Ally & Edd Greensmith – Married 17th August 2019
A total of over 100 guests and a year and a half in the making Ally & Edd’s wedding was one to remember last year. The reception, held in a friends field after the ceremony, was the perfect place to install our tipis and get the party started! Providing ample cover and dining space, our tipis formed the perfect backdrop to compliment their celebrations. After the days events, guests were happy to find made up glamping tents close by on site to get some well deserved rest. Check out our video below showcasing the best bits of tipi weddings! We also spoke with the bride after the big day to get her feedback, and any tips for couples wanting to add a bit of BOHO style to their wedding day.
more about Ally & Edd
How did you first meet?
We met at school, and have been together for 10 years (in fact the wedding was on our 10 year anniversary )
Tell us about the proposal:
We don’t have a flashy story, and that’s just how we like it! We were just chilling at home on Valentine’s day, drinking tea & eating mini eggs and then Edd popped the question!
How long did you have to plan your big day:
About a year and a half.
Talk us through your vision for the day, the supplier choices and what was important to you for your day
We knew we wanted to make as much of the wedding outdoors as possible and a family friend had kindly said we could use a field on his farm which was fab. We looked at options for outdoor ceremonies, but these were limited in our area (and it was before the law changed making this easier!). So we just decided on a chilled ceremony in our local village church.
What advice would you have for others planning a festival style wedding?
Figure out what is important for you two personally – you don’t have to do things just because they are traditional or ‘the done thing’. But equally you can do those things if they are right for you! We did a bit of both, and it worked out great.
What are your favourite memories of the day?
The dancefloor was definitely a highlight for both of us – our guests’ dance moves were on point! Plus just taking a moment every so often to step back and watch everyone enjoying themselves was really special.
what about the budget?
We knew what our budget was from the beginning, and did a little Googling to figure out roughly how much things cost so we could start allocating costs. Some areas ended up being pricier than we expected, and others we managed to save loads on – so it balanced out in the end
We definitely splurged on food & drink (free bar woohoo!) – we wanted people to feel content and relaxed, and this definitely worked! We also spent more on the tipis, as other than the field, this was our ‘venue’! After a lot of deliberating, we also decided to get a videographer, because my parents always say how much they love their wedding video…and it was a great decision and definitely money well spent We spent less on dresses, suits, rings etc, as for us these weren’t as important as ensuring all our guests were having a great time. We have a family allotment, so we also managed to save money by growing a lot of our own flowers, and making our own confetti.
wedding suppliers
- Tipi company – Events Under Canvashttps://www.instagram.com/eventsundercanvastipis/
- Ice cream van – Rossi’s (a Southend ice cream company with a lovely parlour along the seafront if you’re ever nearby!) https://www.instagram.com/rossiicecreamsouthend/?hl=en
- Stationary – we created it all using Vistaprinthttps://www.instagram.com/vistaprint/?hl=en
- Cake – Dena’s Cakes(a lady who lives in our village) – http://www.denascakes.co.uk/
- Wedding dress – it was a bridesmaids dress from Monsoon‘s wedding collection https://uk.monsoon.co.uk/uk/wedding
- Bar/drinks – managed by the Plough & Sail pub in Paglesham (Again if you’re ever in the area again, it’s such a fab little pub to grab some grub) https://www.instagram.com/ploughandsail/
- Edd’s Suit – Slatershttps://www.slaters.co.uk/
- DJ – the farmer’s son, Harry 🙂 if you fancy featuring him let me know and we’ll check if he’d like his personal insta tagged 🙂
- Bridesmaids dresses – Nexthttps://www.instagram.com/nextofficial/?hl=en
- Flower/chilli seed favours – Wildflower Weddings https://instagram.com/wildflower_wedding_favours?igshid=1rzo3iqjzzv4v
- Flowers – about half of them were grown on our allotment (@corncritters on Instagram), and were arranged by my mum and a couple of her friends who are florists
How did you choose your photographer?
We did a tonne of research (probably looked at 30+ people and made a spreadsheet..maybe a bit OTT..) and in the end we chose Sally Rose. She was a delight, and gave us the most beautiful record of the day.
Who was your dress by? And your accessories and shoes?
It’s a not-so-secret secret that I got my dress in the January sale at Monsoon in Westfield Stratford! I knew I wanted to get something from Monsoon Bridal, as their dresses are beautiful and really well priced. I’d tried a few on that just weren’t right, and then found this one which was actually a bridesmaid’s dress. My mum & I did a lot of pondering about whether it was ‘bridal’ enough, and in the end we thought..as long as we like it, it doesn’t really matter! It was so comfortable, and was great for dancing the night away long into the early hours..
The shoes were just my favourite Havianas flip flops. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke, right?! (Although I did buy a new pair so they were sparkling clean!)
And the suit? And bridesmaids?
