Clare & David's Informal Country Style Wedding

Clare & David’s Informal Country Style Wedding

Clare and David celebrated their informal country style wedding with One Giant Hat Tipi at Buckminster Barns. With a formal church ceremony and a low key tipi and barn reception, they got the perfect mix of formal and informal, which is exactly what they wanted. Clare talks us through the details here, alongside their photos.

What made you decide on an outdoor wedding?

We wanted something that was both low key and formal. So we chose to have a church ceremony for the formal side, plus the barn and then tipi for the low key reception. We decided we didn’t want a sit down meal, as the groom is chef and has done hundreds of them!

What did everybody wear?

I wore a long tuille dress with detachable sleeves for evening and a handmade denim jacket. The bridesmaids chose their own dresses from Next. And the groom and groomsmen wore suits from Moss Bros.

Tell us about your ceremony.

We had a mix of both formal and informal. The formal ceremony was at the brides childhood church – St John the Baptist in Peterborough. And the informal reception was at Buckminster Barns where we had the barn, a 2 storey coach house plus the tipi. Everyone had one invite to come for the whole day of celebration.

Music was really important to us. I walked down the aisle to “Band of Brother” theme tune, which is my late Father’s and the groom’s favourite. My brother came from America to give me away. We then danced back down the aisle and everyone joined in singing and dancing to “Ain’t no stopping us now” the 70’s disco song. We had two vicars who married us and they said we were the happiest couple they had ever married.

How did you feed your guests?

We decided right from the start to let guests choose own food. We had pizza from Fire and Embers, who were superb. They provided lots of choices including gluten and dairy free. They were all made to order and served from 7pm till they ran out! We originally had another caterer who unfortunately pulled out 36 hours before. But the local pub, The Tollemarch Arms, were superb, and with 24 hours notice put on a fantastic Mexican curry and chilli buffet.

We also had an ice cream van, drinks horse box bar, and toasting marshmallows on fire pit. We didn’t want traditional toasting drinks, so we gave everyone a drinks token, so they could choose what they wanted.

Our cake was made by friend, we had a large one with toppers to look like us, plus 120 cupcakes in 3 different flavours.

How would you describe your theme / styling?

Our theme was informal country feel. A local florist did all bridal party flowers, and our friends grew pots of flowers to go at base of poles in tipi and for tables. We had solar lights and lanterns on picnic tables, and Love Hearts as favours.

How did you entertain your guests?

A friend sang for us as everyone chatted and had food. Then we had a disco! Our guests had written their favourite songs on the returned invites, so the DJ already had a set list.

Our videographer suggested we had a first dance outside tipi entrance, which was an excellent idea. We danced to Leona Lewis & Callum Scott “You are the reason”. We also had great fun with a sparkler exit to end the evening. Then we walked to the local pub where we stayed the night.

What are your Top Tips for planning your Tipi wedding?

See the tipi at an open day. It gave us lots of ideas on layout and decoration.

Be flexible on how things might turn out. Have blankets and umbrellas just in case – we needed both!

Use / ask friends if they can help. We had a free photographer, cake, flowers, decorations and church flowers all as presents. We used Prezola for a wedding gift site. Our guests liked that they could buy experiences e.g. £10 honeymoon cocktails etc.