Home-made Yurt Wedding in a Country Garden

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WWW readers Fliss and Matt’s yurt wedding was nothing short of awesome! So fun, with oodles of personality and home-made details to boot. They were hitched on the 20th July 2019 and had country garden yurt reception, it was gorgeous.

Their loved ones rallied round and came together as a community to really make a heartfelt celebration for Fliss and Matt. It really makes for a special wedding when loved ones give a helping hand, don’t you think? I love everything from the gorgeous outfits and flowers crowns to the table names and Lego place names. So personal and unique.

Mr Sleeve, thank you so much for sharing these joy filled shots with us.

The Proposal

Around 6 months before Matt proposed, we’d been browsing an antiques store on holiday in Sussex. I commented on a ring I loved and little did I know Matt went back and bought it!
In August 2018 we were on holiday again – this time in Canada. We were travelling to the little known island of Haida Gwaii (Google it – I’ve never been anywhere so wonderful!) and had a 15 hour boat journey to get there. I wanted to sleep but Matt insisted that we stood on the deck as we might see some whales. I was gazing across the water on when I turned round he was down on one knee and said “It’s been a long time coming” – the same phrase he uttered after our first kiss (a fact that he denies to this day). 30 seconds after I said yes, a giant humpback whale jumped out of the water – it was like he’d planned it!

The Vision

We knew that we wanted a relaxed, rustic wedding and our main focus was for guests to have as much fun as possible! We were also keen not to have anything too ‘weddingy’ or glam!

The Planning Process

We were fairly relaxed with our planning and so nothing caused us too much stress.

We also wanted to have family and friends involved on the day so immediately got thinking about how we could utilise our friends’ talents! Having them take on so many of the big jobs (cake, entertainment, outfit making) saved us so much time and stress but also really helped the day feel like a team effort and much more personal.

Our favourite part of the planning process was, without a doubt, the food tasting! Tori and Andi at The Cheshire Dining Experience were just incredible. The catered for so many different dietary requirements (including me being coeliac) was no fuss at all and the food was outstanding – I still think about the beetroot and goats cheese macarons regularly!

Check out our wedding checklist to ensure a stress free wedding planning process!

Budget

We saved lots by making so much of the décor ourselves and getting friends to help but we knew there were some things we didn’t want to scrimp on. Our biggest expenses were the food, the yurt and our outfits. We were very fortunate to have some financial support from our lovely parents and in total we spent around £20,000.

The Venue

Matt’s parents live in a beautiful old Cheshire farmhouse which they converted into their home 25 years ago. We never had any doubt that we wanted to get married there, especially as Matt’s sister had tried and tested the idea 4 years previously!

Matt’s parents (and the couple they share the house with, Nick and Jen) are incredibly talented gardeners so the setting was perfect. We wanted a marquee of some sort and spent a long time searching for something slightly less traditional. We loved tepees but had been to a few weddings in them already (as had lots of our guests).

Then, we found The Yurt Maker. Henry makes his beautiful Mongolian yurts himself and we loved that it was a small independent business and something so different. People still comment on how beautiful, light and deceptively spacious the yurts were. Without a doubt one of our best wedding decisions!

Your Outfits & Accessories

Fliss: I was so looking forward to wedding dress shopping and once I started I actually hated it! I found a few of the shops I visited so stuffy and formal and just felt like nothing looked right on me.

When I was visiting my mum in Derbyshire, we decided to visit Cicly Bridal and it couldn’t have been a more different experience. I loved every dress I tried on there but settled on a simple Charlie Brear silk dress and wore a Jesus Pierlo lace top for the ceremony and canapés. In the evening, I changed the top for a rose gold belt – a very simple switch but so many people thought I’d actually had two outfits.

I also customised an old denim jacket (which I still wear lots now) by having ‘a long time coming’ on the back.

One of my favourite parts of my outfit was the gold sparkly Keds trainers I wore after the ceremony. I loved that they meant I didn’t have to choose between style and comfort!

Matt: The highlight of my outfit was the waistcoat which my sister, Rachel, made for me, my groomsmen and my relatives. We chose Strawberry Thief fabric for the backs and, as if hand sewing 9 waistcoats wasn’t enough, she also made us matching ties.

