Colourful DIY Festival Wedding With Pagoda Wedding Ceremony

Well, what do you know? WWW readers Charlotte and George are joining us with their gorgeous festival-style wedding complete with a pagoda wedding ceremony. Hoorah!

They were married at Gorwell Farm on the most beautiful September’s day and filled their day with colourful blooms, DIY decorations and of course, so much fun.

I love how their wedding was really personal to them, with their hometown being Glastonbury and keen attendees of the festival, they decided on a festival/music vibe. They had festival flags, music album table names and a live band in the evening.

Do be sure to soak up the romantic vibes, the stunning outfits and of course, the golden hour portraits in full below. Thanks ever so much to Holly Collings Photography for sharing with us these absolutely exquisite images.

Pagoda Wedding Ceremony

The Proposal

The proposal was whilst on holiday in Rome, April 2019, after we had been together for 7 years, (we got together when we were 16 and 17 years old).

We spent the day visiting various attractions including the Roman Forum and Trevi Fountain then ended up in a beautiful park (Villa Borghese) after having had quite a few free samples of limoncello from the shops along the way!

George proposed whilst we were lying side-by-side on the grass looking out at a lake. I looked down and saw he was holding a ring between his fingers, swore and was so shocked I didn’t hear anything he said to me, until he repeated “so is that a yes or a no”?

After a couple of minutes of silence – of course, I said yes. We proceeded to drink a lot of wine and eat delicious food all night!

The Vision

We knew we wanted lots of colour and homemade, environmentally friendly elements. The vision kind of came together during the planning.

Being religious Glastonbury attendees (and it’s our hometown), there was a bit of a festival/music theme. The tables were named after albums that meant something to us, ones that we had listened to a lot at various stages in our relationship.

The canapés were inspired by places in the world that were special to us and our puddings had an Italian twist as we got engaged in Rome. We wanted to put on a great party so everyone could just enjoy themselves and provide plenty of good food and booze, we had the best day with all the people we love.

The Venue

Originally we were looking at venues a lot closer to home (Somerset). We came across Gorwell Farm when we were looking at some catering websites and we decided to visit even though it was quite a bit further away than our original search.

As soon as we saw the beautiful Dorset surroundings and the gorgeous barn we were sold. We loved the idea of being able to get married outside beneath the enormous trees at the pagoda.

We also had the opportunity to make it completely our own – choose our own caterers, decorations and music. The cherry on top was all the accommodation that it offered on-site – cottages and a camping field where we put bell tents – which meant that pretty much all our guests stayed on site on the night of the wedding.

The Ceremony & Music

We got married outside just up some steps from the barn, there were buzzards circling above the pagoda, a hummingbird moth on the flower arrangements and a bee sitting on George’s buttonhole during the ceremony! We were so glad the wedding cleared up for it as the day before was heavy rain and storms and we were really hoping to get married outside.

We did our own promises during the ceremony which was a really special touch. The readings at the ceremony were by my sister (Emily) who chose to put her own spin on ‘Everything I know about Love’ by Dolly Alderton to make it personal to me and George which was so lovely. The other by George’s cousin (Jack) who read the lyrics from ‘In My Life’ by the Beatles as the band is very well loved by both the Stitches and my family too!

I walked down the aisle to Mirrorball by Elbow which is a song that has been special to us since we first met, our first dance was to Bones by Michael Kiwanuka, another song that we really love.

Your Outfits

My dress was a sample dress from Hannah Elizabeth Bridal. I was very lucky they had one in pretty much my size, it was altered to fit perfectly by Suzie.

I just wanted something which would be comfortable for the whole day and for a night of dancing and it definitely did the job! I wanted a high neck style as that’s what I tend to wear and really loved the lace around the base and train.

My shoes were from Forever Soles and honestly so comfortable, I didn’t leave the dance floor all night and my feet didn’t hurt at all! My earrings were from Kiri and Belle and some green ones which my sister bought me to tie in my green heels.

George’s suit was from Clifton Suits, he wanted a green suit which would fit in with the barn/countryside theme and the one he found was perfect and very comfortable.

The Styling & Decor

We did a lot of DIY for the wedding and our families were amazing. My grandma made all-white bunting in the barn and ceremony area out of material owned by my great-grandma, she also made the colourful bunting outside the barn. George’s mum also contributed to the white bunting.

I loved the look of mismatched side plates and bottles so we collected various tea sets from charity shops and family members, the same with little bottles and vases to put the flowers in on the tables. The boxes up the aisle were made by my Dad from old pallets, the post box by George’s dad from an old fence.

All of the confetti were rose petals from my grandma’s garden that she dried herself. George and I made the name place/favours out of terracotta clay and Lino carved stamps, George made the limoncello. We made the signs, most of the lawn games and borrowed the flags from a family friend.

We fell in love with the rope chandeliers by Stories and Light and feel they added something really unique to the decorations. My mum had just as much input as us on helping everything come together and she made the really cute photo boards and step ladder with old pictures of our family and collected all the lampshades and painted them for the marquee decorations.

The day before the wedding we set it all up in the barn with some friends and family, did the table flower arranging, the milk churns outside the barn and the boxes that went up the aisle, which was such a fun day and great to see it all come together.

The flowers on the pagoda and the milk churns beside it along with the bouquets and buttonholes were arranged by Katie from Dorset Flower Company. She also provided a lot of the loose flowers which we arranged, rest of these were from family gardens. The style and colours were exactly what we were hoping for so bright and seasonal.

The cakes were made by my best friend who’s a chef and an amazing baker. Three of our favourite cakes – Persian love cake, chocolate Guinness cake and a classic lemon and elderflower cake with cordial made by George’s mum.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Holly was our photographer, we felt incredibly lucky to have Holly photographing our wedding, she really put us at ease and captured the day so perfectly. We have had so many compliments on her style and the amount of lovely moments she captured so candidly. I recommend her to everyone I speak to about wedding planning!

Luis was our videographer, we decided a lot later on that we were going to have a videographer and we are so glad that we did. Luis was great to work with, it’s been so lovely to look back and enjoy the clips of the ceremony, speeches and dancing. We especially love the drone footage he got of the gorgeous venue and surroundings.

The Honeymoon

We went to Mauritius for our honeymoon the following January. It was beautiful and so nice to have some winter sun!

There’s so much to do there, not just amazing beaches and snorkelling, lots of hiking waterfall trails, mountains to climb and a rum distillery. Food was also very varied and delicious.

Memorable Moments

We started the day by having a swim in the sea with our friends – we had to make the most of being so close to the beach!
Getting married in September meant we had such a beautiful golden hour to take photos in and Holly took the most beautiful pictures.
The band (Dirty Weekend) put on such a good show and had people on the dance floor all night, we didn’t expect to spend so much time up in the air!

Advice For Other Couples

Don’t worry about trying to please every person that comes to the wedding – it’s impossible (as we found out). Just put on the day that you want and people will enjoy themselves.

Definitely take some time out to enjoy each other and talk about how much you’re enjoying the day. We used the time that we went to take pictures alone to really let it sink in that we just got married!