Church wedding in a village called Mursley (where sophies dad lives and she grew up), then down the road to her dads house where we had the reception in the TIPIs.

Kingfisher Caterers provided us canapes followed by a 3 course sit down meal. They were absolutely fantastic throughout the whole planning and on the day kept everything 100% on time and track. Service was faultless, they also ran our evening bar and served our daytime drinks.

Ela Walendar Photography Ela is based in Bedfordshire, she was fantastic so well priced and slotted in perfectly on our day amongst our guests. Lots of people commented at how great Ela was and 100% agree. The photos are a perfect story to our day.

I used someone who lives local to me and this was Claire – Florry Florals.

I met with Claire face 2 face and showed her lots of images on Pinterest that I had found. We then firmed up exact numbers of items nearer the time. Claire did all of our bouquets, milk churns, floral hoop and table centre pieces. Claire was brilliant and her floral displays were fantastic

We utilised LoveLee I found her on Etsy and reached out to Kate. Kate provided us with Save the dates, Invites and OOS. We did the table plan, and place cards with the help of friends & family using inspiration from Pinterest & Etsy.

We had an 8 piece band that played for us on the night and this was EPIC! Everyone got up and danced which was fantastic and all I wanted. They focused on 70’s/ 80s music and it went down with everyone. We then had Rob our DJ from Strobe Disco Roadshow. who was with us all day. Rob along with the band was fantastic. From the communication during the planning to the set up and DJ’ing on the day. Rob focused on genres that we liked and played to the crowd! He was still with us at 1am! Rob also has a lighting business and provided us with the pink uplighters on the exterior of the Tipi’s.

We also had the Brides cousin who is a professional Trumpeter playing the Bride & Grooms exit song from the church – Alexander Maynard

And for the guests and brides entrance we had a Quartet – Buckinghamshire Quartet. You cannot beat live music in the church. Dale was getting tearful hearing them warm up in the church! They were fantastic! Wish we could listen to them all day!

Was made by a friend of the Brides- Sally Knights. It was a 3 tier semi naked cake. Vanilla, Lemon & Carrot. Some guests had a bit of every tier!

Was from a bridal shop in Hinckley called Dress Me Pretty. Wow cannot fault these ladies they went above and beyond and found me my first dress on my first visit. Their recommended seamstress ‘Kerry Arnold Seamstress’ was fantastic also. Kerry worked on my dress right up until the week of the wedding and made it fit me absolutely perfectly. These ladies have such a busy Summer and deserve medals to fit everyone in and provide a fantastic service.

Was provided by San Carlo Pizza Catering. Antonio was amazing and everyone since the wedding commented on how great the Pizza’s went down we had more Pizza’s than guests cooked and they ALL went! Pizza’s are a great option as can work for all dietary requirements

Our daytime drinks were provided by our local Majestic Wine store – again these guys were great we had a tasting session where we discussed our food and tried lots of wine they kept us within our budget and we had the option of returning any wine that was left over. We had ordered bang on amounts we actually didn’t need to use this but it was a great comfort and they were so well priced in comparison to Supermarkets and other options we explored but they took all the hassle and stress away from us.

On the day was done by Katie Hudson Makeupbykatiehudson– Katie was fantastic on the day she did all of the bridal party on time with no over running. I would 100% recommend Katie, my make up stayed on all day and was flawless! She came recommended by one of the Bridesmaids

Hayleyelainehair– Hayley came recommended by one of the Bridesmaids and was local to the venue. Hayley was fantastic and worked her magic with all of us ladies. She gave us all flexibility to have what we wanted and she made it happen. My hair stayed in all day and I was really pleased with it!

We used local providers for our toilets and generator also!

My vision was to have a really chilled out wedding with nothing to formal. Whilst I wanted to keep traditions in place I wanted it to be really relaxed for our us and our guests. Having it at home made it extra special but also gave us 100% flexibility and control. I love the Tipi’s as they really do give you the relaxed vibe but also look absolutely amazing. My visions all came from scrolling on Pinterest, I did a lot myself and tried to Recreate things I had seen that I thought would fit in for the day. These little things just made the day fantastic. Most importantly they were all used here are some of the little things we had…

