{"id":338978,"date":"2023-03-31T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T06:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whimsicalwonderlandweddings.com\/?p=338978"},"modified":"2024-03-17T11:26:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-17T11:26:02","slug":"carreglwyd-estate-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wedissimo.com\/blog\/carreglwyd-estate-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"Bohemian & Colourful Outdoorsy Summer Wedding"},"content":{"rendered":"

A very warm welcome to Tesni and Ryan who are kindly sharing their stunning Carreglwyd Estate<\/a> wedding in Wales<\/a> with us. Their day was a beautiful reflection of them as a couple, with nods to family, the fire service and their bohemian style. So gorgeous!<\/p>\n

From the vibrant colour scheme to the DIY wedding decorations<\/a>, their day was a dream. I really love all of the wonderful outfit choices, the amazing cake table and the sunset photos. Wow.<\/p>\n

Thanks ever so much to Amy and Omid Photography<\/a> for sharing these absolutely beautiful images of this very special celebration indeed.<\/p>\n

\"Carreglwyd \"Best \"Buttonhole<\/p>\n

Carreglwyd Estate Wedding<\/h2>\n

The Proposal<\/h3>\n

Ever since Tesni was a child she had dreamt of going to Sydney Australia<\/strong>. After 2 years together, Ryan decided this is where a future proposal had to take place.<\/p>\n

Ryan planned an elaborate treasure hunt for Tesni\u2019s 22nd birthday where he told her that the following year he\u2019d be whisking her away to Sydney! Before leaving for Australia he got in touch with one of Tesni\u2019s favourite local jewellery makers Angela Evans, and spoke to her about crafting a ring.<\/p>\n

He knew that Tesni wanted an opal, and following a chat with Angela they decided that as Australia is where 95% of the world’s opals are mined, that he could get a stone whilst they were out in Australia. In the meantime, Angela produced a single silver band so that Ryan had something to use for the actual proposal.<\/p>\n

During the planning stages of the Sydney trip, Ryan also reached out to the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb<\/strong>, as he knew this was something Tesni wanted to do. He had also decided this was where he wanted to propose.<\/p>\n

Flash forward to March 15th 2019. He got down on one knee at the top of the Sydney harbour bridge (Tesni obviously said yes!). Over the next few days, they visited local opal dealers and cutters, before finding the perfect stone at Australian Opal cutters. The stone was then brought back over to the UK where Tesni and Ryan worked with Angela to come up with the perfect ring. <\/p>\n

\"Carreglwyd \"Bride \"Bride<\/p>\n

The Vision<\/h3>\n

Our vision was quite simple. We wanted a day that was predominantly outside (including the ceremony), at a venue where we and our guests could camp, and for the whole day to feel almost like a mini-festival<\/strong>. Our main concern was bringing all of our friends and family together to celebrate, eat good food and dance!<\/p>\n

The only other thing we wanted was for the day to feel as unique to us as it could.<\/p>\n

Budget<\/h3>\n

Our budget was established after visiting our first potential wedding venue. The venue and food alone would have cost us \u00a320,000. From here we quickly decided we wanted the whole day (including clothing, d\u00e9cor etc) to cost between \u00a315,000 – \u00a316,000<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Carreglwyd \"Red \"Bouquet<\/p>\n

The Venue<\/h3>\n

Carreglwyd Estate<\/strong>, Llanfaethlu, Anglesey.<\/p>\n

Our main priority for our wedding was to have an outside ceremony. During 2019 the laws on outside weddings were a lot more stringent and there weren\u2019t many venues that offered outdoor ceremonies for an affordable price. There also weren\u2019t many venues that felt like us.<\/p>\n

We came across Carreglwyd Estate by complete accident, in a desperate last-minute Google to find a venue that spoke to us. When we first visited back in July 2019 we instantly fell in love and knew this was the venue for us.<\/p>\n

Nestled in the middle of Anglesey, surrounded by gorgeous woodland and with a beautiful boat house and pontoon situated on the centre of a large open lake, it is everything we could have wished for! In addition to this it had two barns, one for the sit-down meal and another for the party, an outdoor patio area and ample fields for camping!<\/p>\n

We also adored that every time we visited the venue it always seemed to be sunny (even if it was raining back home!) plus as soon as you got out of the car all you could hear is bird song. It was so peaceful and the perfect venue for us.<\/p>\n

