DIY Festival Staffordshire Garden Wedding

What a treat it is to be sharing the Staffordshire garden wedding of WWW readers Stephen and Aimee. They had a simple DIY festival wedding, with a church ceremony and a secret garden reception held outdoors. It was just glorious.

I adore the alfresco setting, beautifully styled with rugs, tassel bunting, festoon lights and rustic touches. There were games to entertain, smoke bombs during the first dance and even cute picnic boxes, followed by pizza later. Yum.

Keep your eyes peeled for the loveliest outfits, a stunning cake and a very cool wedding car.

Charlie and Em Photography I can’t thank you enough for sharing these bright and happy captures with us. Enjoy.

Aimee on WWW

We were looking for inspiration for our festival themed wedding. WWW was the perfect website that helped give us lots of simple, quirky and unique ideas.

Staffordshire Garden Wedding

The Proposal

Came as a big surprise. Stephen had planned a surprise picnic on top of the hill close to where we live. It was the day before my birthday, my little nephew had just been born and I can honestly say it was one of the best days of my life!!

The Vision

To create an afternoon that everyone would remember for years to come. We had a church service to start the afternoon off and then a short walk to the venue five minutes from the church.

We had hay bales, hook a duck, face painting, balloon modelling, coconut shy, bubble machine, hula-hoops, bowls, jumping sacks, smoke flares, pizza oven, campfire, hundreds of meters of bunting, live music, disco and great food.

We supplied a shed full of free alcohol during the day and then a horsebox bar for the evening and into the night.

Budget

£5000

The Venue

The Secret Garden – Tatenhill

Within walking distance from our house and from the church and being my childhood playground, choosing the secret garden was a perfect magical place for us both.

Nestled within the valley of the hills the secret garden is surrounded by native fruit and flowering trees and wildflowers creating the perfect atmosphere for our festival wedding. It’s the first time that the secret garden has been used for a wedding reception, being the only couple to ever celebrate there, makes the secret garden extremely special to us both.

The Ceremony & Music

Ceremony St Michael & All Angels Church Tatenhill

Richard our friend kindly played the organ throughout the ceremony and he did a fabulous job!

We walked down the aisle to Spring 1 Max Richter (Vivaldi, The Four Seasons).

We purchased twelve handbells, mainly for the little children to ring as they walked from the church to the reception, parents also enjoyed ringing them too. A perfect addition to any after church service, they sounded great and got everyone involved.

Your Outfits

My wedding dress was brought from ebay it is a Lillian West dress, simple, elegant and lacy (my mum and I made a 5.5 hour round road trip to Hertfordshire to view the dress and once I tried it on, it felt amazing, brought tears to my mum’s eyes then I just knew this was the dress for me, it fit like a glove and the dress was just perfection).

We had twelve fabulous bridesmaids, both dresses and shoes brought from New Look.

Stephen’s suit was purchased from Slaters of Nottingham.

My makeup and hair was done by my beautiful friend Mary.

Your Photographer

Charlie and Em Photography – Charlie was absolutely amazing and spent the whole day at the wedding capturing everything we could have dreamt of.

We were let down by our previously booked photographer and ‘Charlie and Em Photography’ came to our rescue and thank goodness they did – thank you for being so amazing and great at what you do!!

The Styling & Decor

Decorations and games all homemade by our wonderful family
Groomsmen corsage – My wonderful mum
Wedding Cake – Amy O’Brien Bakes
Afternoon Tea – Alan Ball – Morrison’s Burton
Pulled pork baps and Samos’s – Chris Scarrett – New farm catering and cookery school
Meat – Paul Shum Family Butchers
Pizzas – Dominos Pizza
Sliced tree trunk cake stand – My Dad
Flowers, Welcome Arch & Sign, Rug Dance Floor & Meters of Festoon Lighting – Sass Wedding and event stylists
Transport – We would love to thank Ian Thain for the use of his vintage car, time and kindness
Live music – Leanne and Mike, these guys were absolutely brilliant
Selection of Ciders – Burton Bridge Brewery