A Delightfully Colourful and Floral DIY Farm Wedding

Good afternoon all, here's a sweet and lovely summertime wedding jam packed with colourful florals to help you through this Thursday afternoon.  Darren and Fiona’s beautifully colourful wedding took place on 13th July last year with a ceremony at Sheffield Botanical Gardens, followed by a reception at Smallshaw Farm Cottages at Millhouse Green, Penistone, Sheffield – using the most amazing teepee tents supplied by PapaKåta.  The couple were keen for a relaxed, outdoor wedding that they could make their own.

“Darren and I met about sixteen years ago whilst going to rock clubs in Sheffield with a mutual group of friends. We’ve been together nearly fifteen years and were engaged for two years.  We just wanted our wedding to be outdoors and fun, where everybody could relax and enjoy the day. There was no rigid theme, just lots of things we both like, like flowers and cake!”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Casey Avenue

“All the flowers were grown by my mum. These were mainly decided by what would grow and flower at the time! We went for lots of daisies, gerberas and colourful wild flowers to keep it bright. My cousin put the bouquets together for us.”

Fiona’s gown was by bespoke bridal wear designer Sarah Willard…

"I tried on one of Sarah’s dresses and knew immediately I wanted a dress made by her – it just felt perfect! So Sarah and I designed my own dress based around an outdoors theme. I wanted a dress that felt amazing but that I could also enjoy the day in and not feel restricted in any way. It was perfect –  perfect in the Botanical gardens and also let me have fun joining in the games once we were at Smallshaw Farm."

 Fiona's mum grew all the flowers used on the day, she also grew these sweet daisies that were styled in Fiona's hair. What a lovely summer look.

"All decorations were made by us, using the flowers grown by my mum. Darren put holes through 200 test tubes which we and friends then hung from the top of the Papa Kata tent, with flowers in. My Dad made lots of wooden signs to hang (including the seating plan sign) and he and a family friend spent the day before hanging things and nailing posts up!"

"The weather was perfect, everyone enjoyed themselves and we had the perfect day. All our family and friends came even though a lot of them had to travel from overseas.

We also had at Smallshaw Farm the night before the wedding, time with family and friends, which was lovely. On the day after the wedding we had a BBQ with lots of the guests who had stayed on site or nearby, which was a lovely way to relax and get time to chat."

A disco ball inside the tent! I love this sooooo much!

“All cakes were homemade by family members and friends.  The wedding cake was made and iced by my Mum and a family friend, and decorated by me.”

“Our photographer’s were Casey Avenue. Hannah and her assistant were absolutely brilliant – they entirely understood how we wanted the day to go and got some amazing photos. They joined in with the relaxed feeling of the day and were subtle but very effective!”

"We chose our rings earlier this year while we were on a two month tour around Europe. We visited the shop whilst in Bruges and saw their jewellery being made. We thought it was a great way to have something a bit different, and a reminder of our trip.

During the ceremony, we had ‘Oh the places you will go’ by Dr Seuss as a reading.  We both love Dr Seuss and the poem was fun, but also said a lot about how we feel for one another."

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“Anything is possible if you want it, it may take a lot of work and effort but it is worth it. If you see an idea you’d like to incorporate into your day, find a way to do it yourselves – it personalises it and is lots of fun too (and usually much cheaper!).

It's great to have a wedding where absolutely everything is personal and all the important people in your lives have spent time together making and doing.

There's not a thing we would have done differently – it all turned out far better than we even imagined!"

A sweet summertime affair with lots of beautiful floral inspiration for you – thank you so much Darren and Fiona for sharing your lovely day. And thanks also to Casey Avenue for their real wedding submission.

I'm off to add that cake picture to our Pinterest boards!

Love Annabel

Photographer – Casey Avenue
Venue – Sheffield Botanical Gardens + Smallshaw Farm Cottages
Tents – PapaKåta
Wedding Dress – Sarah Willard
Brides Shoes – Kurt Geiger
Bride's accessories – necklaces & earrings by The Magpies Secret on Folksy
Grooms Suit – Alexandre, Saville Row
Bridesmaids – Monsoon
Flowergirls – Asda
Page Boys – BHS
Flowers – The bride's mum
Cake – Friends & family
Bus Hire – South Yorkshire Transport Museum
Entertainment – The White Ties
Additional Styling –
Rings – Gingko Jewels in Bruges
Catering Company – Go Greengages, Buxton, Derbyshire
Hair Stylist – Alecia from Conrad Blandford, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield.
Make-up Artist – Daneila Dogan, Newcastle

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