With tonnes of colourful, bright wedding details, and a wedding reception set in a tipi {so on trend}, you're going to love Jess and Alistair's big day. After their church wedding ceremony, they head to the beautiful
Church Farm on the Wirral, right near the sea, for their wedding reception. With the help of friends and family, they DIY decorated their wedding tipi with bright paper lanterns, handmade hanging hearts, jam-jar tea-light holders, and pretty green ivy. Jess even created her own wedding table plan out of a humble piece of mdf, plus blackboard paint! I love the countryside feel of the hay-bales, wood-fire and cheesecake, and it's all pictured perfectly by
Victoria Phipps Photography. If you missed Part 1
click here, and don't miss Jess' answers to our questionnaire - she has tonnes of inspirational wedding advice.
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.
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.
Al is wanted quite a traditional wedding, 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 it's somewhere Al and his family had visited on Sunday walks.
We didn't have any wedding theme as such. We just wanted a colourful and personal wedding. Creating a fun atmosphere was important to us, as was throwing an amazing party with some seriously tasty food!
There were a few of DIY projects, and as the reception was in a tipi there was a lot of decorating to do. The blackboard table plan was some cheap mdf, that I painted with black board paint. We collected lots of jam jars for rustic tea light holders, and the green ivy was picked and put up by Al’s mum and a couple of her close friends.
As part of my hen-do we did a crafty session at a local artists studio where we made hanging hearts in different colours. We put these hearts up as part of the decorations. I painted numbers on white paper lanterns for hanging table numbers, and the hanging lanterns for the dance floor were bought and set up by us.
I like to illustrate in my spare time, and we thought it would be nice to have an illustrated wedding invite. Jim Fleming, a local artist illustrated our cards. I added in the lettering, and drew a whimsical map, and I also wrote the place cards and the table plan.
We were lucky enough to have two cakes. We went for a cheesecake from the Liverpool Cheese Company, and Al’s mum baked a yummy fruit-cake wedding cake for us.
We spent a year planning our wedding, and tried to not let it take over our lives. We had creative control over every aspect, which made the day just what we wanted, but it was also a lot of work!
My advice for other brides starts with learning the art of delegation! We couldn’t have planned the day we had without the help of our parents, our friends and anyone else who offered assistance.
Our photographer was Victoria from Victoria Phipps Photography. We really liked her natural photography style.
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