• Basket with fleece blankets for the chill out area. Every single blanket was used and some even went home with guests!
• Sweet table – this was mainly for the Groom as he has a sweet tooth but went down a treat with the 16 children we had for the day and a few of the adults also!
• Basket of flip flops for guests – these all went by the end of the night and we used a big basket that we keep a plant in at home so everything was used again!
• Marshmallows for round the fire pit- these looks fantastic in the pictures and the kids loved this
• Kids activity pack – this was found on Pinterest and the bride made these herself – every child had an activity book & crayons to keep them busy whilst the wedding breakfast was on the go.
• Kids weren’t included in the Canapes so the Bride recycled a picnic hamper and filled these with crisps to keep the kids going!
• All of the kids had a fruit shoot on their table, this was for 2 reasons most parents want to avoid fizzy pop and they are in bottles so we had no spillages on the tables!
• Kids play area- we did this on a really low cost budget but was fantastic for the little ones!
• Order of the day & table plan were DIY from pallets
• Cigarette butts we used terracotta plan pots filled with sand! Popped a little sign in and we could use everything again!
• Don’t be afraid of doing lots yourself! I made all of my bridal party personalised hangers this cost me less than £5 for 6 of us bought white hangers from Primark and sticker decals off eBay. If I had bought these off Etsy it would have been £8 per person x 6 £48!
• The same for the sliced logs on the tables and the wedding pallets we did all of these ourselves, they took time but they were free!!

Top tip for the day is to enjoy it, don’t put to much pressure on the day and it will then exceed your expectations. I genuinely didn’t think it would be the best day of my life hadn’t really thought about it or expected it. But it really was and I think removing that pressure made it just perfect. Plan plan plan is key and I did this the whole way through. I did what I could as early as possible as I knew I didn’t want to be doing it all on the final days to the wedding so I did as much as possible as early as possible. You can do lots yourself and shop about for the best prices! I don’t think I would change anything on the day it went so so smoothly and everyone had a fantastic day!

I would say that lighting is key for TiPI’s inside and out. We had fairly lights outside along with uplighters in trees and on the Tipis inside we had artificial ivy around all of the poles with fairy lights and it just made it so so cosy. I loved it and so proud we did so much ourselves.

Top tip for after the day is you can sell a lot of the things you bought, so don’t panic! Sweet jars, blankets, candles etc can all be sold/ given away and res used for someone else’s big day!

Another tip I had to keep telling myself was will it impact someone’s day? So when I was trying to choose between design on some wrapping for my wedding favours I had to keep myself in check and think will it impact someone’s day? Will they remember it? For example ‘I liked their wedding but I didn’t like the design on the wedding favour wrapping!’ NO!… this type of thought really helped and made me keep myself in check and made me just make a decision and not focus on the little stuff that doesn’t matter. It also made me not buy certain things for example a sticker that went on the confetti packets… will someone remember it? No.. will it make their day better? No… ok let’s not buy it!

I would Kiss my husband in the church! Our reverend didn’t say ‘you may now kiss the bride’ and so we didn’t! we looked at each other like shall we shan’t we and dithered as not sure when it would come later on but it didn’t! this we missed out on and even the guests noticed!

The only other thing I would do is book a few days before and after off work. I had started a new job this year and therefore didn’t do this! Also being back on site on the Sunday to take everything down the following day and clean up I would 100% change and do it the following day and get everything collected on the Monday and no the Sunday!

So we need 2 here on the day and prior to the day…

Prior to the event it has to be YOU! I think EUC were my favourite! You guys made it so so easy and simple. Your communication was fantastic from prior to booking, throughout my booking to the install and take down. Your replied to emails so quickly. Always so helpful.

I would recommend visiting the open days we did this when we had most things booked and added o my booking but really helped us plan the day. After the open day we added the matted flooring and the wall extension for the Band and was great to get a sense of vision for the day.

On the day it has to be our catering team- Kingfisher Caterers!

The food was incredible considering they cooked for 75 guests it was fantastic quality. I was nervous that we had no time to over run on the day and didn’t want to still be eating when evening guests arrive. The team kept us bang on time and I mean NOTHING slipped everything just went so smoothly and this takes skill to heard 75 tipsy guests throughout the day! The bar staff on the bar in the evening were fantastic and were even up dancing with us at one point!

• Bride entrance – Canon in D performed by the Quartet
• Can’t Take my eyes off you – Frankie Valley – performed by the Quartet
• Bride & Groom entrance to wedding breakfast – Maverick Sabre ‘I need’ from our DJ
• First Dance – Al Green Lets stay together – performed by the band

Sitting on the top table and with her Husband watching the room and everyone eating, chatting and laughing. I remember whispering to Dale. Look everyone’s having so much fun! The buzz and atmosphere and sound gives me goosebumps now. I had dale with me and I was just absorbing our day!

Arriving back from the church in the car. We pulled up in the field Infront of the TIPI’s no guests were with us yet and it was just me and my wife. And then a lady appeared with some champagne congratulated us and gave us a hug! Seconds later everyone was with us and the area was full!