Colourful Garden Tipi Wedding With Fairy Lights & Wild Flowers

Colourful Garden Tipi Wedding With Fairy Lights & Wild Flowers

via

Nicky and Toby had one of the most colourful wedding celebrations I have clapped my eyes on back in May. They held their ceremony at Great Dunmow Maltings followed by a back garden tipi reception beside the beautiful Essex countryside.

They hand crafted and coordinated much of the wedding themselves; there was a gorgeous apple tree bar serving pretty drinks, cans filled with wild flowers and hand stamped luggage tag place names. Oh and perhaps some of the best evening lighting ever.

Nicky looked divine in her Watters gown with pretty curled hair, while Toby looked dapper in Hugo Boss. Amaze.

Thanks so much to Kent Wedding Photographer, Jackson & Co Photography for sharing these glorious images today.

THE PROPOSAL | After meeting through snowboarding holidays at university it has been a joint love of ours. We had been together for 8 years and during a snowboarding holiday in La Plagne in Jan 2013 Toby got down on one knee at the top of the mountain. He managed to make it a complete surprise which meant there were a lot of tears involved. He also produced a full bottle of champagne at the top of the slopes which we agreed to save till we got down the mountain!!

THE VISION | We wanted a relaxed atmosphere that was personal to us. We didn't want a package wedding so starting with having the reception at Toby's parents' home, it was important to keep a homey feel. We wanted the day to be colourful and fun as well as relaxed.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Once the venue was decided we just tried to follow a garden wedding theme and looked around for a few bits of inspiration. We went to various wedding fairs with bridesmaids and mum, although they were also just an excuse to drink lots of champagne! We looked online for inspiration and discovered wedding forums and Pinterest of course!! Overall, we had quite a relaxing time of it as we were engaged for about 16 months so didn't start to panic until the month before. It was a very handmade wedding in terms of the décor so a lot of the prep couldn't be done until the last few weeks when it was very much a case of all hands on deck from collecting jars, gluing buttons, hand stamping name tags, making a bar top and table numbers from old floor boards and of course a lot of ebay scouting.

THE VENUE | The ceremony was at the Great Dunmow Maltings, an old beer maltings that now acts as the Great Dunmow museum. We are lucky enough that Great Dunmow is the closest town to Toby's parents' home and had a place registered for civil ceremonies but the style of the venue was also perfect for our requirements. We loved the understated simple surroundings which allowed for an informal, yet quaint and intimate ceremony. The building is Grade II listed and so the old, rustic feel of the venue went on to match the style of the reception venue.

The reception was at Toby's parents' home. A 450 year old cottage in a small village called Little Canfield, Essex. The surrounding fields and beautiful home gave a fantastic backdrop while keeping the personal touch of having the wedding in the home Toby grew up in. His parents have recently renovated the house and so it was the perfect opportunity to celebrate the fantastic results on the house and the huge garden leant itself very well to a Tipi marquee. With such a beautiful home as the backdrop we didn't want to lose the character with a straight forward white tent marquee so we opted for a quirkier feel of the Tipi which itself acts as a feature complimenting the surroundings.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Dress: Watters - Wtoo range "Emerson" dress bought from Emma Elizabeth Bridal in Twickenham. Veil & Hair Clip - also from Emma Elizabeth bridal. Shoes - Rainbow Club - from Emma Elizabeth bridal. Necklace - handmade by Sophie Webster. Rings - handmade by Sophie Webster.

FINDING THE DRESS | I'm lucky enough to live in Richmond, home to a lovely selection of bridal shops. I was initially worried the shops wouldn't stock anything in my price range but was pleasantly surprised that there was plenty to choose from within budget. I only went to two shops in the area before finding the one. I'd done a lot of online research and knew I liked the style of Watters dresses which is why I booked an appointment at Emma Elizabeth. I then tried on all different shapes and styles and surprised myself with what I ended up choosing. I absolutely loved the dress though as it had a vintage style and was quite unique but still nice and simple. I had loads of lovely compliments on the day about the dress so it's a shame I can't wear it again!!

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Toby wore a light blue 3 piece suit from the Hugo range at Hugo Boss. Matched with a red spotted tie, brown shoes and belt all also from Hugo Boss. This was a different style to the one we set out to find but as soon as he put it on it definitely worked.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Reading - A quote/poem from Bob Marley (Doesn't seem to have an official title but it begins," Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around..." Full version: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/151476-only-once-in-your-life-i-truly-believe-you-find )

Music (ceremony entrance) - Ellie Goulding version of "Hearbeats" (originally by The Knife/ Jose Gonzalez) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8zGOTwnBNU

Music (ceremony exit) - Bruno Mars "Marry You"

Music - reception - Paul Dobie - wedding singer - He was absolutely AMAZING and apart from the fantastic photos, he's had the most positive feedback from all of our guests as a highlight of the day. He played for the full day - a relaxed acoustic set during the drinks reception and during dinner. He also acted as an un-official master of ceremonies and then cranked it up a gear after the first dance to perform anything and everything from Nicki Minaj and rapping Black eyed peas to the Killers, Kean and various rock classics!!

