Emily & Tim

Every wedding moment, decor and detail captured by Claire Fleck Photography at this homespun village wedding will fill you with joy. From the DIY wooden palette table plan, to the hay bale seating areas, not to mention the epic greenery installation, You really get the sense of all the sentiment poured into it to create Emily and Tim's dream marquee wedding. Plus its all pretty darn Pin-tastic to boot.

Wedding

Emily the Bride: When we first sat down to start planning our wedding, we both agreed that we wanted our wedding to be as home-grown as possible - taking place at home on family land, with plenty of DIY projects both ambitious and intricate, and crucially, including as many of our friends and family as possible in the planning and execution of the day. We are so fortunate to have talented family and friends with lots of experience in all things wedding planning, and including and celebrating them was without doubt our favourite element of the day.

Dress

As a family friend very kindly offered me her veil, which I had always loved, to wear on the day, I wanted to find a dress with lace that matched it. I ended up visiting the bridal boutique close to home who had made the veil, Matchmakers of Stamford, and they made the dress of my dreams for me, incorporating the lace into the bolero. The shop has since closed its doors sadly. I paired the dress with a beautiful pair of Rachel Simpson shoes, and gave all my bridesmaids delicate knot rings as a thank you.

Groom

After a lot of searching, Tim found the perfect suits to hire from back home in Belfast, and paired his with a grey tweed waistcoat. As a thank you present, Tim ordered all the groomsmen custom wooden cufflinks that with their initials inscribed, which they wore on the day.

Venue

The venue was probably the easiest decision of the whole process. It had always been Emily’s dream to get married in her village church in Stretton, where she grew up, with a marquee on her family’s fields just next door. We squeezed as many guests as possible into the tiny church, and had a traditional pole marquee supplied by the brilliant team at Be Upstanding Marquees for the reception. It was amazing (and very hard work!) to have such a blank canvas to work with, and we both loved getting married in a space that was already so familiar and special to both of us, without needing to drive anywhere all day!

Colour Scheme/Decor

We chose all the decor and outfits to complement the spring colours in the village - simple nudes for the bridesmaids, and lots of greens to match all the spring foliage in the marquee, which we had picked from around the village beforehand. We salvaged some old pallets and Tim used these for a whole host of DIY projects to keep decor costs down. Our stationery reflected the simple, leafy theme, and was produced as a special wedding present by our wonderful photographer and friend Claire.

Flowers

A family friend very generously offered to arrange all of our flowers as a wedding gift. She used a selection of seasonal flowers for the bouquets and buttonholes, and gathered foliage from neighbours’ gardens in the days leading to the wedding to be used throughout the church and marquee. She even helped us muster the troops on a rainy day in October to plant bulbs on the verges that lined the road from Emily’s home to the church, in the hope they would flower right on time (which incredibly they did!). In the marquee, we hung two large trestles horizontally and wove ivy through them to dangle down as a hanging centrepiece for the room.

The Ceremony

We spent a long time planning our ceremony, as this was a really key part of the day for us - we wanted our ceremony to reflect our beliefs and to be as big a celebration as our reception would be later on! As music is very important to both of us, we combined some beautiful traditional hymns with more contemporary arrangements and dotted them throughout a traditional marriage ceremony. Our close friends formed a small choir, and sang some of our favourite choral pieces throughout the ceremony, which was officiated by a family friend.

Entertainment

We always knew we were taking a risk choosing to be married in a marquee in April in the UK, but the weather was fantastic on the day! With the good weather, everyone enjoyed the chance to relax outside in the countryside, play a garden game or two and or sit around the fire pits in the evening. As we live in Scotland, a Ceilidh was top of the list to celebrate in the evening and a couple of friends led it for us. Our amazing bridesmaids then put together playlist of top tunes for the rest of the night.

Photographer

The first thing we booked straight after getting engaged was our photographer, Claire Fleck. We’ve known and admired her photography for years, and wouldn’t have had anyone else capture our day - she made us feel so relaxed and comfortable from start to finish, and we couldn’t be any more delighted with our photos.

Food

We managed to persuade our favourite local restaurant to cater for us (a huge favour as they don’t normally provide outside catering!). They prepared plenty of hearty canapés for our drinks reception, and we then tucked into legs of spring lamb for the main course, with a selection of light sides and salads. All the produce was locally sourced, in season and celebrated the best of British food and it was great! Dessert was our favourite lemon tart. The Olive Branch helped us create a stand to “pimp your gin” which was great fun in the evening too. Our good friend also offered to bake our cake as a wedding present, and it looked and tasted incredible - we had rosemary & salted caramel, chocolate and ginger and Victoria sponge - perfection!