Advice for outdoor wedding planning from those that have. Some of our gorgeous Brides and Grooms have taken the time to reflect back on their Sami Tipi Wedding and have put together some amazing tips and advice to help you plan your outdoor wedding. I often describe planning a tipi wedding as putting together a jigsaw. It allows you the freedom to choose all the pieces that fit with your own style and beliefs. It can involve more work than booking a traditional hotel venue, but the end result is undoubtedly worth it, promising to provide you and your guests a lasting memory.
Hannah & Alex
Making the most of what their family farm had to offer, Hannah and Alex wanted to create a rustic themed outdoor Tipi wedding celebration which matched their personalities. But they didn’t want it to be just about them. With family members all getting involved with the preparation, everyone got stuck in to create a theme personal to Hannah and Alex. Making some lasting memories, our Three Giant Hats and Chill Out Tipis provided the perfect space to bring the rustic elements of the farm in under the canvas.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your own Tipi wedding;
Embrace DIY – keep things personal to you! We spent quite a lot of weekends in the lead-up to the wedding painting, photoshopping, wrestling with pallets and learning how to use electric sanders/saws. We’re both so glad we took the time to add personal touches – it helped make the day feel extra special and also kept costs down.
Enjoy the build-up, not just the day! I think we both agree that we almost enjoyed the week leading up to the wedding as much as the day itself. It was the most time our two families had spent together! We had such a good time and made lots of great memories.
Lizzie and David
Lizzie and David didn’t just want a wedding; they wanted an experience that was as personal as it gets. So, they took a space that already meant the world to them—the family garden—and made it the heart of their big day!
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your own Tipi wedding:
A big part of it is understanding it is a bigger undertaking in terms of planning and preparation than you would necessarily need at an indoor venue. But by drafting in your friends and family to help, it creates an occasion which makes the whole thing much more special. You really see that on the day and it’s such an amazing feeling, not just for us, but for the guests too. One friend left us a message the following day saying how amazing it was and how it felt like being at Bilbo Baggins Birthday Party which summed it up so perfectly for us. A group of friends and family, like a community coming together, dancing around a tree with barrels of beer! It was such a nice thing to hear!
The Open Days helped us massively with ideas for decorations and getting an idea of the space. It really got us excited! I took my bridesmaids as well, along with family, and they got so excited too! Being at the Open Day made it so real for us and gave us so much inspiration.
Make the most of the time you have the Tipis. We had a BBQ breakfast the next day and invited people back round to carry on the celebration. It was great to see everyone again!
Mae and Lewis
A Summer Wedding in July, in Three Giant Hat Tipis, working with Tara Knott and Poppy Scout, the Tipis looked incredible. Mae and Lewis were so sure they wanted a Tipi wedding that they booked them before even seeing them. They then attended one of our Showcases to help tick off suppliers and gets lots of ideas and inspiration.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your own Tipi wedding;
First things first go for it! We hired Sami Tipi’s Three Giant Hat Tipi before even going to one of their showcases!
Go to the Sami Tipi showcases. They can be eye opening, we found some fantastic suppliers through doing this, which gave us a real boost when it came to locking in those extra details which we hadn’t even thought about.
Hiring Beth as on-the-day management was an absolute game-changer for our special day. Her support in the lead-up to the wedding was invaluable. Beth’s attention to detail and commitment to ensuring every aspect of the wedding went smoothly were remarkable. She went above and beyond to make sure our day was stress-free. She became an essential part of our wedding’s success as she kept us on our timeline and made sure suppliers knew where they needed to be.
Hire the Hoop for a Floral Display – it can be a showstopper!
Sophie and James
By choosing to have a Countryside Tipi Wedding at our riverside venue, Cuttle Brook, Sophie and James got the suppliers they wanted and had a day to match their personalities. Even the rain making an appearance didn’t stop them having their best day ever!
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your own countryside Tipi wedding;
Do what’s right for you, there are so many ways you could go about it, but ultimately it’s your day. But prioritise what you want.
Plan and do little bits often. Get the big parts in place first then worry about the smaller details later.