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My sister and 2 school friends were lovely bridesmaids. They wore simple and classic white dresses and each had smaller versions of my bouquet of wild flowers to add colour. They were super helpful in the whole run up to the wedding as my sister did the wedding invites and table plan, my bridesmaid Steph made the cake from scratch and my London based bridesmaid Emma got all the glamorous jobs like shopping for wedding underwear, gluing buttons, hand stamping name tags and any and all other jobs. We all got to enjoy wedding fairs and dress shopping together and of course they sent me off in style with a fabulous hen do!!

THE FLOWERS | Springfield florist, Chelmsford. Great florist we found at a local wedding fair - didn't go into too much detail about specific flowers while booking, just asked for wild flowers in a mixture of colours and the results turned out perfectly. They did a fantastic job with arrangements in jars, tins and wooden boxes. Even the button holes were a fantastic feature as they got the styling spot on.

THE CAKE | Homemade by the wonderful bridesmaid Steph - 3 layers (One Fruit cake, one chocolate and one carrot cake).

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | The wonderful MJ - Jackson & Co photography. A brilliant choice and one we will always recommend to couples getting married. Such a lovely couple, both Hannah and Michael were brilliant to work with from the point of booking, the engagement shoot where they were very tolerant of my complete lack of ability to be directed and then on the day they were just perfect. We chose Jackson & Co as they position themselves as a documentary photographer which was exactly the style we were looking for as we weren't too keen on too many posed pictures. Our guests were so complimentary towards them as they had the perfect approach of being a fly on the wall to capture impromptu moments, combined with a lovely approachable nature that made them feel like one of the guests!! The results were then absolutely spectacular, as we had a taster straight away followed by a beautiful package with the full set of photos. We can't stop looking at them!!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Apple tree bar - the Apple tree made for a beautiful feature in the garden so we decorated this with coloured lanterns (also used in the tipis), fairy lights, a bar made of 2 barrels and a top made of our old wooden floorboards, soft drinks decanters stacked on old wine boxes and pimms in jars.

Outdoor décor - we made sure the garden had lots of little touches as this was the initial impact when people entered the reception so we had jars with candles, lanterns, fairy lights, barrels, candles, etc. etc. The first thing that people saw was our wedding car - a classic white mini - parked outside the house.

Inside the Tipi - The tables were decorated with flowers in jars/tins and the name tags were made from brown luggage tags, hand stamped and with colourful buttons glued on. The table numbers were hand painted by Toby's uncle and Toby's aunt made outdoor floral arrangements on the steps.

It was very much a team effort so all of the family and wedding party had a part to play the day before.

THE HONEYMOON | We had a mini moon at The Scarlet Hotel in Cornwall - we go to this area of Cornwall every year and so it was a nice way to unwind from the wedding in a familiar place but we splashed out by staying at a superb hotel with amazingly friendly staff and a sea room view.

Our main honeymoon is at the end of Oct/Nov where we head off to South Africa. Nicky was actually born here but left when she was little so it is a chance to have an amazing adventure but also keeping with the personal touches of our whole wedding. We're touring around Cape Town (sight-seeing), Franschhoek (wine tasting) & Hermanus (whale watching) and then a safari at Chitwa Chitwa in Sabi Sand Game Reserve.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The whole day was just so amazing, but here's just a few:

Everything coming together so amazingly - little last touches that were made to the house made it look fab

All of our friends and family in one place, having a great time.

The speeches - both lovely and raucous.

Toby lifting Nicky on the dance floor in attempt to recreate the scene from Dirty Dancing.

The failed man tower!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | When visiting wedding fairs have a system where you keep hold of the best cards for suppliers and your bridesmaids take the rest as you often take a card for people while just trying to be polite then can't work out who's who at the end of it.

Take some time for the 2 of you during the day - everyone says it but have something planned in to make sure this happens - we had a table for 2 during dinner which meant we could catch up on the day properly and enjoyed taking it all in.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Jackson & Co Photography

Flowers | Springfield Florist

Mini Moon | Scarlet Hotel

Wedding Singer | Paul Dobie

Ahhhh I love everything about this wedding day.

Thanks so so much to Nicky and Toby for sharing their story with us today XOXO Lou

Login to comment

Follow us on