Colourful Wildflower-Explosion Wedding With Friendly Party Vibes

Being avid walkers there was no better place for Joe to propose than the Exmoor coastal path, although not everything went to plan. After several attempts at trying to locate the ‘perfect spot’ but none of them going to plan (including our dog almost wandering off the cliff in one spot) Joe had started to panic as the walk was coming to an end. Feeling a bit rushed Joe spotted a bench halfway down the cliff and he suggested we go and have a sit.

I was more inclined to get to the pub but followed him down the path to the bench. Sat next to Joe he asked me ‘Do you want to see something cool?’ then proceeded to get down on one knee. I expected the next words to be ‘Will you marry me?’ but alas they never came, instead Joe said ‘There’s an old woman behind you.’ By this point though he’d already pulled the ring out and in his confusion was putting it on my finger.

I turned to see there was indeed an old woman behind us scrabbling down the path. She suddenly realised what she had stumbled upon and became very apologetic about ruining a ‘beautiful moment’. Although, instead of continuing on her way she insisted on doing us a very adhoc proposal photo shoot – on her phone… Several poses later, Christine carried on her way and Joe finally asked the questions. Of course I said yes.

As Joe said in his speech, I have an ‘aversion to anything void of colour’ and our wedding was no different. What started as a wish for wildflowers everywhere quickly became a colour explosion that to everyone’s surprise really worked. We wanted to create a space where everyone felt like they could catch up with friends and have a great time. Whilst still ensuring there were lots of personal touches

that represented us as a couple (cocktails named after our pets and personal notes on each place setting helped with this). Our friends and family really mean a lot to us and we decided fairly early our priority was the guests having a good time. I feel we really achieved this!

£30,000

We got married and had the reception at the Stone Barn in Upper Windrush. We only saw two venues and this was the first. We knew it was the one without even talking to each other. The Stone Barn offered us a unique space that catered to both the ceremony and reception. Despite being a ‘barn’ its corrugated iron walls and fairy light ceiling set it apart from other places we saw online. It is also renowned for its food

and this was important to us, another one of its defining features being a large indoor bbq and open kitchen. Also, despite being a catered venue, we still had complete freedom with the décor and other aspects, so it still felt like we had all the control without the stress of needing to do everything ourselves. We have received so many compliments from the guests on the venue and the glorious fields that surround it made for ample photo opportunities!

The ceremony was at the Stone Barn with 115 of our friends and family. We had a good friend of ours play the piano as I entered, and she did an amazing job. She composed a version of ‘Now we are free’ from Gladiator so that the timing worked perfectly with my entrance. This is one of Joe’s favourite songs and I sneakily changed my aisle song to this before the ceremony as a surprise. Turned out he was too busy looking at me to realise!

The ceremony was full of giggles and awkwardness, which just about sums Joe and I up. We had three fantastic readings by my younger brother, two close friends and Joe’s Dad. They all meant a lot. Joe was also clearly keen to get the party started as signalled for our exit music to start before we’d even signed the register! Causing much confusion to everyone in the room!

Music featured a lot in the day. We had our fantastic MC and good friend, who also happened to be a pro sax player play ‘everlasting love’ as he introduced us into the meal. I didn’t realise what an entrance we’d be getting, but Joe loved every minute, and we danced our way to our seats with all our guests up and cheering. We kicked things off after dinner with a choreographed dance to ‘Is that Alright’ by Lady Gaga, breaking into ‘Easy Love’ by Sigala.

Despite the numerous lifts, and one restart due to the music cutting out, both Joe and I were ready to party after this. To keep everyone moving we had the five-piece band, Mister Shakes play 3 live sets interspersed with DJ sets. They were absolutely brilliant! We specifically requested 90’s dance from midnight onwards, to ensure the dance floor was full all night long.

Much like the venue my dress was the first I tried on. Although, I tried many, many more on before realising it had been love at first sight. I wore a Madi Lane a line dress in ivory with a long train and boho lace design. I had a matching veil made and added some of the petals onto the head. It certainly made a statement! I knew I wanted a dress I could put on and not worry about and this was definitely that.

Despite being long it was comfortable and even survived the dance floor! I also had handpainted shoes to fit in with the colourful wildflower theme. I even had our pets beautifully handpainted onto the soles! Such a great touch! The wonderful Claire at MACH management did my make up and hair. I had a boho plait that looked stunning and really complimented the low back of the dress.

I kept make up quite natural and fresh as don’t usually wear very much. As someone who is rarely without colourful nails, I should also mention those. The brilliant Gabby at the Gossip Nail Bar encapsulated petals into my nails, to give me some truly unique bridal nails. Joe’s suit was less straightforward. After trying to be organised and find a suit early, we were told the Spring season suits were not yet in stock and to try a few months later.

We clearly waited too long as it then became very tricky to find Joe’s dream suit. After searching what felt like every suit shop on in the South West Joe eventually found a tan tweed suit from a local Bristol suit shop – they could also supply all the groomsmen with one too! Despite not being convinced we’d got what we wanted, on the day they all looked amazing and complimented the bridesmaids and setting perfectly.

The bridesmaid dresses were from David’s Bridal. It isn’t easy finding teal dresses, so it was a relief when the swatch from David’s Bridal met my vision. We went for mismatched styles and luckily for me there were no arguments on who wanted which style. They all looked stunning!

Our photographer was Eve Dunlop and she was absolutely amazing. We got the photos back within two weeks and couldn’t stop looking at them. We knew we didn’t want loads of group shots that looked identical but with different groups of people and Eve was completely on board with this. We used coloured flares to spice up the bridal party shots and these are some of our favourites from the day.

Eve also knew the venue well, so knew exactly where to take us to get the post perfect sunset shot. The photos really told the story of the day from prep to the dance floor and really captured how much fun everyone had. Working with Eve was also a dream and by the end of the day she felt more like a friend at our wedding than a supplier. We couldn’t recommend her enough.

Having made the decision not to have a videographer due to cost we panicked two weeks before the wedding, worried we’d made the wrong decision. We stumbled across ‘The Wedding Story’, a company who use your own footage captured from the day but for a fraction of the price of a videographer. We luckily have a few friends trained in camera work and so their footage, combined with the footage the rest of the guests got produced a really personal video.

The guests really got on board with ensuring we had some brilliant footage. For a bit of fun we also had a VW campervan photobooth. We weren’t sure about this initially but it was an absolute hit with the guests and we loved looking through the photo book the next day!

I knew I wanted a wedding full of colour as I’ve never been one for mellow vibes. Our florist was over the moon with her brief of ‘anything but white or blush pink’ and totally exceeded our expectations. When two days before the wedding she messaged to say she’d found some giant pink and orange pampas leaves and should she add these to the ceiling wreath, I’d knew we’d found the right supplier.

We also had wild meadows on each table of magentas, oranges, yellows and eucalyptus, hanging greenery in the main barn and colour-popping bouquets (my own cascade bouquet was exquisite). The colour didn’t stop there though; we hung 78 giant coloured lanterns on the ceiling, made chiffon cerise table runners and I used hodge podge to dye a load of bottles various colours and added bottle lights to decorate the bar tables.

I also used an old pallet, pressed flowers and gold frames to make our seating chart and hand-painted an order of the day sign. All our signage was made by a friend’s mum as a wedding present and designed by me. This included personal cocktail menus named after our pets – (BARK and Stormy’s and Espresso MEOWtini’s anyone?) and a ceremony booklet including fun facts about the wedding prep.

We kept the colourful wildflower theme running through these and it helped bring everything together. On the tables we decided to hand write everyone’s place setting with a special message to them. This felt really important as I know it can be really difficult to speak to everyone you want to at a wedding. Doing this meant everyone knew we were thinking about them.

