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27
Mar
2014
Yet again the week seems to be whizzing past, I’m sure I said that this time last week? There never seems to be enough hours in the day at the moment! To chill you all out though I have this super laid back wedding sent into me by Chris and Verity from Sansom Photography. It’s a full on DIY wedding set in York’s beautiful country side. A fabulous 3 day affair that takes place on a stunning farm venue with Tipi’s, flat caps and a whole lot of fun! Carrie and Joe did an amazing job at keeping their wedding personal to them, I am just loving Joe’s outfit, and despite the heavy rain they had an amazing 3 day long wedding!
Carrie and Joe were married on the 17th of August at Villa Farm, Wiggington, York. ‘We really wanted a wedding venue where guests could stay on site and Villa Farm allowed for 80 guests to stay in their five cottages. That meant we were able to allow the wedding to continue for three days! We stayed in our own bell tent by the beautiful lake! The site manager was very willing to allow us as much freedom as we would like on the day, such as providing our own food and running our own free bar. They also had outdoor Jacuzzi’s for later in the evening, which were well used by all! We had 125 adult and 25 children guests, and the wedding took approximately 6 months to plan.’
How they met
We met in our first week at the University of Nottingham and have now been together for 13 years.
The proposal
There were 2 proposals. The first was at the end of a 6 month backpacking trip around Thailand with our 2 young children. There was no ring, and the event occurred in the middle of the night on top of our very own artificial waterfall in a place called Krabi Dream Home. The second proposal happened on the last day of a short break to Morocco, at 6am, as dawn broke, aboard a hot air balloon, between Marrakesh and the Atlas Mountains. There was a ring this time.
How did you spend your budget?
We started off trying to spend as little money as possible, aiming for a figure of around £12.5k but things quickly went out of hand and costs began to spiral, obliterating our original budget in the process. Our Papakata tent was the most expensive outlay, followed by the venue, food and alcohol.
How/Why did you choose your photographer?
We were recommended our photographers by another photographer who’s style we liked but who was already booked for our big day. We love Chris and Verity’s two pronged approach, covering so many more angles than you could expect from just one photographer. Their style is emotive documentary/photojournalism which is exactly what we wanted. We knew straight away after looking at their website and blog, www.sansomphotography.co.uk, that they were the ones for us and this view was massively reinforced when we first met them for our pre-wedding shoot. On the day Chris and Verity were inconspicuous in their work (Verity hid behind curtains quite a lot!) and yet always around to grab every shot it was possible to get without being noticeable at all. They would also come up with quiet suggestions that were always fantastic ideas and remind us gently of things we had expressed a wish to do, such as go for a walk together, which we would have completely forgotten to do otherwise. They were also our heroes on the way back from the church when our car’s windscreen wipers were caught up in the wedding ribbon and subsequently broke, rendering our car useless. Chris and Verity were there to give us a lift back to the venue!
The dress
The dress was Alan Hannah and called Melita. However it was very pricey so I managed to get it second hand on pre-loved. Luckily one of my good friends was able to make all the alterations. The shoes were lace style flats and my mum and bridesmaids gave me my jewellery.
The suit and bridesmaids
The groom wore a rustic outfit composed of brown boots, linen trousers and waistcoat from Holland Esquire, a collarless shirt and a flat cap. We didn’t want formal bridesmaid dresses so we went for flowing butterfly maxi dresses and at £30 each they were a bargain
Theme or colour scheme
Rustic and as many colours as possible. We hated the idea of sticking to certain colour schemes
Flowers
Specially grown wild flowers from a lady who sells them from her allotment. She picked them for us and the bridesmaids arranged them all the next day. We had three or four jam jars on each table, decorated with vintage lace. We never knew our bridesmaids were so creative!
Decoration
We managed to source a mountain of home made bunting, which had been made for our friends’ wedding the year before. The reception tables were all completely different and named after a country we had travelled to. Each one was decorated with possessions we had collected from that special place, photos, guidebooks and a bottle of alcohol linked to the country. We had a children’s tent decorated with large murals of Willy Wonka and massive lollipops – unfortunately a gust of wind blew this tent away during the reception! We also had a reggae bar with painted drift wood reggae bar sign and rasta wigs for the bar staff.
Food
When guests arrived we had Pirags in wicker baskets, which are Latvian style breads stuffed with pork or mushrooms. We were so grateful to two of our Latvian friends who literally made hundreds of Pirags for us! Joe home brewed Elderflower wine and ginger champagne. We had a delicious BBQ with food supplied and cooked by the farm shop which was located next door. This meant that all the produce were locally sourced. The children had their own kids cocktail bar called “Jacob and Elijah’s Marvellous Medicine” (the name of our two children), which had lots of brightly coloured drink concoctions. The kids had a pack up separate to the adults as we had a children’s crèche. We also provided fish and chip cones later on in the evening. For the alcohol we made several trips to France so that we could provide free alcohol all night.
Wedding Cake
Again a rustic design, similar to an oversized tiered Victoria sponge cake decorated with wild flowers.
Entertainment
The groom’s party had a game of football on the morning of the wedding. In the evening we had friends who are a band play Latvian and contemporary music and got everyone up for some Latvian dancing – a bit like Céilidh. Caroline and seven of her friends dressed in traditional Latvian outfits and did a washer woman dance for everyone! We then had a friend DJ a bootleg he had made of all our favourite tunes. We also had a tug of war, “raw hide” and bouncy castle the next day and another party of course.
Buy or DIY your Stationery?
We DIY’d everything.
Personal or handmade touches
• Homemade invites
• Homemade order of service – The name of every attendee at the wedding printed onto the back of each order of service
• Homemade willy wonka chocolate bars, wrappers designed and printed by us with willy wonka golden ticket inside inviting each child to the willy wonka kids tent
• Homemade bunting
• Willy wonka tent, decorated by ourselves
• 1000 home made origami cranes dangled on lengths of string, with table seating arrangements also on each string, each hanging table card decorated to a theme of a chosen place that we love
• Father of the bride made a brightly painted children’s drink stand, which we decorated with photos of our children doing science experiments, fitting in with the “marvellous Medicine” theme (Roald Dahl)
• Individually decorated reception tables of places we love
• Photographs of us at each place we love shaped as luggage tags and hanging from twigs at each individual table
• Favours in homemade hessian bags, tied with string and doubled up as a name place card
• Rasta bar drift wood sign
• Direction sign post
• Many other signs
• Large family tree canvas with members of each family on each side
• Large canvas montage of all our friends
Highlights
Football in morning and raw hide, The speeches, The washer Woman dance, Latvian Dancing, Jukesys DJ set, Tug of war and Jacuzzis
Biggest surprise
The children’s tent blowing away
Advice for other couples
Get friends and family to help you in your preparations. They love getting involved and it makes it very special. Book a good photographer
www.sansomphotography.co.uk
FACEBOOK
@SansomPhoto
Love that low shot down the aisle.