Colourful & Relaxed DIY Tipi Garden Wedding

Rebecca and Rory’s wedding is sure to inspire and delight today. Their colourful tipi garden wedding was just glorious! Think DIY decor, paper flowers, an orchard ceremony and the loveliest of moments.

I really love Rebecca’s epic dip-dye wedding dress, while Rory was suited and booted in a green tweed suit. I’m sure you’ll agree they looked amazing! There was a pink bouncy castle, an outdoor confetti aisle and pretty portraits in the meadow. Oh my!

Thanks ever so much to Lily North Photography for kindly sharing with us these joy-filled captures today.

Colourful DIY Tipi Garden Wedding

The Proposal

We got engaged on the 9th of July 2022 at the Teardrop Lakes in Milton Keynes (a place we went on one of our first ‘dates’ during the lockdown of 2021). For us 2024 is significant as October is 20 years since we met, so we thought it would be fitting to get married this year. Having (finally) gotten together during the April of 2020.

The Vision

We wanted a relaxed friendly wedding where everyone could have a good time and feel included. We didn’t want it to cost the earth both literally and figuratively and we planned a lot around what would be enjoyable and memorable that made it truly our day.

We got married at Harrogate Registry Office on the 24th and then had a blessing at my family home on the Saturday. The farm has seen many weddings, and it was important to us to add more happy memories to a place that has had so much significants in our lives.

Budget

We came in under budget which I’ve very proud of, we planned around having items that would be reused in our lives or by our friends.

The Venue

We got married at Harrogate Registry Office and then had a picnic – complete with a ‘Just Married’ pork pie from the local butcher (Kendall’s) in the tipi at my family farm before we went to visit my dad in Harrogate Hospital.

On Saturday we had a blessing in the orchard at the farm by the Vicar who introduced us before walking down to the tipi for the reception.

The Ceremony & Music

We kept both our ceremonies short and sweet. Friday we had intro music as my dad was meant to walk me down the aisle but sadly couldn’t so our registrar suggested having our guests walk into us so they entered to a piano version of the How To Tame Your Dragon theme (Paul Hankinson). My godfather read the poem ‘All I know About Love’ by Neil Gaiman. Then we exited to the Pianos Guys cover of ‘Some On To You’.

On Saturday we walked into the orchard ceremony together to a piano cover of ‘When I Found Her’ by Stephen Sanchez played by Paul Hankinson and we then exited to Someone To You (the original) by Banners.

We had written our own vows for this and we had my step-mum read an excerpt from a Lemony Snicket book – a shared favourite from our teen years and Rory’s mum read from Corinthians.

Our DJ was Ben from Event Logic. He was absolutely amazing. He actually set up streaming and mics last minute so my dad could watch online, he came to sort everything out with our coordinator April on the Friday. The music was excellent all day and he kept the vibe just right so people kept dancing right up until the end of our night.

Your Outfits

I travelled to Lucy Can’t Dance in Chelmsford for my dress and it was the best decision I made. I wore it both days and am planning on taking it on honeymoon. I bought a pair of white Vans and white Doc Martens, the ground was so wet I wore the DMs both days.

My something old and blue was an antique sapphire brooch that was gifted to me from my godfather, he wore it to my parent’s wedding and wanted me to have it as a wedding gift. I borrowed some pearl earrings from my mum’s best friend and my something new was quite frankly everything else I was wearing. I wore origami flowers in my hair to match the buttonholes of the bridal party, on the Saturday I swapped some of them for little Lego daisies that matched Rory’s pocket square.

Rory wore a Hawes and Curtis 3-piece suit in green tweed and brown Doc Martens. He wore a pair of his dad’s cufflinks and a gold pocket watch which was a wedding gift from my godfathers. His tie was a yellow floral one (just from Etsy) with a matching pocket square. With the luxury of 2 days, on the first day he wore a yellow paper flower buttonhole. On the Saturday he wore a Lego sunflower pocket square that I had made for him.

The Styling & Decor

I made/planned most of the decor for the day and our wedding cake. I wanted things to be recyclable and sustainable so we used a lot of paper. We made hanging origami heart decor out of charity shop copies of 50 Shades of Grey because we love books but didn’t want to destroy any ‘great literature’. Also if you hold a hairdryer to the spine they are so poorly bound the pages fly out. I also hand-chalked boards for our welcome signs and order of the day. We made the ribbon bunting for inside the tipi and reused some other fabric bunting from my uncle’s wedding.

We had carrot cake for our wedding cake which I made and iced, decorating it with edible flowers and a topper (chosen by my husband Rory) that said F***ing Finally people loved it and found it hilarious. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but we’ve been friends for nearly 20 years – it took us 16 years to work out we should be together so it was very apt.

We hand dyed the cheese cloth runners for the tables and we got concrete and cacti pots for the tables which guests could take home afterwards.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

My friend Hannah photographed the Friday and we then hired Lily North to document our Saturday. I really wanted reportage photos of the day. We are not people who are comfortable in front of a camera so I didn’t want many staged images or group shots. I love all our photos becuase people look so happy and comfortable.

The Honeymoon

We decided to just go away for a few days after the wedding we went to The Secret Garden shepards hut in the Peak District it was perfect. We will be going on our full honeymoon in December.

Memorable Moments

It is worth mentioning here that my dad had an accident the Monday before the wedding and was hospitalised. He told me in no uncertain terms I was to go ahead with the wedding (we were insured and I’d recommend everyone to be). Until that point it had not been stressful however there were then a lot of uncertainties and challenges in the run-up. Each day we moved closer to the wedding the news got slightly better about my dad’s condition – so one of the most memorable moments for me was going to Harrogate Hospital with Rory, my brother and three bridesmaids to visit my dad.

He knew we were coming but didn’t know we’d go fully suited and booted. We’d let them know we were coming and took some cupcakes for the ward and some of our wedding pork pie for my dad. It was a very moving moment and everyone on the ward loved it.

For Rory, he says his most memorable moment is of me sat in the middle of the empty dance floor at midnight after our private last dance with a bottle of Prosecco just chatting about what a wonderful day I’d had. He said he remembered how beautiful I looked and how cute I was just vibing under the disco ball.

Advice For Other Couples

Do what you want to do. We made choices to make our day the best it could be for us. Making it a weekend meant we got to see everyone and have time to relax. If you want to have a pink bouncy castle and wear Lego in your hair – DO IT. There is no right or wrong way to celebrate your marriage as long as you do what makes you happy.