We also decided not to have favours, as didn’t want any waste. Instead, we locked drink tokens inside a book with the middle cut out and gave each table clues specific to the people sat on the tables. They had to work out the clues, which revealed a code so they could crack open the book. The idea came to us over a glass of wine and the random cheering we heard throughout dinner would suggest people enjoyed it!

Not wanting anyone to go hungry, we provided a dessert bar alongside pizza for evening food. I found some tree stumps on gumtree and used flowerpots and crates to give it different heights. Our florist also provided some stems to tie in the theme. Close friends and family cooked various bakes for the bar based on us as a couple (i.e. anzac biscuits for our time in Australia and Joe’s mum’s brownies which we can’t resist!) and we also had cupcakes with our pets on which looked amazing.

The cake took centre stage and was made by a local supplier in Bristol. Being a couple who loves the sea, we wanted this tied in somehow and she really managed this, whilst making the cake match with everything else. The barn was already adorned with fairy lights, so we didn’t need to add many of these, but we did add a large DANCE sign to the dance floor. This has made an excellent backdrop for the first dance photos.

We had a few days down in Cornwall following the wedding just to unwind but will be heading to The Seychelles in June. We haven’t been away for a really long time, so we are super excited about this!

So many memorable moments, but the ones that stand out: – Joe signalling for the exit music halfway through the ceremony, causing a lot of very confused guests and registrar! – Having our pup Dougal present for the drink’s reception. – Our entrance to our meal – dancing into an ‘Everlasting love’ being played on the Sax with 115 of your guests up and dancing certainly set the tone for the day. – The best man’s speech – I don’t think Joe or I have ever laughed so hard. He really hit the mark.

– Using the smoke flares in the group shots, but not expecting them to run on for so long and everyone having to duck for cover to avoid becoming a bright pink and orange mess. – The music cutting out halfway into our first dance, just as Joe had lifted me into the air and us having to start again. – The final song being played and our guests just carried on singing acapella. A really brilliant way to end the night.

Start prep early! Don’t let anyone say ‘you’ve got loads of time’. I was making certain things a year in advance just because I didn’t want to feel really rushed in the lead up and I am so glad I did this as it meant the week before was slightly calmer than expected. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. We had people making, helping with the décor and filming on the day and no one minded at all. People love to be involved in any way and we found using our friends’ skills made the day all that more personal.

Do a choreographed first dance! This was one of my favourite things. Not only was it a great activity to do together in the lead up to the wedding but everyone said how amazing it was once we’d done it. It helped get the party started! Use colour! I was quite surprised by how many people said they’d never been to a colourful wedding but loved the fact we had used so much. I really think it helped keep the good vibes going all day.

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Colourful Wildflower-Explosion Wedding With Friendly Party Vibes

The Proposal

The Proposal

The Proposal

The Vision

that represented us as a couple (cocktails named after our pets and personal notes on each place setting helped with this). Our friends and family really mean a lot to us and we decided fairly early our priority was the guests having a good time. I feel we really achieved this!

The Vision

£30,000

Budget

The Venue

The Venue

The Ceremony & Music

The Ceremony & Music

The Ceremony & Music

The Ceremony & Music

Your Outfits

Your Outfits

Your Outfits

Your Outfits

The bridesmaid dresses were from David’s Bridal. It isn’t easy finding teal dresses, so it was a relief when the swatch from David’s Bridal met my vision. We went for mismatched styles and luckily for me there were no arguments on who wanted which style. They all looked stunning!

Your Outfits

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

The guests really got on board with ensuring we had some brilliant footage. For a bit of fun we also had a VW campervan photobooth. We weren’t sure about this initially but it was an absolute hit with the guests and we loved looking through the photo book the next day!

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

The Styling & Decor

The Styling & Decor

The Styling & Decor

The Styling & Decor

The Styling & Decor

The Styling & Decor

The Styling & Decor

We had a few days down in Cornwall following the wedding just to unwind but will be heading to The Seychelles in June. We haven’t been away for a really long time, so we are super excited about this!

The Honeymoon

Memorable Moments

Memorable Moments

Advice For Other Couples

Advice For Other Couples

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