Outdoor Woodland Budget Friendly Wedding with a Cool Bridal Leather Jacket

We’re kicking things off here this fine Wednesday with Kai and Beth’s gorgeous woodland wedding. They were hitched on the 3rd June 2019 at Arnos Vale in Bristol, with an outdoor ceremony amidst the trees under a gorgeous wooden arbour. Their day was all about relaxed and fun vibes, with their celebration being family centred at the heart of it. Good food and good music were also important to our pair, with handmade personal touches and natural styling throughout. Their wedding planning sounded really chilled and ensured the process was a breeze, with them organising everything for £7000. How amazing is that?!

Beth looked ever so beautiful in her lace and tulle gown and I love that Kai gifted her the super cool bridal leather jacket, personalised with illustrations that represent them as a couple. Kai looked brilliant in jeans, waistcoat and tie for a smart casual look. So stylish!

The images featured are from Chloe Mary Photo and we are really grateful to be sharing them with you. Just stunning. Enjoy it all folks.

The Proposal

From Beth: Kai proposed to me on the 20th September 2016. It was the day after my birthday and Kai had booked a week in Sorrento, Italy which is one of my favourite places in the world. We had taken a walk in the evening and were looking out over to Naples and mount Vesuvius when he asked me, it was a total surprise, definitely one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever had!

From Kai: A lot of planning went in to my proposal, and trying to hide it felt nearly impossible! When the time did come Beth didn’t have a clue, I was surprisingly nervous and we both didn’t have a clue what to say! Though thankfully we’d been dating for about 7 or 8 years and there was no chance she’d say no which was a definite relief.

The Vision

We wanted a relaxed day with natural aesthetics, lots of handmade personal touches, good food and good music!

The Readings and Music

We asked our DJ for a mixture of Classic rock and Motown and honestly, we were so happy!

Both our mums chose their own readings as we wanted them to have a special part in our day but not have the pressure of a speech.

The Planning Process

We originally wanted to get married on the 1st June 2020 as this would have marked our 10 and a half year anniversary, but we realised how far away that was after about a year and decided to move the date forward a year. We were incredibly relaxed about planning, we both knew what we wanted and we weren’t very strict about the little things which really helped us not get stressed.

Budget

We began with a budget of 5K but after some help from the family the final number was just under 7K.

The Venue

Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol

Your Outfits & Accessories

It was important for our day to be true to us and who we are and we didn’t want to conform to traditions so we kept this in mind with our choice of outfits. Kai and his groomsmen (and grooms lady!) opted for jeans and shirts with a black waistcoat to add a little more of a formal edge.

Kai wanted to give Beth a gift with a difference and had Sammy from Sammy Lea’s Retro Emporium create a bespoke leather jacket containing elements important to them, the animal skull (to refrence the woodland theme) Bee’s (Beth also wore Bee earrings) Some of Beth’s favourite flowers and of course, ‘Till Death’ surrounded by lightning bolts to refrence Kai’s favourite band ACDC.

Waistcoats from John Lewis

Dress from Elizabeth Jane

Hair & Makeup

Hair – Toni and Guy Bristol

Makeup was done by Beth herself

Your Photographer

We chose Chloe because when we met her, she was very friendly and seemed professional and experienced in what she does. Her photography was exactly what we were looking for, relaxed and fun documentary style. We didn’t look for anyone else after our meeting with her because we knew she’d fit perfectly into our day and produced the work we wanted for our own photos.

Her photography is unique and isn’t like anything else we’ve seen in the wedding photography field. We found a lot of wedding photography we’d seen to be a bit boring and too traditional for us but when we looked through Chloe’s portfolio and website, the images made us laugh and felt like we were taken through the stories of peoples day and that’s exactly what we wanted our photos to be like.

The Cake

Was made by Kai’s mum and Sister.

The Flowers

Les Fleurs

The Honeymoon

For our honeymoon we went to Cornwall and visited sites like the Eden project. Honestly we didn’t have a lot of money left because we went over budget but we also didn’t want th stress of planning flights, travel etc. We loved our honeymoon as it wasn’t too far to travel and were surrounded by nature – just how we like it. There was a hot tub, prosecco and nature .. what more do you need!

Advice For Other Couples

Honestly, we think couples need to relax more when it comes to planning their weddings. We know couples who have become so stressed and blown their budgets by far too much because they worry about what others think and if they’ll have a good time when really, none of that matters. We were very chilled throughout the whole process and it came together perfectly. All of our family and friends had a great time and we didn’t go super over budget and still had everything we wanted. Our best piece of advice would be instead of hiring cheaper suppliers (like photographers or food) and having that worry of if they’ll be any good or if it’ll turn out alright, ask the suppliers you want if you can have a slightly smaller service/ less of their time to suit your budget. Chloe usually offers full-day photography packages but because we really wanted her to photograph our day, we advised her we were having a more low key day and didn’t need to cover things like Bridal prep/Groom prep so she was able to offer us fewer hours to fit into the budget.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Kai and Beth, thank you so so much for sharing your beautiful woodland wedding day with us. What a delight it has been xo Lou