Morning gals! Hope you’re all feeling happy and rested after the weekend. Maybe you played guest at a wedding, or perhaps you spent your entire weekend planning for your own shindig? Wherever the weekend took you, I hope it was a gooden.

On to today’s glitter-laden festival wedding which took place in a field with a gorgeous marquee courtesy of Kent Marquees. Livvy and Toby were married in an outdoor humanist ceremony with music, readings and a symbolic hand fasting ritual. The couple knew exactly what they did and didn’t want for their wedding day, and tradition was placed rock bottom when it came to materialising their vision on the day….

We’re not the kind of people to follow rules and traditions so really we wanted a day full of our favourite things, even if they seemed a bit random!

Beautiful Livvy used her thrifty budgeting skills to create a festival inspired DIY reception, and even bought her stunning spaghetti-strapped, backlessBHLDN gown second-hand from online pre-loved site Still White. They went full ‘fest’ with colourful accessories, a Fish & Chip van and a fete-style ice cream tricycle, alongside brilliant music and a ton of glitter.

We love SO much about this wedding, but especially the way the bride rocks her blooming floral crown, and embroidered denim jacket. I’m a huge fan of the denim jacket anyway, but add an embroidered wedding slogan, a gorgeous floral pattern and team it up with a boho barefoot bride, and I’m in denim heaven. She pulls it off an absolute treat and so do her besties as they flaunt matching ones – such a cool bridal party!

With dog in tow, a beer boat and so many smiles on the day, this wedding is an epic example of how we love ‘festival’ to be done. Here’s lovely Livvy to share more about her DIY marquee wedding to Toby….

Low Key Engagement, Scottish Elopement and Big Summer Wedding with Family and Friends

Our engagement was very low key….it was less of a big proposal and more of a mutual decision that we came to when watching TV one evening! We eloped to Scotland on the 14th December 2017 to get married, and saved our big wedding party with friends and family until the 18th August 2018!

We were married in a Tree Field in Kent. The fields we chose are owned by Toby’s parents and so it was a sentimental choice as well as an aesthetic one. We absolutely love the lines of trees, and when walking through them, you feel a little bit hidden from the rest of the world. Perfect!

Tents, Campervans and Marquee

We had tents and campervans for guests staying the night. We actually ended up camping in our own campervan that night too!

We hired Kent Marquees and they were SO great – good value for money and lovely people to work with through the whole process. They couldn’t have been any friendlier!

Humanist Ceremony with Hand-fasting Ritual

We had a humanist ceremony conducted by the amazing Katie Keen from True Blue Ceremonies. She was on board with our ideas from the very start – she put together the ceremony brilliantly! Me and the bride tribe walked down the aisle to Ben Howard’s ‘Old Pine’. We had four different readings from friends and family – we loved listening to them all. We exchanged wedding rings (a detail we saved for this day instead of our elopement day) and had a hand-fasting.

We then subjected everybody to a sing-a-long to ‘500 Miles’ by The Proclaimers and walked down the confetti aisle to ‘Highway to Hell’ by AC/DC because, well, why the hell not! It might have dropped a few jaws but we didn’t care!

Marquee, Colourful Candles and Rustic Logs

Kent Marquees were great at supporting us with our decisions. We opted to go for just the outside of the marquee, so no lining, as we wanted to keep it simple. We also didn’t have a floor of any kind, just grass, which created a relaxed outdoor feel.

In terms of decoration, we kept it colourful and simple. I’m not sure if this is the right way to feel about wedding decorations but to us, we just wanted them to be as cheap and easy as possible so that we could spend our wedding budget on other things. We made our invites with the help of our friend Emily Hocking Art who painted them for us. The tables were named after the Hogwarts houses (very satisfying deciding who was allocated to each house!) and place cards were log circles cut up by Toby and painted by me. It’s amazing what you can do with a few colourful candles from Tiger, a few old spray painted jars and some cut up logs!

Instead of one cake, we organised a bake off competition and were so amazed by the amount of cakes our guests brought along with them!