Don’t worry about the weather, our wedding day (the first Saturday in August) was practically a washout but it didn’t distract from the day at all, if anything it ensured people stayed partying on the dancefloor all night, and gave us some beautiful photo opportunities.
Consider doing your own bar, it wasn’t expensive but it really added to the party atmosphere, just took a bit of planning and coordination.
Sally and Ang
Every aspect of Sally and Ang’s day was personal to them as a couple, from the stationery through to their speeches. With the glorious British weather showing up, their Country Garden themed wedding had the guests talking for weeks afterwards.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your own country garden themed wedding;
Use Sami Tipi! You’ve been so professional throughout and helped us immensely through the process. From set up to take down the whole experience was faultless. The guys from the setup team were amazing and they behaved as if it was their own ’do’. You could see they wanted to feel proud of what they’d done, and so the effort and passion they put into that build was really apparent.
Do what you want, not what you think everyone else wants. Have it exactly how you want it, which having the Tipis definitely allows you to do.
If you’ve got suppliers you really want, get them booked early on. You don’t necessarily have to have all your ducks lined up straight away, but get the big things like food and of course, the Tipis booked in.
Spend your money where it matters, then if you need to come in under a budget later on there are things like stationery and styling you can do yourself or even ask friends to help.
Alix and Carl
Alix and Carl celebrated their wedding in Four Giant Hat Tipis at Cattow’s Farm in Leicestershire. Their day had a real festival theme with Food Trucks serving their guests all day with an array of street food.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your own festival themed tipi wedding;
Attend the Sami Tipi Showcases, we found most of our suppliers from there. We’re not really visual people, so these were a really important thing for us. You get to see how the set up will look and get a real feel for it.
Have some hampers in the toilets, these were what the guests commented on the most! They had suntan lotion and deodorant in, which the guests were so grateful for.
Have on the day management. Caroline at Cattow’s Farm ensured the whole day ran so smoothly, even down to simple things like replacing the candles. Caroline took all the stress away from the day and we really felt like we were in safe hands, nothing was an issue.
Don’t worry about what other people think. Be the Bride and Groom you want to be. Have a list of the non-negotiables, be clear what you want and HAVE THE FUN STUFF! Your day is about you, no-one else.
Sammy and Jake
Sammy and Jake celebrated their wedding in a Three Giant Hat Tipis at Cuttle Brook, Swarkestone. Their day was full of entertainment and so much fun was had by all of their guests.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
It seems a simple thing to say but organisation and list writing are vital. We also sat together with the groomsmen and our parents, and outlined what we needed from them, so everyone knew what they were doing.
With the entertainment I’d just say don’t go cheap because that’s what made our day and it’s what your guests will come away remembering! They aren’t going to necessarily remember your floral hoop, but they will remember how they came away from your wedding feeling!
For us, the entertainment was a major part of our day so we wanted to ensure we enjoyed it as much as our guests. We also didn’t want to be away from our guests for long, so we had our photos done straight away when we got to the Tipis and for only 45 minutes maximum which they stuck to.
I’d also say to take a step back, and take it in, just the two of you.
If you’re feeling stressed, remind yourself why you’re doing it. Getting married to the person you love. Always remember that! Don’t stress about things you can’t control.
Also, don’t forget your bins! My Dad had to tidy up at one point, so maybe have someone in charge of that?
Kate & Ben
Kate & Ben celebrated their wedding in a Two Giant Hats and Chill-Out Tipi. Despite lots of rain throughout their day, they still created the celebration they had always dreamed of.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
1. Get inspired and get excited! Searching through Pinterest and looking at other weddings on Sami Tipi site gave us lots of ideas for what our big day could look like.
2. Think about how many suppliers you’re using and whether you’re happy organising lots of small suppliers, or if you prefer to consolidate services with fewer suppliers. Doing it all ourselves and using lots of local suppliers meant we were organising and managing lots of suppliers providing different elements (e.g. Cutlery/ crockery different supplier to catering; toilets different supplier to generator etc.). It also meant we had to return lots of different things to different suppliers the day after the wedding.
3. Get creative. We loved making lots of things ourselves and we have some very talented family members who were happy to get involved.
