Relaxed festival wedding

Well what an utterly wonderful way this is to start the week – a stunning, sunny, Cornish wedding. The wedding of one of my lovely TNWC Real Brides from last year, Emma (you can read all about her wedding planning and handmade details here). I do hope you’ll check back tomorrow as well as I have their wedding film to share and it is a feel-good way to begin your day.

Emma and Chris got married in July on a stonking hot sunny day in Cornwall. They planned a day that was relaxed and informal, full of colour and with a festival type vibe. I’ll let you decide but I think they achieved all those things they dreamed their day would be.

Over to Emma…

“The Natural Wedding Company and Pinterest played a bit part in the planning process. I used the internet to search for all sorts of things! I  also bought a sketchbook and started scrap booking images and very quickly formed a strong theme for the day.  Most the ideas came from the festival theme – we booked the venue and the flags in the same day – the rest sort of followed naturally.”

“I just want to say that despite the hiccups nothing could have ruined our day – it was just perfect in its imperfection – all the bits that didn’t go according to plan just make for good memories. Something will always go awry but it is those differences that make your special day yours and your only – and the things you will chuckle about when old and grey!”

“On the morning of the wedding I woke up ridiculously early to bright blue skies. I was so excited and had the worst case of butterflies I had ever experienced – more like a mass migration of monarch butterflies – so I went for a run down to the beach, had a swim and was back before 7am. I then set about busying myself – painted my toe nails, had a long bath and tried to read unsuccessfully.”

“Luckily not only was I staying with my brilliant friend Nicola – the most calming and down to earth influence I have in my life – I was staying in the most wonderful bed and breakfast, The Copper House in Portreath. The owner Linda was just amazing and attended to our every need.”

“I was nervous because I didn’t know if my Dad was going to come or not. I had chosen to have both my Dad and Step Dad give me away (a decision I had not made lightly and had discussed with both six months before the day.) Sadly my Dad got last minute wobbles; we had had a rather fraught phone conversation on the Thursday evening prior to the wedding, which ended rather badly.”

“I wouldn’t find out until I got to the ceremony, and although my sister had said he had decided not come when she arrived on the morning of the wedding, a small part of me still hoped he would be there. I soon forgot about the worries I had when my beautiful sisters, friends and family arrived.”

“My dress was from Pirouette in Exeter. I had gone for a day of trying dresses with my Mum in Exeter. After several bridal shops and tens of dresses I was starting to feel despondent – I knew I wanted lace and tulle but all the long dresses just didn’t feel ‘me’. I could hardly walk in them, let alone bounce around like I normally do.”

“I certainly wanted to be able to move around – I’m not elegant in the slighted and felt silly and dressed up. I have a terrible relationship with my ‘power calves’ and ankles so although I had considered a shorter dress I really didn’t think I would be brave enough to show my lower legs on a day when everyone would be looking at me!”

“So when I took the plunge and tried on a short version of a dress that I had spotted I felt instantly like me. That was it – I was sold! And the fact it was so little meant a smaller price tag too – it was win, win.”

“I made the birdcage veil myself out of some vintage bits of lace I had picked up in Brighton at a flea market (on my hen weekend). I just ordered a piece of French netting and a comb from eBay and after a bit of playing around it looked ok!”

“My shoes were an impulse buy, there was nothing green in the colour scheme but my engagement ring is diamond and emerald so I thought at least it would match that! Later on after I had got my green shoes I used a Sharpie pen to make some of the clear crystals green – I just coloured them in and scratched it back until the right amount of green was in them!”

“The most amazing thing that happened outfit wise was that Chris had bought me earrings to open on the day of the wedding, which were almost an exact match to my necklace, with oval green jewels. I couldn’t believe it!”

“Chris and all the groomsmen wore hired suits. Chris isn’t a suit kind of man so hiring was the best option. His best man was his best friend Shaun who is also not a suit man – they both tend to wear nothing but slightly old t-shirts, shorts and trainers. They spend most of their time mountain biking and getting covered in mud together!”

“When we first went in to look at suits we picked out a light linen suit, the tailor suggested we order it in and try it first. We are so glad he had said this as Chris looked like The Man from Del Monte in it – it was far too light against his olive skin tone – he really did look like a fruit salesman! We had a laugh about it and reconsidered to a slightly darker shade.”

“The girls look amazing in their sweet sixties style coral dresses, which were perfect for the hottest day of the year! I bought the bridesmaid’s dresses before anything else! I even based my dress colour on the ivory of the top half of their dresses.”

“I was wandering around TK Maxx and just saw three hanging up together – I just had to have them. I then ordered 2 more from the website. I did feel a bit mean about not letting the girls decide what to wear but I just had such a strong feeling about the look of the dresses and the vision I had for the day.”

Emma booked Susanne from The Blue Carrot (a fab TNWC recommended supplier) to do her wedding flowers: “As soon as I saw her work on The Natural Wedding Company blog I knew she was the right florist – her work is so artistic and looks effortlessly beautiful. She has a natural and innate understanding of how to put flowers together to look like they had grown together in the bouquet.”

“I left it entirely up to her – I told her that I would like bright corals and yellows for my bouquet and slightly paler ones to contrast against the bridesmaid dresses. I told her I liked the wild look. She did the best job ever!”

“The buttonholes were also phenomenal – Chris had said he liked billy balls, which are the yellow round flowers so she put those in which gave them a fun look with a pop of colour.”

“When my bouquet arrived I was bowled over by how brilliant it was, the day gained momentum, the fizz was popped open and suddenly Lola the campervan had arrived to pick up the Bridesmaids and my Mum.”

