Fun Loving Festival Country Outdoor Wedding

Cathy and Duncan decided to get married on the 1^st August 2015 and it gave them a date to complete their venue Clopton Courtyard Cambridge. They envisioned an informal festival style day held al fresco and it looked utterly gorgeous from beginning to end. There was a real party atmosphere with plenty of fun, dancing and a camp-fire in the evening. The indoor/outdoor barn was just magical and I love the hay bale seating, bunting, and festoon lights.

Cathy wore a corker of a dress by Needle and Thread and she looked stunning. Duncan meanwhile chose a bespoke navy Reiss suit and gold tie. Countryside wedding heaven.

Thanks so much to Shooting Suzie Photography for sharing these dreamy images with us.

THE PROPOSAL | New York, September 2013.

THE VISION | A festival style informal wedding at our holiday retreat Clopton Courtyard in Cambridge.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | As an event planner, the planning process wasn’t too daunting, but the fact that we had to build the venue at the same time as planning the wedding made it a little more challenging. We brought in all the suppliers individually and did all the dressing ourselves, making use of the skills of friends and family who kindly offered to help.

BUDGET | £13k

THE VENUE | Clopton Courtyard Cambridge, our own holiday retreat we had been building since January 2013. The venue was a labour of love and the wedding gave us a deadline to work towards, which proved challenging but also very rewarding to see the results on the big day. Clopton Courtyard has now launched as an official boutique holiday retreat in Cambridgeshire, with accommodation for up to 27 people in 6 beautiful bespoke barns. In 2017 we will be launching as an official wedding venue, providing unique weddings for people looking for something a little more relaxed and a bit different.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Needle and Thread dress purchased online from Net-a-Porter. No accessories just my mum’s gold jewellery and shoes from Russell and Bromley.

FINDING THE DRESS | I was looking online for inspiration as I didn’t want to wear a traditional wedding dress and wasn’t even sure about wearing white/ cream. The plan was to do a shopping trip in London, however I stumbled upon the Needle and Thread dress online and decided to order it to see if it would work. Luckily it fit perfectly and came in way under budget. It was a little more ‘weddingy’ than I’d planned but I loved it and received lots of compliments about it.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Bespoke navy suit from Reiss with tie from Savile Row.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | My sisters did a speech during the ceremony about Duncan and I and my two best Uni friends Gemma and Sally tailored a reading to us so it was all very personal. I put together music for the entire day on my i-Pod, which ran through until the DJ arrived in the evening. The song, which played after the ceremony was ‘I’ll be There’ by The Four Tops, and our first dance (which everyone joined in for) was ‘A Little Respect’ by Erasure.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I didn’t have bridesmaids as this didn’t feel right for me, instead giving my closest friends and sisters roles. My 2 best friends gave a speech after the sit down meal, my sisters during the ceremony and other friends helped with various other tasks in the lead up and on the day. As part of their speech, my two best friends did put on joke 1980s bridesmaid dresses and continued to wear them for a couple of hours after their speech. This was hilarious!

THE FLOWERS | Duncan’s mum and dad provided the flowers with his sister’s family helping with the arranging and dressing.

THE CAKE | We didn’t have a wedding cake but Madame Bombon provided a chocolate table with amazing chocolate treats sculpted in various shapes and forms. She also included a lavish chocolate cake as part of the spread.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Shooting Suzie Photography provided us with beautiful photos of the day. We have had so many compliments and are incredibly happy with how they captured the wedding.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | All dressing was provided by Duncan’s mum and family. Duncan’s mum Bridget made lots of bunting out of a mix of different fabrics; she also made table runners for the long trestle tables. Various other touches added to the look of the day, including hay bale seating, an old typewriter and a Singer Sewing table.

THE HONEYMOON | An epic 3 week road trip in California travelling from San Francisco to San Diego via Yosemite and the wine regions. We booked it all through Mr and Mrs Smith who provided a brilliant service and we stayed in some spectacular places. Particularly Post Ranch Inn at Big Sur.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | When the local farmer drove past with farm machinery in the field behind during the ceremony, causing a lot of laughter. All the speeches, the amazing music provided by DJ John who played excellent 90s R&B and Indie Disco. My hair dresser Lee Cook who has been doing my hair for 8 years travelled from London to do my hair for me, so it was lovely to have someone I’d known for such a long time to take on this task.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Don’t build your own wedding venue and make your wedding the deadline! No, it was so lovely to have the scope to do whatever we wanted for the wedding due to no restrictions from the venue, so I would recommend choosing a venue that offers you plenty of flexibility rather than one which is all included. Of course, this wouldn’t work for everyone and might seem too daunting, but it enabled us to have a day which was exactly what we wanted in every way and very personal to us. Also, before spending loads of money on a dress, look online as you might be lucky like me and find something perfect. We saved a lot of money by asking our family and friends to help out in various ways, including all dressing, flowers, hair, make up, music, set up and some of the food, this was an amazing help and everyone was very happy to chip in. Make sure you find a photographer who is sensitive to what you’re after and be clear in advance. Kelly from Shooting Suzie was brilliant and the photos were exactly what we were hoping for.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Clopton Courtyard Cambridge

Photography | Shooting Suzie Photography

DJ |  John Shepherd

Pizza | Fired Up Pizza

Chocolates | Madame Bonbon Chocolatier

Bar | Bug Bar

Toilets | Mobile Thrones

Hair | Lee Cook Hairdressing

Ahhh such a spectacular day and setting.

Cathy and Duncan, thanks so much to you both for sharing your amazing wedding story xo Lou