A Rustic Garden Wedding with a Festival Feel & Tonnes of DIY Details

Everything about this wedding is enchanting - it's like something from a traditional Welsh faery story! Loveday and Nathan celebrated their big day with a church service, followed by their wedding reception in Loveday's parent's garden. From the handmade yurts {created by the bride's brother!}, to the traditional wedding cake, pretty floral favours and jam jar vases, everything was DIY'd by Loveday and Nathan's friends and family. It just goes to show what an amazing effect you can create yourself! The wedding had a festival vibe, with a warming fire-pit, boho decorations {by Verdigris Venue Dressing}, deckchairs, and floral arches. I'm also super-impressed that Loveday bought her wedding dress from a charity shop, and had it re-modelled with the help of a local dressmaker. No detail was too small - she even changed the buttons to pastel pretties, to fit in with their colour scheme. Enjoy these lovely pictures by Adam Cove, and Loveday's inspirational answers to the Before the Big Day Bride's Questionnaire!

We celebrated our wedding on Saturday 31st August 2013 in the chapel of St David at the University of Wales in Lampeter, where Nathan and I first met as students.Our reception was lovingly created at my parent's home, on a hill above the town. My brother, Morgan, made us two beautiful yurts, and all our friends and family worked hard helping to get the place ready, from mowing the lawns and tending the flower garden. We even spent our wedding night in another little yurt, tucked away amongst some willows near the stream. 

I wanted a simple quite classic wedding dress, but with a personal touch. After a lot of looking I finally bought my dress second hand from a charity shop in Cardiff. It was then re-modelled by a local dress maker called Rhiannon J Limited. We worked together on the design and I was able to add unique buttons and decorations. It was a simple silk gown with a modest puddle train, individual colourful buttons down the back, ruching across the waste and a small flower decoration on the left hip. Rhiannon also made my veil for me.

I bought my shoes from Irregular Choice and I wore my grandmother's pearl necklace and earrings to match. My husband wore a light grey three-piece Ted Baker suit, which he had tailored to fit. He wore yellow light weight leather boots from Schuh, and a matching grey silk tie with hints of yellow.

We wanted a rustic and relaxed atmosphere and I really loved the idea of using wild flowers, fairy lights and jam jar vases to compliment the decorations. Pastel pinks, cream, pale yellow, lilac, peach and blue were our theme colours. It also needed to have a festival feel as our guests were invited to camp the night in a nearby field, and we wanted a big bonfire for everyone to sit around as the night grew cooler.

Most of our wedding was DIY! We put up our own yurts, dug fire pits, and grew sweet peas and vegetables in the garden for the caterers. I sewed little pink hearts with my mother-in law-to decorate the trees in the awning, and we even changed the buttons on my dress, to pastel beads. My mum bakes for a local market stall, so she made our delicious traditional three-tiered fruit wedding cake, using her famous Christmas cake recipe. It was iced by a neighbour and decorated by my sister in law using silk rose petals, colourful ribbon and sweet peas from the garden.

We visited lots of local florists and even considered doing a day course, to learn how to make our own flower arrangements, but in the end we found this wonderful and helpful company called Flora and Herb who grow seasonal country flowers and herbs near Newport. The owner, Heather Brenan, designed and made my bouquet and all the button holes.

We had all the flowers and vases for the tables and church service delivered to the house in buckets. Sami from Verdigris Venue Dressing, styled mini bridesmaids bouquets and created the vases for the church, and filled the jam jars and vases for the tables. She brilliantly mixed the flowers with a selection of wild foliage, grass and sweet peas harvested from around the gardens and surrounding fields.

For wedding favours, we gave everyone a tiny posy of dried lavender tied with a little coloured hand-crocheted flower, which I made myself. Each one had an old fashioned luggage style tag, written beautifully by my wonderful friend Hannah, who also played music in the church and sorted the guest book.