Another amazing thing about this venue was that we could have access for 5 days! Meaning we had 2 days before to set up, the day of the wedding and then 2 days after to take down! This was a godsend as it meant we didn\u2019t need to rush around; we could relax and enjoy the whole long weekend.<\/p>\n

\"Carreglwyd \"Carreglwyd<\/p>\n

The Ceremony & Music<\/h3>\n

We got married in the boat house which was situated on the lake. All of our guests were sat on a pontoon which was attached to the boat house, so different to some weddings. Tesni and the bridal party actually walked towards the guests rather than down an aisle.<\/p>\n

The ceremony was kicked off with Does Your Mother Know by Abba<\/strong> and with one of the best men playing the part of \u2018flower man\u2019 wearing a flower crown and dancing his way towards the guests, spreading petals and dried flowers as he went. (This was something that only the immediate wedding party, registrars and photographer were aware of, so it was a nice surprise for all the family and friends!)<\/p>\n

The bridal party then entered to a cover of The Book Of Love by Peter Gabriel<\/strong>. We\u2019re really blessed to be surrounded by such talented and generous friends, as one of the bridesmaids (Katie) and her partner\/one of the best men (Josh) offered to record a cover of the song for us as we wanted an acoustic version sang by a woman. It was such a lovely personal touch to our day, and so nice that we have that song to keep forever.<\/p>\n

For the ceremony, we decided to write our own vows as we both wanted to make the day as personal and unique as we could. I (Tesni) spent most of the vows in tears, but again it\u2019s so nice to have written our own vows which we can keep.<\/p>\n

As we sat down to sign the register an acoustic version of Dancing In The Moonlight<\/strong> played, and we had Tesni\u2019s grandmother and Celyn\u2019s sister as witnesses. We then finished the ceremony by leaving the boat house to Praise You by Fat Boy Slim.<\/p>\n

Evening Songs<\/h4>\n

First dance: Earth Angel (Will you be mine?) \u2013 Marvin Berry, The Starlighters<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ryan has always loved Back to the Future and frequently sings this song whilst pottering about the house and so it felt essential to have this as our first dance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

First song after the first dance: Rasputin \u2013 Majestic and Boney M<\/strong>. \u2028Great song to get all the different generations dancing as they either know the original or the modern version!<\/p>\n

\"Carreglwyd \"Carreglwyd \"Carreglwyd \"Carreglwyd \"Carreglwyd \"Bride \"Carreglwyd \"Groom \"Red \"Red \"Red \"Carreglwyd \"Groom \"Groom<\/p>\n

Your Outfits<\/h3>\n

Bride Outfit 1: Shiloh dress by Watters<\/strong>. From: Along Came Eve<\/strong>, Chester.<\/p>\n

This was one of the first dresses I\u2019d seen a picture of and adored its bohemian feel but also its simplicity. It ended up being the last dress that I tried, and I just remember falling in love with the floaty skirt and how comfortable I felt.<\/p>\n

I also had the realisation that any dress I\u2019d tried on prior to this I wanted to chop and change, whereas this one felt perfect. I didn\u2019t want to change anything. It then felt like fate when they told me that they could sell me that exact dress at a discounted rate as I could have it as an ex-display!<\/p>\n

Shoes: Suede tan lace-up boots by White Stuff.<\/p>\n

My number one priority for the wedding was that everyone was comfortable, and this applied to myself as well. I wanted to be able to keep dancing all night, be able to run, jump and cartwheel (which I did later in the night). So for me my footwear needed to be comfy, but I also wanted them to be something that represented me and that I\u2019d wear again so what better shoes than tan suede boots!<\/p>\n

I also had my trusty tan suede jacket<\/strong> with me for the evening, but because it was so warm I didn\u2019t get a chance to wear it. It made for cute d\u00e9cor on the top table chairs though!<\/p>\n

Early on I realised that a veil wasn\u2019t for me, so I opted for flowers in my hair! But I wanted something that I could cherish and possibly hand down one day. With this in mind, I took to Etsy to find a part faux, part dried flower crown<\/a> and came across Flower Crown Magic who helped me create a custom flower crown inspired by my colour scheme and flowers.<\/p>\n

