PapaKata Tipis
Hayley the Bride: The deciding factor in choosing the venue and location for our wedding was wanting to involve Luke’s Grandparents in the day. Both are approaching the ripe old age of 90, and it’s become difficult for them to travel. So we thought we would enquire about bringing the wedding to them and hosting the reception at their home; a beautiful Cotswold’s farm house, with walled garden and plenty of outdoor space. When asked if this would be OK, they delightedly agreed, were honored and excited to be able to host the family and be an integral part of the day. We chose
Papakata to provide three interconnecting Kata Tents in the walled garden, which housed a bar, dining area, stage and dancefloor. Bob from Papakata was great to work with; the operation was incredibly slick in erecting and dismantling the tents, leaving minimal damage to Grandma’s garden.
The Ceremony
Local to the farm, we chose
Merriscourt in Chipping Norton to exchange our vows. We had seen the venue listed in a feature in The Times and instantly fell in love with the rustic and simple Stone Barn, the central courtyard and the views from the gardens overlooking the rich green and yellows of the Cotswold’s countryside.
The Accommodation
With the reception venue being rural and family and friends traveling to the Cotswold’s from around the UK, we were concerned about the availability of taxi’s in the middle of the night and for guests to easily get back to hotels or guesthouses. So we set up an onsite Bell Tent village with
Bellows Glamping providing 14 gorgeous Bell Tents, so that guests could party on site until the small hours and then roll into bed with minimum effort. We did a lot of research and Bellows came with a great interior set-up, which included beds, linen, towels and dressing gowns, phone charges and much more as part of the rate card.
The Decor
The theme was a relaxed, county, boho-style wedding. Simple, rustic styling but reflecting everywhere possible of both our personalities and tastes. By not using a ready-made venue everything we did was personal to us and our guest picked up on this and gave great feedback on how unique and bespoke the whole day was.
We had a huge amount of help from family and friends decorating the reception venue. Grandma spent months prepping the garden with newly planted roses, cosmos, lavender and erected archways along the pathways which we later weaved fairly lights through to guide guests in the dark. Luke’s uncle is an
antiques dealer and restorer and provided all sorts of fantastic, vintage props for around the site – tables, chandeliers and rugs. Our wedding favours were mini Sloe Gin bottles which Luke’s mum distilled using Sloe Berries from the farm. We created a “Pimp you Gin” feature, with a customer made tasting notes poster by Cassie at
Plain Sage Designs. We chose nine gins and guests could pair them with different garnishes and tonics that complimented the Gin. I contacted
Fever Tree who emailed me a pdf copy of their Tonic Pairing Wheel poster, which I printed and framed to sit alongside the tasting notes.
Also, a huge thank you to Luke’s step-dad who slaved over the “Key to Success” feature. This was a feature where guests were asked to share their key to success for the married couple by taking an antique key, writing on the tag and hanging it on a hook on a large framed panel. Chris screwed in 100 hooks to the panel by hand and mounted the whole piece in a 5ft wooden frame. The reception table décor we produced ourselves; 22 glass vases with flowers and foliage purchased from
Triangle Nursery, hurricane lanterns with battery candles from
Lights4Fun and wooden laser cut table numbers from
Ginger Ray.