Louisa & Aaron's Nottinghamshire Sailcloth Wedding

Louisa and Aaron celebrated their Nottinghamshire Sailcloth Wedding back in May. They hosted our Three Pole Sailcloth in Louisa’s parents garden, after a beautiful church ceremony. They created a really classic day with stunning Spring country garden DIY styling, lots of delicious food and drink, and a party to dance the night away.

Louisa talks us through the details here, alongside gorgeous photos by Lee Garland.

What made you decide on an outdoor wedding?

We both wanted to get married in Nottingham, where I grew up. And Aaron had previously suggested that we should have our wedding at my parents’ house. After getting fed up with not being able to find a venue that we liked or felt personal enough to us, I did some research and (thankfully!) found Sami Tipi and their beautiful Sailcloth tents. We knew that having a blank canvas would allow us to create a day which was unique to us. I also loved that the Sailcloths were so light and spacious, a feature I couldn’t find in the venues I was originally looking at.

What did everybody wear?

I wore a Pronovias dress from Beautiful Brides in Nottingham. I always thought I would go for a very simple dress but I did try a lot of different styles on “just to check”. It was a close choice between this dress and a sparkly beaded one! My shoes were pearl block heel sandals from Perfect Bridal. My veil was a pearl edged fingertip length from Rainbow Club. I also found a lovely lady on Etsy who made me a pearl piece to attach over the plain veil comb to add more detail. All the pearls…!

Aaron wore a tailor-made dark green suit from McCann Bespoke London. He chose the style, material and colour and went to his fittings with a friend. I had no involvement which was nice as it meant one less decision to make! His shoes were from Loake.

My sister Isobel was my maid of honour and I didn’t have any other bridesmaids so was happy for her to wear whatever style and colour she wanted. We had both seen a sage green dress on Pinterest and agreed it would be perfect. A lot of websites sold the same style and colour but we ended up buying. Isobel’s dress on Ebay.

Tell us about your ceremony.

We married in the local church in my parents’ village. In the run up to the wedding, our Reverend took the time to speak to us about the hymns and readings we wanted and explained the meaning behind the liturgy. It made the ceremony on the day itself feel very special and intimate, even though the church was nearly full with all our guests. We had a string trio play while guests arrived and I walked down the aisle to I Giorni by Ludovico Einaudi. A close family friend and Aaron’s friend read the readings. We then left the church to the string trio playing Forces of Attraction by Johann Johannsson.

How would you describe your theme / styling?

I would describe our theme as “spring country garden”. I wanted some colour but was also keen to keep the styling very natural and classic. Early on in the wedding planning I found Norma & Dorothy’s peony botanical stationary range which fitted perfectly with my vision. We had lots of greenery with beautiful pink, coral, yellow and white flowers. Louise from Number 27 Floral Design did the most amazing job and the flowers were stunning. Our wedding favours were wildflower seeds from a local wildflower farm which we put in little glass bottles. Save for the flowers, we styled everything ourselves. I still can’t believe how it all came together as well as it did. It was even better than I imagined!

How did you feed your guests?

I’m vegan but Aaron eats meat, so it was easy to have options for everyone! We had canapes and champagne after the ceremony and then a three course sit down meal for the wedding breakfast. Aaron’s dad’s family are from Cyprus and we wanted to include some Greek food in our menu. So we had Greek Meze sharing boards to start. The mains were a choice of vegan risotto, cod or lamb. Dessert was either a vegan chocolate and almond tart or a lemon tart. Aaron had both!

Our wedding cake was three tiers, each a different flavour, from Clemie’s Vegan Cakes. Aaron also wanted a cheese tower which our caterer, Jack from McArtney’s Catering, put together for us. These were served as part of the evening buffet for people to help themselves to.

How did you entertain your guests?

My mum has asked her chimney sweep to meet us outside the church after the ceremony to wish us good luck with our marriage, which was a surprise for everyone, not just us! Back at the house we had games dotted around the garden and had rebuilt our Wendy house for the children to play in.

In the evening we had Blue Lion Band play and they were incredible! They were all so talented and sang our first dance song perfectly. The dance floor was full the whole night. We also had a Greek music playlist for some Greek dancing which everyone enjoyed. We decided to have a photo guest book with a polaroid camera for guests to take their own photos. Then had sparklers towards the end of the night, which is always fun!

What are your Top Tips for planning a Nottinghamshire Sailcloth wedding?

Top Tip 1

If you are having a garden wedding, you need to think about all the practical things you will need to have on the day that a traditional wedding venue would usually have ready to use. This means power, toilets, tables and chairs, speakers and microphones for speeches etc. Jodie at Sami Tipi knows everything there is to know about outdoor weddings and organised all the main things for us, which meant we could focus on the smaller details.

Top Tip 2

You can’t have an outdoor wedding without worrying about the weather! You won’d be able to control it but you can have a back-up plan. We made sure the layout of the Sailcloth would allow us to have space (the dance floor) for guests to take cover after the ceremony if it did rain. Another great thing about the Sailcloth is that you can have the sides up or down. If it had been a really hot day we would have had them up to let more air in. We were very lucky with the weather during the day. Although it did get quite cold in the evening, so we made use of the blankets we had bought for this reason!

Top Tip 3

It is easy to get caught up in all the picture-perfect weddings you see on Pinterest and Instagram and it can get slightly overwhelming. Think about what items you want to have and how you can use these throughout the day and afterwards too. We wanted to make the most of our flowers so after the ceremony our florist moved the arrangements from the church to the Sailcloth. The next day we gave some of the smaller arrangements to friends and family to take home. Our seating plan was a multi-photo picture frame, on an easel borrowed from a friend, which we are going to use for our wedding photos and hang on the wall at home. We’ve also kept all the blankets and some of the bud vases and lanterns too.

Top Tip 4

Finally, think about the details but don’t stress about them (easier said than done, I know!). There were definitely things that didn’t go “right” but only we knew what “should” have happened and at the end of the day, it wasn’t a big deal!