It's wedding inspiration time for DIY brides. Gorgeous couple Hannah and Ben roped in the help of all their family and friends to create a stunning, personalised wedding day. By choosing to host their wedding reception in a marquee in the garden of stunning venue Hill Place, they could let their imagination run wild. Hannah chose a country garden wedding theme, and collected vintage floral fabric scraps, which her friend Polly sewed into over 60m of pretty bunting! Friends and family also helped with making their wedding cake, arranging their flowers, designing the table plan and personalising each and every place marker. I love the pretty pastel theme and the way the wedding favours and table names reflect Hannah and Ben's love of music. We named our wedding tables after vegetables - I wish we'd been more creative! Gorgeous pictures published with thanks to Greg Thurtle from TP Photography.
My husband Ben and I got married on 30th July 2011 at Hill Place in Swanmore, a beautiful Georgian Country Villa set in 20 acres of beautiful park land. Our wedding photographer was Greg Thurtle from TP Photography, who was brilliant and captured some amazing candid shots. Looking through the photos, they are all so personal and encapsulate the day perfectly.
I had five bridesmaids, they wore knee length, chiffon and halter neck dresses in dusky pink and sapphire blue. They were also from Brides of Southampton. I originally said that they could wear anything pink or blue, and took them to the shop to try on whatever they fancied...they all loved the same dress!
I also had a ‘best man’, my dear friend Chris was also part of my bridal party, he walked down the aisle behind me with the other girls, and did a brilliant job of keeping everyone in check throughout the day. He wore a black suit and matching sapphire blue tie.
We had a marquee in the beautiful grounds of the house so we could enjoy the gardens. We decorated the marquee in homemade bunting, which one of my bridesmaids, Polly, made from scraps of fabric I had collected. She sewed 60 metres!
My friends and I made all the place names from wooden sticks embellished with raffia and jewels. We made each one of the 100 sticks different and tried to capture the person’s personality in them!
We wanted our wedding to be relaxed and homemade. It resembled a country fete or garden with the bunting and various gazebos which housed the bar, the set up for the band {which was made up of our best friends} and the guest book tent {which had a digital camera on a stand and lots of fancy dress items for the guests to play around with- we had some VERY interesting photos as a result!}.
We had tonnes of DIY projects. We made our table plan from a large piece of MDF which we wrapped in material then adorned with miniature pegs for the name tags. All our friends and family chipped in with everything, from decorating to making the cakes. It was wonderful to see so much love had gone in to creating our special day.
We decorated the tables with jugs that we had picked up from charity shops around the country. We filled them ourselves on the morning of the wedding with cornflowers, pinks and September daisies.
My friend Helene made the cakes; they were carrot cup cakes decorated with pink, white and blue icing and roses. They were delicious, and even more special that they were made by our friend.
We loved planning our wedding. We had a clear idea of how we wanted it to look and feel and it turned out perfectly. We loved that all our friends and family were involved in the whole process, from making the table plan, to playing in the band; it took lots of careful planning, but was definitely worth it!
My advice would be use your friends and family's talents to add a personal touch to your big day. For example, if you have someone who can make cakes, give them a chance to make yours, it will mean a lot to them. However, make sure that your guests get to enjoy the day....my brother is so talented, he ended up being an usher at the church, a witness, setting up the band, playing in the band, being the MC and being the DJ...He worked so hard, by the end of the day he was more exhausted then I was!
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I also had a ‘best man’, my dear friend Chris was also part of my bridal party, he walked down the aisle behind me with the other girls, and did a brilliant job of keeping everyone in check throughout the day. He wore a black suit and matching sapphire blue tie.
♥ Want more marquee weddings? ♥ Or how about more pastel-themed wedding ideas? ♥
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