had a lovely rustic feel which completely suited us. Because we were on a tight budget we decided to go to our local village hall after the ceremony, it was perfect as it has a large lawn and play area for children.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | I really wanted some hand crafted jewellery and after searching various shops and craft fairs (turns out I am quite hard to please) I found some earrings in Polka Dot Gallery in Exeter, they were simple silver drop earrings made by Hannah Bedford.

FINDING THE DRESS | My mother had been a dressmaker working from home when we were children and I will always remember her making ball gowns and wedding dresses for customers, so there was no doubt who was going to make my dress. We did go dress shopping as it is all part of the fun of being the bride and it helped me to decide what type of dress I wanted.

My dress was made from James Hare smooth silk Dupion, it had a sweetheart neckline and strapless boned corset bodice with a pleated overlay and low V back. The dress had an A line skirt that flowed round into a long train, with 50 buttons down the back. I absolutely loved the fabric and even now 3 months later it is still hung up in our bedroom because I just enjoy looking at it, Matt is starting to drop hints that it might be time to pack it away!

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Matt had said right from the moment we got engaged that he wanted to wear a brown Paul Smith suit on our wedding day, sadly our budget didn't quite stretch that far. We searched for months for a cheaper brown suit but luckily didn't find one as the suit he eventually settled on looked stunning. We were in Moss Bros looking at suits for our brothers when Matt spotted a pastel blue 3 piece suit on a mannequin in their bespoke range. It was definitely meant to be as it came off the mannequin and fitted Matt perfectly, it was then that the colour theme for our wedding was set.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | When I met Matt he introduced me to The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, their music will always remind me of our first trips away together in our VW T4 so it had to be them for our music. Our friend Leanne read a passage from Captain Correlli's Mandolin.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I searched and searched for bridesmaids dresses. I knew they had to be high street as we only had a budget of £100 each. I think my mum had over 10 different dresses delivered to her house and my bridesmaids Emma and Becky came over and we spent a night trying them all. They thankfully both loved my favourite one an Almari Floral Dress for £65, which left enough money for shoes as well.

THE FLOWERS | We wanted the table centres to be really informal so we decided on jam jars, we collected some old large Kilner jars but to keep the cost down the rest were ordinary jam jars collected by our families which myself and bridesmaid Becky painted with chalk paint. We were really keen to do the flowers ourselves so we found a local company that sell to trade and public, Peamore Floral. I took in my scrapbook and they gave me some excellent help and advice. We looked through all my pictures making a list of flowers for the various heights and colours and I then put together a selection to fit our budget, Roses, Zinnia, Sunflowers, Gerbera, Lisianthus and Gypsophila.

My mum spent the night before the wedding filling all the jars, which actually took a surprisingly long time to do. She also made up my peony bouquet, my absolute favourite flower, it was so simple but looked stunning.

The ladies at the chapel decorated it for us with flowers they picked from the roadside and this really suited the rustic feel of the chapel and everyone commented on how lovely they were, absolute proof that you don't have to spend a fortune.

THE CAKE | We had lots of cake! We hosted 'The Great Budleigh Bake Off' and invited our family and friends to contribute a cake, everyone was really kind and we had so many. For our wedding cake I had always planned to make a Victoria sponge but left it so late I was up doing it at 11pm the night before the wedding, my bridesmaids thought I was mad but it was the one thing that actually made me feel really calm. I filled it with strawberries and buttercream on the morning of the wedding and Matt had painted some little wooden people as our family to go on top.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | We had originally thought we would have a marquee reception so one Sunday I dragged Matt to a wedding show to find marquee suppliers, we are so glad we went as we met Katherine and Steve of Nova Wedding Photography and instantly loved them. Their photographic style was exactly what we were looking for and they were so friendly. In the lead up to the wedding Katherine was so helpful with all the planning even giving names of other wedding suppliers from caterers to make-up artists. Neither of us particularly like having our photo taken but Katherine and Steve made us feel so relaxed on the day it was like we had known them for years.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Wedding invites, not really a wedding day detail but I have to mention our invites, we loved them. Matt designed the invites and then we had them laser etched onto ply and we made Lino stamps to print 'Please Join Us' on the other side. I also decided to hand make all the envelopes, absolute madness and I'm sure at this point Matt feared that I could turn into Bridezilla. I bought some rolls of wrapping paper from Paperchase made a template then cut and stuck 50 envelopes!

