Adventurous Festival Bohemian Wedding

WWW readers Spencer and Laura imagined, created and crafted the most fantastic setting for their yurt and outdoor wedding at Yurt Camp in Devon on 16th July 2016. There are so many fantastic home made details to take in; bunting, pom poms, tassels, lanterns and fabric backdrops as far as the eye can see! What a clever, crafty lot our couple and their nearest and dearest are.

I absolutely love that Spencer and Laura made the preparation and all of the making part of the experience to really extend the fun. They also had the venue for the whole weekend to really enjoy the fruits of their labour! Family and friends provided cakes galore and the entire wedding was such a team effort. The flowers too were produced by a friend of Laura’s, and I can’t get enough of the wild flower style.

Laura’s simply stunning dress was made by her friend Rose Savage, following the brief that she wanted a dress that she could swish in – a girl after my own heart! Spencer plumped for a tweed jacket was from Racing Green and trousers from John Lewis after he felt suits didn’t fit well. I LOVE that he wore cowboy boots like a proper Texan!

Thanks ever so much to Amber of Liberty Pearl Photography for sharing these beautiful images with us today. Laura and Spencer can’t say enough good things about you and it’s easy to see why!

THE VENUE | Yurtcamp, Devon. Laura is from Devon and we loved the fact that we would have the whole weekend with our guests. They all stayed in the yurts, which was lovely, a big festival feel. We were camping in Australia when we got engaged so we decided that an outdoors, woodland wedding would be perfect. The yurts each have lovely beds and fires in them, perfect for a cost camping experience.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Dress – Handmade by Rose Savage Dressmaker

Necklace – Mitsi Paris – It was a Serbian folk design hand painted and an homage to Laura’s Serbian family. Mitsi also sent a pair of cufflinks for Spencer as a present to us for our wedding.

Flowers – Laura’s friend Alice made the flowers and the flower crown.

FINDING THE DRESS | I had seen dresses online which were beautiful and unique. However, they were from America which meant I wouldn’t be able to make any adjustments or try them on. I took an image of a dress I liked to a friend of a friend – Rose Savage – and she was amazing. She drew up a design for me, and showed me fabrics to fit within our budget and was brilliant at every step.

My dress was silk and lace and felt amazingly luxurious to wear. I loved all of the little details Rose put on, including buttons and the extra lacework. I wanted my dress to ‘swish’! so it was so much fun to have a full skirt which had layers. I spent most of the day twirling around in it and just enjoying wearing something so fun!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Spencer’s tweed jacket was from Racing Green and his tie and pocket square were from John Lewis. His trousers were also from John Lewis. He spent a lot of time trying on suits but didn’t feel that they fit with what he wanted so bought separates. Spencer wore his vintage cowboy boots to keep true to his Texan roots!

THE FLOWERS | We were really lucky to know so many creative people who helped make our day amazing. Our flowers were by Laura’s friend Alice who is a florist. Laura gave Alice some colours for the day and an idea of types of wild flowers, and Alice did the rest. Laura loved her flower crown so much, Alice did an absolutely amazing job.

THE CAKE | Again, we were blessed with fantastic friends and family. Laura made our tipi boozy fruit cake, her aunt, Gaynor brought lots of delicious cakes made by her friend, Laura’s sister in law worked incredibly hard on a whole yurt village of delicious cakes and Laura’s friends also made some delicious cakes and cupcakes. We actually had a whole table of cakes in the end, which was fabulous!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Amber was the first part of our wedding that we booked! Laura had seen Amber’s business grow and followed her on social media and when we got engaged Laura sent her a message almost straight away (from Australia)! Amber was absolutely brilliant. We could not have asked for more from a photographer. Amber was relaxed and present for all of the important moments. We are so happy with our photos and they capture the day perfectly. Amber even helped us with planning timings and keeping us on track on the day, she knows weddings so well and is totally happy to share her knowledge. We can’t recommend Amber highly enough, in fact we have since!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Our style was a fun, festival style wedding with hints of our adventures travelling together. As a family and group of friends we got incredibly creative and made all of the decorations. We had pom-pom making parties and everyone pitched in to help. The table runners were made from an old Atlas from a charity shop which Laura and I stained and stuck together. The backdrops for the barn were made from tulle and twine and were made by Laura and her family. Laura made over 200 metres of bunting and we both made a candy stand. We had a lot of fun making everything and used items from charity shops and car boots to repurpose wherever we could. We had handmade favours of hand-drawn colouring books for the children and handpainted mason jars for the adults. Laura’s brother Chris and I made a special summer wine for the wedding which was a favour for each guest as well.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | One of our favourite moments was after our couple’s photoshoot with Amber. We walked back into the venue and saw family and friends who we loved all relaxed, having fun, playing games and it filled our hearts with so much joy. Because our wedding was such a team effort it meant the world to us to see people enjoying it.

It was fantastic to have friends and family from all over the world there. Spencer’s family made a huge effort to come over from America and we had friends from all over the world celebrating with us.

We both cherish the moment we saw each other for the first time that day. We were both grinning with happiness and excitement. We were so lucky to have met each other on our travels and feel thankful to be a part of each other’s lives each and every day. That played a huge part in our wedding planning and the colour and fun décor and games we included.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Enjoy it all! For us, the run up to the wedding was almost as much fun as the actual day. Get your loved ones involved and make things together. Have fun, enjoy every second as it goes so quickly so make sure you take time to enjoy it together as a couple. Stand back and watch from afar at least once, it is magical. Book a great photographer so that you can relax and enjoy the day, knowing that there is someone there to capture all of those moments for you. More than anything, plan a day for you and your partner, whatever that means to you, and have the best day!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Liberty Pearl Photography

Wedding Venue | Yurtcamp, Devon

Wedding Dress | Rose Savage

Brides Accessories | Necklace – Mitsi Paris

Brides Shoes | Clarks and vintage cowboy boots

Grooms Attire: Suit | Racing Green, Tie & Pocket Square – John Lewis and vintage cowboy boots

Bridesmaid Outfits | Asos

Flowers | Laura’s friend, Alice Hunton

Stationery | Laura’s friend, Sarah Nicholson

Cakes | Friends and family – special mention to Gaynor and Rachel

Décor | Handmade – Materials from Car boots, charity shops, fairs, freecycle, online and high street shops.

Wow! Spencer and Laura, your hard work really did pay off, what a beautiful day and it must have been so satisfying knowing that you created it all with the help of your brilliant family and friends, thank you for sharing. Rachel x