1000 Origami Paper Cranes + Hearts For A Festival Inspired Wedding

Hello lovely ones! I hope you’re well and enjoying the warm weather. The forecast is looking good for Glastonbury this weekend and in the spirit of festivals, today’s wedding was inspired by them, and included a fancy dress tent, glitter station and lots of yurts. Excited to know more? Then let’s get cracking…

Illustrator Lucy and graphic designer Harrison said their I Do’s on 8th September 2018, a date chosen specially due to it also being the 39th wedding anniversary of Lucy’s parents and her poppa’s 94th birthday. The couple’s ceremony took place at the Old Council House Registry Office in Bristol, followed by a reception at Wye Valley Sculpture Gardens in Tintern, Wales.

Images by A Thing Like That Photography

“I found my dress in Laura May Bridal in Cardiff and it was the LM by Lusan Mandongus. I wanted long sleeves and lots of lace…but my dress in the end was the opposite! I tried on a few like that and they didn’t feel right but when I put my dress on, it did. It was a complete fluke to find too. I was in Cardiff on a day out with one of my bridesmaids Amy before she went back to Greece where she lives, and she said she’d be disappointed to miss my dress shopping. We called up Laura May over brunch and they said they could see us in an hour. I loved it because I wasn’t prepared. My hair was a top knot mess, I had no make up on, was wearing bright coloured underwear etc., yet it still felt lush!”

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“We love going to festivals and a lot of inspiration came from that. My mum created rag bunting to go around the two yurts and the bar marquee which looked awesome, and over two years we collected cushions, blankets, rugs, throws and footstools from charity shops to decorate the smaller yurt which we labelled the ‘chill yurt’. We also went to Bristol Recycled Wood and picked up a load of old church pews and wooden kitchen unit doors, which I then painted on to use as signs to guide our guests around the garden.” 

“My close friend Jess is a trained hairdresser and ridiculously good at make up and she very kindly offered to do both for me on the day, which was so lush of her. It helped me relax having a friend there to do it on the day and she did an amazing job – I was so happy. Maisie and Emma had a make up artist called Marie Lucas come to do their bridesmaids look.”

“They each chose a look to suit them and I would highly recommend her. I then went on to style Emma, Maisie and Amy’s hair myself. Each of them had a different style to suit them with a foliage comb.”

“We decided not to use a wedding planner as we had a very good idea of what we wanted from the start ourselves. We spent a lot of time researching and had very good advice from family. However, we did ask a friend, Sue, to take over the running of the set up of the garden and general events of the day, which she did brilliantly.”

“My shoes were a lucky second hand find on eBay and my crown of foliage was created by Roots Floral Design in Bristol. My necklace was by Jenny Grace Jewellery and I also wore a pair of my mum’s pearl earrings.”

“For the button holes, my foliage crown, hair combs and bouquets we used Roots Floral Design. I’ve been using them for years for Mother’s Day flowers and they have been consistently perfect. We also really liked the idea of trying to keep suppliers local and personal.”

“They were helpful from the beginning and after showing them a vague idea of what we wanted – natural and mostly foliage – we were happy for them to do their thing, and they absolutely smashed it! At the garden Gemma was kind enough to let us take clippings from the flowerbeds and foliage. It was a DIY wedding and following this the flower displays in the yurts were created by family friends that doubled up as exceptional flower arrangers!”

“Harrison wore a grey jacket and white shirt from Ted Baker and a pair of orange trousers from Tommy Hilfiger. His shoes were by Bertie and he also wore a tie and pocket square from Daziusa. We didn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable on the day as it was going to be quite relaxed, so we asked all the groomsmen to wear colourful chinos, deck shoes or loafers, a light coloured shirt and a jacket.”

“Harrison and I met at UWE Bristol university and were placed in the same flat together. We soon became more than friends and seven years later Harrison proposed on the beach in Beer, a beautiful fishing village which had been a favourite family holiday destination of my family and was a place we often went for weekends away in our bell tent.”

“We decided to give ourselves a couple of years to plan the wedding as we wanted to take our time and just enjoy being engaged for a while. Although that didn’t quite go to plan as we ended up planning almost straight away! But it did help us to be a lot more relaxed in the organising.”

“We wanted the official ceremony to take place in Bristol as we met and have lived here for the best part of nine years, so felt it needed to be a part of our day in some way.”

“My dad accompanied me down the aisle to You’ve Got A Friend by Carol King.”

For our vows we chose the shortest option as many of the options seemed too intense and not really our style. When we did the ceremony in the garden with all our guests there, we thought it would be nice to write our own. Harrison took a trip down memory lane whereas as I took a more comedic approach. We also asked a close friend to perform the ceremony in the garden and he did it beautifully, including personal bits about us.”

“We had a reading at the registry office by our close friend. She chose it herself – Nothing Good Gets Away by John Steinbeck, which was a letter to his son Thom offering advice on love. It was perfect.”

“Our rings were by Nicholas Wylde who Harrison came across whilst looking for the engagement ring in Bath. When he couldn’t find what he was looking for, they helped him design a ring of his own and we decided to go back to them.”

