Sam and Paul’s Weekend Long Music Festival Wedding. By Reid Photography

Happy Monday everyone, I do hope you all had a good weekend? What did you get up to? I have a week of wonderful weddings ahead for you and lots of interesting articles to share with you starting with this fun festival wedding from Reid Photography. Sam and Paul are big music lovers and Paul plays in a band, so they decided to incorporate this love of music into their wedding and plan a 2 day music festival wedding. With a fun festival themed wedding the first day and then a full on music festival the day after, this wedding would have kept any music lover happy. With a gorgeous Claire Pettibone dress, a very stylish tweed number for Paul and lots fo music references and rustic touches, this wedding is just gorgeous.

‘If you took chilled summer vibes, laughter as loud as an orchestra, love that could fill every corner of the world, music that you could dance to until you drop and dreams that come true then shook them all up in a bag, our wedding would be the result.’

Sam and Paul were married on 26th July 2014 at St Nicholas Church, Newton Blossomville and then a reception in Marquee in Newton Blossomville at Paul’s Mum and Dad’s house. We met in Newton Blossomville and both lived there until recently. It is such a beautiful village with a strong sense of community, so it seemed like the most appropriate place. 100 guests attended and it took us 7 months to plan.

How they met
We met at a folk night where I (Paul) was playing mandolin. Sam came over and asked where all the cool people in the village hang out, but I didn’t know so she had to hang out with me instead! We had been together about a year when we got engaged, and just over 18 months when we got married.

The proposal
It was a fairly simple affair. It was Sam’s birthday (30th December) and we went out for a meal and I was planning on asking her when we got home. While we were out it seemed like there were about twenty other couples celebrating having just got engaged, which added a bit of pressure.

How did you allocate your budget
We prioritised what we considered the most important things (e.g. a cool DJ)

Why did you choose your photographer
We saw them at a wedding fair in Milton Keynes and were really impressed by how natural their photos looked, as we are both not really into staged or posed photos

The Dress
Dress was by Claire Pettibone – Kristene. Shoes (after many, many attempts!) were from BHS bridal section.

The suit and bridesmaids
Suit (and best man’s suit) by Tweed Addict. Bridesmaids were given the colour (lemon) and allowed to choose their own dress, so varied from high street to designer

Flowers
Marguerites, gypsophila, orchids, roses etc

The Theme and Colour Scheme
It was a weekend music festival event, with the wedding being rustic/summery/Boho/relaxed. The table names were iconic bands or musicians (Led Zeppelin, David Bowie etc). The wedding invitations were festival style tickets. Day two was a live music event (acoustic/rock/folk) which went on all afternoon with a hog roast.
Colours for the wedding were lemon/green/white

Decoration
Foliage around the edge of the marquee, white lanterns as lighting, table centres were rustic with wooden stands and flowers in jars

Food and Wedding Cake
We had live cooked/street food paella (a meat option and a vegetarian option) and lamb with rosemary and garlic potatoes and ratatouille
We had a “naked” wedding cake in three tiers: carrot cake, lemon cake and white chocolate, raspberry and amaretto cake.

Entertainment
My band played a set (I’m a guitarist) and then we had a DJ for the evening party (who smashed it!)

Buy or DIY your Stationery
Buy from www.wedfest.co

Handmade or Personal touches?
The favours were hessian bags with retro badges (peace, love and rock & roll) and little sticks of rock (we gave out glow sticks later on in the evening for the dancing)
Our friend is an illustrator, so she drew a field of flower stalks on a large piece of card and then we had various coloured ink pads and the guests were invited to put on their thumb or fingerprints to make the petals. We now have a bespoke, colourful keepsake.

Special moments
The whole day was so full of special moments so it is difficult to list them all, but one part that did stand out was taking the flower girls (and their parents) out on a drive in the campervan we had hired as the wedding car. It was hectic at the reception and it was so special to just steal a moment and absorb what was going on. We got some photos in a stunning location looking out over some fields, the sun was beating down and the girls loved it.

Biggest surprise of the day
That everyone was totally rocking out to the dancing at the end, from babies to grandparents to the eight-month pregnant bridesmaid.

Advice to other couples
Set your deadline for everything (work and wedding plans) a week before the wedding so you can relax in the final run up to the big day.
On the day itself it is important to take a few moments with each other to appreciate what is happening, because it is easy to get swept along and before you know it the day has passed you by. Some other great advice we were given is not to drink too much at the reception, because you want to be able to remember every moment of the day!
Finally, genuinely relax on the day – it’s not the end of the world if things aren’t 100% like you had imagined

Supplier Shout Outs

Marquee – www.ddmarquees.co.uk
Caterer – www.pan-global-catering.co.uk
DJ – www.pottergroupevents.co.uk
Flowers – www.april-flowers.co.uk
Wedding car – www.calicomoon.co.uk
Cake – www.sylviesweddingcakes.com
Suit – www.tweedaddict.com
Photographer – www.reidphotography.co.uk
Sally Reid – Email –[email protected]
Videographer – www.primevideo.co.uk

For more information on Sally’s work go to

www.reidphotography.co.uk
www.reidphotography.co.uk/blog
FACEBOOK
@sallyreid01