Outfit 2: \u2028In the evening I had a white playsuit to change into, nothing fancy, just because I loved my dress and I know what I can be like so I wanted to protect it as much as I could!<\/p>\n

Groom Outfit 1: Marc Darcy<\/strong> \u2013 Slim fit Dion blue three-piece suit with a burgundy tie and pocket square.<\/p>\n

Initially, I wanted a burgundy suit, but whilst looking I came across this suit online and loved the colour! We ordered it to see whether it worked with our colour scheme and it went perfectly! We then decided to buy the same suit for any immediate male family members, but we choose to pair it with a tan waistcoat which matched the best men, this way I was the only one in all blue.<\/p>\n

We paired the suit with tan brogues and a tan belt, to match the earthy\/autumnal tones of our colour scheme.<\/p>\n

Outfit 2: North Wales Fire and rescue service \u2013 undressed uniform.<\/p>\n

As I am a retained firefighter, I really wanted an opportunity to wear the undressed uniform that you can request from the service for special occasions. We decided I would get married in the blue suit that I loved and then change into the undressed uniform for our first dance and evening photos. This way we got photos of me wearing both.<\/p>\n

\"Carreglwyd \"Carreglwyd \"Carreglwyd \"Bride<\/p>\n

Your Photographer<\/h3>\n

Our photographers were Amy and Omid. We first came across their work back in 2019 and fell in love with their documentary style and vintage film-like colouring. We also loved that they were local and that they both would be there on our wedding day.<\/p>\n

As part of the package with them, we got an engagement photoshoot which was such a brilliant experience! It meant that we got to know Omid before the big day and also meant we got used to being in front of a camera! When we received our engagement shoot photos we were even more certain that these were the photographers for us. Omid had captured such beautiful moments and all the images were gorgeous!<\/p>\n

Come the big day both Amy and Omid were fantastic! They were brilliant at coordinating our families and friends, they didn\u2019t force any weird poses, they let us and our guests be themselves and in doing so have captured people’s personalities perfectly<\/strong>. But also encapsulated magical moments that we\u2019ll cherish forever!<\/p>\n

Amy and Omid’s photographic knowledge is unbeatable. They know how to curate the most beautiful photos by utilising natural light and the surrounding colours. Some of our most loved photos are thanks to Omid, as he decided to capture some evening shots at golden hour, and my god these photos are breathtaking. To this day people still comment on how beautiful our photos were. They were like something out of a film!<\/p>\n

\"Carreglwyd \"Carreglwyd \"Lace \"Bouquet \"Lace \"Bride \"Carreglwyd \"Carreglwyd \"Confetti \"Barn<\/p>\n

The Styling & Decor<\/h3>\n

For the d\u00e9cor<\/strong>, we wanted to incorporate several elements; fire service, family and bohemian. Fire service – we achieved this by having some hoses and branches and had them dotted around the venue.<\/p>\n

Family – we wanted to try to represent family members that couldn\u2019t be there through our d\u00e9cor, we achieved this by sourcing old family oil lamps and bottles. Cleaned some and upcycled others and used them as key features of our d\u00e9cor. Also, we found a toolbox which used to belong to Ryans Taid (grandfather in Welsh) which we used as a \u2018post box<\/a>\u2019 for our cards. We loved these elements of our d\u00e9cor as it felt like past family members were part of our day.<\/p>\n

Bohemian – to achieve this we used a lot of dry flowers and faux foliage. Tesni also had collected lots of patterned fabric over the years and so these were incorporated in the d\u00e9cor and helped create a cosy feel. We sourced a variety of fairy lights, festoon lights and LED candles to make the areas feel warm and inviting. To add to the bohemian feel we used most of our candle\/tea light holders from home and plastered them around the venue.<\/p>\n

As Ryan is a firefighter we wanted to integrate this into the cake<\/strong> in some capacity. So we decided to get a four-tier cake but we chose not to have them stacked. Instead, we had each tier on a different hieght log, had each cake decorated with fire-coloured flowers. I then made a firefighter wedding cake topper out of polymer clay and placed him on a ladder between two of the tiers. We then had a bride on top of one of the tiers, so it looked as if the firefighter was going to save the bride. Another way we choose to integrate the Fire Service into the cake is we choose to cut our cake with a fire service axe!<\/p>\n

Cake flavours:<\/p>\n