Good morning beauties, and welcome to this glorious Monday here on the blog! I hope you had a great weekend with friends, family, your fiancé or whoever it is that makes you most happy! I spent the weekend with my beautiful husband and fam, and I cherished every moment. Plus, the sun shone….could spring be ready to make an early entrance into 2019? I really hope so!

On to today’s real wedding which is relaxed, festival and boho with a delicate touch of elegance. Set in an English garden style venue in the Midlands, Shiningford Manor played host to Michelle and Mark’s stunning tipi wedding last summer. The couple married in a laid back outdoor ceremony conducted by one of their best friends. They drew inspiration from everything that is foodie and festival….

Our relaxed, foodie festival inspired wedding was everything we dreamed of and more! We wanted it to be relaxed and have all our guests stay on site, as we had family and friends fly in from 15 countries world wide!

Captured by Twig and Vine Photography, the couple used Peak Tipis to supply the tipi, which was draped with lanterns, chandeliers and beautiful DIY decor. The couple’s parents made authentic festival flags and bunting to further compliment the festival theme, and they set up a cosy fire pit, s’mores station and reeled in the very best street food suppliers to treat their guests – they had it all – Sunday Roast, antipasti, evening hogroast, ice creams, oysters (yes, the bride’s favourite snack!) and a fest-style toastie van!

The florals in this wedding are absolutely to die for, and feature flowers from all six of the countries that play heritage to the couple. Understated and full of vibrant rustic charm with so many cool festival features and the very best suppliers that the Midlands has to offer!

Here’s beautiful bride Michelle to tell you all about her wedding to Mark.

Proposal on a Devonshire Beach

Mark asked me to marry him on a beach in Devon, in the same spot that he asked me to be his girlfriend 8 years ago!

Lakeside Venue, Hot Tubs and Tipis

We were married at Shiningford Manor, Carsington Water. This venue was a great choice for us, as it allowed us to handpick our suppliers and be flexible in what we wanted to achieve. The pool and hot tubs were also a favourite with our guests. Some even had a morning swim before the ceremony! They were great for soaking up the sun and nursing their hangovers the day after the wedding. We hired the most amazing tipis from Peak Tipis.

Personal Ceremony, Heritage Bouquets and Scottish Ribbon Tying

Our ceremony was conducted by our close friend, which made it extra personal and special. We also had readings from both of our sisters. When the guests walked in, we asked them to pick a coloured ribbon and tie a knot on the bigger ribbon. We then had a traditional tying of the knot, which honoured my Scottish heritage. It was a great way to get our guests involved in the ceremony!

The flowers were a big part of our day and definitely one of the highlights of our wedding. Nadia Di Tullio made my bouquet dreams come true by taking on the epic challenge of creating a heritage bouquet which incorporated the national flowers from our heritage countries (6 different countries!). Nadia also dressed our aisle and built a stunning circular flower altar for our ceremony – it looked stunning and all the guests commented on how beautiful the flowers were. She was so friendly and I couldn’t recommend her more.

Pronovias Dress and Mix ‘n’ Match Bridesmaid Dresses

I wore a Pronovias wedding dress; dainty, simple and plain in a mermaid silhouette which really suited my figure. My shoes were from Mui Mui.

We chose to have different bridesmaid dresses but they all encompassed the same theme of neutral embellished boho vibes. It was important to us that our bridesmaids felt special and loved what they were wearing! We bought all the dresses individually from ASOS | Monsoon | TNFC.

DIY Décor, Festival Flags, Lanterns and Chandeliers

We had lots of DIY signage, flags, stationary and an amazing fire pit circle. I did all the décor myself and with the help of family. We also had a selfie station with polaroid cameras and guests could pin up their photos on a board with messages. For the outside décor, we had homemade bunting and festival inspired flags.

Peak Tipis enabled us to build a tipi that fitted our wedding size perfectly. We loved the style of them and it made perfect sense to use them for our festival inspired wedding theme. The posh portaloos were a great accompaniment with toiletry essentials to allow our guests to freshen up throughout the day. We were lucky enough to have great weather so we set up barrel bars, a fire pit with blankets, sparklers and a s’mores station!

The interior of the tipi was decorated with lots of foliage (from Nadia) and hanging lanterns and chandeliers. All of our tables were decorated and named after the wonders of the world we had visited on our travels. Ropers Honey made little honey pots for our guests too. The Tipi had lots of lights and we also added our own which created a really exciting atmosphere.

Antipasti, Oysters and Local Ice Cream

Hammer & Pincers is an incredible gastro pub. Danny Jimmerson is a passionate and talented chef who worked with us to create exactly what we wanted. After the wedding service we had antipasti boards roaming around. We had a station with an iberico ham leg, honeycomb, blue cheese, truffle oils and a selection of breads. For the wedding breakfast we recreated our favourite meal: a Sunday roast and selection of desserts. We did this with a family style banquet in the tipi.

Oysters are a favourite food of mine and Oyster Meister blew us away. He served our guests alongside the canapes after the ceremony. He was charismatic and passionate and our guests absolutely loved him! Some guests had oysters for the first time and it was something really different.

Daltons Ice Cream is local to Ashbourne – it was served after the ceremony to cool everyone down on a hot day and the flavours were delicious. The girls were really friendly and the cart fitted our theme perfectly.

Street Food, Converted House Cart and Donut Wall

During the evening we had street food stalls from the Greedy Pig and Toastie Club. The toasties were from a local Derbyshire business who converted an old house cart into a toastie van. The toasties were delicious! The hog roast was brilliant too!

Our dessert table was made up with donuts from Dougnnotts Donuts displayed on a donut wall kindly made for us by a friend. We had brownies from the very talented Lydia Anslow at Churchfarm Anslow and a pick’n’mix sweetie station on a sweet cart.

4-Tier Cake and Cheese Stack with Figs and Chutneys

The wedding cake was made by Hello Cake; a spectacular 4-tier cake which had a contemporary look with different textures, decorated with flowers to match the wedding. We had four different flavours – chocolate, lemon, sticky toffee with white chocolate and raspberry – it was delicious! We also had a wedding cake made of different types of cheese. Danny the chef decorated this with wonderful figs, grapes, chutneys and crackers.

Stunning Photography and Videography

Our photographer was Mamad from Twig and Vine Photography. Mamad is kind, patient, passionate and above all, his photographs are truly stunning. His package included an engagement shoot which provided us with some much-needed practice before the big day. He was really flexible and spent hours in search of the perfect shots.

The videographer was Ben from Bramblehedge Wedding Videos. He was also really helpful and friendly. The edit of our wedding was spectacular and perfectly captured the day.

The Funtime Frankies!

The wedding band was the Funtime Frankies. They were fantastic and got everyone on the dance floor effortlessly. They were very talented and the songs were brilliant. They definitely got the style of the wedding and played the perfect songs to suit our guests. They were charismatic, full of energy and enabled us to party all night long.

First Dance

We didn’t have much dancing experience but really wanted to put some effort into the first dance, so we had a couple of lessons. We choreographed a lovely routine to Florence and the Machine’s ‘You’ve Got the Love’.