A CHIPPENHAM couple shared their wedding day with family, friends and a group of six-foot tall furry creatures, after the bride won a competition to have Sylvanian Families toys join her special day.

Natalie Eels, 32, married her 33-year-old partner Matthew Warburton at Bowood House on December 28 in front of 50 guests, after she won the wedding package in a competition.

The 32-year-old who treasured her collection as a child and saved the animal figurines to pass onto her one-year-old daughter Phoebe, loved the idea of surprising the children at the wedding with the theme.

“I never thought that I would be married with my own little girl in attendance,” she said. “Now that she’s here, our wedding was all about making her day as special as possible.

“The introduction of Sylvanian Families characters was so significant as everybody knows how much I loved them as a little girl and I am sure that Phoebe will go on to love them, too.”

Mrs Warburton spotted the competition online and filled out an application form detailing plans for the day and her love for the toys, which was then shortlisted and chosen as the overall winner.

Sylvanian Families provided the couple with decorations for the day, mascots, a photographer and a special gift.

“When I noticed the competition on Twitter, I thought to myself that I am the perfect candidate,” she wrote in her application form.

“Even now when I visit my parent’s house, I sneak up to my old bedroom to open up my doll’s house and say hello to my old Sylvanian friends and just for a few minutes, I have escaped this busy, grown up world and I am five years old again.”