Thomas and Eden's Fun Filled Outdoor DIY Wedding in Dorset by One Thousand Words

I have the most wonderful English country wedding to share with you today, a fun filled wedding set in the heart of the Dorset countryside. Eden and Thomas planned an outdoor wedding and kept the costs down by keeping a lot of it DY and hand made. With a charming outdoor ceremony followed by a reception set both inside and outside a marquee, they danced under the summer sunshine all evening long. With meadow flowers and homespun details this wedding is filled with personal touches which really add to this gorgeous day. Tom from One Thousand Words was there to capture the day for us.

A personalised wedding in a field with an incredible view

Eden and Thomas were married on 8th June 2024 at Cleavel Point, Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. ‘We both love the water and countryside and spent many first dates exploring the isle of Purbeck. We have also grown up completing various water sports in Poole harbour. We do not live far away and the outlook of the field to be Poole Harbours water edge really was what sold the venue to us. It also allowed our guests to camp if they wanted to. We are both pretty chilled and laid back and a DIY chilled out wedding in a field that we could do exactly how we wanted to really appealed to us. We had approximately 70 guests during the day, rising to 100 in the evening. It took just over a year to plan.’

How they met
We met working in a yacht chandlery in January 2017, became best friends and started dating in early 2019.

The proposal
We were on a 3 week adventure travelling the East Coast of Australia. It was 3 days before we were flying home. That morning Tommy went to pick up the car that we were using to drive along the Great Ocean Road south of Melbourne, little did Eden know he also picked up the ring he had designed for Eden at the same time. We were off to see the 12 apostles at Sunset and Tommy went past and took a different turning, Eden was a little confused and Tommy said it was a more secluded spot that is meant to be quieter that he had read about, he was right it was just us and what Eden thought was a local photographer in the distance also enjoying the isolated spot. The rain had just cleared leaving a rainbow and it was also sunset and Tommy got down on one knee and surprised Eden for the first time ever on a clifftop at the end of the most incredible adventure.

How did you allocate your budget?
We looked at each supplier individually and based on a few quotes and the supplier decided if we were comfortable with that amount, whether it was worth it to us. We also tended to buy or make most things that we would of hired as we could have it exactly how we wanted it or resold after which helped with the budget.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We saved a lot of money by completing a lot of DIY, if we needed something we tried to buy or make ourselves. We also brought a lot of our decoration from Facebook Market Place which we then used and re sold after our wedding. To us personalisation, capturing our day and cake were the most important things to us, therefore we ensured we got a fantastic artist to do our wedding invites, map and welcome sign, an incredible photographer and videographer as well as a very talented baker.

How did you choose your photographer?
We met Tom who is one half of One thousand words at a local wedding fair, he had a fixed price package which included no time restrictions meaning they would be there as early and late as required, it also includes a second photographer called Murray who was equally as talented and great as Tom, this was important to us as it allowed more shots to be captured of different parts of the day. As soon as we met Tom we knew that he was the perfect choice for us, he was such a approachable, friendly person who immediately put us at ease, Eden absolutely adores capturing memories but isn’t very comfortable being centre of attention but talking to Tom and spending time with him during our engagement photo shoot to get us used to the camera which was included in his fixed price just felt like going for a walk with a good friend. Tom was always on hand to help and advise, he even met us at our venue to help with the location of all the parts of our day, nothing was too much to ask and we could not recommend One Thousand words enough they are truly the best photographers and people.

The dress
Eden’s dress was made by the designer Enzoani and brought from Scarlet Poppy in Leeds it was an ex demo she had tried on the dress at another shop in Nottingham with her mum and aunt and really loved it but did not love the price tag, after some research she found the exact dress on sale due to being an ex demo in a shop in Leeds that she went to on the way home from visiting a friend, left tommy in the car, popped in brought it and went to show her family in Nottingham on the way back she was so pleased. Eden had a pendant from her late Nanna that she had remodelled by the very talented Holly Robinson Jewellery. Eden’s shoes were from charlotte mills.

The suit and bridesmaids
Suits were from Next & Moss Bros. Bridesmaids dresses were from Ever Pretty

Theme or colour scheme
Tommy’s suit and bridesmaid dresses were blue, but that was where any sort of colour scheme stopped and tried to just incorporate bright colours everywhere else.

Flowers
We had meadow boxes filled with bright seasonal flowers which ran the length of the isle from Edwards Flowers in Ashley Cross. All bouquets and decoration flowers were grown in Eden’s grandmas garden, they were bright colours and truly beautiful.

Decoration
It was quite rustic as we created a lot of DIY items like hanging ladders with floral displays hanging from the Marquee canopy, bud vases filled with home grown flowers, Lawn furniture, Wooden Barrels, Bean bags and festoon lighting.

Food
For our lunchtime meal we kept in simple and food we loved with Pub Classics, for main there was a choice of Chicken Pie with Mash & Vegetables, Beef Lasagne with Salad & Garlic Bread or Five Bean Chilli with Rice. For dessert there was the choice of Chocolate Brownie with Cream, Apple Crumble with Custard or Sticky Toffee with Caramel Sauce. The food was incredible and cooked by Sorrels Catering.
For our evening food we got two food trucks Dorset Pizza Company who freshly made individual pizzas to order and Chicken & Blues who served their southern fried chicken wrap with chips.

Wedding cake
Our wedding cake was truly a piece of art, baked by Tash, The Diamond Baker. We had 4 flavours Coconut & Passionfruit, Blueberry Muffin, Chocolate & Vanilla and Lemon & Raspberry. It was hand painted with the design from our invites.

Entertainment
We made lots of lawn games, such as an 8 hole mini golf course, Guess Who with some of our guest faces, ping pong & a pool table. We had a photobooth and audio guestbook. We also had a lot of bean bags and outside tables that we had brought and restored from Facebook marketplace for people to sit and enjoy the view. In the evening we had a fire pit with everything you needed to create a smore and popcorn we had brought put out and we had a band perform in the evening as well.

Who supplied the stationery?
The incredibly talented and equally lovely lady Sally; ‘From Sally With Love’. She created our beautiful, personalised invites, welcome sign and wedding map. We have the map and invites framed and up in our home as they are truly a work of art and a lovely memento from our special day.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We are currently on Honeymoon (January 2025) in New Zealand. We have 4 weeks exploring the North and South Island.

Personal touches
We had many personal touches and DIY that we completed. Our wedding favours were mini-Lego figures of each guest along with an individual handwritten letter & photo attached. We also brought individual drinks for each guest to have with their meal that they requested when they RSVP. Our seating chart was a large bookcase we made with each guest’s name on a painted book.

Special moments
Eden’s Aunt who was such an inspiration and important part of Eden and her families life wrote our ceremony script with the help of her close friend Donna Atherton who is a registrar. Unfortunately she was unable to stand and lead the service on the day, however one of her sons who also happened to join us for part of our Australian adventure and made a joke about tommy proposing at the top of Sydney harbour bridge read her beautiful personal words. We also wrote our own vows which truly was very special and a surprise for us both. The whole day was truly incredible all the planning and DIY was really worth it. We loved having all our loved ones in one place and the weather really did shine for us once we had a tiny drizzle of rain while we were getting ready. Just the relaxed nature of our day really put us at ease. The fantastic speeches by our best men and Eden’s mum were a highlight. But the whole day really was an incredible team effort and one we will never forget.

Advice for other couples
Do whatever you want to do, make your wedding as personal to you as possible and fill the day with things you enjoy. Do not feel like you have to do anything a certain way as it really is your special day and should reflect you.