Romantic & Rustic Country Tipi Wedding

Hip hip hooray. It’s time to celebrate this pretty as a picture affair in the countryside.

WWW readers Chris and Jess chose to get married on the 30^th April 2016 and decided on a country tipi celebration in a village setting. They hoped to create a relaxed, rustic and fun day with the sweetest styling. Think an array of seasonal natural blooms, rustic metal elements and a magical tipi filled with tulle pom poms.

The bridesmaids outfits may go down in history as one of my fave ever looks, swishy whimsy tulle skirts, flower crowns and a big bow for good measure. Jess had her dreamy frock made for her and it looked just incredible. Wow wee, this is one super beautiful wedding.

Thanks so much to Jodie Cooling Photography for sharing these gorgeous images with us.

THE PROPOSAL | Seriously special – ‘Marry me?’ in fireworks on the beach in Malta.

THE VISION | Relaxed, fun and romantic country wedding. But I didn’t want to follow the ‘hessian & wood’ style rustic that’s been very popular over the last few years so set my sights on a galvanised rustic feel.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We know each other very well after 8 years together so we had a brief discussion on what was important.

THE VENUE | A friendly village farmer kindly lent us the use of his field and Country Tipis created a fabulous atmosphere with three large and one baby tipi all joined!

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Fiona Warren (her bridal label is The Grey Feather) put her heart and soul into the design and creation of my beautiful dress (which she named Rose). She is one talented young lady, she told me her dream was to make wedding dresses so not long after we got engaged I sat in the garden with her and asked if she was up for making mine! I was over the moon when she said she would love to and from there onwards I think I saw more of her for the next 6 months than I did Chris! It was her first wedding dress and it was perfect, she is wonderful!! At some point through the process we decided that we could add ‘an extra bit’ to make a rather long but soft and whimsical extra length to the train of my dress which I later on unclipped.. it was fabulous and created a real wow factor for the church!

As well as my dress Fiona (known as Fuff) also made my garter and the gown my mum had secretly commissioned for me to wear on the morning of the wedding. It was beautiful and a truly special addition with the same lace as my wedding dress!

FINDING THE DRESS | Finding the dress was easy as I knew I wanted Fuff to be given the chance to start her dream business and make her first dress. So we visited 3 bridal shops and I tried a number on but didn’t fall in love with any. Fuff then designed a dress based on the bits I had liked from all the different ones.. and the process began..

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Chris the ushers and father of the bride hired suits from Henry’s in Banbury. We did purchase nice white shirts for each of them and had there initials embroidered onto the cuff.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | First reading was Song of Songs read by my brother and the second a lovely poem called Bubbles read by my cousin Isaac.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My bridesmaids were my two best friends and my two younger cousins. The wore soft grey tulle skirts also made by Fiona Warren at The Grey Feather, with white slash neck tops from ASOS which Fuff changed the sleeves from full to ¾ length to give a more elegant look.

THE FLOWERS | Bride and bridesmaids 3 bouquets and 2 floral crowns for the younger bridesmaids were done by the lovely Chloe at Bare Blooms who lives in a local village.

The flowers in the church and the tipis were all done by my aunty Kitty along with the help of her friend. Displayed in yet more tins in a variation of sizes along with any old galvanised watering cans and pots we could find between us. Kitty and I ordered and collected the flowers on the Thursday morning at the crack of dawn.

THE CAKE | My wonderful 13 year old cousin created the delicious 3 tiered ‘naked’ cake.. lemon drizzle, lavender and almond! YUM.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | The wonderful Jodie Cooling Photography! We both love the photos Jodie takes, they feel relaxed and she makes you feel very comfortable (as I hate having my picture taken that was key!) It’s a bonus that she lives locally and is a total joy to have as part of the day!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Made and recycled!

My best bargain was 60 white wicker hearts from B&Q.. I was cheeky enough to ask if they would do a deal if I brought 60, if you don’t ask you don’t get and they gave us a great deal!

Table flowers were displayed in tins so we ate a lot of tinned tomatoes, chick peas and beans in the run up. Per table of 6 there were 4 tins of flowers so I decided to leave one per table just a silver tin, sprayed one matte light grey, one matte dark grey and the 4^th one per table was one of the 3 options but the bottom 3^rd was dipped in silver glitter. It jazzed a set of tins up but was still relaxed and rustic!

Pompoms where made out of tulle (like my dress and the bridesmaid skirts) in navy, grey and ivory. My mum and grandma spent hours making them! I felt the tulle looked softer and more whimsical than ordinary paper ones!

In the baby tipi we created a snug area with seats and benches so added a ladder found at an antiques cellar to hang blankets over and a table from home to but giant (catering size) tins full of sweets on. We also had a marshmallow roasting table two (not for getting the chocolate digestives for smores) which was taken outside by the fire pits later in the evening!

The table plan was a pallet with yet more tins screwed to it which we planted with flowers and stuck the tables to each tin. On the tables we had written names on grey slate pebbles my parents had collected on the beach.

THE HONEYMOON | Bali… absolutely beautiful!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | My dad giving me a necklace he had made on the wedding morning.

Walking from my parents’ house down the village high street to the church.

Chris’s jump as we walked back down the aisle together!

Father of the brides speech ‘an ode to Jess’.

Sparklers at dusk!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Enjoy it… its your day everyone is there to celebrate with you so make choices for you two no one else.

Relax… it does not need to be stressful!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Jodie Cooling Photography

Tipi | Country Tipis

Dresses | The Grey Feather

Florist | Bare Blooms

Ekkk so very fabulous.

Thanks so much to Chris and Jess for sharing their wonderful wedding story with us xo Lou