Anna & John

The Dress

Anna the Bride: John and I had decided that we wanted a tipi wedding, therefore I knew that I didn’t want a fuller, “Cinderella” dress as I wanted the dress to be akin to the surroundings and in my mind, it needed to be a classic and simple dress. I went to numerous bridal shops in my local area and in London and found what I thought was my dream dress. Me being me, I thought if I visited the designer directly I may save a couple of pounds. As you might have guessed that was not the case, so my visit to the designer was fruitless in that regard but it did lead me to my true dream dress. A beautiful lace dress by David Fielden with when I tried it on I just knew it was the one. It also made everyone cry. I paired the dress with a long trailing veil which was designed to include the same motif of my dress. It was simply perfect.

Bridal Accessories

I wanted a pair of shoes that I could wear all day. I went to Selfridges and tried on various designer shoes but I knew that none of them would stay on my feet all day. I couldn’t kid myself. It was then suggested to me that I look at Rainbow Shoes as they have various heal heights and padding for comfort. I found a perfect little pair for me. Further, the really good thing about Rainbow shoes is that they can be dyed. I had mine dyed to match the colour of my dress. Accessories wise I simply had my veil.

The Grooms Fashion

John went to Jack Bunneys in Barking. He wore a slim fitting half tailed royal blue Harrogate suit with a matching u-shaped dress waistcoat together with a tailored shirt. The tie and pocket were ivory. His groomsmen wore a French blue Worcester suit as we wanted them to be different by stylish. John had accessories – a tie collar pin and a pocket watch. They did make the look.

The Venue

We had decided that we wanted a vineyard reception. The idea stemmed from wanting a wedding in a vineyard in Tuscany, Italy but having realised that logistically it was going to be too hard. We visited numerous vineyards in Essex and Kent, and there are many surprisingly. Friday Street Farm was the last one we visited and it simply blew us away. We attended their open day which had a tipi set up and the view that guest would have was breath-taking - rolling hills, beautiful Kent countryside and surrounded by vineyards. I remember getting in the car and just looking at John and it was clear that he loved it too. It’s that same look you exchange when you are viewing a house and you are nudging and smiling at one another the whole way round as you both know this is the house. What really cemented our decision was that it was walking distance from the local church, East Suttons Church, Headcorn. We had found it all, a beautiful church and a beautiful vineyard.

Colour Scheme/Décor

Our theme was “Love Fest”. We knew we were going to have a party and we were in a field so the theme seemed apt. The idea was to decorate the venue to create a rustic and romantic festival. We had wooden creates, on which we placed the cake, jam jars filled with flowers and t-lights and decorated with string and lavender and wooden step ladders with buckets of lavender for the table plan. Tentario provided the stunning tipis for our day and also supplied lots of decorations for the tipis, which included fairy lights, fire pits and cushions. We tried to keep the décor simple and complimentary to the surrounding area and Friday Street Farm. One of my favourite things was our outside drinks area. It was an old wooden table on which we had decanters of pink lemonade and water and little milk bottles with drink me tags and stripped straws. To the side of the table were tin buckets full of beer and prosecco surrounded by wooden crates and flowers.

Flowers

Our florist and friend, Cassie Wootton, worked tirelessly both on the décor for the venue and the flowers. She was able to interpret our wishes perfectly and delivered  beautiful décor and bouquets and arrangements. She used an array of spring colours and flowers, including peonies and lavender, blended with greenery. The venue and the flowers looked beautiful.

The Wedding Party Fashion

I had four bridesmaids. The eldest was 30 and the youngest was 19. Equally they were all different heights and body shapes, therefore shopping for a dress to suit all the girls and which all the girls liked and were comfortable wearing was going to be a nightmare.  I therefore went straight to Twobirds. The Twobirds dresses are one dress with over 15 ways to wrap it so ideal for a group with different body shapes as they can tie it in a way which suits them. The dresses were an instant hit. The girls loved the ability to showcase their own styles as well as being comfortable. I had offered the girls the opportunity to choose any colour they wanted as we didn’t have a particular colour scheme, however they all opted for the same colour – platinum. They looked stunning. I had two flower girls and a page boy and their outfits were from Marks and Spencer.

