Today’s beautiful DIY village fete wedding is that of  a couple you may recognise from these very pages – Vicky and Steve, one of our TNWC Real Bride couples from last year. We followed them through their epic DIY-ing journey and now we get to share in their gorgeous day and enjoy all their efforts.

After being together over six years Steve proposed to Vicky on holiday in the beautiful Skopelos. Since then with friends and family on board, and with Steve’s handy occupation as a builder, they have gone about creating the most wonderful projects to fill their day with personal touches, all of which you can find out about here.

Steve and Vicky were married last July in their local village church in Devon and went on to celebrate with a marquee reception full of all their handmade touches on their local cricket field. Their day was lovingly captured by Lucy Jane Photography alongside this adorable wedding video by CF Video Productions to help them relive all the memories, ceremony bloopers and all! You really must check it out.

https://vimeo.com/145273291

Now over to bride Vicky to share all the, much awaited, lovely details of their big day…

A relaxed morning getting ready

Our wedding day began at the quite laid back time of 7am. Being a lazy person I’d deliberately booked the church for 2 o’clock to avoid a ridiculously early morning, it also meant guests driving down from my home town had time in the morning if they didn’t want to stay over the night before.

My wedding morning saw one of my fabulous bridesmaids, Trish, holding fort at my house, directing three very excited girls towards the hairdresser while I hit the marquee to finish off all the little bits and pieces. After assembling the wedding cake we arranged all the games around the field, finished off the tables, hung up signs around the village and placed potted plants outside the church.

I finally arrived back at home in time to start having my hair and makeup done at 11am while Steve carried on sorting things out until it was time get ready and hit the pub.

A natural bridal look

My hair and makeup was done by Sharon from The Event Studios. She did an amazing job – my makeup felt totally natural and my hair didn’t move an inch all day without feeling ‘stuck’. She was also brilliant at keeping my nerves at bay. Her and Lucy, from Lucy James Photography, kept up a steady stream of excited chatter totally distracting me so when it was time to leave my house I was relatively relaxed. Twisting gypsophilia onto wires for my hair also kept my mind busy!

A beautiful beaded wedding dress

As everyone was staying in the village there was a steady stream of visitors over the morning which helped keep my nerves at bay. The little bridesmaids all came and went and came back again to have a last minute check over, the flowers arrived and finally my Dad brought the dress down. I had chosen an Eliza Jane Howell dress and brought it from a lovely shop in Torquay, The Bridal Rooms of Wellswood. I had wanted something ‘different’ and comfortable and had loved it the minute I put it on. It just seemed to suit a village wedding and was easy to walk about in.

A walk through the village to the church

I was meeting my bridesmaids at the church as I wanted to walk there on my own with my dad (after hiding the front door key under the mat – I totally didn’t think about who’d look after the key in all the planning). We set off through the village, veil and dress hoiked up elegantly. After being offered a drink on the way by a rowdy BBQ crowd we arrived at the church to find a group of people who’d stopped to get a good look. I guess it’s not everyday you see a bride wandering about while you’re on your way to the beach.

Standing at the church door while the photographer tried to track down the vicar all my nerves vanished and I just felt stupidly excited.

A ceremony full of love and laughter

The service was, as predicted, disorganised! My dad gave me away twice and Steve and I were frequently told off by the vicar for laughing. It was perfect. Everyone was laughing and there was no way I could be nervous or become emotional. We even had one of the bestmen accidentally blasting out music on his phone while trying to take a photo. This was beautifully captured on film along with the whack Steve’s mum gave him.

A DIY village fete wedding

After the ceremony we all walked through the village, holding up the traffic, to the field. Once there everyone tucked into the pasties and Prosecco and had a play on the games before the cream tea. The weather had been pretty good up to this point but it started raining during the speeches which was perfect timing as we were all inside.

Picking the perfect photographer

After the cream tea we escaped for a while to take some photos down on the beach. We had picked our photographers because we liked their relaxed style and they were amazing on the day. Loads of our guests didn’t even realise there were two of them running around.

The day had turned out rather grey and damp but they still captured some lovely images. Then at the very end before they left James suddenly came sprinting into the marquee – he’d spotted a beam of sunshine at the top of the field and ran us up to do some last minute photos. They were beautiful and I’m so grateful that right up to the end they were on the look out for a perfect shot.

Film your day as it flies by

The speeches flew by and I really can’t remember them in much detail. Steve had not been keen to have our wedding filmed but even he was pleased in the end as it meant he could listen to his speech and check that people did actually laugh! It really is true that a lot of the day passes in a bit of a blur so I would definitely recommend having it filmed. CFVP who did ours was great. He kept his distance and really captured the feel of the day. It is so nice to be able to look back at it all – especially the highlights video which always makes me laugh.

He also sadly managed to film our first dance. I say sadly because in my head and from the applause and comments we got afterwards I honestly thought it was as good as anything Strictly Come Dancing could produce! Watching it back on film I can only guess that the alcohol had well and truly kicked in.

Partying until the end

We chose to stay right until the end of the night as we didn’t want to miss any of the party. So we ended our wedding day squashed into the back of a Corsa with the two bestmen having managed to scrounge a lift back home from a friend. Again, we hadn’t really thought how we’d get home! It definitely wasn’t a romantic or glamorous end to our day but it fitted in with the relaxed feel. There’s nothing much funnier than watching three drunk men trying to clamber into a small car!

The wedding is just the start of everything else

The next day we had a BBQ at the field to use up all the leftovers (we still ended up with 91 bottles of wine) which rounded off the celebrations and let us all talk endlessly about the day. It also meant we had plenty of hands available to pack everything away, which was great. After the wedding the post wedding blues I had been expecting never arrived. I just felt ridiculously happy being married. And as Steve said, the wedding isn’t really the end of anything, it’s the start of everything else.

Overall the day was everything we had wanted it to be and putting in all the hard work and effort into making lots of our own things was definitely worth it.

It has been an absolute pleasure getting to share Vicky and Steve’s wedding planning and an even bigger pleasure to be able to share their special day with you all. Thank you to both of them for including us in your experience and journey to becoming Mr and Mrs.

{ Details }

Photography: Lucy Jane Photography
Videographer: CF Video Productions
Venue: Local cricket field
Dress: Eliza Jane Howell from The Bridal Rooms of Wellswood
Hair and Make-up: The Event Studios
Cream tea: The Kitchen Table
Wedding Cake: Homemade
Flowers: Friend