Colourful & Joyful Festival Vibe DIY Wedding

Gareth proposed in Barcelona on my birthday, in front of La Fonta Magica (the Magic Fountain) a full day of being tourists in between cava and sangria stops. He got down on one knee in the middle of the road (in the cycle lane) on the pretence that he wanted to take a photo of me.

We met in 2014 at Shambala, so we wanted to recreate the glittery, colourful joy that comes with summer festival season. We also wanted to make the wedding inclusive both in terms of being relaxed and not costing our guests a lot to attend. We wanted to create our own wedding with the help of friends so that it was personal and people could offer their skills/creativity rather than feeling like they needed to buy us a wedding present.

It was really special to have so many people involved and the feedback suggested that those who helped really felt very much part of the day which was really special.

c.£15k

Holsome Farm @holsomepark – a working farm, with a camping field in the summer holidays and a magnificent barn for events. This meant our friends could bring tents and vans and didn’t need to pay for accommodation. This was really important to us. Ours was the first wedding held at the venue. Louise and Gray were really involved in the preparations and even joined us on the day with their two children.

My dress was from Browns in Totnes @brownstotnes – it was a Cymbeline dress from the previous season and I fell in love with it immediately. Shoes were from Patricia Blanchet and took A LONG time to source, but were discarded in favour of a pair of white converse as soon as the formalities were over (we were in a field after all). I wore a Rosa Bloom @thisisrosabloom sequinned cape for the evening to jazz it all up a bit.

Gareth pulled his and his ushers’ outfits together predominantly from the high street, but they all wore custom made waistcoats from Empire Outlet and their ties were vegan silk to stick with the Totnes theme! I gifted Gareth a sequinned waistcoat to match my cape for the dancefloor that was made by our friend @sophiekittenclothing.

The bridesmaids all wore outfits that I pulled together from various places, with little tops made by @sophiekittenclothing again. The main objective was colour and I think we achieved it!

Our ceremony was compared by our friend Keira. We gathered everyone together in the woods outside the barn, which was decorated with bunting and lanterns. Summer flowers were hung from shepherds’ hooks in a line to create an aisle for me and the bridesmaids to walk down when we arrived. A number of our friends and family did readings for us and Holly’s cousin sang beautifully (which brought everyone to tears).

Apart from family, who sat on straw bales in the front two rows, guests all stood amongst the trees, so we kept the ceremony short, only long enough for our rings to be passed along a ball of homemade string to reach everyone for their blessing. Gareth’s best friends created an arch for us to stand under whilst we read our personalised vows, which were heartfelt but peppered with a bit of humour which our photographer Emma @emmastonerphoto captured beautifully in the photos.

Emma was our photographer @emmastonerphoto. She specialises in festival weddings and is from Totnes so it was a perfect match for us. Emma shot both the registry office ceremony and the party at the weekend. The photos speak for themselves, they really capture the joy of the day – they are beautiful. They are a real blend of capturing natural moments of the day and setting up some stunning shots, particularly at sunset.

Stu @everfilmco worked with Emma on the day to create a film of the highlights. He set it to music played by our band and it is magical. We often watch it to remind ourselves of how special our day was.

Everything was either arranged by us or a contribution from a friend. The theme was bright, colourful and festivally and the colour scheme was pink, yellow and orange. – Gareth’s best friend Dommi @crackleandpop created the ‘brand’ for the invitations – the theme for which then ran through the whole day. – I made all the signs – hand sprayed, hand painted and then varnished.

– My brother (with his beautiful architects writing) created the table plan. – Our friend Georgie made the cake and the cake topper my parents’ house (with an oven she had never used before). – My friends arranged the flowers. – Gareth’s mum fashioned the buttonholes for the boys. – The barn was decorated by us with a troop of friends who joined us for nearly a week to get it all ready (with a final push from those who arrived the day before the wedding).

– My brother and Gareth’s best man made the bar out of pallets – which was done with much humour and in record time. – Handmade bunting was donated for the day by various talented friends. It was a real team effort and we loved every minute of pulling it together.

We had two (and a mini-moon). We started with Farmfest in Bruton for a little weekend away in our van Dora in mid-July (straight after the wedding). Later in September we went to Portugal for 10 days and visited Porto, Lisbon and a few places on the Atlantic Coast for a little break. The piece de resistance was a three week trip to Sri Lanka over Christmas (just before Covid hit – we were very lucky).

It was a real adventure and we are so grateful for our time there, especially now we have added to the family with Ralphy (our two-year-old Golden Retriever) and Tobin (our baby born in March 2022), so another trip like that feels like it could be a while away now!

– The sunset. – Walking into the barn with it full of all our friends – it was quite a cheer! – Sitting in the woods chatting to friends after the ceremony. – The bonfire at the end of the night.

Get friends to contribute! Your wedding will be so much more memorable to people if they have played a part in creating it and they will enjoy it so much more! So many of our friends helped set up our wedding and it was a joy to spend time with them doing that as the day will go by in a heartbeat. Be flexible. If something has to change on the day, let it change. As long as you get married and you have a good time, that’s all that really matters.

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Colourful & Joyful Festival Vibe DIY Wedding

Gareth proposed in Barcelona on my birthday, in front of La Fonta Magica (the Magic Fountain) a full day of being tourists in between cava and sangria stops. He got down on one knee in the middle of the road (in the cycle lane) on the pretence that he wanted to take a photo of me.

The Proposal

The Vision

It was really special to have so many people involved and the feedback suggested that those who helped really felt very much part of the day which was really special.

The Vision

c.£15k

Budget

The Venue

Your Outfits

Your Outfits

The bridesmaids all wore outfits that I pulled together from various places, with little tops made by @sophiekittenclothing again. The main objective was colour and I think we achieved it!

Your Outfits

The Ceremony & Music

The Ceremony & Music

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Stu @everfilmco worked with Emma on the day to create a film of the highlights. He set it to music played by our band and it is magical. We often watch it to remind ourselves of how special our day was.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

The Styling & Decor

The Styling & Decor

– My brother and Gareth’s best man made the bar out of pallets – which was done with much humour and in record time. – Handmade bunting was donated for the day by various talented friends. It was a real team effort and we loved every minute of pulling it together.

The Styling & Decor

The Honeymoon

It was a real adventure and we are so grateful for our time there, especially now we have added to the family with Ralphy (our two-year-old Golden Retriever) and Tobin (our baby born in March 2022), so another trip like that feels like it could be a while away now!

The Honeymoon

– The sunset. – Walking into the barn with it full of all our friends – it was quite a cheer! – Sitting in the woods chatting to friends after the ceremony. – The bonfire at the end of the night.

Memorable Moments

Advice For Other Couples

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