Victoria and David chose Kitchen Garden Cafe in the heart of Kings Heath, Birmingham as the venue for their in intimate, colourful wedding. Inspired by tropical colours and florals, they worked closely with an up-and-coming local florist to create the most fun and colourful day. The addition of a neon signs and touches of leopard print made it feel totally custom and ‘them’.

“We wanted a wedding that was unique to us and different to any others we’d been to before”, Victoria told us. “We wanted a relaxed vibe and for guests to have a good time and no stuffy traditions. We wanted to do things our way, and keep it intimate. The inspiration was dark tropical vibes – lots of pineapples, Monstera leaves and palms, a giant mirror ball pinata, a temporary tattoo station from Doris Loves with custom tattoos and a retro photo booth.”

They tried to keep costs down as much as they could, doing a lot themselves and working with local businesses on everything else. The food, served by the cafe, was a hog roast with chips, mac & cheese and pizza. They also had locally brewed ale and created their own cocktails.

The bride designed all the stationery herself, from the invites to the signage, and did the table centrepieces with help from a friend. They got coconut shells and filled them with tropical leaves and foliage. They then added brass candlesticks and colourful candles. “I bought some mini pug dog figures from AliExpress and spray painted them gold and scattered across the tables”, Victoria explained. “I also bought 20 pineapples and spray-painted them different neon colours the day before the wedding! We had a gorgeous black wedding cake with neon tropical leaves plus lots of sweet treats including macarons, geo truffle hearts and tropical cookies, all made by small businesses.”

Victoria chose a custom Lucy Can’t Dance dress which as made from a fabric which looked like palm leaves to match the theme while David wore a shirt with palm trees on. The bridesmaids all chose their own dresses from a dark colour palette which really made the florals pop.

“Our biggest cost was definitely my wedding dress”, Victoria explained, “but I wouldn’t change it for the world! I’d been following Lucy Can’t Dance for years and it was my dream to visit their Essex studio and get a custom dress for my wedding and the whole experience didn’t disappoint! I spent a long time researching and trying to find a cost effective alternative but they simply didn’t exist! My dress was made to measure, I was able to combine two dresses together to get the perfect design, I also chose a dark grey to white dip dye for the slip dress underneath and I loved how the darker background enhanced the gorgeous leafy lace.”

“Another expense was the flowers but I was not going to compromise on this! Flowers were key to our tropical theme. I found the most perfect local florist who 100% got my theme which is so important, Libby at Hiya Petal absolutely smashed the brief out of the park”.

Although confident in their ideas and theme, Victoria did admit to, at times, falling into the trap of comparison. “I spent a lot of time watching wedding TikToks and Instagram videos which sometimes left me questioning things”, she said, “‘should I have done this?’, ‘Is my dress right?’, ‘Maybe I should have done a Shein haul’… But I quickly realised that it’s your wedding, your choice, so don’t get sucked into what’s trending on TikTok! These trends will pass and there’s plenty of other brides with heart shaped fans, Primark flip flops and pearl letters! You don’t need to buy a Cricut and do the same as everybody else – you do you!”