Inspiration

Once in a while a themed wedding comes along that just totally knocks our socks off. Jade & Chris' big day is spectacular from start to finish. Every single detail fits their 'vintage circus theme' to a tee. From the brightly coloured blooms, to the signage, to the favours, to the strong man act (!) it's all the fun of the fair, and then some! Jade the bride is a florist, so naturally she put together all of the florals for her big day and I have a sneaky suspicion that you're going to love them - peonies, blue hydrangea and Miss Piggy roses make for a striking combination. (P.S. If this wedding is right up your street, then have a look at this one from the RMW archives - I think you'll love it too).

The Bride

Jade The Bride: My dress was by designer Ronald Joyce from a little bridal shop called Amorea. My veil was a long soft tulle which I attached flowers too because I've always wanted to get married with flowers in my hair. My shoes were from Jenny Packham. My jewellery was from Ivory and Co.

The Venue

The venue was a really important decision for us. We both wanted somewhere that made us feel comfortable and relaxed. We chose Old Brook Barn because it made us feel just that, not only is it beautiful, it had that chilled out vibe about it. The venue is also the owners family home which made it feel that much more personal.

The Styling

I was told once that your wedding is a representation of you as a couple. We are both bonkers Chris is a drummer, has bags of energy and loves having fun! I love colour and being creative! So our wedding just evolved into a colourful, circus theme that suited us down to the ground! I made most of the decor myself like my favours, table names, seating plans and signs. I used a gel medium to transfer circus font onto my signs, and to transfer numbers onto the skittles I used as my tables names. My favours I wanted to look like my guests had won a fish at the fun fair, so submerged plastic fish into jam jars full of bubble bath. Our place names and invites were done by my talented bridesmaid who has a stationary company called, Boho Birdie, she made our invites look like circus flyers and admission tickets. Our table place cards, she made to look like tarot cards, each card was a performer you would find at a circus back in the day and were personalised to each guest, for that personal touch! Our table plan our guests had to hook a duck which would then reveal the table they where seated on the underneath of the ducks. I wanted my guests to interact with the wedding and have fun with it, which is why I tried to make this personal. 

The Flowers

The flowers I did myself, being a florist we all have our favourite times of year and mine is June when peonies are available, so as our wedding was in June I would of been silly not to use them in my floral displays! I kept the colours blues, corals, pinks and oranges. I think the colours really complemented each other nicely. I started collecting blue bottles in all shapes and sizes to go around the base of my tall centre pieces, the dark blue really made my colours pops, so decided on having blue bridesmaids dresses and suits to really make the colours stand out!

The Entertainment

During the ceremony we put little bags of popcorn on each seat for our guests to enjoy throughout. I wanted to make it seem as if they were watching a show bring our theme of the circus through to our ceremony. We wanted to bring the circus theme to life and what better than our very own fun fair games supplied by The Traditional Fairground Co. Chris and Zelda supplied a high striker, hoopla, kissing booth and lots of fun games for everyone. They also supplied us with ice cream from an old vintage tricycle. Also to great us into the secret garden at Old Brook Barn were the Acro Chaps, 3 strong men that had everyone in stitches, their comical act and amazing acrobat skills entertained our guests throughout the day.  Chris found an amazing musician called sam RYDER at a gig they both played, so we asked him to play at our wedding he did an amazing job! He sang for a while in the secret garden then sang us through the wedding breakfast.

The Food

Our catering was fantastic by Limeberry Catering. The meal was fantastic and the pulled pork burger and cones of chips went down a treat in the evening! Even the food fitted in well with our theme. For the evening my dad made me a donut wall, we sourced huge glazed and sugared donuts from our local bakery. We also had a sweetheart station and a beautiful carousel horse which was made for me by The Traditional Fairground Co. I hung candy floss bags to the carousel pole. I also made popcorn boxes and chocolate apples the night before with a friend.  The cake was made by the grooms mum, I wanted to cake to sit on what looked like an old circus elephant stand and of course lots of fresh flowers. The cake however didn't make it to the venue in once piece - the original 4 tier cake ended up as a three tier cake - some of it was wrecked in the drive to the venue! It was hilarious and nothing could ruin our day. We made the best of what we could salvage. It become the story of the day.

The Photography

Kelsie Low was our photographer, we come across her website and fell in love with her style of photography straight away. Her attention to detail is incredible. She some how managed to capture our personalities as a couple in her photos. 

Advice

My advice to anyone planning a wedding is take time to soak in the atmosphere the day goes so quick, I remember standing in a field with Chris and Kelsie looking over at our guests having fun in the barn and thinking wow all these people are here for us, it makes you feel very loved and blessed to have such amazing friends and family around you.
Fern Godfrey

Written by Fern Godfrey

Bride: Ronald Joyce | Boutique: Amorae Bridal | Jewellery: Ivory & Co | Flowers: Eden Floral Design | Venue: Old Brook Barn | Catering: Limeberry Catering | Bridesmaids: ASOS | Groom & Groomsmen: Debenhams | Entertainment: Acro Chaps | Traditional Fairground Co.

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