4. Don’t worry about the weather! Our wedding weekend ended up being the only weekend of rain in between 2 heatwaves. Although it meant we had to do some last minute dashes to Mountain Warehouse to buy all their umbrellas, and ask our friends to bring spare blankets and scarves, it actually made for the best day. We decided not to change our plans, and still managed an outdoor ceremony in a spinney of trees. The reception was then inside the tipi rather than in the field – this ended up being fantastic as it kept everyone together and the energy was great. We adore our pictures with umbrellas too (thanks to our fantastic photographer, Magda).
Georgie & Lee
Georgie & Lee celebrated their wedding in a Three Giant Hats and Chill-Out Tipi. They had always wanted a winter wedding, so decided to celebrate in December with lots of Christmas decorations.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
Make sure your guests are going to be warm enough. In the summer this isn’t so much of an issue but we had to use blow heaters to keep everyone nice and toasty.
Think about how much space you need for dining. We used long trestle tables and a mixture of benches and chairs and it was a little tight in areas with the poles. Don’t seat tall people under the rafters!
Make the most of DIY and get friends and family to help! Tipis really lend themselves to rustic/home made decor. Even though we wanted a more glamorous feel, we did lots of decor items ourselves and it saved us a lot of money!
Think about lighting. The tipi came with lots of beautiful fairy lights, but I’m glad we went for the hanging star lights, they lit up the bar area perfectly.
Be dramatic with hanging decor. You have so much space above your head that looks amazing if it’s filled! Think lanterns, bunting, floral arrangements, hanging lights etc.
Esme & Steve
Esme & Steve celebrated their wedding in a Two Giant Hats and Chill-Out Tipi. They were gifted some farmland nearby where they hosted a super chilled out wedding celebration.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
Let the tipis do the talking. You can get carried away thinking you need to decorate very inch of the tipis, but chose special features you don’t want to compromise on such as special seats for the bride and groom. For us, as we were using private land that had no services at all we wanted to light the outside area as much as possible, so Sami Tipi were able to provide us with a much larger area covered by the shepherd hook lighting.
Be brave! We were so grateful to have been offered a space for our wedding, but we were dealing with a space that had no electricity, no water, and no facilities at all! But Sami Tipi were really helpful in guiding us and enlightening us on things we would need to think about that we might not have alone.
Hire some help. We hired a small local events company to provide support throughout the day. Mainly to lay out the cakes while we got ready, put the drinks on ice and to keep the ice topped up, and do general tidying up throughout the day. They were worth their weight in gold. We wanted to avoid our parents walking around with bin bags tidying up! And get yourselves a small group of people who can help the next day. Treat them to a BBQ on site, or a way to thank them. It makes the tidy up the next day a lot easier, more entertaining and feels like it’s a continuation of your day.
Christina & Jamie
Christina & Jamie celebrated their wedding in a Three Giant Hat Tipis in their back garden. They went to town on the styling, doing everything themselves!
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
1) Book a reputable company (preferably Sami Tipi!) so you feel safe in the knowledge that they’ve got your back no matter what. I can’t imagine having to postpone twice with another company would have been quite as smooth!
2) Ask questions. They are professionals for a reason and they’ll be able to give you ideas and alternatives that work for an outdoor wedding.
3) Stay organised. Sami Tipi gave us a planning map when we booked and it served us well.
4) Get support. Jamie and I, with the help of his friend Matt and his mum and dad were really pushed to the last minute sorting the interior. If you have the money, book a company to sort the decorations – it will save a lot of stress and sleepless nights!
5) Chill out. If you’ve book an outdoor event, we know there are same variables which are out of our control. If it rains, embrace it! The wind blows your decorations over, just laugh and get someone else to pick them up. It will always be perfect, no matter what.
6) Do you. It may sound mean, but do ignore everyone else’s opinion as much as possible. Stick together, support each other, go with your gut and make it about the two of you and no one else.
Louisa & Aaron
Louisa & Aaron celebrated their wedding in a Three Pole Sailcloth in Louisa’s parents garden. It was a really classic, Spring country garden wedding. Full of DIY styling and gorgeous florals.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your sailcloth wedding;
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.