“We got married at Mount Pleasant Eco Park. We chose it because the site was absolutely beautiful overlooking Porthtowan and the tin mines of Cornwall, we were blown away by the amphitheatre made of recycled tyres where we planned to have the outdoor ceremony (and luckily could due to the awesome weather).”

“We’d had the most brilliant evening the day before the wedding, Chris and the boys had been up to the Eco Park and set up all the flags and brought along most of the important things. When me and the girls arrived in the evening to set the tables, decorate the barn and DIY the flowers, the sight of the flags billowing in the gentle breeze took my breath away.  That was when it had all became real.”

“The ceremony was held in the amphitheatre and had very minimal decoration, it was so lovely just as it was! I just lined the ‘aisle’ with foam hearts on sticks to look like flowers in the grass and to add a bit of colour. I also made a couple of flower arrangements for the registrar’s table with the DIY flower bucket Susanne had given us the day before.”

When Emma first saw Chris, her first thought was: “I was just glad he didn’t look too hot! I was worried about him being cooked in all the layers of his suit and so excited to see him as I hadn’t seen him for two days.”

“We knew from the start we wanted a natural and outdoorsy, relaxed, unconventional ceremony. We looked at having a humanist ceremony but decided to make it a legal one, not wanting to have to have the legal one the day before.”

“We did explain in our invites that the theme was fairly laid back, so it was great to see our guests in bright colours with flowers in their hair, and even boardshorts and flip flops for the guys.”

“We were going to write our own vows but the ones listed in the ceremony pack were so beautifully written and made me well up just reading them – any more sentiment and I knew I would be a blubbering mess!”

“We made it our own by having our close family choosing readings for us. Chris’ Dad read the most beautiful piece about marriage and my sister wrote her own poem, which was so thoughtful and funny. We had a friend play some acoustic guitar as guests arrived and I chose to walk into Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole as it is one of my favourite songs.”

“Whilst we signed the register we had Everybody Loves the Sunshine by Roy Ayers, which raised a laugh, as it was so hot in the amphitheatre that day!”

When I asked Emma what her favourite moments from the day were, she told me: “Everything was above and beyond all my expectations but the best moment was walking into the amphitheatre seeing Chris, then seeing all our family and friends gathered around in one place. We both felt so loved.”

“We walked out to Sea of Love by Phil Phillips. We had heard it on The Simpsons one day when we are planning our ceremony and loved it!”

“Straight after the ceremony we got covered in confetti from Shropshire Petals who we also found on The Natural Wedding Company. We then headed to the cob courtyard and had a quick cream tea nibble.”

After their cream tea, Emma and Chris headed to the beach along with their wedding photographer and videographer: “It was lovely to wade out into the cool ocean!”

Love the socks!!

What a wonderful way to spend your first ‘just married’ moments…

Emma and Chris chose to do their speeches outside – and why not when the weather is this beautiful.

The speeches were followed by hog roast and dinner in the barn at Mount Pleasant Eco Park: “The owner Tim was so flexible in what we could do and  was happy for us to decorate the barn and generally have full reign over the whole site from Friday to Sunday. This really fitted in with our DIY approach.”

“Shaun, the caterer, was an absolute star on the day, his food was incredible – as was his service – he even made a vegan cream tea (with cream made from coconut milk) for our vegan guests! I loved that we had edible flowers in our salads – even the food looked pretty.”

“We had a ‘great wedding bake off’ after the meal – so many of our guests entered into the competitive spirit and brought homemade (and some cheated) baked yummies.”

“Chris’ parents judged the completion and we had prizes to give out.  It was a really good way to get everyone together again after the meal.”

“We didn’t want a smoochey first dance so decided to get some lessons at our nextdoor neighbour’s dance school – we had two 1 hour sessions and chose a short two minute song literally a month before the wedding and learned a little lindy bop type dance to Little Bitty Pretty One by Thurston Harris. It was really fun! I messed up a but and my garter fell off half way through but it got the party going with more fifties music to follow.”

Emma and Chris chose Rebecca Roundhill for their photographer: “I chose the wonderful Becca as I have known her ever since I started my career in wedding photography. She is an absolute gem and works so flippin’ hard to capture everything – she has a great eye for capturing emotion and humour – some of the photos were hysterical. I knew she was the lady for the job as soon as we got engaged.”

Emma and Chris honeymooned in California before returning home to Plymouth. “We went to California for our honeymoon because when we first got together over 5 years ago we started to plan an American road trip. Unlike many of our friends we both hadn’t been travelling so wanted to do something big together, we never got round to it so the honeymoon was a perfect excuse!”

They have just moved into a cottage and Emma is beginning to feel like a real ‘wife’: “Now that we have moved it feels like we are properly married – it sounds strange but after we got back from honeymoon and went back to normal life it felt like nothing much had changed. That of course is not a bad thing – we are deliriously happy. But making the move to a proper house with an upstairs and a roomy kitchen has made me feel all domesticated and wife-like!”

I told you it was a beautiful one! A huge thank you to Emma and Chris for sharing their wedding day with us all, and to their photographer Rebecca Roundhill for the stunning pitures. As well as being a TNWC Real Bride, Emma also runs Freckle Photography and is one of our recommended suppliers on the directory – so if you’re looking for a wedding photographer do check out her profile page.

Finally don’t forget to check back tomorrow for Emma and Chris’ wedding film!

{ Details }

Photography: Rebecca Roundhill Photography
Venue: Mount Pleasant Eco Park, Cornwall
Wedding Dress: Pirouette
Flowers: The Blue Carrot
Bride’s Necklace: Pirouette
Bride’s Birdcage Veil: Handmade by the bride
Petal Confetti: Shropshire Petals
Caterer: Piglet Cottage