Amy described her summer wedding as ‘fun, orange, turquoise, Katy Perry, Mexico, sweet shops, rainbow, peach, Geoff Mcfetridge and perfect pop!’ With a theme like that you know you’re going to be in for real treat! She married Matthew at The Cheerful Chilli Barn in Otley in July.
“We decorated the venue with flowers from our mum’s gardens, and succulents and plants from Leeds market in spray painted tin cans” she began. “We also a lot of bright and super cheerful plastic flowers from Leeds market which were £1 a bunch! We saved lots of money by having so many fake flowers and it’s nice to still have them in our house.”
We did so much DIY. The sewing machine was worn out with meters and meters of paper bunting and we made 11 giant paper flowers. I had a pre-hen do with my bridesmaids and mother-in-law where we made straw bunting too which was super easy and looks great! We collected tin cans which we then spray painted and used them as planters for our succulents and house plants and placed them around the venue.”
“We drank a lot of Orangina on our first holiday together in Croatia and brought some bottles home, so when Matt suggested using them as vases for the wedding it was perfect. We bought 24 extra bottles from a drink’s warehouse and drunk our way through lots of pop to get our vases sorted! They looked great and it also felt personal to us.”
Their biggest expense was hiring the marquee. “Marquees are expensive!” she said. “We ended up having to increase the size of it twice – firstly because we wanted to invite more people, secondly – because more people confirmed than expected and we had to think about worst case scenario in terms of weather and re-arranging the venue after the ceremony for the food! It’s a good job we did because it was a rainy day and our guests may have got a bit soggy if we had thrown them outside! We also decided to not use the barn to eat and have everyone in the marquee so everyone felt included.”
“Finally, our photographers, James and Lianne, were wonderful” she said. “James helped keep me calm whilst the bridesmaids were getting ready in another room. None of the ushers would’ve had their buttonholes on properly without Lianne. Lianne also kept Matt calm and advised the men to take coats (it was raining). They did beyond their job as photographers.”
“Yes, wedding photos are expensive and if they are not then be sceptical! Matt really wasn’t convinced about spending so much money on a photographer when we know some great photographers ourselves – but capturing all the events of a wedding day is HARD and you need someone with great experience. It’s now the money we were happiest to spend. No regrets at all.”
