Rachel and Sam’s Country Style Back Garden Tipi Wedding By Mr Sleeve

Today we have a real taste of summer for you with this gorgeous country wedding in Cheshire. It’s the wedding of Rachel and Sam who were lucky enough to be able to hold the recepton in Rachels parents back garden, and what a fabulous day it was. Full of beautiful wild and seasonal flowers, a tasty cake table with a ‘Bake Off’ theme, fab food and entertainent to keep the guests dancing all night long. This wedding from Steve at Mr Sleeve is bound to put a smile on your face.

‘Tipis, tents and flowers: The perfect summer festival! It was a relaxed and personal celebration with all of our favourite people partying in a field of seasonal flowers. The wedding was covered in Flowers. The sun shone and the sky was blue.

Rachel and Sam were married on 8th August 2015 at St Alban’s church Tattenhall and the reception was in a tipi in Rachel’s parent’s garden. ‘Rachel grew up in the village and the field provided the perfect place for our wedding festival. We had 140 guests in total and the wedding took 8 months to plan.’

How they met
We met at University in Durham, and have been together for 8 years.

The Proposal
Sam managed to get Rachel and her family to plan a week away over New Years Eve on the West Coast of Scotland, without suspecting a thing. He proposed on a windy walk on a deserted beach, on New Years Day.

Where did you splurge and where did you save
We splurged on the band and food and they were worth every penny! Pretty much everyone danced for both of their sets, Thrill Collins were brilliant. There were so many compliments about the food and it was all from local producers. We saved on booze, all from Aldi, just as delicious, we also didn’t provide desert, instead many of our guests contributed to our Great British ‘Baker’ Off – we didn’t know we knew so many talented bakers. We didn’t do any of the fluffy extras like ‘wedding cars’ etc we walked home from the church. We made as much as we could ourselves and most of the guests camped in the field, which really added to the festival vibe, all of our favourite people partying in a field.

How did you choose your photographer
Neither of us were particularly excited by the thought of having a ‘wedding photographer’. We are both famous amongst our friends for being the ones that run away when a camera appears. In the excitement of planning our wedding, a big party with all our friends and family, this was that one thing we avoided booking.
That is, until I found Steve’s website and saw his portfolio and testimonials. And we weren’t disappointed. Steve made the whole experience comfortable, easy and fun. From when I first called him to discuss the possibility of a booking, to the communication after the wedding, Steve has been so friendly and gone out of his way to be helpful, meeting all of our needs. Steve captured the day beautifully.

The Dress
My dress was made by Christine Eady, a dress maker in Oxford. I designed the dress with her and brought the fabric, it turned out exactly as I had hoped. I was very keen not to have a train so that I could easily run around the garden and have a good dance.
Shoes by Vivienne Westwood. Floral pumps, again perfect for dancing and I wore them loads on the honeymoon too. Fresh flower crowns from Carol’s Garden.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
The suit was designed and made for Sam by Clement and Church, Beaconsfield. Ian Roper was amazing at helping Sam create exactly what he was after and fitting it to him like a glove. Bridesmaids were an Etsy find.

Theme or Colour Scheme
The theme was a summer music festival feel, a tipi in a field with fire pits outside and most of the guests camping. If there was a colour scheme it was Blues and Greens, but it was mainly guided by the flowers, all local flowers from our amazing florist Carol Siddorn at Carol’s Garden.

Flowers
Loads! Wild, natural, local, seasonal flowers. The wedding was covered in flowers, Carol did such a fantastic job. She even managed to include roses that Rachel’s mum had grown on from her mother’s garden, in Rachel’s bouquet. Thank you Carol’s garden!

Decoration
Lots of bunting in the Tipi, made by a friend’s mother for her wedding and passed, very kindly onto us. Flowers, everywhere, in milk bottles, big jugs, wheelbarrows, anything we could fill with flowers we did. Rachel’s mum and neighbour had been growing pots of flowers especially too which were placed around the tipi.

Food
Afternoon tea canapes. All tiny versions of the traditional; sandwiches, quiches, scones and Portuguese custard tarts (our favourite).
We ate at long tables in the tipi with big sharing platters of BBQ food and Ottolenghi-style salads.
Followed by a Great British ‘Baker’ Off, many of the guests brought cakes and we awarded prizes before choosing our favourite to cut as our wedding cake.

Wedding Cake
The winner of our ‘Baker’ off competition.

Entertainment
Thrill Collins, couldn’t recommend them more highly, followed by two of our very talented friends DJ Chunky and Raff T.

The Stationery
We designed and printed it ourselves on recycled card.

Personal or Handmade Touches
Lots of elements of the wedding were made by us or friends and family. The real labour of love were the napkins/place settings/favours, Rachel hand embroidered all 140 guest names onto squares of old linen sheets and made them into cotton napkins. Several people helped to hem and starch them! Most of the sewing was done on her train commute to London.

Special Moments
Having all of our friends and family together having a really good time, we didn’t stop smiling all day.

Advice to other couples
If you can, don’t spend too much time planning, just get all of your favourite people together and have fun!
Ask friends and family if they’d like to help with anything, people were really pleased to be asked. We had friend’s singing and playing music in the church, guests made cakes, friends DJ-ing.
It goes so quickly! Don’t worry about stuff being perfect, just enjoy yourselves. Because most of the guests camped they were all there for breakfast in the morning, so we prolonged the celebration, reliving the night before . We had also organised a walk and pub lunch the next day which about 50 joined us on, a lovely way to spend more time with everyone. It all goes so quickly that it was nice to have a chance to have actual conversations with people the next day.
We also hadn’t considered having a wedding video and when a friend offered, Rachel was slightly reluctant, however he did an amazing job and it’s the loveliest reminder of the day. Thank you Sam King Film! We could not recommend it more, we didn’t even know he was there and he caught the essence of the day perfectly.

Biggest surprise
The weather! We chose to get married in the North West, not known for its balmy summer days and the week leading up was looking pretty bleak for a tipi in a field. On the day however, the sun shone and the sky was blue, absolutely perfect. Guests sat out around the fire well after the music had stopped.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Photographer – www.mrsleeve.co.uk
• Flowers – www.carolsgarden.co.uk/explore/flowers
• Suit – www.clementsandchurch.co.uk
• Film – www.samkingfilm.com
• Band – www.thrillcollinsmusic.wordpress.com
• Tipi – www.marqueesandevents.com
• Food – www.thefinediningcompany.co.uk

For more information on Steve’s work please go to:

www.mrsleeve.co.uk / www.mrsleeve.co.uk/weddings / [email protected] / 07765 408556 / @sleeveboy / FACEBOOK / I: mr_sleeve / PINTEREST

Creative and natural wedding photography. Based in Manchester but shooting weddings all over the country and abroad.