We love today’s real wedding. If ever there was a wedding day that perfectly encapsulates what Festival Brides is all about, it would be Shaun and Emma’s. It is full of festival inspired decor, DIY personal touches (they designed and made all of the stationery themselves, including the table plan and name cards), a laid-back party atmosphere, outdoor wedding suppliers, bohemian style and, of course, so many beautiful and happy smiles. Their venue, the gorgeous Brook Farm, Cuffley, offered the perfect outdoor wedding venue for their ideas and gave them the freedom to dress the space as they wish. They created chill out areas, hung festoon lighting, made festival inspired wedding signs and built two naked tipis. On top of that, they filled their wedding decor with personal handmade touches which included a four tiered Guinness cake which they baked themselves to keep costs down.
Emma used Pinterest and wedding blogs (including us!) to help cultivate her ideas. She explains…
The day after we got engaged, England were playing in the World Cup which gave me a couple of hours to discover how much I loved Pinterest so I discovered a lot on there, and through different wedding blogs, Festival Brides being a firm favourite. Shaun mainly concentrated on looking at wedding blogs on food vans and sweet tables. All the weddings that jumped out to us were festival-style and full of colour, DIY and personal touches and that was what we wanted to go for.
Featuring members of our Festival Wedding Directory, including the lovely Kirsty Mackenzie Photography who captured their wedding so brilliantly, Emma and Shaun share with us their day and how it all began. Grab your tissues peeps, as the way Shaun proposed has set me off today! Just amazing.
Enjoy gorgeous people.
I have a question to ask…
My family have a small holiday home down in Dorset, and it really is my happy place. Shaun and I went for a long weekend, and Shaun suggested we each plan a day and surprise the other. On Shaun’s day, he took me to look around some beautiful gardens and eat cake, followed by a woodland walk. We then stopped for a picnic lunch at our favourite outdoor spot in the New Forest. After we finished eating, Shaun presented me with a handmade book full of photos and memories. The final page was a picture of us in the spot we were sitting, and it said, “and that brings us to today. I have a question to ask”, and on the final page was an envelope with a slip of paper inside that said, “look up.” I was, of course, blubbing uncontrollably at this point, and looked up to see Shaun on one knee!
Crochet Lace and Tassels…
I chose the Woodrose by Willowby dress, which I found at Heritage Brides in Hatfield House – a gorgeous boutique shop covered in fairy lights with really unique, bohemian and vintage dresses. As soon as I saw the dress, I just loved it. I loved the crochet-look lace and the tassels (particularly on the back) were such a fun element and perfect for dancing.
I’m not the best at wearing heels for long periods of time and knew my dress would cover my shoes so I just went for a pair of strappy white heels from Office that I knew I’d wear again.
I wore a flower crown all day, and a veil too for the ceremony. I went for loose, wavy hair.
My jewellery was really special to me. I wore my Granny’s gold earrings, and a necklace that Shaun gave me the day before our wedding – a moonstone necklace from Monica Vinader.
A Natural Make-Up Look…
Emma Victoria did hair and make up for me, my sister, my mum and my four bridesmaids. She was amazing – she made everyone look natural but gave us bold enough make up that our eyes popped in photos. Emma was so laid back and relaxed on the morning – which is just the presence you want!
Bunches of Eucalyptus…
We had a Church ceremony and kept the décor simple with bunches of eucalyptus on pew ends. We kept music and readings traditional (though tried to pick the most modern-day friendly ones).
Laid Back, Relaxed, Bohemian and Outdoorsy…
We knew pretty quickly what style wedding we wanted – something laid back, relaxed, bohemian and outdoorsy. There were only a few options for outdoor spaces near where we lived, and as soon as we saw Brook Farm (it was only the second venue we saw), we were just blown away by how beautiful it was – festoon lighting, wild flowers, a little island on a lake and plenty of space for personal touches.
Chilled Out Vibe in a Tipi…
We hired a tipi for the reception space. You really don’t need a lot of decoration to make tipis pretty as most companies include fairy lights wrapped around the tent poles and this alone looks stunning. Our tipi company – tipis4hire – were amazing as they offered so many different finishing touches so you could make the furniture match your style. I particularly loved all the chill out furniture they offered, with low coffee tables, rugs, pouffes and Moroccan cushions – we had several sets outside and it really helped to create the chilled out vibes we wanted!
Eucalyptus and Wild Flowers…
We met our florist, Maria from Maria’s Flowers, at a local wedding fair. She was so lovely and the displays she had on show were full of eucalyptus and wild flowers which was exactly what I was looking for. Maria made us stunning flower crowns, beautiful bouquets and button holes, and created eucalyptus table runners for the venue. She also hung bouquets of eucalyptus on the ends of the Church pews where we got married, which were beautiful.
We had asked Maria for colourful flowers, with yellows and pinks and she nailed it. I don’t have a great knowledge of types of flowers but brought some images with me of bouquets I had seen online that I thought were pretty, and Maria came up with ideas based on those.
Festival Inspired Decor & A Donut Wall…
After looking at a lot of real weddings, there was definitely a few props that we knew that we wanted to include, and as we’re both very crafty, we wanted to build some things ourselves. We made a macramé seating plan, some photo displays, a festival-style signpost, a doughnut wall, an order of the day sign on an old wooden palette, and my favourite prop of the day – our naked tipi. For this, we actually used horse jumping poles that we bought from a local shop. We used rugs, chillout furniture, and lanterns outside to add to the bohemian feel.
