Afternoon Lovely People,

We have a very pretty and very cool festival style wedding to share with you today. Think Midsummer Nights Dream Fairies in a beautiful outdoor woodland and meadow mixed with some incredible food and lots of laughter!

Aptly named Dependence Day (yes they wed on the 5th July!) Amy and Steve's beautiful wedding is the perfect mix of their individual passions and their shared desire for a day that is unique, quirky and fun. Held on private land in Sussex, they had a hand-fasting ceremony in an outdoor woodland style chapel followed by their reception in a meadow with fairy stilt walkers as their special guests! Food was served on large sharing platters and their guests also tucked into Ice Cream from an Ice Cream Van and 8 different cakes from their desert table. Homemade bunting hung from their gorgeous Capri style marquee and the entire venue was filled with gorgeous natural flowers intertwined with logs, twigs, metal tins, handmade wedding signs and watering cans. If ever there was a wedding that was filled with the magical fairy dust of inspiration - then this is it!

Amy and Steve talk us through their gorgeous summer wedding.

Steve proposed when we were on holiday in India. We were staying in these gorgeous safari tents on the beach in Goa and Steve organised the entire thing. He got the staff to set up beautiful day beds on the beach and tent it all off, with candles, flowers, petals and stunning local seafood, and champagne. It was magical, but unfortunately I had been ill due to the malaria tablets and he had organised, set up and had to cancel 2 days running as I was so unwell!!

It was the most beautuiful, individual, personal thing ever, and so magical.

Steve burst in to tears as soon as we got into the tent. It was amazing.

My dress was Janelle by Maggie Sottero in Gold pewter and worn with the cape. My shoes were a £3 sparkly pair of jellies from eBay.

My veil was originally my grand mothers who is 98, and her mother's before her. It was stunning and a plain piece of netting with a lace edge, due to the age the colour matched my dress perfectly. I had the dress maker make it into a Juliet cap so that it would fix into my hair and was the style I wanted.

I love nature and all things sparkly and fairy related and Steve has grown to love them too so our vision for the wedding was Midsummer Nights Dream, meets faeries, meets fun and love. We wanted a day filled with love and an intimate party theme. Steve had been married before and a church was never an option as we wanted something individual, full of love and not stuffy like some church services can be.

I wanted there to be real Midsummer faeries there as I knew that once people saw them, they would instantly get the day; it was going to be fun, relaxed, quirky and beautiful. The stilt walker performers were incredible! They interacted with everyone and made the day.

Our venue was a private wood and field in Sussex, owned by a friend of my fathers. Our ceremony was held in an 'outside chapel' in a clearing in the woods. I walked down the aisle to London philharmonic version of killer Queen - remixed. Steve loves Queen and we felt it fitting for us! After the ceremony we walked out together to Elbow's One day like this.

We actually did the legal thing the day before in jeans and with just 2 witnesses. For our woodland ceremony we had a totally personalised hand-fasting by celebrant River Jones and she was amazing. We met up before hand, and at the venue, and the entire ceremony was written just for us. She only finished it on the day of the ceremony after feeling the energy and vibe. It was so moving and deeply meaningful, even the most hardened Church goers were very moved and thought it was lovely.

We made the hand-fasting cord ourselves and it was deeply personal and important to us.

We jumped the broom that was decorated by us, and walked through the line up with rose petals being thrown. We had dried and grown all the rose petals ourselves.

I found a truly amazing florist in Emma Pentony from Wild and Green. She got what I wanted and worked to my budget. Her visions and creations were amazing! It really made the day and the vibe. Her individual table centres were inspired and the cake table decorations were amazing.

Along with the flowers we decorated the venue with home made bunting that Steve's dad, who is an upholster, ran up with metres of lace. We also stencilled the letters onto it to personalise it.

We decorated the marquees with props from Propit. This place is amazing, I searched everywhere for a place like this and he is in Dunsfold (near Cranleigh), he doesn't deliver and you have to go and pick your stuff, but amazing value, and truly an Aladdin's cave of loveliness.

We got lots of jars from Amazon super cheap and filled them full of our favourites sweets. We also put our pick a mix style bags. I was amazed at how many sweets went! Great for keeping kids entertained and adults sneaking bags away.

Jo our photographer was brilliant, she insisted we do an engagement shoot to warm us both up and get to know her. This was amazing, it made such a difference, when she turned up on the day she felt like a friend. Natural and quirky I love her pictures and her clever angles and shots.

We both love food, and are real foodies so the food had to be great. We spent a long time finding caterers, and Alex at Urban Pantry was amazing plus he did the entire organising of the field kitchen and all staff etc.

Everyone raved about the food. We had canapés circulating at the reception which consisted of Chorizo basket with slow roast tomato, feta & mint; Jerk chicken with plantain cup & mango chutney; Slow roast hoisin duck in a cucumber cup; Goats cheese baskets with red onion jam; and Salted bacalo bon bons with saffron and garlic mayo. The main food was all platters of yumminess. Slow cooked lamb shoulder, chicken, home made hummus, Tzatziki, flat breads, chargrilled veg, giant cous-cous and tabbouleh salad, and greek salad. We wanted everyone to tuck in and have a good feed, nothing pretentious just great food.

Evening food was a hog roast in brioche buns

We had an amazing cake table decorated by the florist. We kept the cakes simple and bought 8 from Costco and just let everyone dig in. I was going to make my own cakes but Steve managed to persuade me not too. Costco ones went down amazingly well!

For desert we hired an Ice Cream Van and it was the best idea ever! We had unlimited ice cream and toppings and it really stood out and was a nice talking point. It also got people out and about after the meal and mingling.

We love our cheese so wanted to have this as an option after the meal. We went with the Cheese Shed as their process was great and they promised to send only perfectly ripe cheese on the chosen day for delivery.

The cheese was excellent, and amazing value compared to a caterer or cheese cake suppliers. I wanted individual pieces so we could have a huge choice, and so that it would all go.

Seeing Steve as I got to the top of the Aisle, then I only had eyes for him, it was like everyone else and everything else melted away.

Stick to what you want.

Brian storm, gather ideas but decide what is important and go for it. For example I did not want an expensive marquee, it would have felt stuffy, but I really wanted the performers so cut back in other areas. Be true to what you want as a couple listen to your partner and work together.

Steve insisted I got a wedding planner, and to super organised me I felt a bit offended. BUT OMG thank god I did, the day could not have gone so amazingly well without the Wedding dolls, they are AMAZING

I had zero calls, or stress leading up to it and on the day, Jo took care of every tiny and big issue. It was seamless and well worth the extra budget allowance.

Do what you want and have fun with it, its all about you as a couple.

Plan, plan and plan again, make sure you have researched and make informed decisions. Ask suppliers most will be delighted to help or recommend people. I found everyone really helpful and happy to share ideas and info.

Related posts: