Magical Garden Party Wedding & A Clear-Roof Marquee

What a treat it is to be sharing Isy and Tim’s gorgeous clear-roof marquee wedding in West Sussex. They had a sublime garden party feel with incredible cuisine, fun drinks and live music come evening.

Talking of evening, the marquee lit up at night looked spectacular and must have been even more magical in person. There were divine florals, sensational outfits, a show-stopper cake and so many smiles. What a special homespun day.

Grace Pham Photography, thank you ever so much for sharing with us these tremendous images of such an amazing celebration.

Clear Roof Marquee Wedding

The Proposal

Tim proposed in Boltan Abbey, a gorgeous ruin at the bottom of the Yorkshire Dales in May 2021. We planned to go there for my 30th birthday as our first weekend away since the start of the pandemic.

We spent the day at the spa and went on a lovely walk to the top of a hill overlooking the Abbey. This is where Tim popped the question just after I turned around from taking a photo. We ended the day with champagne by the river and dinner at the Devonshire Arms.

Tim got my engagement ring redesigned from a family heirloom which I absolutely love.

The Vision

I think right from the start we were both keen for a home-spun outdoor wedding. I am half French and South African so there was the option of getting married in Southern France (South Africa felt a little far-flung at the time). We ended up choosing the UK, my parent’s home where I grew up and where Tim and I spent lockdown.

The main vision came from making the day and details as personal as possible, from the Cheshire and French cheeses to the South African and French wines and Cheshire Ales. The food was important for us too and represented our different cultures and stories.

The canapés were a mix of French and South African, with biltong and a bbq stand! Tim’s grandfather was a fishmonger in Cheshire, so we had mackerel for starter followed by confit duck and assiette de dessert (coffee and lots of mini desserts)!

It was so fun bringing our personalities together, with family and friends mucking in along the way. It felt chic and romantic and combined our love for architecture with the softness of an English summer garden. Being on a beautiful school ground the setting was quite formal so we were keen to infuse a relaxed and fun atmosphere into the details and décor which felt like us.

The Venue

Christ’s Hospital Chapel and our garden.

The Ceremony & Music

We loved this bit!

We had a religious ceremony in the school chapel. The bridal party walked down to Prelude from Te Deum by Marc-Antoin Charpentier. I followed with my Dad to Domine Deus, Rex Coelestis.

We were lucky enough to have Tim’s cousin sing with an oboe accompanying which was stunning and a moment we will never forget. Having played the oboe for much of my life it was special to have one play at our ceremony.

During the ceremony, we sang a few great hymns and for the signing of the registry we listened to Albinoni’s concerto for oboe in D minor followed by Morricone’s Gabriel’s Oboe (my favourite)! Finally, as the wedding party left we heard the Shire from the Lord of the Rings and then Toccata from Organ Symphony No.5. in F minor Op. 42. Safe to say it was a real mix but we loved every piece.

For the evening we had our favourite band from our university days, Itchy Feet. They were incredible! They created the best atmosphere from the start and even played our first dance song that we requested with their 8 piece band; Bright Side of the Road by Van Morrison. We both absolutely love dancing and so do our families and they really put on a showstopper; no one left the dance floor for hours!

We ended the night with a silent disco and danced into the early hours!

Your Outfits

Tim was keen to wear a morning suit from the start. He loved the elegance of tails and was keen to change things up from his daily work suit. He bought his 3-piece morning suit from Buckleigh of London and his tie from an Etsy seller making ties from liberty fabrics which we both fell in love with.

My dress was from Louise Selby, a designer based in Kew, London. I loved the combination of softness from the lacey low back and structure and simplicity of the front of the dress. And the amazing magic trick were the removable sleeves, making it perfect for dancing. I loved that the dress was romantic and structured at the same time. I borrowed a family friend’s veil which went perfectly with my dress.

I brought my shoes from Laure de Segazane, a French designer and loved their gold slightly vintage feel. They also had a little peep toe to show a splash of colour on my nails and the style was a perfect match for the dress and they were great for dancing too.

For my jewellery, I wore some beautiful flat pearl earrings from Lizeron, another French boutique. I wore these until the evening where I changed into some gorgeous large round shiny sliver and blue earrings from a designer in London called Chalk Jewellery.

The Styling & Decor

I really enjoyed the little details, so this was so fun to create and was a huge team effort. Tim’s aunt did our table flowers and flower girl bouquets. We made a DIY bar made from repurposed pallets and we collected jars for the table flowers and candles.

It was fun to do ourselves and make it as personal as possible, from the table menus and order of services I designed to the DIY stained wooden signs, dried rose petals for confetti, drinks menu and place names.

The clear roof marquee with fairy lights and white overlays were a real win for us! Not only did it create the most incredible setting for the meal and sparkle over the dance floor but provided the best setting for the garden to take over on the decoration front! Beautiful and cost-effective! The greenery and flowers from the garden looked part of the marquee and made us feel like we were in Southern France eating al fresco.

Your Photographer

We absolutely loved our photographer! Grace was incredible from the start and made us both feel at ease. We love the photos and can’t stop looking at them! We are so grateful that Grace captured our best day so beautifully!

The Honeymoon

The night after our wedding we stayed in Tillingham, a stunning vineyard in East Sussex for a night which was a real treat! More recently we spent 3 weeks in Southern Africa, starting with a road trip in Namibia. We hired a 4×4 with a roof tent and travelled around for 2 weeks staying in different locations every couple of days.

From there we flew to Mozambique and spent 6 nights on Bazaruto island which was totally blissful! A real once-in-a-lifetime trip!

Memorable Moments

Everything, there are too many! Having our family and friends come together and meet was so special and a memory we will forever treasure!

Advice For Other Couples

I think organising a wedding can feel like a huge pressure, there are so many opinions and we often felt like we were just pleasing lots of people. I think stopping to see the bigger picture every now and then really helped us realise what was important to us.

Also if you are doing a marquee home-spun wedding, we definitely learnt that people really do want to help. We got pretty good at giving out jobs by the end and loved seeing family and friends muck in and enjoy pre-wedding festivities – one of our favourite parts of the week!

Wow, so beautiful.

Isy and Tim, I can’t thank you enough for sharing your epic clear-roof marquee wedding story with us.