Showing posts with label Colourful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colourful. Show all posts

Monday 7 January 2013

Real Tipi Church Wedding: Jess & Alistair

Brighten up your day with this fantastic colourful wedding day, set by the sea, on the Wirral peninsula. The lovely Jess and Alistair had two different visions for their big day, but compromised between traditional and quirky, with a church wedding and a tipi reception. With bright blue cornflowers, red roses, pink peonies and yellow daffodils, Jess' beautiful bouquet epitomises the theme colours for this gorgeous wedding, and I've completely fallen for her bridesmaids' floral dresses, and vintage-style corsages. Jess' lovely vintage gown was refashioned from her mother's wedding dress, and her blue wedding shoes were a bargain from a local supermarket! Don't miss all the gorgeous wedding reception pictures - due to go live later today. Huge thanks to Victoria Phipps Photography for her beautiful work - she captured every stunning detail.


My wedding dress had been my mothers wedding dress from the 1970s. I tried on lots of lovely dresses but none on them were what I had envisioned myself wearing. My mum was more than happy for me to customise her dress as it had been sitting in the attic for the last 37 years. A local dressmaker at Anna May Couture in West Kirby interpreted my ideas and made the dress.


The headpiece was borrowed from my bridesmaid from when she was married. I did want a floral head garland but once I put my friends headpiece on it just seemed right. 



We had three different florists for my bouquet, the church and the reception. My bouquet and the bridesmaid’s corsages/groomsmen buttonholes were by Eden Florists in West Kirby, Wirral. Friends of Alistair's mother did the flowers for the reception, and members of the church did the church flowers.

I knew I wanted floral bridesmaid dresses. The girls tried on dresses from Phase Eight and they ticked all the boxes!


I loved my blue wedding shoes, and even better, they were from a well know supermarket and didn’t break the bank. Everyone commented on them and thought they must have been expensive.

Al wanted to stay traditional and went for suit with tails, hired from Moss Bros. His tie was from Charles Tyrwhitt. He picked out the blue ties for the ushers and the camel coloured waistcoats.



We got married end of July 2012 in Thurstaston on the Wirral Peninsula. The ceremony was at St Bartholomew’s Church and the reception was in Papa Kata tipis at Church Farm on the Wirral.

Al is quite traditional and I wanted something fun and relaxed. We compromised by having a church wedding and a tipi reception. The church had meaning for both of us as it was where my parents had got married and somewhere Al and his family had visited on Sunday walks.

We met at a party - I was already friends with Al’s brother. We proceeded in bumping into each other at various gigs and nights out, and realised we had a lot in common {the-who-asked-who-out part is greatly contended!}. We had been together for 4 years when we decided to do a European road trip. We drove around Europe with the final destination being a day in Paris.

We spent the day touring the sights, and in the evening Al had booked a table in the wonderful restaurant. It was so busy, we were squeezed onto the end of a table almost on the laps of the couple next to us. We ate late and as the restaurant emptied out they moved us to a table of our own for our desserts and coffees. Al proposed over the crème brûlée.



Our photographer was Victoria from Victoria Phipps Photography. We really liked her natural wedding photography style.



♥ Want to see seaside wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more colourful wedding ideas? ♥
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Tuesday 21 August 2012

Real Humanist Rustic Chic Wedding: Kia & Sam - Part 2

Boho brides are going to love all the wedding ideas they'll get from this stunning teepee wedding reception! Kia and Sam's celebrated their big day in Sam's parents' garden, surrounded by beautiful countryside, and tonnes of wedding details. I'm completely in love with their two giant teepee marquees, and the family-style dining tables. With a hog roast and a picnic feel, this lovely informal wedding kept their guests entertained all the way through to breakfast the next morning! Other stealworthy wedding ideas include the colourful handmade and hand-embroidered bunting, the DIY'd log cupcake stand, the fabulous VW van. Kia and Sam's whole family chipped in to help DIY this beautiful wedding. Don't miss Kia's answers to the Before the Big Day Bride's Questionnaire - she has tonnes of helpful hints for DIY brides-in-the-making. Huge thanks to Sharron Gibson from The Image Garden for her stunning pictures - don't miss Part 1!


We celebrated out wedding in June at my husband's parents' farm where he grew up, on the Beds/Bucks border. We had a Humanist ceremony besides an old tree in the meadow and two huge Scandinavian tipis.



We wanted an English country wedding with a Swedish influence {as I’m half Swedish}. It was important for our wedding to feel romantic, easy and fun, with no real formalities, a touch bohemian, rustic and 'us'.



We mostly enjoyed planning out wedding. We loved coming up with ideas – we have to be creative in our jobs every day for other people so it made a nice change to do that for ourselves. It did get to a point where we were so focused on our guests having the perfect day that we’d forgotten about us, but that was just a blip. We got back to the real reason we were getting married and wouldn’t change a thing about the build up or the day itself. All in all it was a lot of fun because we did so much ourselves.


