Afternoon Peeps,

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Those of you who are already craving some summer sun, we have a very pretty tipi festival wedding with a vintage twist to share with you today.

Vicky and Tom describe their wedding as being rustic and relaxed with a festival and English tea party vibe! They wanted to steer clear from tradition and instead create a day that was informal, fun and full of entertainment. With garden games, a campervan photobooth, wellie wagging and rounders, you can be sure that this was a day that was certainly not shy of a smile or two! Vicky and Tom also tuned into their creative sides and pretty much made all the decor elements themselves from the homemade jam favours to the table settings. This not only saved them money but also added a personal touch to their wedding which made it very unique and personal to them.

Vicky shares how it all started....

Tom whisked me away to New York to do some Christmas shopping, or so I thought, but unbeknown to me he was about to propose, and what a proposal it was. Tom had planned the whole trip including a full day of engagement surprises, starting with a flash mob appearing by the Robert Indiana Love Sculpture, yes a flash mob!!!! 40 people one by one dancing in front of us, dancing to what became our wedding song which was Your song, the Mike Skinner version. I did not have a clue until Tom jumped in with them towards the end and started dancing, then got down on one knee. I was amazed, shocked and overwhelmed. It was amazing, and you can view it on YouTube: Tom and Vicky's Wedding Proposal.

He had then planned a horse carriage ride around central park, cocktails in a secret bar called Please Don't Tell, where you have to go through a phone box in a hot dog shop to get in, and then dinner in the most romantic setting with lots of bubbles. The whole day was perfect.

The main hope for our wedding day was that it didn't rain! Ha-ha, well not the main thing but as it was an outdoor wedding by a lake under a wooden structure, and all the guests were seated on wooden benches with reindeer hides in a field, we really needed the weather to be on our side. The plan for the whole day was for it to be as relaxed as possible, just fun, games, yummy food and lots of alcohol! This was achieved. The day was incredible and everything we imagined and to top it off, the weather was just perfect.

We knew exactly what we wanted from the start but drew inspiration from magazines, wedding websites, Pinterest and Instagram. We went to a Brighton Vintage wedding fayre where we found our wonderful photographers, photo booth and band. I also did a scrap book of everything I found online and from magazines which helped considerably when describing it to suppliers.

Our wedding was in a field by a beautiful lake, which was perfect as we wanted a blank canvas so we could do what we wished. Kate from Heaven Farm was fantastic. She helped us coordinate with all our suppliers and we could do pretty much what we were dreaming of. It took a while to find this perfect location, and as luck had it before we booked Kate told us they were planning to build a wooden structure so people could be legally wed there as well as have their receptions, so we were one of the first to get married at this location which was lovely. We wanted a tipi wedding and to have an area close by to have a bell tent village, or to pitch there own tents to add to the festival feel. Included in this was a honeymoon bell tent for tom and I to stay the night in after the wedding. It had a double bed in and so many cute accessories.

Having the wedding and reception in the same place was ideal, so we didn't have to change location. After a short but romantic exchange of vows we lead our guests straight into canapes of mini burgers, mini sausage and mash and other cute mini foods whilst sipping prosecco. In the back ground we had Rowlf the muppet playing on the piano (We'd found him Busking in the North Laines and it fitted the quirkiness of our wedding perfectly). The guests especially the children loved him.

We had made a selection of games such as tin can alley, whose the biggest tosser (tossing a welly obviously), hoopla, space hoppers and also bought a rounder's set, which was great and everyone enjoyed.

We had a couple of hours of games, talking to all our guests and canapes with prosecco. We had 100 guests including 20 children and no additional evening guests. The wedding breakfast were gorgeous picnic baskets laid out on each table full of cut meats, salads, scotch eggs, potato salad, rustic breads washed down with lots of wine.

To keep it relaxed and simple we only had Tom doing a speech.

We had a cake table with a selection of cakes and tarts for everyone to help themselves too, on vintage plates.

Afterwards we had the whole evening to sit around on hay bales, play games and dancing and we also hired in a photo booth which was in a camper van which was so much fun.

