Beautiful Colourful Outdoor Tipi Wedding

From the moment WWW readers Emma and Matthew decided to get hitched, they knew the perfect spot to say I do. A space where they escaped to for picnics near to where Emma used to live. A place of meaning, adventure and special memories; Tekels Park in Surrey. From there the wedding planning evolved into a beautiful, colourful outdoor tipi wedding. Think ceremony against the trees, draped in ribbons with rustic wooden seating and a Persian rug aisle. It really was idyllic. Then followed a big party in majestic tipis, with live music, amazing cuisine, ice cream, marshmallow toasting and dancing. The Autumn weather before their September date was a little rocky, but the pair were blessed with sunshine, which enabled them to enjoy the gardens with their guests.

There is so much I love about their celebration of love. From the gorgeous outfits (hello beaded Eliza Jane Howell gown and custom made veil), to the wild style florals, DIY decoration and fun moments. Yes I am looking at you confetti cannon on the dance floor. All captured in techni-colour glory by the superb Graham Nixon Photography. Thank you Graham for sharing these images with us, I really was blown away by the emotion and joy in these photographs.

THE PROPOSAL | On a roof top restaurant in Kalkan, Turkey. It was our first holiday for about 5 years, we had bought a fixer upper and all our money was spent building our home and holidays took a back step. So there we were in a lovely Turkish town called Kalkan, we had just enjoyed a traditional Meze and sat on giant cushions on the floor and I whipped the ring out of my pocket. In the 10 years we had been together I’ve learnt that it’s practically impossible to surprise Emma but I succeeded that evening. Thankfully she said yes!

THE VISION | I think if you spoke to most of our friends, they would have expected us to organise a wedding that was a bit different than the norm and we certainly wouldn’t have wanted to disappoint. An outside wedding with a festival vibe, always appealed, however we were never sure whether we would be brave enough to face off against the great British weather!

THE PLANNING PROCESS & VENUE | The venue came first as this was so important to us in making our day so personal. When we first met, Emma lived on a beautiful road and at the very top of that road was a stunning area called Tekels Park, to which we would stroll down and picnic. We loved it. It was our secret escape. We’d take down a picnic, sometimes bump into a deer or two and discuss what a magical place it would be to get married!

Tekels Park is made up 3 terraces of gardens, which leads down to a larger meadow.

The first terrace had twin fern trees close together, which forms an arch and the plan was to have a blessing under the tree then we’d lead our guests down to the main field where the rest of the celebrations will ensure.

On our return from Turkey we spoke to the people who run the park to see if using the space was an option and thankfully it was! We had seen tipis online but after visiting one of Beautiful World Tents open days we fell in love with their tipis and the plan was coming together.

We can’t thank Tekels Park enough, they helped us so much and went above and beyond with their generosity. However with Tekels Park not ordinarily used as a wedding venue, meaning we had to organise everything!

In addition to the tipis, we needed to arrange posh portable toilets, a silent generator, heaters to heat the tipi’s, catering equipment, mobile fridges, festoon lights and host of other bits and pieces.

And that’s before we made it complicated for ourselves, setting up the bar ourselves, and being particular about the crockery, cutlery, glass wear and decorations that we wanted.

THE FOOD | To match our festival theme, we chose to go with sharing food and found the perfect caterer in Eat the Street who also provided the waiting staff and a director for the day (invaluable). For starters, large slate platters adorned with breads, olives, hummus, baba ganoush, cheeses and peppers were brought out for everyone to tuck in to. This was followed by boards of beautiful BBQ beef and chicken, with bowls of salads and crispy roasted new potatoes. For dessert we surprised our guests with a local ice cream company who parked up his traditional van just as the speeches were finishing.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Emma’s dress was by a British Designer: Eliza Jane Howell.

Shoes were Manolo Blahnik.

The veil was handmade and finished by a very lovely lady called Sian from Blossom and Bluebird on Etsy. It finished off the dress perfectly and really made me feel like a bride.