All our other wedding decorations were supplied and placed by Verdigris Venue Dressing. Sami created a gorgeous look brought lilac drapes, a fairy light canopy, a floral chandelier, voile bunting and paper lanterns. Our table centres were an eclectic mix of crystal vases and jam jars - some covered in sleeves of country style fabrics in our colour scheme, surrounded by dried flower petal confetti. We fashioned wooden candle blocks to hold church candles for the centre piece of each table

I really enjoyed planning our wedding, although there were some slightly stressful moments along the way, but only to be expected! We were extremely lucky to have so much help and support from our close friends and family. Holding the reception at home had its benefits as everyone felt so relaxed and there was no pressure with timings.

Our wedding photographer was Adam Cove. He's an old friend from Herefordshire, and we were very glad to have someone that knew us so well, to catch our special moments as they happened and be a part of our day.

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A Welsh Countryside Wedding with a Pretty Pink Theme - The Reception

Brides planning a marquee wedding are going to L-O-V-E the inspiration they get from this big day. Instead of a shabby chic or rustic look, Pippa and Martyn chose to go for glamour, and created the most fabulous look for their marquee. They didn't spend money on favours or an expensive wedding cake, saving their pennies instead for the most incredible flower displays, designed by The Bay Tree. I love the luxurious elegance of the pink and white table arrangements, and the gorgeous glass roofed reception-area of the marquee. Other stealworthy ideas include the chalk-board labels on the wine coolers, which doubled as table names, and the pink fizz cocktails, in keeping with the colour theme. A big thank you to Lucy Wallace Photography for her stunning pictures!

We got married in Ewenny in South Wales. The church was right next to my parents' house, so it had a special place in my heart {it was also where my husband proposed to me}. Our reception was in a marquee in a field behind my parents house.

We wanted our wedding to have a strong sense of family, so a marquee close to the church and my parents house was a natural choice. The idea of having a blank canvas was really exciting, I could let my imagination run wild!

We stayed with classic white and pink for our theme colours for both the wedding and reception. Our wedding flowers were our main detail, and we really wanted the colour to shine through.

We chose Lucy Wallace Photography for our wedding photographer. We searched for a photographer locally, but no one seemed to be able to capture the essence of a wedding as much as Lucy's photos. After meeting Lucy and seeing her portfolio, we realised her photos were so personal, and she seemed to really understand the feel of a wedding. 

My husband absolutely hates having his photo taken so we needed to find someone who understood that we didn't want a pushy photographer. We'd been to so many weddings where you feel like you're being hounded by paparazzi! Lucy assured us that she would make everyone feel comfortable. And she didn't disappoint, she was extremely accommodating to my husband's insecurities, and the photos are beautiful.

We used The Quarter Penny Cafe as our caterer. Not only was the food amazing, but they provided event organising as well. Natalie, the owner, took control of the whole day. 

It took the weight off my and my mum's shoulders – she organised the arrival of the string quartet, the band, the DJ and the florist. Natalie's hard work meant that the day flowed so well, and we didn't have to worry about a thing. 

We also used Accesi Videographers which gave us an additional memory source for the day. They filmed the entire wedding, and weren't intrusive at all. Watching our wedding video is the perfect way to look back and see peoples' faces!



Our flowers were designed by The Bay Tree in Cowbridge in Wales. The florist, Bryan Bird is so talented, that he understood exactly what look I wanted as soon as we met. 


Bryan Bird also designed the huge urn of flowers, which was the centrepiece of the marquee It was overflowing with flowers, a true show stopper when you walked in!

Enjoy every second of planning your wedding but make sure it doesn't take over your life! No one likes a bride to be who doesn't stop talking about their wedding! My biggest advice would be to sit down over a glass of wine with your husband to be and talk about what you envisage your wedding to be like and stick to it! 

It's so easy to get carried away with designs and ideas, and you end up with a wedding you don't recognise. Also, the biggest/longest part of the day is sitting down eating food, so make sure it's good! Everyone remembers rubbish wedding food, so make sure they remember how good yours was!

When it come to wedding favours, we thought that they are so expensive and no really misses them if they're not there. After all, no one's going to judge you on your wedding, if you don't have favours. So we saved a few hundred pounds there!

