May 30th, 2010 might have seemed like any ordinary day in Lincolnshire – Kimberley Payne couldn’t have possibly known the significance of that spring day at Cadwell Park racetrack. “We met exactly five years previous to the wedding date. His first words to me were, ‘would you like to come see my caravan?’ – [the place that] he and his friends used to sleep on track weekends – so it’s safe to say I wasn't exactly impressed,” Kimberley laughs. After requesting her phone number from a friend of hers, Chris Newbigging asked Kimberley out on a date, to which she agreed. The pair spent time in a local pub for drinks and then decided to head to the cinema, “where he caught me off guard with our first kiss while watching a zombie thriller!” she muses. “From then onwards, we have pretty much been inseparable.”

Following a proposal on the groom-to-be’s birthday, the couple entered into their 18-month engagement with enthusiasm and plenty of décor ideas. Kimberley was determined to do the majority of the design herself. “The planning of the wedding was mainly carried out by myself and Chris,” she explains. “I wanted to make almost everything myself – I found Pinterest a godsend!” While noting that conceptualizing a DIY wedding certainly takes up a lot of time, the bride assures that “it was all worth it!” Once they’d decided upon an English garden motif, they went to work putting in the hours it took to create their dream nuptials.

In the early afternoon, five years to the day that they met, Kimberley readied herself to walk down the aisle and greet her sweetheart. In keeping with the garden concept, bridesmaids wore delicate blush dresses and carried nosegays of wildflowers while also sporting similar blooms woven throughout their hairstyles – a headpiece accessory that the flower girl and the bride herself also displayed. The women glided into the church, making way for Kimberley and her father. The woman of the hour was dressed in a lovely trumpet-style lace gown with a sweetheart neckline and carried a larger version of her bridesmaids’ wildflower bouquets. “The vows were a highlight for us, as well as having all our friends cheer us on our first kiss as man and wife – despite the vicar not seeming to think it was essential,” she tells.

After the “I dos,” friends and family waited outside the church to shower the newlyweds with confetti before jetting off to the reception venue. Upon their arrival at the local pub, attendees found the charming details Kimberley had labored over. They found their seats using a beautiful, simple structure the bride had created in the shape of a heart, presenting everyone’s table assignments. “As everything was homemade, I wanted it to reflect our personality and taste in our wedding day,” Kimberley says. “The centerpieces were [made up of] a slice of walnut tree with vintage jugs full of wildflowers they were heavily complimented.” Watering cans filled with pastel-hued perennials accented the clean, white space, continuing the English garden design of the day. Guests could leave their well-wishes in a handmade card box covered in the lace of the mother of the bride’s own wedding dress and surrounded by charming garden details and photographs of the bride and groom as children.

After dining and subsequently cutting into their three-tiered white wedding cake bedecked with sugar wildflowers, the music picked up and the party got going. “We had a good friend of Chris’ sing at our reception with his band,” Kimberley reveals. “We had him sing 'More Than Words' by Extreme [for our first dance] – It’s a song which we both love. It's unusual [and] not many people may have heard of it, but we like the sentiment that love is more than words said.” If revelers hadn’t had their fill of sweet treats, they could indulge in the DIY candy dessert bar, which served as the couple’s favors. As for advice for future brides, Kimberley’s is simple: “Write lists!”