I’m always so impressed when I hear that a bride made her own wedding dress, I mean damn girl, that’s some skill! When Tess married James she knew she wanted to have a go at making it herself so she’d have something completely one-of-a-kind to wear.
“Practically every part of our wedding was done by us”, said Tess. “Making my own dress was probably the scariest decision but I’m so glad I did it. It was the biggest DIY project of the wedding, a ridiculous idea in itself, but I was also pregnant for most of the planning and raising a new born for the latter part of it! It really was a mad thing to even attempt. Having said that, I’m so pleased with the way it turned out and that it was completely unique.”
Their wedding theme was a country fete, vintage tea party. “We really just focused on family, children and fun”, she continued. “We didn’t do a receiving line, table plan or sit down dinner as that just isn’t us. We tried to include a lot of quirky and fun details throughout and everything was personal reflected us. I’m a country girl so having hay bales as seating was a necessity and the wooden cable reel drums as tables was James’ inspired idea!”
“We were driven by keeping things fun and whimsical for the kids as children and family are a huge focus for us. This led to all the games: Splat the Prat (our take on ‘splat the rat’), a coconut shy, space hoppers, Tug ‘o War, Giant Jenga and croquet. We had playing cards, pick up sticks and dominoes as centrepieces.”
“We wanted the day to have a real homespun feeling. In terms of design we’ve always been interested in vintage pieces and wanted to keep little vintage touches present, as well as little nods to our own childhood and our relationship. We also wanted a cracking afternoon tea party so this idea for the catering also shaped the reception venue itself.”
“Something else we did that I’d really recommend was having a bench set well away from the wedding that we could sit and enjoy watching the whole thing take place from the outside. It was James’ idea and I loved it! The day goes by so quickly and there are so many things I barely remember that it was really special taking a few moments out to ourselves so we could see what we had created. It was nice to have time just us and our daughter, and so nice seeing how all our ideas had come together.”