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!
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.
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!
George & Alfie
George & Alfie celebrated their wedding on their family farm land in Three Giant Hat Tipis. They created a super chilled day, with lots of stunning florals and festival vibes.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
1) Enjoy the set up time – we loved sitting and watching the team put up our tipis! They were so skilled, it was quite a spectacle. We enjoyed a takeaway in there with family that night!
2) No need to go crazy on the decorations, the venue is already beautiful!
3) Our mantra for the wedding planning was ‘cut the crap’, and if the item or tradition wasn’t important to either of us, we wouldn’t do it. We weren’t so interested in a fancy cake, so we ended up with our Colin the Caterpillar scene for a cool 32 quid.
Amy & Ed
Amy & Ed created a really unique wedding celebration with Two Giant Hats and Chill-Out Tipi in a Vineyard. A day full of perfect details, with so much of their personalities shining through.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
1) Do it, and embrace the weather. We spent about a week worrying about the weather, then just decided what will be, will be and we’ll just enjoy it.
2) Make the most of it. We understand why people get someone in to do the decorating and styling for them, because they know what they’re doing and it’s just done. But we wanted to make the most of it. You get married in this one moment, so make the most of the days before, during and after.
We got married on the Saturday but the tipis went up on the Tuesday, so we pretty much spent 4 days getting everything the way we wanted. It was 4 days being outside in the sunshine, and we actually really enjoyed it. It took time, but it was so worth it. On the day, you see all these little details that you put there, and you know it was us that put it all there, it just made it so worth it.
3) The little things that you might think are important aren’t the end of the world. For example, I know that no one lit our candles in the evening, and no one turned the fairy lights on in the tipis the next day. But no one else noticed that. So just don’t stress about it.
Victoria and Callum
Victoria and Callum celebrated their Download Festival themed tipi wedding in Three Giant Hats and Chill-Out Tipi at Sami Tipi Exclusive site The Hideaway, Ticknall.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
1) You can either go completely DIY or hire companies to do the hard work for you. We did a mix of both but definitely recommend hiring a decorator as we would have had to have taken a week off work to do it all ourselves. They also came the next day to remove the decorations and this meant we didn’t spend all day the next day tidying away. If you do decide to go completely DIY don’t forget to think about the little things like how to serve your food and drinks, how to keep drinks and food hot/cold, rubbish disposal (including during the day) and baby changing facilities.
2) Our next top tip would be to plan for a range of weathers and be relaxed when plans have to change! We were so lucky with the weather in October but we didn’t want to take any chances and made a couple of plans for our ceremony if we had to take it inside. Fields can also get very damp due to dew especially at night and in the morning so make sure you have suitable footwear as Callum learnt the hard way the day before with really wet feet whilst setting up!
3) Lastly we did our entire wedding; ceremony, wedding breakfast and evening reception at The Hideaway site and in the tipi. If you also choose to do this, we highly recommend an extra tipi to what you think you’ll need! We had 70 guests in the day and over 100 in the evening and we originally going to have 2 giant tipis and a chill out tipi. After a visit to one of the open evenings, my dad suggested an extra tipi and it genuinely made the world of difference. Although the weather was great and we spent a lot of time outside, it meant we didn’t have to move any furniture and had plenty of seating, standing and dancing space in the evening.
4) The biggest bit of advice is to put you into it. Do what you love. Don’t worry about family and friends saying ‘what about this, and what about that’. Trust yourself, ask them to trust you, and make it all about who you are.
Sam and Jamie
Sam and Jamie filled their Three giant hats and chill-out tipis with Indian Summer styling touches. With their favourite food and live music to dance the night away.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
Choose the right suppliers. I felt that choosing great suppliers made everything run really smoothly. I chose people who Sami Tipi recommended and who after meeting them I trusted – I clearly explained what I wanted and then trusted them to deliver that. We would say we “got lucky” to have all great suppliers but actually I think we chose them really well – mostly on recommendations from Sami Tipi.
