Laid Back Vegan BBQ Northease Manor Wedding & Epic Backdrop

What an utter treat it is to be sharing the Northease Manor wedding in Sussex of WWW readers Vicky and Daniel, who were hitched in the summer months. Their day was a masterclass in modern cool style with Vicky’s graphic design background oozing from their styling and vibe. I mean just check out the epic graphic backdrop for starters, wow.

Their day was so laid back, with a ceremony outdoors and a vegan BBQ and their colour scheme was all blush with darker accent tones. It all really worked so beautifully. Donuts, cool attire, pretty blooms and a gorgeous custom table plan all feature here, which by the way, I think you will adore!

Kitty Wheeler Shaw, thank you so much for sharing these joyous photos with us. Enjoy every little detail and moment.

Northease Manor Wedding

The Proposal

The proposal happened at a very unflattering 6:30am with morning coffee and donuts whilst we were on holiday in Seattle. Due to the jet lag we were sat outside sipping our coffees when Dan placed a ring into my hand and told me not to look at it (naturally, all I wanted to do was look!).

When he told me the ring belonged to my late mum I knew what was about to happen and I couldn’t stop the emotions from pouring out. Dan also had an engagement ring that belonged to his dad which made our engagement feel so family orientated which was really important to both of us.

The Vision

Ultimately we knew we wanted something that was laid back and relaxing. We wanted our guests to come to our day and feel like they could have a day off from the World and just enjoy being together as family and friends. We had garden games with space hoppers to keep people entrained and live music from The Magnificent Kevens who were amazing.

We also knew we didn’t want to compromise on our own values so decided to serve a whole vegan menu for everyone to enjoy the same meal together.

Budget

We initially wanted to stay within £10,000 which we knew was optimistic for the plans we had in mind, but we also knew we would save part of our budget by doing things ourselves. Running my own wedding stationery business was obviously a huge help! Creating stationery for my own wedding was such a fun experience and we were able to save costs on printing with my industry connections.

We also sourced our own alcohol and drinks for the day rather than buying in a package from the venue, and I did all of the flowers within the barn for the tables. I think this saved us around £700 altogether.

The Venue

When we first saw Northease Manor we knew we had (finally!) found the right place. An outdoor ceremony was high on our agenda and the venue had so much outside space for us to utilise.

The apple trees and gorgeous view of the surrounding South Downs was the perfect backdrop for our aisle and ceremony, and with the venue being a school during term time it had a beautiful barn for our wedding lunch.

Your Outfits

Dress shopping was a relatively easy and quick experience, my dress was the first one I tried on, when you know you know! Blanka from White Leaf Boutique in Brighton was just amazing at helping me and I loved the embroidered leaf detail which matched the leaves from the apple trees at the venue and the soft grey tones within the dress complimented my (very!) pale skin.

It was also super comfortable and Blanka added pockets for me to hold my sunglasses and lipstick on the day, it really was the perfect dress.

Dan wanted his outfit to ultimately feel like him and also be comfortable on the day. He opted for his favourite pair of Dickies trousers which he lives in religiously day to day, and black high top Vans.

He chose a collarless shirt from Paul Clark in Lewes and being a very good sewer he altered his own trousers to suit a pair of braces which was decorated with pizza pin badges for him and his best men. The overall look was definitely him, whilst being formal enough for the photographs.

Bridesmaids dresses were bought from various high street shops, I wanted them to choose their own with the only agenda being the colour, which was black.

The Ceremony & Music

Our main objective with the ceremony was to be personal. We asked Dan’s best friend to conduct our humanist ceremony where we wrote everything from the introductions to our own vows. Although it felt like a lot of pressure to write the ceremony ourselves, it was one of the highlights from the whole day.

I walked down the aisle to Flightless Bird by American Mouth as I’m a bit of a Twilight nerd, and Dan chose the song for us to walk back up the aisle to which was I Will by Dean Martin.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Kitty was such a huge part of our day and it felt like sharing it with a good friend rather than a photographer. Her shots of us all enjoying the tequila and playing ninja are some of my absolute favourites – they really capture the spirit and energy of the day which comes down to just how talented she is in capturing those small moments.

Our video was created by our friend Sam who is also very talented at what he does, our video gives us something more tangible to look back on and it makes me so emotional every time I watch it!

The Styling & Decor

Being a graphic designer I definitely had a strong vision for what I wanted the overall style to be. I mixed my favourite darker colour palettes with mauves, taupes and blush colours and also bought in Dan’s voice too with the illustrations of the Star Trek ships for the table names. The fabric table plan was one of my favourite items I created and I complimented the soft romantic style with fabric ribbons hanging from the trees in the ceremony area.

It was really important for me to have something on the day that recognised my mum, not being able to have her there on the day was really difficult, but I loved how the family tree style photos we hung in the ceremony area allowed me to see her photo as we walked down the aisle. I created these from embroidery hoops and decorated them with more ribbons.

Lo & Behold provided us with the most amazing geometric backdrop that created a boho style of dreams with their Persian rugs creating the aisle too. Ami & Max were amazing at setting everything up on the day and their attention to detail was extraordinary.

The Honeymoon

We spent five days in Oslo, Norway as we love visiting places that are full of good design and excellent coffee.

Memorable Moments

Being able to walk down the aisle with both my dad and stepdad was really special for me, along with my dad’s speech and seeing everyone enjoy our full vegan menu was also a highlight!

Advice For Other Couples

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, there is always someone that will want to come on board the planning party and do what they can to help – something which I wish I had done as I knew I took on too much!

And never lose sight of what you both want from your day, not what other’s expect you to have.