Ceremony

We had a church ceremony in the beautiful East Suttons Church, Headcorn. The service was our favourite part of the whole day. John and I had been together 14 years and were therefore keen to savour every minute of our service. We were so fortunate in that our vicar, Fiona Haskett’s personality, enthusiasm and kindness made this possible, creating a very personal and memorable service for us and our guest, not only because of the views and readings but also because of the music we were allowed to play during the signage of the register and after. During the signage of the register we played Finley Quaye “Your love gets sweeter” and Bob Marley “Is this love” and we walked out to Chris Malinchak, “So Good to Me”.

Entertainment

During the drinks reception and dinner we hired a singer guitarist call Ben Williams. He was simply phenomenal. For the evening party we hired a function 1 sound system, and John and our friend compiled a playlist of house and disco music. However no party in our eyes is ever complete without a bongo player and saxophonist. Dezy and Klaus were the icing on the cake and really got the party started by accompanying our first dance, an upbeat house track, “To be in Love”.

Food

We are huge foodies so when we chose our ‘wedding breakfast’ we didn’t want small portions. We hired Limeberry Catering after having attended a tasting session and being impressed by the flavours and the portion sizes. They were full of suggestions and allowed us to create our own unique wedding breakfast menu of antipasti, chicken with truffle mash and a trio of desserts. They were brilliant - the food was delicious and the service was excellent. For the evening, we wanted something different to a typical buffet as we were not having a typical wedding. We hired a pizza van from . As foodies we wanted our evening food to be eaten and enjoyed by all. Pizza sprung to mind as we knew the smell would entice guests to the van. The food went down like a storm. We had to instruct the guys to cook more pizzas as they were such hit and guests kept commenting to us that they were the best pizzas they had ever eaten. Our cake was made by Holly Burley based in Essex. The design was based on a photo I had seen on Pintrest. I wanted a simple tiered frosted cream cake with peonies running down the side. The cake was delicious and was served as the sweet in the evening for the guests.

Photographer

We hired Jasmine Jade. Louise Perry had recommended her together with a number of other photographers but I loved Jasmine from the moment I met her and saw her portfolio. We had an engagement shoot was so much fun and a great experience on Friday Street Farm. The photographs were amazing and gave us reassurance that Jasmine was going to shoot great photos of our day – and she did. Jasmine was able to capture our day in a way which was both beautiful and quirky which suited John and I down to a “T”. She caught every moment and presented our wedding like no other photographer could I think. She was simply amazing.

Videographer

It was a very last minute decision to hire a videographer. The wedding spend had gone way beyond the budget and I remember spending countless hours trying to convince John that we needed one as we would regret it as I had seen article after article that had quoted brides’ biggest regret as not having hired a videographer. We eventually agreed that we could hire one and Louise said that Ben from Bar Productions was available. I had looked at their previous wedding videos and loved them. I met Ben at Liverpool Street after work for coffee and remember that I instantly clicked with him. He was completely on my level and I loved his enthusiasm for our wedding simply from my description I hired him there and then. Our wedding video blew our minds. It’s not a standard wedding video but rather a short film ten minute film and capture of wedding day perfectly. It also has the best men’s speeches together with our vows narrating it– hiring a videographer and Bar Productions was honestly the best decision.

Wedding Planner

What I hadn’t really thought about when deciding to have a tipi wedding is that they are more complicated than most. In that you are responsible for organising the venue, the site visits, the power, the toilets, water etc. as well as everything else that you ordinarily have to organise with a wedding. This realisation meant that I needed to find a wedding planner. I found Louise Perry using RMW’s recommended suppliers. I instantly loved her. She instilled confidence from the initial meeting and then at every stage of our journey. Louise is everything a wedding planner should be. Nothing was too small or ridiculous and she made our visions for our big day come to life. We really couldn’t have had a wedding like ours without Louise. If we had to do it all again, we would do it again with Louise as my planner.