Kim & Andy

This sentimental country wedding is delicious. Full of the sweetest pastel shades and the most fabulous DIY decor. Our very own Becky who also runs design company Studio Sappor was on hand to style Kim & Andy's marquee reception with her fabulous stationery. You can even add florist to her list of talents, not only did she make the adorable fabric flower bouquets, but she also arranged all the table centrepieces. We love our girl. Then there were the pom poms, ribbon back chairs and a fabulous personalised pallet bar & signs lovingly made by the males in the family, that make it look even more stunning. Kim & Andy look so at ease strolling through the village streets of Cleverley after their church ceremony to reach their reception, and utterly fabulous in their wedding attire too, perfect for their laid back celebration. This wedding is guaranteed to put a huge smile on your face, all captured by The List member Jo Hastings Photography. You may also want to get those pinning fingers ready so you can duplicate all the crafty ideas.

The Dress

Kim The Bride: I wanted a short dress from the very start as I love to dance and this felt the most comfy with lots of twirling involved (also with the wedding reception in a field it made perfect sense in case of wet weather!) Now the wedding is over I am thinking about dying it a darker colour and wearing it again to a special event in the future (what bride gets to say they have worn their dress again?)

The Grooms Fashion

Andy wore a shark grey suit with white shirt and dark brown shoes along with a bow tie and pocket square. He chose the Mrs. Bow Tie himself to distinguish himself from the Groomsmen. Given the relaxed atmosphere we were going for a morning suit was never really an option.

The Venue

It felt really personal having the venue so close to my parents home and although they have only lived in the village of Claverley a couple of years it is a big part of their life now. Their neighbours even provided the use of their field to house the marquee. The church is also in the village and just a 2 minute stroll from where we had the reception so in the September sunshine the whole wedding party walked through the village waving at the locals, which was just perfect.

Colour Scheme/Decor

Becky came up with majority of the ideas as we have now been friends for quite a number of years and she knows Andy and I well :-) We also trust her taste 100% and know that anything she decided on would always look just amazing. There were several days spent and lots of people roped in to make paper pom poms to hang from the marquee ceiling but looked so effective when all together. We were really pleased with the finished result.

Flowers

4 o'clock one Saturday morning after a late night on the Friday at a dinner party, I picked Bec up to go to the flower market in Birmingham, which was an incredible experience. We picked lots of gorgeous/unusual flowers I might not of chosen normally (as I didn't know they existed). It also made it a lot cheaper than going to a florist. Bec worked her magic with the arrangements in 5 glasses per table, filling different shapes and sizes vases with colourful stems that popped against the white of the marquee. The flowers displays in the church were made by Sally Beaman who is a local in the village – we told her what colours we were keen to use and she did the rest, which we also had brought down to the marquee after the service as it seemed a shame to leave them.

The Wedding Party Fashion

All of my bridesmaids were a good few inches taller than me (and most of the Groomsmen) so I wanted to ensure they all wore flat shoes, so we decided on long dresses. I had a friend make the dresses as there wasn't one point all of the bridesmaids were together until 2 weeks before the wedding due to one in coming from Argentina, one in Australia, one in Middlesbrough and one bring close by. I chose a simple maxi dress design I own myself and knew they would all look stunning as well as going with the laid back style of the day. The bow ties were made to match the Bridesmaid's dresses, also made by Aiste Booshan, in the different pastel shades and Andy requested the Groomsmen wore dark brown shoes to keep everything as clean cut and uniformed as possible.

Ceremony

My Brothers partner (Sophie Cantwell) made up a rendition of 'he never leaves the toilet seat up' and Andy's father read a religious reading (Colossians 3:12-17). Our Chocolate Labrador Jensen was the ring bearer and he even attended the rehearsal a couple of days before to practice his part – shame he had attended the 'bachelor' party the night before eaten a dominos pizza and was sick at the back of the church before hoovering it up :-(

Entertainment

Andy's friend played acoustic guitar at the church and while guests were having reception drinks including songs by the Beatles, Stone Roses and The Jam. In the evening we hired a recommended 15 piece Soul and Motown band who really made the night with never a clear dance floor. As a special request a friend (Liam Price) who is also a Wedding singer got up on stage supported by myself (although they may of turned my mic off) to sing My Girl.

Food

We used a local catering company for the food, which came recommended by another neighbour who used them to make a cake for a wedding they went to where they entered the cake into the competition (naming no names) and won so knew we couldn't go wrong. We went for a pre-taster meal and the food we opted for to try and make it different from all the other weddings and keep the relaxed atmosphere with guests helping themselves on the table was lasagne accompanied by breads and refreshing salads. The evening buffet was pork sliders and fish & chips and an ice cream van for dessert. The wine was also sourced locally from a company called Hard to Find Wines. The owner Mark imports wine that you would not normally find in the shops with our White being from Luxemburg and the Red from a Northern suburb of Sydney called Woolloomooloo. Both were great!

Photographer

We loved Jo's style (very creative/quirky) not the 'usual' wedding photographer and had been recommended by a friend who previously had Jo shoot her day. From the first phone call with Jo 12 months before the day, through to the pre-wedding meet up 2 months before, she was truly lovely and made both Andy and I feel completely at ease. She listened to what we wanted in relation to shots and gave great advice on what would look good – evidence for all to see....

Videographer

Damian is a friend of Andy's who we bumped into at a wedding fayre at the Molineux football stadium in Wolverhampton (the only wedding fayre we went to!) Although we hadn't planned to get a videographer we would completely recommend it as been amazing watching back the day including all of the speeches and something we can keep forever and hopefully show our children in the future.

DIY

The males in the family (took at least 5 of them) used pallets to construct a bar for the marquee called the 'Kim and Andy' bar, which we are now going to put up in our garden. My dad also created lots of different signs to put up in the village using more pallets directing guests where to park, reception even toilets! Although this didn't appear to stop one couple gatecrashing as they turned up at the wrong wedding.... Our wedding was so much fun and we both literally had the best day of our lives (not sure how you can't when all your friends and family are together!) So many people helped us out – more than I have listed above and too many to mention but just shows how a wedding can bring everyone together for such a happy occasion.