A blank canvass wedding is a total Marmite situation. You are either all in or will run a mile. Luckily for us, this couple, Krysia & Tomek, were all in and then some. From sourcing the field to ordering the toilets, they thought of everything.
Incorporating cultural traditions is a touch I will never tire of seeing and at this wedding the Polish touches were lot's of Vodka shots and dancing and singing around the bonfire. The food was Pizza, BBQ, Salad and Donuts and the wedding reception was complete with a glitter station and human pyramids on the dance floor. Well with all the Vodka it isn't really surprising is it? Through The Woods We Ran captured the fun of this magical day wonderfully I can only imagine how happy the bride felt not only marrying her love but wearing that Charlie Brear's skirt! Hello Fringe!!!!We didn’t have a theme as such – we just picked things we liked. We are not matchy-matchy type people. Our invites started just with two colours that we liked, pink and emerald green and then after our trip to Japan, I wanted to make my own napkins using the Shibori indigo dying technique. I bought plain white ones on eBay and then got all the girls round one Sunday so it was a team effort. The flowers were just the flowers we liked, I went to New Covent garden the year before to see what was in season.
Apart from Tomek going down to the field a few weeks before with some friends to move the cows and mow the lawn, things kicked off on the Thursday. The Marquee went up, we picked up the tables and painted a few last signs. Friday was the big prep day when we had both families and best friends come a day early to help. Tables and chairs went into position, tables were laid, decorations put up, festoon lights strung, the photobooth tent was put up and decorated, bonfire built, cider collected, toilets arrived, water arrived, ice arrived. Names were tied to chairs, buffet table set out and glasses and cutlery set once they delivered. Sound testing was completed once all the equipment arrived.
The flowers were put into vases once they had arrived from London, my inlaws picked them up that morning – I had ordered them the week before and the bouquet was arranged. The bar was set up (the inlaws again had paid for and brought all the booze), the kid's table set and the chill area set up. I’m sure I'm missing a few things, but we had an AMAZING team of friends, and the day was just as fun as the actual wedding day.
The Ceremony was in a church 5 mins from our Marquee. We had 2 friends sing/play guitar in the church (we walked up the aisle to ‘Falling’ by the Lumineers). We had both our mums do readings and best friends bidding prayers/poems. We walked out the church to Al Green’s Love and Happiness.
Having our photos taken was actually really fun and breezy, which is not hard with Lauren and Glen. We hiked up to the Dovecote in Bruton to get some windswept pics. We love every single picture. There was no cheesy posing, the pictures are pretty much exactly what we have in my memory. Plus they are genuinely a cool couple to have around. The party pictures are hilarious.
Our guests walked through the cider orchard to get to our marquee in the field. Upon arrival, they were greeted with cider and popcorn. Our favourite food is pizza... So we couldn’t have a wedding without it. A few people tried to suggest having it in the evening, but we were adamant that it had to be the main meal. No dry chicken for us, no way! We found Pizzarova; they do a food stall in Bruton and have a restaurant in Bristol. They cook the pizzas in their Landrover and prepare everything under a tipi. They also cooked up everything that they brought so we even had cold pizza for the evening. So along with the pizzas, we had Our Farmhouse Kitchen do fresh home-made salads and bread. Once Pizzarova had packed up, Our farmhouse kitchen moved a bbq into their spot outside and cooked up an evening feast of sausages, chicken wings and halloumi. Desserts were brownies, berries and Pipin Donuts.
My brother had sorted a Spotify playlist as background music for the entire day. My best guy friends who I grew up with were our M.C’s for the day, providing endless entertainment.
Both of us have Polish backgrounds and were keen to bring in lots of wedding traditions. We had chilled Polish vodka and shot glasses on tables and also a campfire after the speeches. As kids growing up we would often sing songs and dance around. A friend’s dad brought his accordion and we got everyone outside for some Polish and English songs. For our first dance, we had asked 4 friends to come together to create a band for one night only! We both LOVE Mumford & Sons, so one friend sang, one friend played the guitar, another on the trumpet, and one on the drums. They sang lover of the light, and once the song got going all our guests joined us on the dance floor to sing along! Our friend is a DJ so he kept the tunes going all night, whilst his girlfriend kept his drinks topped up!