Chris and Bethan’s Laid Back Festival Themed Oxfordshire Wedding by Imagications

Today I am delighted to share with you the super chilled and super laid back wedding of Chris and Bethan who held a festival themed wedding in Oxfordshire. Chris and Bethan wanted to keep things simple and make sure they stuck to their budget, and this wedding is testament to the fact you don’t need lots of fuss and fanciness to have a great wedding. The couple had an absolute blast with their friends and family and made some beautiful memories all captured by Onur of Imagications.

Chris: an incredible day that turned out pretty much exactly how we imagined it. Bethan: surrounded by nature and filled to the brim with love.

Chris and Bethan were married on 21st September 2024 in a field near Leafield, Oxfordshire. ‘We wanted a woodsy, festival-themed wedding, Chris’ friend owns a field with some woodland attached, and said we could use it. we had just shy of 100 guests and it took just 6 months to plan.’

How they met
November 27^th 2017, Bethan’s 30^th birthday. We met through our mutual friend the year before.

The proposal
We decided to propose to each other because we think the assumption that a man will propose is outdated. Our first trip together was an attempt to cycle from Guildford to Brighton which failed because I forgot the tent, we decided to attempt it again and propose en route. This attempt failed as well because I got a puncture and had forgotten the repair kit, but it was a lovely proposal. We plan to do the ride successfully at some point in the future.

How did you allocate your budget?
Attire, makeup etc: £2.4k, marquee, toilet block, generator: £4.1k, photographer: £1.4k, activities and décor (hay bales, yoga, face painter, band): £1.3k, van: £400, celebrant: £400, food: £2.3k, rings: £300.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
Save: venue, for sure. It was free. Splurge: nowhere really, we worked hard to find local suppliers and feel like we paid fair prices for everything. Planning it ourselves meant we saved on a wedding planner.

How did you choose your photographer?
We used a wedding directory and Onur’s profile and portfolio stood out immediately as aligned with the aesthetic and energy we wanted. On our video call he was really kind and asked all the right questions, and seemed to really understand what we were looking for. We’re really happy with our choice.

The dress 
I ordered my dress fairly cheaply online, my head dress was from Etsy, and I ordered my cowboy boots on Amazon. I didn’t feel that I needed to spend a lot to get the look I wanted. I had henna on my hands and forearms as an accessory.

The suit and bridesmaids
The suit was a rental from a shop in Oxford because I left it too late to buy the one I wanted and they’d sold out. My friend Bella (in the suppliers below) made me a custom shirt which I love. Bethan ordered two sizes of the same dress thinking she’d return the one that didn’t fit, but the site did not accept returns so Bella made dresses for our daughter and another flower girl out of the duplicate dress.

Theme or colour scheme?
Theme: woodland, festival. Colours: celadon green and lavender.

Flowers
Baby’s breath, lavender, and other wildflowers that dried well, all from a local florist or picked by the mother of the groom, who also made the bouquets and flower arrangements

Decoration
In the marquee we had coloured lights, there were hay bales around the site, flower bouquets and other flowers hung around the place in the marquee. The surroundings were very picturesque which contributed heavily to the aesthetic.

Food 
Lunch was a picnic-style buffet with food from Waitrose. We encouraged people to bring blankets as well as the chairs we’d asked them to bring to sit on during the ceremony, to create the picnic atmosphere. In the evening we got 20 pizzas delivered from a local takeaway.

Wedding cake
The wedding cake was one cupcake per guest, baked by Chris’ friend. They riffed on the colour scheme and woodland theme with lots of different variations.

Entertainment
After the ceremony we had an open mic instead of traditional speeches, where anyone was welcome to say a few words, do a reading, play a song, whatever they wanted. This was an experiment and it paid off, as we had 18 excellent performances. There were lots of sticks around the place which provided unexpected entertainment for the kids. We had a ceilidh band in the early evening and finished the day with a firepit.

Who supplied the stationery?
We ordered invites from Amazon, Chris made some programs for the day and printed them at the library

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We did a 5 week road trip through Spain, Andorra and France in the August before the wedding, with our 11-month old baby.

Personal touches
We planned everything ourselves and tried to involve people we knew or local suppliers as much as possible, so everything felt very personal. The handmade flower girl dresses, the handmade shirt, arriving on our 100kg traditional Indian rickshaw that Chris’ friends had given him as a wedding gift, Chris’ long-time friend being our celebrant, having the wedding at our friend’s venue and having lots of our friends camp there with us for the weekend, all the speeches and performances, Chris’ stepdad’s friend doing all the lighting and AV for us, yoga classes each morning tailored to the group, bubbles from bubble guns instead of confetti

Special moments 
Bethan: carrying our daughter down the aisle. Chris: setting up the site in the morning while Bethan and the bridesmaids were having their makeup done, there was a moment where it went from chaos to feeling like it was coming together. Bethan: all the heartfelt words and performances from our friends. Chris: playing guitar while Bethan sang as the final performance. Bethan: the ring warming, where we passed our rings around everyone present so they could hold them. Both: too many moments to name!

Advice for other couples
Talk a lot about what you want the day to be like, and try to compromise on that as little as possible. But also don’t get too stressed because at the end of the day it’s just a big party with the people you love. Don’t feel pressured into thinking you have to spend loads of money. Also don’t be led to believe that you can’t do things yourself if you want to. Don’t be afraid to break with tradition.

Biggest surprise 
Our daughter blew a bubble for the first time. That it didn’t rain: there were yellow weather warnings for the whole weekend, rain would really have put a downer on the day because it was a grassy site and the marquee only just fitted everyone. The morning was cloudy, the clouds broke and the sun started to come out as the ceremony finished, and we had a proper golden hour which made for amazing photos. Then the next day it rained all day, the track leading to the site became too muddy to drive on, Chris and the best men had to carry tons of heavy boxes up to the road, the van got stuck and had to be towed by a tractor – in short it was complete chaos that would probably have ruined the wedding if it was a day earlier!

Supplier Shout Outs

• Celebrant: Linda Hollie
• Clothes: Bella of The Daydreamer London
• Suit hire: Walters of Oxford
• Hair and makeup: Holly
• Henna: Zakeeya 
• Face paint: Laura of Bicester Face Painting
• Photographer: Onur of Imagications
• Cakes: Julie of JJ’s Cupcakes and Bakes
• Pizza: Caprinos Witney
• Yoga: Emily Hewitt
• Band: Dirty Big Canal Dance Band
• Van: Witney Van Hire
• Marquee: JL Marquees
• Toilet block: Laughton Loos
• Generator: 5as
• Lighting and AV: Perception Live
• Tableware, glasses, urn etc: Oxford Event Hire

Imagications Wedding Photography

www.imagications.net / www.imagications.net/blog / [email protected] / 07500823422 / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

My name is Onur. I am a documentary wedding photographer based in London but travelling all around UK. I have started photography as a hobbyist back in 2008 and in 2015 my best friend ask me if I can be their wedding photographer and here I am since then