With the bride wearing vintage, the reception at Rich’s grandmother’s home, and music playing a huge part, this July wedding has all the makings of the perfect Rock n Roll celebration. The day was also a real DIY effort, with everyone pitching in to make it perfect.
A friend of the bride made her flower crown, all the flowers for the day were grown by friends and family and the stationery was made by the bride’s brother. The cakes were brought by the guests. They had a ‘bake-off’ competition and the everyone won comedy prizes!
“The flowers were styled by me and my good friend Blythe Bruckner”, began Rhian, “while the church flowers were arranged by Rich’s aunt Jo. The bar was made by my dad out of two old pallets from Rich’s uncle’s farm up the road. My brother made the ‘R&R’ sign out of the off cuts. My mum and I collected vintage salad bowls and cake plates from car boot sales and we painted the vintage glass vases with tester pot colours. The concrete cobbles that the vases sat on were also painted in tester pot colours by me! Using tester pots to paint everything was a revelation to making our colour scheme work! It also saved us a lot of money.”
“We made paper pom poms and hung them from driftwood collected by my aunt, uncle and cousins. The bunting made by my mum and the place names made by me. We also borrowed all the vintage tablecloths and canapé trays and my mum and one of my bridesmaids make the table plan.”
“Our wedding had a seaside summer festival theme”, she continued. “We really wanted something low key and informal. There genuinely was no stress involved and we made nearly everything ourselves (except the salads and pizzas). All our friends and family pitched in and helped in some way which was amazing and we kept everything as local as possible, sourcing only from Pembrokeshire and Gloucestershire.”
“The music was a massive part of the day”, she explained, “and was played by all of our best friends. It really blew me away and we are incredibly lucky to have such talented friends. They surprised us with one of my favourite Feist songs, including a trumpet solo from Joey Matchsticks, and Ross (the drummer) led an immense rendition of ‘Love shack’ that had the cliff top rocking!”
“We spend the most money on the marquee, the food and the booze (no-one likes a dry wedding!)” the bride concluded. “My dress was a real steal as I bought it for £65! It wasn’t in perfect condition (a few champagne marks) and it needed altering but I had a vision and went for it. I worried it may not come together but I loved my dress all the more for realising its potential.”
