Alternative Cool DIY Wedding with Rock Music & Gaming Touch

Mike and Sophia’s amazing alternative wedding is sure to knock your socks off. They were wed at the Taunton registry office followed by a reception at Cheddon Fitzpaine Memorial Hall in Somerset.

Their day was remarkable not only because of their £7K budget and immense DIY decor. But because I love the inclusion of their love for Rock music and gaming – it’s so important to infuse your personality into your day.

From the smoke bombs to the cool attire, campervan, cocktail making and epic confetti moment, you’ll love these fab images.

Thanks to Whoisbenjamin for sharing these totally awesome captures of such a unique day.

Cheddon Fitzpaine Wedding

The Proposal

We were supposed to of gone for a weekend away in Cardiff to see our favourite band, Those Damn Crows. But Covid and lockdown happened. So we recreated the weekend in our home, where Mike proposed in the front room while we were dancing.

The Vision

We wanted the day to really reflect our personalities. So we wrote down what we wanted to incorporate for our day.

We definitely wanted Rock and Roll, Download festival vibes because we love our music and Mike is a drummer. We also wanted it to be visually beautiful with an alternative edge without being tacky.

Budget

Less than £7,000.

The Venue

We had the venue at Cheddon Fitzpaine memorial hall.

When we first viewed the venue, it was a blank canvas, had a decent-sized stage and with what we wanted to achieve, this was the perfect place. The backdrop surrounded by woodland was what we imagined when planning our day.

The Ceremony & Music

We had the ceremony at the registry office in Taunton in the beautiful Tudor room. With our love for music and being gamers, we wanted to have a good balance between the two.

For the ceremony we had music from a game, Skyrim being played before Sophia came in. Then Sophia walked down the aisle to Aerith’s theme from Final Fantasy 7. While signing the certificate we wanted to have something fun so chose the theme from Jurassic Park and when we exited the American office theme song played.

Outside we had an explosion of colourful confetti thrown at us which our photographer captured perfectly.

Your Outfits

Sophia – the dress I chose was from a shop I’ve dreamed of getting my dress from called Pirouette (The house that moved) from Exeter. Realising that an all-white dress didn’t suit and it simply wasn’t me. I tried a dress with a light grey/ mauve underlayer, draped with a white lace fabric. I never felt so pretty. It fit perfectly with the vision of the day we wanted.

For the headpiece, I didn’t want to go for the usual wedding accessory. After searching for a long time I found the most stunning silver crown with black gems that tied in well with the overall look.

Mike – I had a vision of a burgundy tartan suit with a bow tie. We searched high and low, going into multiple shops and being faced with navy, navy, navy. Everywhere we looked was just navy. So we went online and came across a brand called Twisted Tailor, filled with awesome suits!

Within the first page, I found the suit I’d been looking for, with the added bonus of a skull printed lining the suit jacket and on the back of the waistcoat, which fitted into the vision of our day.

After talking about what shoes we wanted, we decided that comfort was one of our top priorities. So we chose to get a pair of custom high top vans each with our last name embroidered on the back. Sophia had white and Mike had black.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

We chose Ben to be our photographer after seeing his work on Instagram and loved his style and felt he would fit our vision the best. On the day he was professional but also fun and we felt he really understood the assignment. He went above and beyond to capture our day.

We had 2 friends, Joe and Faye capture our day through video in the style of an episode of the American office (Sophia’s favourite show). They interviewed guests throughout the day/evening and captured every moment. The video hasn’t been finished yet but, we are looking forward to seeing the result.

The Styling & Decor

Pretty much the whole thing was DIY other than the wall draping and chairs which were brought in by a company – Essential Events Hire.

Looking online for the right style of stationery, there wasn’t any that we really liked. So Sophia decided to design all stationery on her IPad from the invites, seating plan and table names.

With flowers being out of our price range we decided to make our own. From the bridesmaid’s bouquet, tables, flowers around the neon sign and the bridal bouquet. We got artificial flowers mainly from IKEA and the Range.

With our colours being burgundy, black and white we wanted to incorporate this into the table design. We had 3 rows of tables and a single head table for just us. Each table had foliage with black and white skull candles, lanterns, bottles filled with foliage and black charger plates.

Each table had its own band name (instead of table numbers) and each row was a different stage, named after the stages at the Download festival. Each chair was decorated with burgundy fabric draped over the back and tied with black ribbon.

Behind our head table, we made a black frame with a neon sign saying Til death, framed by foliage and flowers, this made the perfect backdrop. Later on, this was moved over to the photo booth area and was used as a backdrop.

The cake was made by our good friends Emily (bridesmaid) and Will (groomsman). Finished off with hand-painted viynl pop figurines to look like us. Putting it all together the day before the wedding we had big help from our day coordinator, Laura. Making our vision come to reality.

The Honeymoon

We went to LA 2 days after the wedding for 2 weeks. We had the best time and was definitely needed.

Memorable Moments

Our memorable moments:

Sophia walking down the aisle and us seeing each other for the first time.
Having loads of confetti thrown at us.
Sitting down at the meal looking around the room, seeing everyone enjoying themselves.
Mike’s band Rizen, playing in the evening and everyone dancing having a good time

Advice For Other Couples

The day really does go quickly. So make sure you take time to really take it all in.

No matter what people’s opinions are on the lead up to the day, just do what you both really want because you’re the ones who are going to look back on the day the most.

Finally, if you are having a DIY wedding, invest in a day coordinator. They are worth every penny.