We had tonnes of DIY wedding projects! We created that entire venue from the ground up – apart from the tipis themselves. We bought or made most things with the help of family and friends. 


We didn't have any particular theme for our wedding. In fact we wanted anything but a theme and absolutely no matchy-matchy colours. We just wanted the decoration to reflect our passions and interests with something different everywhere you looked.


We used a lovely local florist in Frosts at Woburn, who was really creative and so passionate about floral design. I wanted something unstructured and wild looking so chose a mix of brightly coloured flowers including snapdragons, sweet peas, sunflowers, dill and corn.


Sam made all the signs and the candelabras for the tree. Our parents made the flower arch and birdseed hearts. My husband’s brother made the cake stand.


We made a cake stand out of tree trunk slices and terracotta plant pots and covered the tiers in individual cupcakes, carrot cakes and plants. We wanted to echo the tree backdrop from the ceremony and the rural setting.


For wedding favours, we had chocolate moustaches and lips on sticks made by a local chocolatier. The inspiration came from my husband’s moustache!


My maid of honour and her mum made the bunting out of specially chosen fabrics and embroidered them with special words. Sam and I folded 500 origami peace cranes to hang on the trees {with the help of the best man and my brother}.  I wrote 'our story' which was printed onto elephant poo (!) paper and turned into paper hearts, which were hung on the backs of chairs.



Our photographer was Sharron Gibson of The Image Garden. We chose her because her photography style was exactly what we wanted – creative, observant and natural. She really 'got' the detail we had put into the wedding, and loved the surroundings we had chosen which meant a lot to us. We wanted someone who could just wander round capturing the feel of the day which she did wonderfully.



My advice for upcoming brides is don't forget why you’re doing it. As important the small details may seem to you, all your friends and family really care about is seeing you get married and having a bloody good party afterwards {a friend told me this and it helped loads!}. Speak to friends – they'll keep you sane and keep your feet on the ground. Let go and enjoy every single second – people will look after themselves. We were amongst the last to leave at 5am – we didn't want it to end. It was the best day and night of our lives.


♥ Want more colourful wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about boho wedding ideas? ♥
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Real Humanist Rustic Chic Wedding: Kia & Sam

Take two giant teepees, a vintage campervan and countryside-loving couple and you get Kia and Sam's beautiful humanist rustic wedding. It's chock-a-block with wedding details and wedding ideas, and if you're a planning a rustic, boho wedding, you're going to want to copy every one. Just take a look at the DIY blackboard signs, the paper origami decorations {500 peace cranes!} and how every reception chair is decorated with a pretty flower and ribbons. I love the handmade flower arbour altar, and vintage milk-churn vases, and Kia's stunning bright bouquet. In keeping with the boho feel to her wedding, Kia wore flowers in her hair, and sourced her wedding dress from Spain and her accessories from various boutique jewellery makers. Don't miss her answers to the Before the Big Day Bride's Questionnaire - she has tonnes of helpful hints for upcoming brides. Huge thanks to Sharron Gibson from The Image Garden for her stunning pictures - more coming soon in Part 2!


We celebrated out wedding in June at my husband's parents' farm where he grew up, on the Beds/Bucks border. We had a Humanist ceremony besides an old tree in the meadow and two huge Scandinavian tipis.


We wanted an English country wedding with a Swedish influence {as I’m half Swedish}. It was important for our wedding to feel romantic, easy and fun, with no real formalities, a touch bohemian, rustic and 'us'.




My wedding dress was made by Yolan Cris, an amazing bohemian Spanish designer. My blue shoes were from Dune and my accessories were all handmade from a mix of designers from Etsy, Asos marketplace and my mum’s collection from the 60s. I just arrived at that look – it felt like me. All I knew was I didn’t want anything too traditional.


My maid of honour had a fantastic red dress made from salvaged vintage fabrics by a designer in Brighton.






Sam's suit was bespoke-made by a tailor in London called Rocacha, as he couldn't find the vintage cut he wanted anywhere! His cufflinks were from Etsy, and his tie was from Sweden.




We used a lovely local florist in Frosts at Woburn, who was really creative and so passionate about floral design. I wanted something unstructured and wild looking so chose a mix of brightly coloured flowers including snapdragons, sweet peas, sunflowers, dill and corn.


Sam and I folded 500 origami peace cranes to hang on the tree {with the help of the best man and my brother}. I wrote 'our story' which was printed onto elephant poo {!} paper and turned into paper hearts, which were hung on the backs of chairs.



Our photographer was Sharron Gibson of The Image Garden. We chose her because her photography style was exactly what we wanted – creative, observant and natural. She really 'got' the detail we had put into the wedding, and loved the surroundings we had chosen which meant a lot to us. We wanted someone who could just wander round capturing the feel of the day which she did wonderfully.


♥ Want more colourful wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about boho wedding ideas? ♥
If you enjoyed this post, why not sign up for our free newsletter
Before the Big Day - the Best UK Wedding Blog.
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