We hired a Vintage 50's band that also incorporated a DJ, so we had a mix of both throughout the evening.

I made everything I possibly could when it came to our decor. I absolutely love creating, and on the back end of this I am starting up my own business doing wedding supplies of bespoke products I made for our wedding, which is my exciting plan for the New Year. Family and friends helped collect jars of all shapes and sizes so that I could make them into candleholders and vases for all the tables, using lace, hessian and embellishing with wooden hearts. I also made the table place settings from luggage tags and individually stamped them, then used twine to attach a few pieces of lavender to each. I picked the lavender from friend's gardens and dried it all out.

For our wedding favors we wanted to make homemade pots of strawberry jam, I asked local hotels and restaurants to save me there cute little breakfast jam pots, and managed to collect 80 free jars. Tom made the jam and we put little white labels to stick on each saying 'made by the groom' with a brown luggage label attached to each saying 'thank you for coming to our wedding' with the date on.

For the children I got small hessian bags and filled them with sweets and fruit pouches for the babies, which I embellished again with small wooden hearts and twine.

We had a sweet table; I collected small-galvanized buckets and a little watering can, again making them to go with the lace, hessian theme. And I got the sweets from a pick and mix shop in Brighton.

I bought a few personalised items from eBay. A variety of different signs that we framed in vintage frames, such as a sign for the sweet area, the aisle area so friends could choose a seat not a side, and a couple of others by the cheese and by the flip flops.

I bought a few old wooden apple crates from eBay that we used for decoration to place the cake on, and I filled one with flip flops, I bought 20 pairs of flip flops, people loved having them there to switch into if wearing heels. We had previously told the guests to wear flips flops if hot and wellies if not, so a lot of people had flats on anyway.

I also used one of these crates as a collecting box for wedding cards from guests.

To decorate the crate I bought a hessian bunting signs from eBay saying 'cards'. I purchased another saying 'Mr and Mrs Rye to hang from the top table. Everything matched very well together.

I bought sweet bags from eBay which were personalised and also we had a rustic personalized wooden sign with our names on pointing to the location of the tipi.

As we were having hay bales outside for seating areas, I went to IKEA to buy some covers, which were just little hessian rugs but very cheap compared to hiring them.

The photographers were fantastic. We had told them previously what we wanted, which was just natural reportage shots, not many others apart from immediate family and a few of us on our own. They achieved this with a wonderful selection of photos, lots of detail, lots of guests having fun and relaxing throughout the whole day. Which is all we wanted.

Nick and Nicci from Velvet Storm Photography were so much fun to have at our wedding, they made everyone feel so relaxed and have so much energy and presence. Perfect photographers if you want vibrancy and fun at your wedding.

Another thing we saved on was the wedding cake. We had one made of cheese, which I went to a shop locally in Brighton called The Brighton Sausage Company, who also does whole cheeses, so we bought 4 whole cheeses from strong cheddar to brie and a heart one for the top. This came in a lot cheaper than getting one from a company. I picked the cheeses up the day before to take to our caterers with grapes, figs and straw to achieve a rustic finish.

Hard to choose a part, having my son walk me down the aisle who was only 5 at the time, was very special to me, but what was lovely was seeing all our guests, most of whom we went to school with, some who hadn't seen each other since school.

To keep it relaxed and simple we only had Tom doing a speech.

We had a cake table with a selection of cakes and tarts for everyone to help themselves too, on vintage plates.

Afterwards we had the whole evening to sit around on hay bales, play games and dancing and we also hired in a photo booth which was in a camper van which was so much fun.

We hired a Vintage 50's band that also incorporated a DJ, so we had a mix of both throughout the evening.

Just try not to worry too much about anything, even if something doesn't quite go to plan on the day, only you and your partner will know. The guests will never know so there's no need to fret.

The day is about you and your guests having fun and celebrating all together.

Also make a mood board scrap book of everything you would like from wedding theme, colour, bridesmaids, décor, and finer details. It always helps when trying to show suppliers exactly what you would like. Lots of inspiration and it's nice to have as a keepsake.

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