Beautiful Second Hand BHLDN Dress from Still White

The dress, the dress, the dress. I got mine from Still White, the website that allows brides to sell on their wedding dresses to other brides to be! So I bought it second hand a couple of months before the day. Due to our low budget, I just couldn’t afford to do it any other way. I chose the Rosalind Dress from BHLDN. And I loved it! I wore it right up until the first dance where I changed into my ‘dancing outfit’! There is no wedding dress that can contain my dance moves so this really was a must for me!

I wore the most gorgeous ‘Just Married’ denim jacket made for me by Back Chat Design. I love this jacket so much and wore it all day. I also tried wearing it at the airport on our honeymoon to see if we got an upgrade anywhere – worth a try!

My hair was done by Gina at Bambi Salons. She also did all bridesmaids hair and make up. My make up was done by Toby’s Auntie Julia!

High Street Grooms and Bridesmaid Outfits

Toby didn’t want to wear a formal suit so we got his outfit in bits and pieces from various different places including ASOS, River Island and Next. The bridesmaid dresses were £30 each from New Look. Each bridesmaid had a denim jacket to go with the look and I bought them earrings and necklaces to wear too.

Brilliant Music and Cosmic Face Painting

We had the wonderful Jayne Snow sing after the ceremony whilst everyone was eating, drinking and chatting. She sounds amazing and she’s so friendly. All day we had guests commenting on how great she was. In the evening we had a band called the Hog Roast Band. They. Were. Brilliant! We’re already trying to find another reason to hire them! After the band finished, my friend the legendary DJ Dave, took over the music and the night went on from there. After dinner we also had a face painter, Clare from Cosmic Face Painting, who did a really cool design on my back and glittered everybody up and covered them in all kinds of amazing designs!

Fish & Chips, Ice Cream Tricycle and Wood Fired Pizzas

We used Flo’s Fryer Fish & Chips for our Fish & Chip dinner. We then had Treats on a Tricycle, a cute ice cream bike run by Rebecca and Cliff who I know really well through my job as a wedding photographer – they served their amazing ice creams just after dinner. During the evening, we hired Wow Cooking Wood Fired Pizza to keep all of our evening guests fed with an endless supply of incredible pizzas!

Relaxed Wedding Photography

Hollie Carlin Photography was our wedding photographer and we were so happy with our choice! She was everywhere at once and fitted in really easily. She kept everything so relaxed and it was just a pleasure to have her there on the day! We can’t wait to put an album together of all her beautiful photos.

First Dance

Our first dance was ‘Dakota’ by Stereophonics. Why? Haha! It’s a really special song for us. It’s popped up everywhere during the ten years we were together before tying the knot. We’ve sung it at festivals, (I remember Toby belting it out in the car when he’d pick me up from my house when we were both teenagers!), and it’s even cropped up in the strangest of places when we needed it most. I remember once we had an argument (or a heated discussion should I say!) outside a restaurant in Bath. Mid debate, a busker started to play this song acoustic on his guitar. It stopped us in our tracks! It seemed like a little sign that we had a good thing going here and not to ruin it. So, the song has been there through good and bad times and I have a feeling it always will be.

Favourite Moment

It’s so difficult to choose! Toby’s favourite moment of the day was the first dance, complete with confetti canons and our friends and family joining us on the dance floor. For me, I think it might have been the speeches before dinner. I wrote a speech myself as Toby wasn’t sure he wanted to do one. I was so nervous and absolutely dreaded doing it, but when I was up there, I actually really enjoyed it! It was great to be able to thank everyone who’d helped us with everything and tell a few stories. Hearing the other speeches was really special for the both of us too.

Any Advice?

Do what you want to do, not what you think you have to do!

The Line Up

Photographer: Hollie Carlin Photography; Marquee: Kent Marquees; Celebrant: True Blue Ceremonies; Bride’s Dress: BHLDN from Still White; Groom’s Outfit: ASOS, River Island and Next; Denim Jacket: Back Chat Design; Hair: Bambi Salons; Florist: Dream of Flowers; Fish ‘n’ Chips: Flo’s Fryer Fish & Chips; Pizza: Wow Cooking Wood Fired Pizza; Ice Cream Bike: Treats on a Tricycle; Singer: Jayne Snow; Band: Hog Roast Band; Face Painter: Cosmic Face Painting



GET OUR LATEST NEWS & WEDDING TIPS

Wedding beauty on its way!

Pin It on Pinterest