Lex and Ben’s ‘Disco Jungle’ Party Filled Barn Wedding in Northumberland by Peter Hugo Photography

Today’s wedding is full of fun, laughter and party vibes. Lex and Ben knew what they wanted from a wedding as soon as they started planning, they took a very laid back approach but had a clear vison that their day would be non traditional with an emphasise on fun. They decided on a barn venue as it gave them the freedom to add in their own touches, decorate it the way they wanted and bring in as many friends and family as they could to help their vison come to life. The went for a green colour scheme, mixed with a jungle theme, adding in neon lights, foraged flowers and their own DIY decoration. Add in a brass band playing cover versions of rave tracks and you have this epic wedding that lasted the whole weekend. Big thanks to Peter Hugo Photography who was there to capture the day for us.

Lex and Ben were married on 13th August at Barn on the Bay, Druridge Bay, Northumberland. ‘We love Druridge bay and spent a lot of time there when we lived in the North east. Once we had moved to the Lakes, we visited the bay and it is where Ben Proposed. Barn on the Bay had the potential to do whatever we wanted as they allowed DIY weddings, as we are both creatives we had a very clear vision of what we wanted for our wedding. We had 100 guests. We were quite lax about planning, once we had the wedding and the band booked roughly a year in advance, we then only really started to get ourselves into gear about 7 months before hand!’

How they met
We met at university as Art students and quickly became friends, after a year or so of knowing each other we made it official. We have been together almost 15 years, however it was 12 years together when we got married.

The proposal
We were walking our dog Rupert along Druridge bay, Ben threw the ball and Rupert refused to return it as usual. I went to go and get the ball and Ben had followed, whilst I had my back to him he said he had a question, when I turned around he was down on one knee with a beautiful salt and pepper diamond ring. In true movie style I began laughing and swearing my head off at him and I actually didn’t answer for quite a long time as all I couldn’t process what was happening. After calling him various names I finally realised that I hadn’t answered and said yes.

How did you allocate your budget?
We knew we wanted to have a party rather than a traditional wedding and we are lucky to have a lot of good eggs in our lives so knew we could do a lot ourselves. We decided to find a venue first and then budget around it.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
Our biggest costs were our venue as it is quite remote,  we wanted to be able to provide accommodation for all of our friends so we booked it out for the whole weekend and also booked the camping field, camping pod and bunk house. This also meant we could have a BBQ the night before and a breakfast/ North sea swim the next morning with everyone. Another big splurge was our incredible band Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, music is really important to us both so we knew we were going to spend big but they were worth every penny. In terms of saving we did a massive amount ourselves, from all of the signage, flowers, decoration, photobooth etc. Our dear friend Kieran is an actor/ comedian and also Ben’s oldest friend so we asked him to conduct our ceremony (we had done the legal bit the day before!)  and it was utterly perfect, he was a true highlight and it felt so much more personal it being written and delivered by someone who knew us so well; he had guests and us crying with laughter.

How did you choose your photographer?
As we are both visual we knew the photography was something we felt very strongly about and after perusing various Instagram accounts of North east photographers we found Peter Hugo’s and we instantly fell in love with the relaxed and slightly moody atmosphere in his work. We got in touch with Pete and explained the plan for a chaotic party and how we are both camera shy and he put us completely at ease. Pete was incredible on the day, despite the unexpected sea fret and then blazing sun, he was very professional and barely noticeable ( in a good way!), he got a huge array of relaxed and candid shots like we had asked for and they were everything we had hoped for. We can’t recommend him enough.

The dress
Lex’s dress was by Sincerity, she’s not much into florals etc. and she just wanted something she could dance in, so  went for a beaded geometric pattern and floaty skirt. As for accessories wore a simple necklace and earrings from Etsy. She began the day wearing glittery gold Dr Martens but they were too warm so switched to her trusty leopard print Vans. Lex wasn’t very good at being a demure bride though and by the end of the day her dress was trashed from me running into the sea and she ended the evening in some clothes borrowed from a bridesmaid, dancing barefoot!

The suit and bridesmaids
Ben’s suit was a 3 piece green tweed blend from Mr Munro in Newcastle, however the jacket didn’t last long due to the sunshine and dancing! All of the bridesmaids were given the brief of green and something they felt comfortable in so they all chose something different.

Theme or colour scheme
The colour scheme was green and when discussing a theme we just wanted it to be fun so we mashed a lot of different ideas together; the best way to describe it is disco jungle.

Flowers 
We luckily have a friend who is a florist so we bought sunflowers from M&S and then created a bouquet from foraged greenery and jungle inspired leaves, we had enough left for Lex to make the bridesmaid bouquets too. Apart from the sunflowers and palm/monstera leaves, all of our other florals, table decorations and ceremony decorations were foraged from where we live. The entire floral spend came to £40.