“The staff were friendly and very helpful on both occasions, especially with my ring which was made from my great grandfather’s ring.”

“We were lucky enough to have close family friends offer to be our chauffeurs from Bristol to Tintern in their gorgeous VW Camper, which was perfect! A local taxi company took everyone else there and provided a shuttle bus from the garden to the centre of Tintern for several hours in the early morning.”

“One part of the day that stood out as a particular favourite was the journey from Bristol to Tintern in the back of the VW Camper. It was a nice 45 minute drive to chill out, take it all in and spend some alone time together before everything kicked off at the party. We even had a spare 10 minutes to pull into Tintern Abbey and drink some champagne!”

“Three of bridesmaids dresses were from Coast and my Maid of Honour Maisie, who is also my sister, wore a Virgos Lounge dress that we found on Etsy and had altered for her.”

“We knew from the start that we wanted to use Herf Yurts, a company run by a family friend, which we had followed from its start up, so it was more a case of searching for a venue that would be able to work with the yurts.”

“Luke, our friend who co-owns the yurt company, had previously set up a yurt for a wedding at the garden before, and said it was as though the venue had been built for them.”

“They also said that the manager there, Gemma, was brilliant, and that we would get on with her like a house on fire. He was right and everything clicked into place when we first visited Gemma and the garden.”

“Two things stand out as moments of inspiration for the wedding, and they were the colour and the origami. We were walking down a street in autumn and we noticed the particularly vibrant burnt orange leaves of one tree. It was right in front of a navy blue door, with stone grey walls and dark green bins and it looked amazing – so that was us done with the main colour choices!”

“Sounds super cheesy but we have the photos to prove it! The origami came from one of our favourite bars in Bristol, the Gallimaufry. It frequently has different hangings displayed from its ceiling and for a time it was origami and we thought it looked awesome. Other than that, it was the garden and the yurts which dictated the look. Our love for Pinterest and festivals definitely helped too.”

“I designed all of the stationery including save the dates, invitation sets, menus, thank you cards, a table plan, table numbers and drinks tokens. We then had them printed at Printed.com.”

“For the decor, the main event was the 1000 origami cranes and hearts that we strung together using invisible thread from the roof of the main yurt. We spent months folding pieces and with a significant amount of help, we threaded them at different levels and hung them from a spider’s web around the beams of the yurt. It was stunning and just what we wanted, but never again!”

“Gemma at the garden planned a delicious vegetarian Moroccan inspired mezze menu for the wedding breakfast, using some of the ingredients home grown at the venue. Several of her friends and family helped out with the catering.”

“I created wooden coasters as favours, and painted each one individually with everyone’s names, and also used them as place names and coasters. We wanted to give people something to take away and would likely use again and it’s nice to go to friends houses and see them on coffee tables and in kitchens!”

“We decided instead of having one cake, we would ask a number of friends and family members to bake cakes to bring with them. We are lucky enough to know many excellent bakers so we had a real variety including everything from cupcakes and brownies, to a pineapple and almond cake and a 3-tier lavender cake. We laid a big table out in the evening for everyone to tuck into, and we can’t thank them all enough!”

“Rebecca from A Thing Like That Photography did the photography for the wedding and we can’t recommend her enough. The photography was one of the most important things for us and we knew it would capture the spirit of the day, and all the little moments that we might miss.”

“Harrison found Rebecca’s photos quite early on and knew straight away she would be able to do just that. She even made the effort to come and meet us for a coffee beforehand to break the ice a little, and she put us at ease immediately. We’re so happy with the photos, they’re exactly what we wanted and more and we have had so many compliments from guests at how impressed they were with how Rebecca blended into the day.”

“We used our bell tent as a fancy dress tent and it had hat stands, clothes racks and trunks full of stuff, mostly collated from mine and Maisie’s dance shows from the past and festival gear, floor length mirrors and a glitter station, using eco friendly glitter from EcoGlitter.”

“For the entertainment we had our friend Will, who moonlights as a funk and soul DJ to play in the evening, then we set up a few playlists for a silent disco as the amplified music had to be turned off at 11pm (village policy). Somerset Silent Disco provided the headphone equipment and it was a huge success and helped continue the party for several more hours.”

“We chose September by Earth, Wind and Fire as our first dance song, as it’s a song that has been with us for years and it seemed fitting as we wanted a less traditional, more upbeat track.”

Words Of Wedded Wisdom

“We were cautious of asking for too much help at first, but what we realised is that you shouldn’t be afraid to ask friends and family to get involved. Most people want to help and it’s great to have everyone together in the week leading up to the big day all chipping in together. We really couldn’t have done it without everyone and it made our day so much more personal to us.”

“Make sure it’s the day you both want. It sounds cliche, but that’s for a good reason! It might take more work, more set up or more effort, but it’s also so worth it on the day and we wouldn’t have changed a thing!”

Big thank you to the happy couple for sharing your amazing day with us! And special thanks to Rebecca at A Thing Like That Photography for capturing it all so wonderfully.

Until next time…

Much love,

Holly x