Codeigniter AJAX validation email form

[eluser]balboa_1990[/eluser]
The aim of the contact form is the user fills it in and when successful, it will show a success message to them and the email will be sent (html version which works) and when they have left blank fields or non alpha characters ect an error message appears. I wanted to use a AJAX form so it does not refresh the page and have fade in/out effects on the messages and if the user has Javascript turned off the codeigniter php is still active - have i went around this the wrong way?