Have a wedding coordinator. Having a wedding co-ordinator is a great investment in my eyes. At a venue a lot of the logistics are taken care of by them but when you are having a Tipi wedding (especially on your own land) this can fall to you. Both me and family wanted to be able to fully enjoy the wedding day without worrying about dealing with and managing suppliers on the day. The lovely Emma from I Totally Do handled everything on the day from phone calls from suppliers to coordinating opening champagne as everyone arrived back from the church.
Don’t skimp on your Photographer or Videographer. Once your wedding is done, those photos & videos along with your memories are all you have. I’m so glad we invested in both photo and video content.
Take Your Time. What I valued the most about my wedding was time. I was really lucky that I was able to have my wedding at my parents home. This meant that after the Tipi went up early in the week, I could really slow down and enjoy setting up. I made my own place names (with Maria’s dried flowers) with my bridesmaids, I styled all the tables and arranged some of the flowers drinking champagne with family and friends and generally loved seeing everything come together slowly day by day. A wedding day is SO QUICK so if possible, I would really recommend to anyone to take their time. Take as much time off as you can and have a lovely plan that builds up to the wedding. Even if this involves doing things at home and not the venue.
Jess and Max
Jess and Max celebrated in Three Giant Hats Tipis, with a stunning outdoor wedding ceremony overlooking Groby Pool, Leicestershire.
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
Make it all about you – the best thing about a tipi wedding, is that you can make all the decisions on how you want it to look and really personalise it. Tipi’s really lend themselves to telling your story, so prioritise reflecting your personality and making the day yours!
Plan for bad weather but don’t worry about it. Whilst we all want to avoid the showers on our big day, it cant be helped- and it REALLY doesn’t matter. As long as you have a back up plan and some big clear brollies, it will all be okay!
Enjoy creating the little details that make the day about you, but remember, only you know what is supposed to happen so don’t worry if some things don’t work out!
Don’t let Pinterest make you think you NEED professional styling. Whilst they can make tipi’s look absolutely gorgeous, if you don’t have the budget- it will still look absolutely gorgeous. Tipi’s look great already so it doesn’t take much to make them shine
Cherise and Tom
Cherise and Tom celebrated in Three Giant Hats and Chill-Out Tipi at Bawdon Lodge Farm. After three years of planning and postponement they were so excited to FINALLY become Mr & Mrs Alrdrige!
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
1) When planning your tipi wedding get as many friends and family involved and enjoy it.
2) The tipis are stunning on their own so don’t panic about filling the space.
3) Be true to yourselves as its so easy to get carried away with things that you lose the joy of doing it your own way.
4) Have fun sourcing the ‘little things’ but leave the ‘big things’ to the professionals, its not worth the stress!
5) Fill your wedding with good food, drink, music and the people that you love – you can’t go wrong!
Naomi and Nicholas
Naomi and Nicholas celebrated in Four Giant Hat Tipis on their family land. On one of the hottest weekends of the year!
Here are their top tips to having and enjoying your tipi wedding;
Do not stress about the weather! The tipis are so adaptable, and Jodie and Craig really do know their stuff! The day the tipis were erected it was about 30 degrees and it was honestly one of my favourite memories of the whole wedding. My parents, maid of honour, Nick and I spent the evening testing out the sound system and dancing around in the empty tipi. It was so hot but Craig had made sure there were extra gaps left in the tipi so it wasn’t unbearable.
Let Your Suppliers Help! Jodie and Craig are an absolute dream to work with. I found the supplier booklet really helpful and we used a lot of recommended suppliers. Also, don’t forget that you can lean on your suppliers to guide you through the process of wedding planning, they literally live and breathe weddings so they know what they’re talking about!
You don’t have to buy everything. Wedding budgets sometimes feel like you’re dealing with Monopoly money as it’s so easy to lose sight of how much you’re spending on the day. We borrowed Nick’s stepdad’s car as our wedding car rather than spending loads of money on hiring something for the weekend. If you know someone with items you could use as props for the day, just ask them! And Facebook marketplace is a great way to find some bargains to get creative with.
Check Your Suppliers Needs. If you are having a tipi in your field or garden check what supplies you will need for the day. We very nearly got caught without water for the wedding day which could have been rather stressful so just be super organised and check all your suppliers requirements well in advance.
