Lauren and Nathan’s Handmade South Devon Yurt Wedding by Memories and Milestones

Happy Monday everyone I do hope you all had a good weekend, what did you get up to? Mine was lovely. A weekend of friends, food, fizz and time with my boy while Nik has been away for the weekend. It’s the first time we have been apart since the beginning of March, he normally works away 2-3 nights a week, so lock down has been very strange for us all. So this weekend it was just me and Dexter and it was lovely to spend some time with just him. On with today’s wedding and we are starting the week off with Lauren and Nathan’s yurt camp wedding. It’s a handmade affair, with lots of handcrafted projects, from the stationery to the favours to the signage and the decor. The venue is super fun, as it’s set in a yurt camp which meant that all the guests could stay over. It also gave them the added entertainment option of an on site assault course! A fun filled, relaxed day filled with so much pretty decoration and so many smiles. Big thanks to Memories and Milestones for the lovely photos.

A unique, magical day filled with fun and laughter.  A truly rustic experience that our friends and family still talk about today and describe as the best wedding they have been to.

Lauren and Nathan were married on 1st at Yurt Camp, Liverton in South Devon. ‘We were looking for a different style wedding which was different from the traditional wedding.  A truly unique venue which included a dancefloor in a tipi and an open barn situated in the woodland, just sold it for us. An additional benefit was that all of our guests could have their own yurt situated in the woodland, with log burners and views of the stars. We had 50 guests and it took one year to plan.’

How they met
We met via an online dating app, Plenty of Fish. We’ve been together for 5 years.

The proposal. 
At sunset on a beach in Aruba, next to one of the famous Divi trees (Google Aruba Divi tree).

How did you allocate your budget? 
A strict spreadsheet to controlled by Nathan. Having said that, the wedding dress budget went out of the window!

Where did you splurge and where did you save? 
The two main splurges we’re on the wedding dress and the honeymoon which was organised as a surprise by Nathan to, Dubai, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.  The main savings on decorations, we made use of my sisters creativity in making most of our decorations to make the yurt camp look even more magical.

How did you choose your photographer? 
We found Mel on Instagram, we loved her relaxed photography style and we felt she had a skill in capturing every moment, of laughter and tears in a natural way.  Living in Nottingham we booked a number of photographers to meet on the same day.  Mel was the first person we met and we cancelled all remaining appointments following as we felt an instant personable connection that would help us capture our day.

The dress
My dress was by Maggie Sottero.  My accessories were by Tiffany for my pearl earrings and necklace.  Shoes were from Asos.

The suit and bridesmaids
The suits were from M&S and the bridesmaids were from Asos.

Theme or colour scheme
Burgundy and pale pink

Flowers
Gypsophila, roses and eucalyptus

Decoration
Simple and rustic with plenty of fairly lights, candles and bunting

Food 
BBQ food!!!  Home made burgers, sausages, marinated chicken, salads and potato salad. We had our Wedding cake for dessert.

Wedding cake
A drip effect cake with 3 tiers. The flavours were lemon and white chocolate / double chocolate with macaroons, chocolate cigars and white chocolate shards. Tib from Little Butter Cup Cakery cakes tasted and looked incredible.

Entertainment
Live duo band, who performed an acoustic set throughout the drinks reception and then kicked it up a gear to a lively pre-DJ set to get everyone dancing. The band also did our DJ set with a few favourite songs chosen by our guests (requests sent in when invite RSVP’s returned).  Other entertainment included a handmade photo booth with props, fire pit with marshmallows, sparklers, with plenty of garden games and an extensive sweet table. Almost forgot, a zip line with an assault course which of course we both went on in our wedding dress/suit!

Who supplied the stationery? 
Handmade by us and a friend

Where did you go on your honeymoon
Dubai, Sri Lanka and Maldives

Personal touches
Pretty much everything which was on display we did ourselves, including homemade fudge as favours but the key thing that stands out was our cake stand which made from an oak tree log with our names engraved by a family friend.

Special moments 
Friends and family stood on hay bales around the fire pit, dancing and singing their lungs out waving sparklers.

Advice for other couples
Be realistic with your budget.  You can easily get carried away with little extras.  Look for deals and bargains, you can get lots of really great quality things like decorations from Gumtree or you can make your own. As an example, we created our own photo booth made from painted wooden pallets which looked great and cost virtually nothing. You wouldn’t realise how much fun people had from taking photos of themselves in giant sunglasses and a feather boa!

Biggest surprise
The weather was glorious and having a very outside wedding was a huge risk, which paid off.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Photography: Memories and Milestones 
• Venue: Yurt Camp 
• Hair: Coast Hair 
• Makeup: Changing Faces 
• Decorations: Star Gazey prop hire 
• Cake: Tib from Little Butter Cup Cakery 
• Rings: Marlows, Birmingham Jewellery Quarter  
• Flowers: Flowers by La Vita 
• Band/DJ: Sonourous, Alive Network

For more information on Memories & Milestones Photography go to

 www.memoriesmilestones.co.uk / www.memoriesmilestones.co.uk/blog / 07789 914647 / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / PINTEREST / TWITTER

I’m based in Devon and offer relaxed, natural wedding photography. I aim to capture each wedding day as unobtrusively as possible, allowing the day to unfold and capturing all the key moments and the bits in between that the bride and groom will miss on the day. Most of my couples choose me for my relaxed style as they don’t want any awkward posed shots. I love photographing all the little details too.  Here’s my info: