Country Rustic Summer Tipi Wedding

Country Rustic Summer Tipi Wedding

via

WWW readers Wayne and Hannah were married on the 7 th June 2014 opting for a fabulous cosy tipi party to celebrate. They hoped that their wedding would be relaxed, informal and fun. It was important to them that they had proper food, good beer and a busy dance floor. Love it!

Hannah looked so beautiful in her tea length Justin Alexander gown while the boys looked dapper in navy suits. Teamed with wild style blooms, rustic log details and sunshine - you have the perfect day.

Thanks goes to the utterly brilliant Red on Blonde Photography for sharing their imagery today.

THE PROPOSAL | I thought we were going on a post-Christmas health-kick to Centre Parcs with a mystery secret stop off which turned out to be Low Wray Castle where we had been on our first holiday together. We went for a walk on the shores of Windermere, Wayne stopped and announced he had a late Christmas present to give to me, inside a wrapped up box was a ring box with a ring I'd inherited from my Godmother when I was a teenager. Wayne didn't say anything and I didn't want to assume amything so there was quite a long, slightly awkward silence before Wayne finally asked "...so will you then?!"

Obviously I said yes, weekend with more food and champagne than we have ever seen and had the most perfect weekend of our lives, despite the awful indigestion!!

THE VISION | We wanted everyone to have a relaxed and informal day that suited our personalities. We wanted "proper food", good beer and a busy dance floor and most importantly wanted everyone to have fun.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Right from the beginning of the planning process we thought we wanted a tipi but wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do. We viewed several wedding venues and realised they weren't for us, my parents house is an amazing setting, the venues we saw just didn't feel as special to us. We went to a PeakTipis open day which confirmed that we wanted a Tipi, it felt so special and cosy and even on a cold, windy day with no one in the tipi it still had a great atmosphere

Once we had a our minds set on a tipi we had quite a few discussions with my parents to decide whether it would work on their land and whether they'd let us have it there!

Wayne was great at planning the big things and is really organised, which meant l I was lucky enough to be able concentrate on the details and how it was going to look although I'm not quite as organised as Wayne so this part ended up a bit of a last minute panic!

The planning process wouldn't have been complete without my dad who made sure the whole day would run smoothly and thought of everything including all the little things you woludn't even think you would need to consider when planning a wedding.

THE VENUE | We got married at St Michael's church in Wincle village. Neither of us our particularly religious, but after we had been for an honest chat with the vicar at the local church we both agreed that a church wedding felt right for us. The guidance we had from the vicar was great and we met some lovely people through our visits to the church, we felt like part of the community. We both helped out at the village fete the weekend before the wedding which helped us get to know lots of local people including the choir and organ player, it was amazing how many people were involved in our wedding in some way!

We didn't want to sleep in my bedroom at my parents so we slept in an amazing bell tent, complete with bed, blankets, hot water bottle and champagne.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress was Justin Alexander from 7 th Heaven Bridal in Congleton and shoes were Rachel Simpson which I bought online.

FINDING THE DRESS | I thought I wanted a short dress as I've never felt right in long dresses and didn't think a long white dress in a muddy field would be a great combination but I wanted to keep my mind open as I wasn't sure what style would suit me. I went in a few shops with my mum and tried on lots of styles of dress, I couldn't get used to myself in a long dress, I felt like I was dressed up as someone else. As soon as I tried on a short dress I felt much more comfortable and still looked like me.

Once I had my mind set on a short dress it was pretty easy as there wasn't a massive choice in any bridal shop which was good for me as it made decision making much easier! I tried my dress on in the long length as 7 th heaven didn't stock the short version, I loved the top of the dress but it took me a while to try and picture it in short and be sure enough that I'd like it to go for it. The girls at 7 th Heaven were brilliant at helping me picture it and giving me the confidence to buy a dress I'd never tried on.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | We wanted the men to look relaxed and not too formal so decided to go for a navy suit in a slim fit which looked a bit less formal than some of the more traditional styles. We hired the suits from Brigdens in Derby and bought the ties online to match the bridesmaids dresses. We wanted to add a bit of fun so all the groomsmen wore yellow socks to match the bridesmaids yellow shoes.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We spent so long trying to find the right readings, we wanted a reading that meant something to us but wasn't too cheesy. Our friend Buddug read Corinthians 13 and Wayne's brother's partner, Laura read Let's Get Married by the Proclaimers. The words were perfect but made me cry my eyes out! We didn't tell anyone where the words were from or who they were by, we played the song when the dance floor was full at the end of the night.

