Super Colourful Party Wedding with Festival Vibes

It’s always a pleasure to start the week with a multicolour wedding right? The bright, beautiful and bold colours of WWW readers Charlie and Dan’s tipi wedding will be sure to delight and inspire today. They were wed on the 15th September 2018 at Minnehaha Events in North Yorkshire. The venue was perfect for their festival party vision and also allowed them to get super creative with their DIY décor.

The tipis were decked out in colourful lanterns, complete with touches such as a glitter make up bar, donut stand, piñata wedding cake, lanyard place names and fun signage to name a few. It really did all look super awesome too.

I have to rave about Charlie’s bridal look too, as her flower crown and veil combo is just to die for. Her lace gown and wreath hoop bouquet look just stunning too. Her fave girls wore dresses of their choice, as did the groomsmen and the mix and match look worked so well all round. Dan meanwhile was suited and booted in a waistcoat, trousers and open collar shirt complete with dried flower buttonhole. Very cool!

Emma and Rich, we cannot thank you enough for sharing with us these really gorgeous captures today. Wow!

The Proposal

On our 4^th anniversary we went for a walk and a picnic to Lulworth cove on the Jurassic coast. Its only 45 mins drive from our house in Bournemouth. We stopped off at Lulworth castle where we saw a classic car show and took a walk around the castle. Then we took our picnic bags to Lulworth Cove. As we ascended the hill we were passing by lots of tourists taking in the beautiful weather. At the very top of the cove cliff, looking over the bay Dan got down on one knee and proposed. Much to the delight of the hundreds of tourists watching us! Charlie said yes, and then we ate pork pies in the sun. It was 14^th May 2017.

The Vision

We wanted an informal outdoor wedding with as much colour as possible along with some cool new takes on old traditions. Our inspiration was festival themed, outdoors, green field, wooden and rustic.

The Planning Process

The planning was pretty straight forward once the decisions were made. The decisions were the hardest bit! Our process was, Charlie came up with at least 5 ideas she wanted for one particular aspect eg the invites. Then Dan made the final decision. It may not work for everyone, but this meant that we were both involved at every stage.

Budget

As little as possible!! A lot of our friends were married before us, and we had a good idea what the expensive things to avoid were. Our save the dates were made from a ticket printing website (festival theme!), they cost us £25 for 150. We did lots and lots of research around each budget point and decided what we should spend our money on, and what we can cut back on. We spent the most money on the venue, the band, the photographers and the wedding dress. We made our own centre pieces, table plan, flower arrangement, bride and bridesmaids bouquets and button holes. Your home made wedding items do not have to be over complicated, if you really like something on Etsy, just google how it’s made and we bet you could do it yourself for a fraction of the price.

The Venue

The venue was the first one we visited. Once we saw it we didn’t bother visiting any more venues. We loved it so much!

Minnehaha is a beautiful venue that boasts two large Nordic tipis and an open barn bar all set in the North Yorkshire countryside.

The barn where the ceremony takes place is filled with strings of festoon lights. You wed on the top floor veranda looking down on your guests under a rustic wooden arch. Minnehaha is simply beautiful. The staff cannot do enough to help you, both in the planning and the day of the wedding. I was never far from a Pims thanks to Beth! The wedding breakfast is made up of sharing platters, we loved this idea of social dining, and our guests really enjoyed the change to what they have experienced at previous weddings.

Beauty

Make up we did ourselves. Most of which was bought from Fenty Beauty, Urban Decay and Benefit. All the bridesmaids wore crimson or burgundy lips to match the flower crowns, and everyone’s hair was left in messy curls and down.

The Flowers

All of our real flowers were purchased from Leeds Market, the day before the wedding. We had a mixture of sun flowers and wild flowers. They were placed into a mixture of different sized jars that were painted rose gold with dark pink glitter.