Inside the tipi, we kept things quite simple. At the top table, we had peacock chairs for the two of us to sit on, because when else will you ever be able to sit on a throne if not on your wedding day? The tables just had eucalyptus table runners, candles and polaroid photos on them – our tables were named after our favourite countries that we have visited together, and each table had photos of us in those places instead of table numbers.
DIY Stationery…
All our stationary, we created ourselves. For our invitations, I (somehow) drew a tipi shape on Microsoft Word using the various line tools, used black and white patterns I’d found on the internet to decorate it and used some fonts I’d downloaded to add text. I then printed onto recycled brown Kraft card to give it a rustic feel, and we cut each one out into the shape of the tipi.
I also created our order of service, table plans and menus using Microsoft word just by downloading fonts and decorative images (like eucalyptus wreaths) online. I had luckily taking a calligraphy course while working as an event planner, so wrote our place cards ourselves too.
Catering That Went Above and Beyond…
We had canapes and a three-course wedding breakfast during the day. Kingfisher Caterers were amazing – we had several people tell us that it was the best wedding food they’d had! With an outdoor wedding on a dry site, you worry that the food quality will be compromised, but it was honestly really lovely food. The team were wonderful too, going above and beyond by storing and bringing out our wedding cake, helping the bar team to serve drinks, moving the top table and helping with décor the day before.
In the evening, Caffe Con Amor served pizzas from their pizza van. Guests could order the toppings they wanted and have fresh-baked pizza within 90 seconds. They even went around and handed leftovers out to guests towards the end of the evening.
Photos That Mean The World…
Kirsty Mackenzie was our photographer. She captured everything – all the fun, tears, hugs, terrible dancing – and our photos mean the world to us. When we were looking for a photographer, we wanted to make sure we went with someone whose images were colour and vibrant, without looking over-edited and Kirsty really ticked the box. It’s also really important that your photographer makes you feel at ease, and Kirsty is such a warm, chilled person that we knew we were in very good hands! In fact, one of the ushers actually fell a bit in love with her but sadly, she was getting married just after us, so it didn’t quite work out for him!
I would recommend, if you’re a bit nervous about having your photos taken, to do a pre-shoot too! We did, and it was a great opportunity to meet Kirsty, get comfortable in front of the camera, and get some more lovely photos to cherish!
A Four-tiered Chocolate Guinness Cake…
We made our own wedding cake. After looking at the cost of even simple wedding cakes, we decided to make a family favourite – a four-tier chocolate Guinness cake (Nigella’s recipe).
We made the cakes on a lovely sunny day, so would put one tier in the oven at a time, sunbathe until it was done and then do the next. We also made 150 of our favourite cookies – white chocolate and cranberry, and chocolate and peanut butter. For all the ingredients, we spent £42, and we had great fun making it.
We just froze the lot and defrosted and iced the cake the night before the wedding. We’d never made a multi-tier cake before but there are so many tutorials on how to assemble one that it was way easier than we thought it would be.
A Brilliant DJ…
We had a DJ – Mitch Matthews – who doubled up as our MC throughout the day who was brilliant. He played a lot of crowd pleasers and a real mix, just like we asked. For those who didn’t want to dance, we had a firepit and marshmallows outside.
Favourite Moments…
There are so many special moments! If I had to pick one, I’d probably say the moment where we took a moment to look out at all our guests during our wedding breakfast and just couldn’t believe how lucky we were! A few other special moments are:
- Walking into the tepee for our wedding breakfast, bopping along to Bob Marley in the background with everyone clapping us in
- My dance with her dad. We danced to Bruno Mars ‘Count on Me’
- Dancing like mad with our parents and friends on the stage after way too many Proseccos
Any Advice?
- Don’t worry too much about the minute details as guests aren’t likely to notice. Decide what’s most important to you and put the most effort into those elements – whether its finding your ideal band, making the venue look amazing, giving your guests great food or getting in as many personal elements as possible.
- Choosing the right photographer is so important! Of all the areas which you could DIY or do on the cheap, you shouldn’t with your wedding photography. When the wedding is over, what you are left with are the photographs and the memories they trigger.
- Set time aside for wedding planning and discussing the wedding, so that both of you are ready and prepared to make decisions, and so that it doesn’t take over your day to day life.
- DIY what you can but don’t push yourself too far. It’s really important to have fun with it. On the day, you don’t want to look at anything you’ve created with memories of stress or frustration. You want to be able to look at everything with joy and pride, so choose to only do what’s worth it.
- Don’t make any choices based on what you think will keep other people happy. When you look back on your wedding day, you’ll be more disappointed if you made decisions that you weren’t happy with, than anyone else would be if you chose what was right for you. Do what YOU want to do!
The Line Up…
Reception Venue: Brook Farm, Cuffley; Tipi Company: Tipis4Hire; Photographer: Kirsty Mackenzie Photography; Bride’s Dress: Woodrose by Willowby via Heritage Brides; Bride’s Shoes: Office; Bride’s Necklace: Monica Vinader; Groom’s Suit: Hawes & Curtis; Bridesmaid Dresses: Whistles; Bridesmaid Accessories: Moonstone Necklace via Not On The High Street; Caterers: Kingfisher Caterers; Evening Caterers: Café con Amore; Bar Hire: The Swig and Filly; Hair and Make-up: Emma Victoria; Florist: Maria’s Flowers; DJ: Mitch Matthews; Campervan Hire: Camperbug