The boys knew they wanted something Peaky Blinders-esque – and they ended up getting several of the suits from Slaters Menswear (including the Dad’s kilts!). The bridesmaids dresses were from Next – after some Pinterest research, we knew we wanted something floral & full length, and not too formal. It was surprisingly tricky to find them, and especially to get the colour right next to my dress which in some lights had a pink-ish tone. But the girls loved them (and again, they were great for dancing..which you may be able to tell by now was a priority for us!)
did you have a theme or colour scheme?
Outdoorsy, meadowy, hobbity! This is going to sound nerdy, but we always loved the scene in Lord of the Rings where they have a huge party with lots of food and laughing and fireworks. That was the vibe we were going for! We didn’t really have a colour scheme either – we just wanted it to feel relaxed & summery.
what sort of flowers did you have?
We’d grown several of the flowers on our allotment, including some dahlias, asters and cornflowers. Some of our family & friends also offered pickings from their gardens, including roses, verbenas & achilleas, and ferns, eucalyptus, and pineapple mint for foliage. It’s amazing what you can find in the garden! My mum is green-fingered, so she made my bouquet – and a couple of her friends who are florists kindly helped with all the other bits & bobs. They had the smart idea of making the arrangements portable, so we could set them up in the church for the service, then move them over to the tipis for the reception.
what sort of decoration did you have?
We wanted the decorations to be a subtle reflection of all the things we love, including:
- Our favourite places in the UK as table names
- A sign on the gate, inspired by LOTR saying ‘No admittance except on party business’
- A pallet with pictures of family & friends who weren’t able to be with us (inspired by my lovely friend Amber’s wedding a few years before)
- Wildflower & chili seeds as the favours
Origami chains that we made at the hen do.
what did you eat?
BBQ, BBQ, BBQ. And more BBQ. We worked with a great company called Hungry Hog, who did pretty much everything from canapes to late night hot dogs. They were fantastic, and the food was delicious. The BBQ set up worked really well, as it meant people could eat flexibly and it was easy to cater for dietary requirements too. We also hired a Rossi’s ice cream van (Southend’s best export!), which was also a hit with guests. They let us choose 8 flavours that they would serve..this was one of the hardest decisions of the whole planning process!
and the wedding cake?
The cake was made by a lovely lady who lives locally called Dena – she’d made some great cakes for special family birthdays, and could make the cakes gluten free which was important for us. The three tiers were chocolate, gluten free lemon, and white chocolate & raspberry…and we all ate it for breakfast the next morning!
what did you have as entertainment?
The DJ we booked dropped out last minute…and because the wedding was in a field, we were totally reliant on a DJ for all the sound systems, background music, microphones for speeches etc. But thankfully the farmer’s superhero son stepped in, and saved the day. He was better than we could ever have hoped for, and the guests loved him. They chanted his name a LOT!
who supplied the stationery?
We’d looked around and seen some beautiful stationary on Etsy etc, but realised it wasn’t really something we could afford – so in the end, we used Vistaprint. They seem to have a constant sale on (or there are always voucher codes available), so can be really good value. Plus we were able to choose recycled card which was also a win
where are you going/where did you go on your honeymoon?
We love a road trip, so we went adventuring around Florida in a Mustang. We are big kids, so started in Disney World – we then meandered through the Everglades National Park to Miami. From Miami, we drove the whole way down the Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys to Key West. We’d never been to Key West before, and it ended up being one of our favourite spots we’ve ever visited.
did you have any personal touches? Or things that you did yourself?
There was so much we had to do ourselves without having a venue (or even a building nearby!). The main thing was having no running water, so we needed to find a way to provide water for showers, washing etc. In the end we found a 1,000 litre water tank which worked a treat! Edd even created an amazing bucket shower – despite the lack of warm water, surprisingly our guests loved it – and it’s still sitting in our garden today. The other key thing we did ourselves was the entire set up & clean up – this isn’t to be underestimated with this type of wedding…we needed all hands on deck for about 3 days either side of the wedding. It was a lot of hard work, and our family & friends were really brilliant at lending a hand. It wouldn’t have been possible without them – so we made sure to keep them well fed with leftover wedding cake & McDonalds runs!
what were your special moments or highlights of the day?
The dancefloor was definitely a highlight for both of us – our guests’ dance moves were on point! Plus just taking a moment every so often to step back and watch everyone enjoying themselves was really special.
what advice would you give other couples?
Figure out what is important for you two personally – you don’t have to do things just because they are traditional or ‘the done thing’. But equally you can do those things if they are right for you! We did a bit of both, and it worked out great. Also, recycle as much as you can .
what was your biggest surprise of the day?
My Dad arranged a song at the end of the speeches, and he’d printed out little songsheets for everyone – so all of our guests & suppliers ended up singing and dancing to Harry Belafonte’s Wedding Song. We had no idea it was planned, and it was a great way to end the speeches and start the ‘fun’! .
more images from the day
A massive thank you to Weddings by Sally Rose for use of all images.