Decoration 
We had a very eclectic mix, we purchased a neon ‘til death do us party’ and so Ben built a large wooden frame and Lex spent evenings making it into a fringing wall, we also made a huge amount of green fringing to hang in the venue. Because we had the venue for the full weekend we could decorate at our own pace the evening before whilst we hosted a BBQ outside the venue.  Friends made bunting and family members helped us hang disco balls, set up the PA & lights, Ben’s aunt & my mum worked on the centre pieces of glass bottles and foraged greenery. Our tables had green runners and we had sprayed a tonne of plastic dinosaurs gold for place names.

Food 
We had an amazing grazing charcuterie table for guests whilst we were getting photographs, apparently it was amazing! For our meal we had Lebanese mezze served sharing style as this is our favourite food but we also loved the idea of everyone interacting and eating together. Finally for later in the evening we had takeaway pizzas delivered, which were well received and kept the relaxed feeling we were going for. The next morning we put on a hangover breakfast club for everyone who had stayed at the venue.

Wedding cake
We didn’t want a traditional cake as the thought of people watching us cut it made us feel awkward! So we asked donut shop R Place in Whitley bay to provide a range of donuts in flavours such as caramac, maple bacon etc. We then built a desert table around this, Lex loves to bake so she and friends made several types of cakes, blondies, brownies etc to fill the gaps. R Place were amazing and Emily was incredibly accommodating, the guests loved the donuts!

Entertainment
We compiled a playlist from guest suggestions for the more relaxed daytime and then we had the awesome Mr Wilson’s Second liners, a New Orleans Jazz style brass band who do covers of rave classics! The guys were phenomenal, they were so high energy and had everyone dancing before taking the party outside – they were so much fun. Guests still tell us it was the best party they have been to and tell everyone about the band in particular years later. We then had 3 carefully curated playlists for the interim periods when the band weren’t playing which culminated in a final half hour of heavy metal, ska, pop punk and hip hop; the mosh pit was so fun and seeing the mums dancing to Killing in the name of was a particular highlight for us.

Who supplied the stationery?
We designed all of our stationery using photoshop, this allowed us to have ultimate control over fonts, graphics etc. We have both designed invites for friends in the past so we knew we wanted to do our own.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We really struggled with a honeymoon as it felt it had to be a once in a lifetime trip which actually became quite stressful. Once we decided we just needed to take the pressure off we decided to travel Denmark & Sweden and it was a brilliant choice, the right mix of Art, cities, culture and swimming; Aarhus and Copenhagen were particular highlights.

Personal touches
As we’ve said we did anything we could ourselves; decorations, flowers, stationery, guest book, photobooth, lighting and PA set up, music, wine, we even made garden games for the paddock. Ben is very good at building Lex’s ridiculous ideas.

Special moments 
There were so many! We started the day with a group swim in the north sea as Lex was nervous so that shocked it out of her. Our ceremony was incredibly heartfelt and special, Kieran really did an amazing job of writing and delivering it, despite our dog escaping and running up to us part way! Lex and the bridesmaids also went for an impromptu swim part way through the reception whilst Ben had a dance off with guests and everyone continued the party on the beach once the venue closed. There were so many genuinely special moments between guests that we can’t really choose.

Advice for other couples
Do what makes you happy, people will all have a different opinions and we at times let that pressure us but once you decide to just go with the flow it becomes more enjoyable to plan. Also we stayed together the night before and it allowed us to keep each other calm and really get the most time together.  Hopefully you’re only going to do this once so you want to enjoy it as much as possible, think more about fun than the little touches that no one will remember!

Biggest surprise 
Our biggest surprise was that our friend had organised all of the guests to perform a bit of a choreographed dance when the band came on – we had no idea what their first song would be but she found out and got everyone involved for when they burst through the door playing ‘Praise you’ by Fatboy Slim.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Photographer: www.peterhugophotography.com
• Venue: www.barnonthebay.com
• Catering: www.catering-northeast.co.uk
• Reno grazing tables: www.facebook.com/beanbite
• Suit: www.mrmunro.co.uk
• Band: www.mrwilsons.org.uk
• Donuts: www.instagram.com/itsrplace

Peter Hugo Photography

www.peterhugophotography.com / www.peterhugophotography.com/blog/ / [email protected] / 07828627988 / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

“Hey! I’m Pete, My mission is simple: to capture genuine, heartfelt moments that feel natural, personal, and timeless. Whether you’re a confident pro or a bit of a Chandler Bing, I’m here to make your wedding day fun, relaxed, and completely stress-free. No stiff poses, no awkward “gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes” nonsense—just you and your favourite person, having the absolute time of your life. I thrive on capturing the real moments—the belly laughs, the happy tears, and the little glances that convey everything. And the best part? You’ll have photos that don’t just look like you, but feel like you. Moments that instantly transport you back to that special day whenever you see them.”