Chris and Emmy were married early in the day, so they wanted to lay on lots of entertainment for their guests. “We wanted a day that was relaxed, fun and family-friendly”, wrote the bride. “We had our humanist hand fasting ceremony at 10:30 in the morning, so we wanted to make sure there was plenty for our guests to do throughout the day. We go to a lot of festivals and run a dance tent with my family called the Griffin Tent, so we used that as a starting point, using the marquee and having a pub quiz and live bands in the afternoon.”
“The river running through Loudwater Farm is the same river we both played in as children (we’ve known each other since we were 11!), so we had fishing nets and wellies for everyone to paddle. We added archery, circus toys, dreamcatcher making and an art and crafts den, and finished up with a silent disco.”
The bride’s dress was from Free People and she wore a corset over the top from Corset Story. There was plenty of DIY, including the cake, the flowers, the stationery and the lunch! They had wood-fired pizzas from Ruffwood Pizza Co in the evening.
“When we started planning, I was so inspired by all the amazing wedding blogs out there like Rock n Roll Bride, that I had an overload of theme inspiration!” she continued. “I loved all of the festival, vintage, eco, rustic, DIY and bohemian weddings and wanted to combine some of the things I loved from all of these wedding themes. But I had no idea whether it would work combining all these different styles, or would just look like a confused mish-mash. In the end I think it worked!”
“We DIY’d the majority of the wedding, partly out of necessity to save money, partly to upcycle as much as we could to be as eco-friendly as possible, and partly because we just love the home-made aesthetic. So many friends and family helped; my brother Joe wired and painted all of the pendant light fittings himself, my Grandad took a week off work to build his amazing ice cream cart, my Grandma did a brilliant job sewing the cushions and floor for the tent, and my auntie Helen did all of the flowers. Everyone came together the day before and after the wedding, helping to set up and take down all of the decorations.”
“My favourite part of the wedding was our rustic banquet lunch”, she said. “looking down the tables and seeing everyone we love sitting together, laughing and smiling. I also loved the poetry reading my brother and friends did for us from ‘Erotic Poetry for Vegans and Vegetarians’; they all got really into it and it was hilarious! The most memorable moment was probably when Chris jumped on stage during one of the bands though. He grabbed his ukulele and performed an impromptu duet of ‘Tribute’ by Tenacious D, complete with ridiculous voices!”
