Kerry and Peter’s Colourful DIY Farm Wedding By The Crawleys Photography

Today I have a gorgeous wedding for you full of fun, colour and lots of smiles. The wedding has come from Jo at The Couture Company as she made the totally gorgeous wedding dress that Kerry wears. This sun drenched day is filled with bright and colourful decorations that have been handmade by Kerry and Peter, along with so many lovely little details. The venue Clawdd Offa Farm is the perfect location for their gorgeous outdoor ceremony, complete with hanging pot plants, wild flowers and a super cute Morris Minor. Big thanks to Liam and Bee from The Crawleys Photography for the lovely photos.

‘All of our favourite people coming together, playing games, eating wonderful food, enjoying fabulous wines and dancing the night away in a spectacular location. The most fantastic day ever!’

Kerry and Peter were married on 8th August 2015 at Mold registry office and Clawdd Offa Farm, Pen y Ffordd. ‘The location was stunning, right at the bottom of the Clwydian mountain range and the event organisers were relaxed and really accommodating. We had 100 guest in total and the wedding took 12 months to plan’

How they met
We met at Staffordshire University back in 2003 on a night out at the Students Union and have been together ever since.

The Proposal
Pete proposed at one of our favourite beauty spots, the Needle’s Eye at Wentworth Woodhouse, which overlooks the splendour of South Yorkshire. It’s a special place for us and was the perfect location for a proposal.

How did you allocate your budget
Roughly 45% on the venue, 20% on the food, 15% on the drinks, 10% on the photographer and 10% on dress, suit, flowers, car & rings.

Where did you splurge and where did you save
We really went over budget on the photographer, but in hindsight we are really glad we did as we’re thrilled with the images he captured. Savings were made by making things ourselves, things like bunting made from old maps, tin can lanterns, sunflower seed favours and place names.

How did you choose your photographer
Liam was recommended by a family friend and after looking at his portfolio we knew he was the photographer for us. We loved his documentary, quirky style and his ability to capture the moment.

The Dress
The Couture Company, Birmingham. Shoes from Irregular Choice. Necklace custom made by Louise Pringle at eclecticshock.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
I had an idea of the style of clothing I wanted. I used the services of a personal shopper at Bicester Village who took me and my best man around selected shops and put together a series of “looks”. In the end, the shoes were Church’s, chinos from Tommy Hilfiger, shirt from TM Lewin, waistcoat from Austin Reed, jacket from Savoy Tailors Guild and sunglasses by Ray Ban. We didn’t have any bridesmaids.

Theme or Colour Scheme
We didn’t want to feel restricted by a particular colour scheme; we wanted the theme to be COLOUR!

Flowers
Sunflowers and various meadow flowers supplied by Wild, Chester.

Decoration
Large multi coloured, round paper lanterns hung from the ceiling of the marque, meadow flowers in milk bottles were placed on the tables and home grown potted flowers were placed around the site. Handmade map bunting hung around the edges of the marquee and the decking, whilst tin can lanterns lit up the deck at night.

Food
A sharing platter of breads, cheeses and hams to start, followed by cold pies (beef and ale, chicken and veggie) with boiled potatoes, coleslaw and chutney. Pudding was a magnificent raspberry Pavlova with chocolate shards. We had a selection of cheese and Port a little later on for guests to nibble on.

Wedding Cake
A non-traditional cake based on the venue of our first date, the local laundrette. Complete with washing machines, soap powder and pants! Designed and made by Cake, Chester, it was quirky, fun and tasted delicious!

Entertainment
Outdoor games kept the guests entertained during the day and a live Soul band, the Soulphonics, kept everyone dancing through the night.

The Stationery
We sent out a poem written on postcards of Stoke on Trent (where we first met) as our save the date cards and had a local printer print out postcards of the venue, with details on the reverse as our invitations.

Personal or Handmade Touches
Almost everything was either made by my Father or ourselves, including the bunting, the old wooden ladder archway adorned with flowers, sunflower seed favours, the table plan and the tin lanterns. My Uncle made us a glass bottle tree which was an unusual and stunning feature near the decking. Our guests all commented that the wedding was the most personal they’d been to.

Special Moments
There were lots of highlights, like seeing each other for the first time at the registry office, hearing each other’s personalised vows and watching our relatives on the dance floor. It was great to see all our friends and relatives sharing a joke and joining in the games together. We couldn’t stop smiling!

Advice to other couples
Make sure that you stop, at least once an hour, step back and look around you – this is the best day of your life and you will be hugely grateful of those little snippets over the following days, months and years. You have to be very disciplined to do this as the temptation is to just keep going but the day flies by and you’ll be going to bed before you know it.

Biggest surprise
Definitely how quickly it went, one minute we were exchanging vows and the next it was time for the last song of the night.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Tents and Events – www.tents-and-events.co.uk
• Catering – www.mmcatering.com
• Florist – www.wildfloraldesign.co.uk
• Louise Pringle – www.eclecticshock.net
• Dress – www.the-couture-company.co.uk
• Paper lanterns – www.hanginglanterns.co.uk/inspirations/weddings
• Photographer – www.the-crawleys.com
• Venue – www.clawddoffa.net

For more information on Liam and Bee’s work please go to:

www.cgweddings.co.uk / www.cgweddings.co.uk/latest-posts / @the_crawleys / FACEBOOK