We had Pachebels Canon to walk in and Bridal March as we were leaving the church.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My amazing bridesmaids were my best friend Jenny and my sister Sarah, I had my beautiful niece Evie as my flower girl. The bridesmaids dresses were Dessy from 7 th Heaven, Evie's dress was from Monsoon.

THE FLOWERS | I knew I wanted wild, natural looking flowers, again I didn't want anything too formal or "done" looking. We found Tracey Campbell at a wedding fair; I was drawn to her stand as it was full of wild flowers, exactly what we'd been looking for. She even managed to get Wayne excited about the flowers as she had loads of hops on her stand and promised he could have some in his buttonhole.

The bouquets included daisies, wax flower, lavender, rosemary, mint and hops so they smelled and looked incredible. Tracey wired some flowers to match for my hair and made our little flowergirl a crown of flowers (which didn't stay on very long but looked amazing!)

THE CAKE | Wayne's mum, Caroline made our fabulous cake. The bottom layer was fruit, then carrot cake, then lemon with a little chocolate cake on the top. It was iced with frosting with berries around each tier. She surprised us by making amazing cake toppers of us which looked just like us!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our brilliant photographers were Hannah and Toby from Red on Blonde photography. We found them on a wedding website and after meeting them once we knew they were the right people for us. We wanted fun photos that represented our day and showed everyone enjoying themselves, again nothing too formal or cheesy. Their portfolio was great and most importantly we got on with them so felt like we'd be able to relax with them around on the wedding day.

Hannah went to the hotel where the boys were getting ready and got some brilliant photos of them before the church, I loved seeing the photos of what they'd got up to in the morning! Toby came to my parents house to snap us getting ready. Having them both there meant they were able to capture the whole day without missing anything.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | The florist provided mismatching vases of wild-looking flowers for the tables. My dad had cut circles of wood which we topped with my favourite candles which filled the tipis with my favourite smell (Bay and Rosemary), people took a candle home with them and everyone tells me that every time they smell the candle now it reminds them of our wedding.

We burnt the guests names into pieces of wood cut by my dad and made loads of grey, yellow and white pompoms to hang around the tipi. Mad Philomena made our wedding stationery and printed out our favourite album covers to use as our table names and on our seating plan.

THE HONEYMOON | We went to Santorini for a week of complete relaxation after a very hectic few weeks of planning.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | My Dad, Wayne and the ushers singing My Girl at the start of the speeches, they'd all learnt the words and my friend Matt had smuggled his guitar in to accompany them. I will never forget us both being lifted up on the dancefloor a la Dirty Dancing.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | You can't plan a wedding on your own, its all about teamwork and using and understanding each others strengths and weaknesses. Remember why you are getting married in the first place and that if anything doesn't work out exactly how you wanted it to it doesn't really matter.

A word of advice for anyone who has an outdoor wedding is it will all be OK on the day and no matter what happens and what the weather you'll make it work, if you are relaxed your guests will be too. If someone had told me that 3 days before the wedding (when we were setting the tipi up, wrapped up in a coat and wellies with rain pouring off the sides of the tipi and the field slowly becoming a mud bath, severe flood warning given out for the wedding day, the catering van getting stuck in the mud and 2 birds flying in the tipi) I wouldn't have believed them but now we wouldn't dream of doing anything differently.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Red on Blonde Photography

Bride and bridesmaid dresses | By Justin Alexander from 7th heaven bridal in Congleton

Bride and bridesmaid hair and make up | Danielle Horan

Flowers | Campbell's florist

Grooms suit hire | Brigdens Derby

Musician and DJ both Darren Jones from DG music

Tipis | Peak Tipis

Bell tent | Tinkerbells

Wedding stationery | Mad Philomena

Catering | Upper Crust Caterers

Beer and bar | Wincle Brewery

Last but not least Wayne's mum Caroline for making the amazing cake | Caroline's Cakery (on Facebook)

Such a wonderful day.

Thanks so very much to Wayne and Hannah for sharing their story with us today XOXO Lou

Login to comment

Follow us on