Good morning fellow festival babes, and welcome to another week here on the blog. Today we bring a delightful example of a good ‘ole’ fashioned festival-inspired tipi wedding full of glitter, street food and fun times. Chris and Jess were married in the Cotswolds and used this area of outstanding beauty as a blank canvas to create their rustic festival tipi wedding.
They set up a bell tent village and a stunning trio of wedding tipis for their army of party guests, and maxed out their DIY skills to create a beautiful reception and chill out space, festival signage, cool stationery and decor galore. The pair got engaged at a Brixton music gig and they just LOVE to party….
We wanted a festival wedding with plenty of food for everyone to enjoy and lots of music and dancing! We both absolutely love good music and having a laugh with our friends, so these were the key priorities for us.
Captured by super snapper Florence Fox, the wedding took place at The Cotswold Field of Dreams with triple tipi hire from Buffalo Tipi. This fab supplier did more than set up the tipis too; they also helped to style and theme the spaces, provided props and much needed hands-on support on the day.
Chris and Jess always dreamt of an outdoor DIY wedding, and much to their delight, the UK weather was kind enough to let them marry out in the countryside area surrounded by everyone that is important to them,
With a cutsie caravan bar, wood-fire pizzas cooked from the back of a Landrover, lanterns, fairy lights and a DJ set from the groom, this festival wedding covered all the bases for a jolly good shindig!
Here’s flower-crowned bride Jess to tell you more!
Engagement at Brixton Academy Gig
We been together for about 5 years and lived together for four, so thought it was high time that Chris proposed! He spent months trying to find the perfect engagement ring,and eventually stumbled across THE one; an oval aquamarine stone surrounded on either side with little clusters of three round-cut diamonds.
He proposed at a gig at Brixton Academy with plastic pints of Prosecco to celebrate!
Dream Cotswolds Blank Canvas Venue
We were married at The Cotswold Field of Dreams. We found it through a website called Hire a Field and we chose it for the jaw dropping vista of rolling hills under the beautiful summer sky (which is how it looked on our first site visit!). It has beautiful wild flower beds and fields plus a heap of Cotswold charm. It was the perfect blank canvas venue that we needed. Plus, Luci and Rich who own and manage the field are genuinely some of the nicest people you will ever meet!
Weekend Celebration, Tipi Village and Festival Themed Party
We had camping onsite and used PodPads for our tipi village. They are a very active festival tent supplier and are extremely busy throughout the summer seasons, so worth booking up as soon as possible if you’re having a summer wedding. For the celebration, we had two tipis for dinner and one smaller tipi for our chill out area. These were supplied by Buffalo Tipi – two for dinner, one smaller one for a chill out area and one, with an extension for the dance floor.
Outdoor Ceremony, Hay Bales, Cotton White Fabrics
We were lucky enough to have an outdoor ceremony. We used hay bales and blankets (provided by the field for very reasonable hire fee) and a small garden arch which was beautifully decorated by some friends including a mirror ball and draped white cotton fabric. One of our best friends was the celebrant (we’d previously held our legal marriage at Twickenham Registry Office in the week leading up to our wedding). Our readings were ‘The Owl & The Pussy Cat’ and an ‘Apache Wedding Blessing’ by Elliott Arnold.
Stationery // Stunning Table Plans and Signage
Gracie Belle Studio made our table plans and place cards and we found an amazing Sign Writer called Mark Hudson at a market in Kings Cross, He produced some absolutely stunning pieces for our Order of the Day and made directional signs for the site. The table numbers were borrowed from a friend.
Indoor Fire Pits, Polaroid Booth and Hand-Cut Wooden Table Props
Buffalo Tipi provided all the long tables and benches for the feast along with two big indoor fire pits at either end of the tipis. They wrapped the main tipi poles in fairy lights and provided all the uplighters. We suspended a huge cluster of paper lanterns in the middle tipi tent to add some extra colour to the dining tents and we used hanging baskets, lanterns, a bubble machine, LED picture frames, neon lights and an old wheelbarrow belonging to my parents to create our rustic party festival vibe!
We had a polaroid photo booth and found some old painters ladder on ebay to hang the Table Plans on. We also chopped down a load of trees in Chris’s parents garden to make little ornamental stools for candles, with a lot of the chunkier branches used as place card holders. These took forever to sand down and were cut by hand too.