We didn't want to spend a huge amount on a wedding cake. We felt that no one truly remembers what the cake looks like, and it's a lot of money to spend, when you're just going to cut it up! So we opted for a plain white Marks and Spencer three-tier cake, which our florist decorated with a little posy of flowers.

I absolutely loved planning our wedding. My mum helped a tremendous amount, and working together, I think we planned the most magical day that everyone enjoyed. We planned it in just six months, which was plenty of time, but I wish we'd had longer, so I could read more bridal magazines and blogs! We had so much inspiration from reading them!

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A Welsh Countryside Wedding with a Pretty Pink Theme

Is there anything more romantic than a horse-drawn carriage? The wedding transport is just one of the things that makes this big day stand out, along with the pretty-as-a-picture flowers, stunning Pronovias wedding gown, and dramatic marquee reception. Pippa and Martyn chose to make their wedding flowers their biggest wedding detail, and called in the talents of Bryan Bird, the florist at The Bay Tree in Cowbridge in Wales. The end result is a stunning array of blooms, including lily-of-the-valley, sweat peas, and roses. The bouquets are beautiful, but wait until you see the reception flowers in Part 2 of this wedding - they'll blow your mind! Other details-to-steal include the bridesmaids black Dessy dresses - as Pippa says - everyone looks good in black, and she let her girls choose their style of dress -making it much more likely they'll wear them again. I also love Martyn's bespoke three-piece suit, and soft pink tie. Huge thanks to Lucy Wallace Photography for sending through her gorgeous pictures from Pippa and Martyn's big day. Stay tuned for Part 2 - the Reception - coming soon!

We got married in Ewenny in South Wales. The church was right next to my parents' house, so it had a special place in my heart {it was also where my husband proposed to me}. Our reception was in a marquee in a field behind my parents house.

To find a wedding gown, we went to Teokath, a fabulous bridal shop in Wimbledon in London, where I tried on lots of wedding dresses. I knew I wanted it to be lace, but when I tried on the Pronovias dress I loved that the grey belt made it a little different.

My veil was a classic church veil, the edging matched the delicate lace of my dress perfectly. My wedding shoes were from Debenhams! You couldn't see them under the dress, so I knew I didn't have to go over board in the design. As long as they were comfortable! And they were!

My bridesmaids wore black - who doesn't look good in black! They all had different colour hair so the best colour to flatter them, and their individual style was black. They chose their own gowns from a selection of bridesmaids dresses by Dessy.

We wanted our wedding to have a strong sense of family, so a marquee close to the church and my parents house was a natural choice. The idea of having a blank canvas was really exciting, I could let my imagination run wild!

We stayed with classic white and pink for our theme colours for both the wedding and reception. Our wedding flowers were our main detail, and we really wanted the colour to shine through.

Our flowers were designed by The Bay Tree in Cowbridge in Wales. The florist, Bryan Bird is so talented, that he understood exactly what look I wanted as soon as we met. 

I knew I wanted my bouquet to have lily of the valley and sweet peas as they are so delicate, and they really made my bouquet come to life. 

I walked up to aisle to Pachebel, Canon in D, and we walked out to The Queen of Sheba. Our first dance was to Dean Martin's, 'Ain't that a Kick in the Head'.

My husband has his suit tailor-made by a great designer called Birkett Bespoke Tailors in St Margarets, in Twickenham.

We chose Lucy Wallace Photography for our wedding photographer. We searched for a photographer locally, but no one seemed to be able to capture the essence of a wedding as much as Lucy's photos.



After meeting Lucy and seeing her portfolio, we realised her photos were so personal, and she seemed to really understand the feel of a wedding. My husband absolutely hates having his photo taken so we needed to find someone who understood that we didn't want a pushy photographer. We'd been to so many weddings where you feel like you're being hounded by paparazzi! 

Lucy assured us that she would make everyone feel comfortable. And she didn't disappoint, she was extremely accommodating to my husband's insecurities, and the photos are beautiful.

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