The Readings & Music

We decided not to have any readings, it really didn’t fit with our taste. We walked down the aisle to Take My Breath Away, one of our favourite songs from Top Gun. We signed the register to Death Cab for Cutie: I will follow you into the dark. It sounds depressing, but this song reminds us of the strongest kind of love imaginable. We left the barn to an instrumental version of ACDC Highway to Hell. We thought it would be funny.

Your Outfits & Accessories

Dan was dressed in dark green tweed three-piece suit with burgundy edging along the lapel. This was bought online from Joe Browns in the sale at around £95 in total. The button holes we made using our friend’s wedding bouquet of dried flowers.

Charlie wore a boho style embellished lace, backless wedding dress with an 18 inch train by Watters Wtoo from the Bridal Emporium in Leeds. Her hair was curled and left down, with a handmade bespoke pink, white red and green flower crown made by Frida Flower Crowns on Etsy. Her veil was hand made from W Collective on Etsy, it was chapel length and dip dyed burgundy. They both turned out to be a real focal point and conversation topic of the day.

Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids bought and choose their own dresses. Again they were given a rough colour guide and we helped them with their choosing. They each wore a handmade bespoke floral crown from Frida Flower Crowns on Etsy.

I cannot recommend being more relaxed with your groomsman and bridesmaid outfits enough if you are going for a relaxed wedding vibe. It was less stress for everyone and the pictures look amazing.

Groomsmen

Groomsmen bought and choose their own outfits. They were given a rough colour guide and asked to wear chinos and a waistcoat with shirt of their choosing. They needed a bit of direction from Dan, but once they were told to think about ‘farmer chic’ they understood the style a bit better.

Your Photographer

Next to our venue and band, we really wanted to get a photographer that was in keeping with our boho festival vibes. Emma and Rich were absolutely amazing. They managed to capture every important moment with colour and energy. Their style is contemporary, colourful and fun! I could not recommend these guys enough. The wedding pictures are a journey of our day, it’s such a lovely way to remember everything that happened.

The Details & Décor

We wanted a chic boho feel with lots and lots of colour everywhere. We booked Wow Weddings to set up over 75 colourful lanterns in the tipi and bar area. These really added lots of colour in the photos. We had 6 or 7 different colour ribbons on the backs of each chair. The centre pieces were on a thick wooden log, with different sized glass jars for the flowers and rose gold tin can lanterns with candles in. For our table plan we made 7inch LPs of our favourite bands, these were initially displayed on a large wooden backing, then an identical LP was placed as a table names along with the centre pieces.

The Cake

We decided to be a bit different with the cake. We made a large three tiered piñata cake filled with lots of sweets. We then proceeded to smash it up with a couple of sticks. No one got hurt! (Although it was close). It was a really fun experience and a fraction of the price! For a sweet treat we made a doughnut stand. Which cost no more than £5 then bought doughnuts from a supermarket the day before. All the doughnuts were gone in less than 10 minutes!

The Honeymoon

Our honeymoon was in Bali. It was perfect. We made a pact that as the journey was so long (18 hours) we would make sure we did something new almost every day. We travelled around the island for 2 weeks. We visited beautiful beaches, quaint fishing villages, temples and bustling night markets. We made new friends and memories along the way, and loved every minute.

Memorable Moments

When we were being interviewed by the Registrar, it turned out that Dan wrote ‘Wu Tang Clan for Lyfe’ in our wedding vows as a joke. Luckily they were happy to take this out of the actual ceremony (!)

The moment we were introduced as Mr & Mrs Newton, the whole barn cheered and screamed. The registrar said it was the loudest congratulations they have ever heard! (we have very excitable friends)

Advice For Other Couples

Leave plenty of time to plan, don’t rush your decisions. Don’t buy something just because its cheap, make sure you know what you want whether its bridesmaid dresses or decorations. Make sure you’re happy with your decision then do lots of research. Use mood boards like Pinterest, and always get quotes from three different suppliers (flowers for example). Don’t be shy to negotiate with your suppliers.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Charlie and Dan, thank you both ever so much for sharing with us your totally epic and colourful wedding day. We loved it all xo Lou