The focal point of the dance floor was a huge 75cm mirror ball that Chris hired from White Light along with ten par cans to illuminate top of the tipi. He also hired a haze machine with Buffalo Tipi supplying the dance floor and staging.
Land Rover Pizza Oven and Cheese Stack Cake
For all our catering we used The Wild Oven. These guys are fantastic! All of their food is cooked in a real wooden pizza oven built into the back of a Land Rover Defender. We opted for big sharing boards for starters, mains and dessert. We also had some beautiful canapés at the reception and some after dark pizza and chocolate covered marshmallows which was a real hit! We had a cheese stack cake from The Courtyard Dairy and during the day we had a ‘Help Yourself’ bar with wines and beer that we bought in from different places.
Caravan Bar and Coffee Van
We also brought in Narelle and her stunning little caravan bar Margot for the after dinner evening drinks. The Roaming Caravan Company is amazing and super stunning. As we had the field for the whole weekend with people staying on site, we decided to have a breakfast for the campers and a big send-off BBQ for all the guests the next day. Chris being a huge coffee lover also meant that we organised a proper coffee van (Grouch Coffee) for the Sunday morning to help everyone get over their hangovers!
Rustic, British Grown Flowers
We chose March Hare as our florist, as they were local to the field and they really captured our vision. We wanted a rustic style with a wholesome vibe to match the wooden tables and tipi. We also made sure that a lot of the arrangements were easy to take away and the succulents and ferns could be re-potted. They arranged all of the floral arrangements for the tables and designed the wood rings that were suspended from the top of the tipi’s.
Gown by Grace Loves Lace Paired With Topshop Shoes
My dress was by Grace Loves Lace. I’d been following them for a while and was so delighted that they opened a showroom in London. It was important for me to wear a dress that was light and easy to wear because I knew I’d spend all night on the dance floor! I loved how simple and delicately detailed the dress was. My shoes were from Topshop.
Master of her Craft // Florence Fox Photography
Florence Fox photographed our day – her style of photography was exactly what we were looking for; informal, natural and real! We met for a ‘Snap & Chat’ in London a while before the wedding so we could get to know each – we can’t recommend this enough! We also opted for second photographer on the day, Faye, to come straight to the venue and get some shots whilst Florence spent time with the bridal party.
All in all, Florence is an absolute master of her craft, and we were blown away by how she captured our day. She was so discreet, and every time we look back at our photo’s, we are transported with all the happy feelings flooding right back to us. Florence also made our video. Click HERE to take a peek! h
1950’s Music Followed By Groom DJ Set
Chris has been DJ’ing since he was 12, so we had that side of things covered for the after party, but we thought a band would be a great way to kick start the celebrations! We found The Spitfires – they have an amazing repertoire of 50’s and 60’s music (which we both grew up listening to from our parents) and knew they would be perfect for everyone.
After the curfew for amplified music, we switched things over to a Silent Disco.
First Dance
Mac DeMarco – My Kind of Women Why, because it’s a beautifully, brutal, honest love song that really resonated with me (Chris) and sums up our relationship and has always been a very special song to both us! Plus, it was the song I proposed to.
Favourite Moment
Cannot decide, every single moment felt incredible! The ceremony, the food, music and spending time with the people we hold nearest and dearest to us really was the biggest highlight!
Any Advice?
Enjoy the preparations and planning stages – you’ll miss it when it’s over! Yes, it can be stressful, but you only get out what you put in! Talk to your suppliers, strike up a proper relationship beyond the cold sterile formalities of email and just be normal – more importantly, BE NICE!
Also if you can, spread the celebrations across a few days – it really is worth it. Oh and one more thing….don’t bankrupt yourself or your families!
The Line Up
Photographer: Florence Fox; Venue: The Cotswold Field of Dreams; Tipis: Buffalo Tipi | PodPads; Bride’s Dress: Grace Loves Lace; Bride’s Shoes: Topshop; Groom’s Outfit: Richard James; Bridesmaid’s Dresses: Debenhams; Bridesmaid’s Accessories: Rosa Bloom; Florist: March Hare; Stationery: Gracie Belle Studio; Sign Writer: Mark Hudson; Caterer: The Wild Oven; Cheese Stack: The Courtyard Dairy; Bar: The Roaming Caravan Company; Coffee Van: Grouch Coffee; Band: The Spitfires; Silent Disco: Silent Disco; Power: Green Farm Events; Loos and showers: Laughton’s Loos
Love the natural style