Because our reception was in a village hall we knew that we would have to work hard to make it look special. Although our budget was tight the hall hire was cheap so it left us money to spend on decorations. Once we had decided on a look and the colours it all came together quite easily, with the help of Pinterest of course.

We wanted the hall to feel a bit more cosy and to distract from the ceiling tiles so we used bunting and pom poms. Traditionally bunting would be made of any scraps of material you have but I am a little too obsessive for that, so I took my book of flower colours to the fabric shop and picked fabrics that would match. I made, with the help of Matt's mum, 40 metres to go around the hall. I had recently done a pom pom making workshop at a local shop called INC and loved how easy they are to do and the effect they achieved so I ordered large packs of tissue paper through ebay and got making with my bridesmaids.

The village hall hire included the use of tables, chairs and crockery but we hired our own in to get the look we wanted. We used Virginia's Vintage hire for rustic chairs and bought disposable table cloth rolls to cover the hall tables to save a bit of money, we also bought some hessian and made table runners. To save a bit of money on crockery hire and to make it a bit more fun for the children we bought colourful plastic plates, cutlery and high chairs from IKEA.

Matt is a sign maker so there was no shortage of signs at our wedding. Some were vintage signs collected over the years from various sources, we had a large saw that Matt picked up from an auction, he painted our names on it with white gloss and then distressed it. He made others for the food and drink areas and one for our DIY photo booth. He also made little oak logs that had our table names on.

For our wedding favours we made crochet flower brooches for the women and gave the men stick on moustaches, the children had packs with crayons, colouring pads and polystyrene aeroplanes. Setting up the hall was really good fun and I loved how friends and family all got involved, seeing it all done was really special.

We had decided to have scones and Pimms at the chapel straight after the wedding, the chapel is so pretty we wanted to stay and have some photos there. We served scones with jam and cream and also some with cheese and chutney as Matt has a love of all things savoury. My mum and partner Paul baked around 60 scones on the morning of the wedding, not something I would recommend doing, and then Paul's son David and his wife Jenni unexpectedly helped with the serving.

At our reception we had a rare breed free range hog roast. It was served with apple and cider sauce, sage and onion stuffing, greek salad, red coleslaw, mixed salad, potato salad, fruity cous cous, and a selection of sauces and salad dressings.

We decided to use our own VW's as our wedding transport, I went to the chapel in our T4 van with my brother and bridesmaids and Matt went with his brother in our 1971 Squareback.

THE HONEYMOON | As Reuben was under one and we had never left him for a night we decided to have a few nights near Polzeath, Cornwall at the St Moritz Hotel. It was absolutely perfect, the weather was so good and we both felt like we had been away longer than 3 nights.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | There are so many bits of the day that were special but for me the most memorable moment was walking into the Chapel, when I saw Matt standing there I just couldn't stop smiling the emotion was overwhelming.

Another memorable part was going to the beach in the evening to have some photos taken, it was summer solstice and the beach was packed with people barbecuing and celebrating. I think we will definitely be on the beach for our anniversary.

And dancing to my cousins band Sam Green And The Midnight Heist, at midnight with my Nan who is 87 was so much fun, I never expected her to still be partying at the end of the night she is amazing!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | I totally underestimated the time it would take to make all the crafty things we had planned, so I would definitely say it is never too early to start making if you are planning on doing a DIY wedding. I also found all the inspiration a little overwhelming as the pictures on wedding blogs look so beautiful, I think once you make a decision on a theme stick with it and then everything will come together.

It is definitely worth spending on a great photographer, it's the one bit of the day you get to keep and we both love looking through our photos and remembering bits of the day, hopefully we will still be looking through them at 80!

Everyone always tells you to take time to enjoy the day and make sure you get to talk to each other and this is definitely true as the day is gone before you know it.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Nova Wedding Photography

Wedding Signs | The Vintage Wedding Sign

Florist | Peamore Flora

Catering | Fine Country Lifestyle

Suits | Moss Bros

Jewellery | Polka

Chair Hire | Virgina's Vintage Hire

Band | Sam Green and The Midnight Heist

Juke Box Hire | Replay Leisure

That hall looked amazing! What a beautifully crafted day.

Thank you so much Sally and Matt for sharing your wedding with us today xo Lou