FINDING THE DRESS | The ‘Jayne’ was purchased in a sample sale at a bargain price via Gumtree. It was a gamble buying online, but I had previously tried on and fallen in love with the dress in a bridal boutique in Winchester so was confident I was buying “the one”.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | The groom, his groomsmen and both our dad’s all wore the same, which was put together by Emma;

Navy velvet jacket: Marks & Spencer

Tweed waistcoat: Moss Bros

Slim charcoal trousers: Marks & Spencer

Slim fit white shirt: Marks & Spencer

Tie: Topman

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We had two readings during our ceremony. The first, read by our friend Jo was Love is a Temporary Madness from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres.

The second was read by one of our ushers, Gary; The Sandman vol.9: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman.

Music for the bridal entrance: Elbow – One Day Like This.

Music for bride and groom ‘exit’ ; The Rolling Stones – She’s Like a Rainbow.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | Both Elise and Nikki’s dresses were from ASOS.

THE FLOWERS | The bouquets and buttonholes were arranged by a local garden centre. The venue flowers were supplied by the same garden centre and arranged by Emma, with a little help from Matthew’s mum

THE CAKE | We wanted something quite simple and classic where the flavour did the talking. Matthew’s mum very kindly baked our beautiful cake and it went down a storm with our guests.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | The wonderful Graham Nixon, based in Godalming, was fun, embracing and brought our whole day to life through the pictures. We couldn’t be happier with everything he took. Graham’s knowledge and input before and during the day was also fully appreciated.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Our wedding was a labour of love and very much handmade.

Emma made the hanging flower decoration and hand stamped lyrics of songs that meant something to us both and I built the photobooth using a GoPro and PC monitor with a large ‘press here’ button, all encased within a wooden frame.

Many of our friends helped throughout; bridesmaid Elise commissioned her stepdad to build the outdoor swing and hand painted the signage for the reception. Bridesmaid Nikki spent the two days before the wedding hanging each and every ribbon in the trees. It all looked so special. We hung festoon lights, Matt made the big ‘LOVE’ letters, we sourced free barrels to act as poseur tables and collected old picture frames and lampshades to also hang from the trees.

All of the bridal party, parents and groomsmen were on hand, helping with the build both inside the tipis and outside for the ceremony. It made the run up to the day even more memorable having everyone that means so much to us fully involved.

THE HONEYMOON | We spent the first week in Sri Lanka touring round this amazing country; full of stunning scenery, wildlife, food and people. From there we spent a second week in the Maldives, which was pure relaxation.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The sun came out. For the three days leading up to the big day, the weather had been bad, including a weather warning and the forecast for the day was horrendous! We made the call to go with the service outside only 30 mins before Emma was due to arrive, and so pleased we did. In the end the sun shone down on us during the service and throughout the reception drinks, we were so lucky!

The point we realised that everyone was having a great time and we had put on a great day was when the dance floor was full, during the band’s sound check! They couldn’t wait for them to start fully let alone our first dance!

Later in the evening we also managed to take a step back from it all, we both sat on the swing, gazed at the tipis glowing and the festoon lights shining. It was a truly special moment.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Figure out where you want to spend the money. We preferred to spend extra on the specialised skills that we simply couldn’t do ourselves such as the photographer, videographer and the band, both were amazing and left us with fantastic memories. In return we cut costs by shopping around and sourcing a great number of suppliers ourselves, saving a considerable amount on delivery and finding those who were not VAT registered. But ultimately this added to the amount of coordination we need to do.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Graham Nixon Photography

Venue | Tekels Park

Tipi Hire | Beautiful World Tents

Caterers | Eat the Street

Catering equipment | AB Hire

Ice Cream Van | Dylan’s Ice Cream

Beer tap and barrels | Tap for Cold Beer

Videographers | Ben Scott, Matt Murray and edited by Gareth Wild: contactable via Gareth Wild at Explosive Alan

Band | Supertones

Wedding Dress | Eliza Jane Howell

Bridesmaid Outfits | Asos

Flowers | Sources locally and arranged by Emma and our mothers

Stationery | Designed by Matt

Cake | Matt’s mum

Décor | Handmade, up-cycled and sourced from charity shops and eBay by Emma and Matt

Just spectacular.

Emma and Matthew, thank you both ever so much for sharing your amazing story with us xo Lou