My navy suit was made by Mr Start in Shoreditch who was brilliant throughout the whole process.

Hair Make Up & Grooming

I don’t wear a huge amount of make up and was really concerned about not looking like myself on the day. Lots of the local make-up artists I found online were very glamorous and every package seemed to involve fake eyelashes!

I spoke to a friend who I had been a bridesmaid for as I remember how natural her make up was on her wedding day. She thought her hair and make up team, Jenn Edwards & Co, would be able to travel to Chester so I got in touch.

My mum and I went to Sheffield for a trial and just felt so comfortable I knew they were the right choice. They did hair and make up for us, plus my bridesmaids, on the morning and even coped with my minor breakdown when I burnt my hand on some hair straighteners (100% my fault, not theirs!).

Groomsmen

We knew our groomsmen all owned navy suits and weren’t at all concerned about them being perfectly matching so simply asked them to wear what they had! As mentioned, they all had matching ties and waistcoats made by Matt’s sister and Lego cufflinks, which were a surprise gift on the day.

Bridesmaids

We always knew we didn’t want ‘matchy matchy’ dresses, especially as my 5 bridesmaids had such different shapes and styles. The main thing was that I wanted them to be comfortable. With that in mind, I gave them a very vague brief of sage green and long. They then sent me links of what they liked! We ordered all 5 of the dresses from ASOS – there were also lots which we tried and sent back.

Having the amazing flower crowns (which one of my bridesmaids, Rachel, helped to make) tied them all together and helped them to stand out from the other guests.

The Readings & Music

The music during our ceremony was an absolute highlight. Whilst we signed the register, our wonderful friend Marcel played and sung You and Me Song by The Wannadies and Shining Light by Ash.

Our friend, Tom, read the lyrics to ‘Love is Like a Bottle of Gin’ by the Magnetic Fields which we chose as we love the song and liked that it wasn’t too cheesy! I’m not sure it’s acceptable to admit that you chose a Bible reading because it linked to a Spice Girls song but another friend, Divya, read Ecclesiasties 4:12 because it reminded us of 2 become 1 – our first dance song!

We also had friends write and read prayers for us, which we now have framed on our wall.

Check out our wedding readings and wedding music inspiration pages too!

Your Photographer

This was an easy decision! Steve (Mr Sleeve) had photographed Matt’s sister’s wedding and so already knew the venue and she and her husband reassured us that he was completely unobtrusive and didn’t make you pose for any cringey couple shots! He was really well priced and made us all feel so relaxed on the day, even when he came to photograph the bridesmaids getting ready.

Your Filmmaker

It wasn’t in our budget to have a videographer, as much as we wanted one. Our friend, Ian, however offered to film a video as our wedding present. Although we knew he’d done a lot of filming before we were expecting something fairly simple as he’s not a wedding videographer. When we sent us the film (only about a week after our wedding) we were blown away! I think my mum has watched it at least once a week for the last year.

The Flowers

Matt’s family are very keen and talented gardeners and, as our wedding was held in their back garden, we always knew that flowers were going to be important! Luckily, Carol Siddorn of Carol’s Garden is a family friend of theirs. She also did the flowers for Matt’s sister’s wedding 4 years previously so we already knew and loved her style. I had a clear vision of what I wanted but was terrible at describing it (“nothing too bright and mainly green” was as far as I got!) but Carol was able to know exactly what I wanted. Lots of the flowers came from the family garden, which also felt really special.

The Cake

We are so lucky to have an army of incredibly talented friends who were willing and able to help with our wedding. One of these was Claire, who was also our Master of Ceremonies. She trained as a pastry chef and chocolatier and so we knew she’d be able to make us something delicious! We had total trust in her so didn’t really give her a brief, just that we didn’t want it to be too ‘weddingy’.

She came up with the idea of creating 3 different cakes – the F my favourite – orange and almond (it was also gluten free as I’m coeliac), the M was Matt’s favourite – Guinness and chocolate and the & was something we both loved – carrot cake.

We didn’t see the cake before the day so it was a wonderful surprise!

The Details & Décor

We were adamant from the moment we got engaged that we wanted to make things ourselves as much as possible and I’m proud that we stuck to that.

Our favours were miniature flavoured gins made, bottled and individually labelled by my lovely mum. She also hand-sewed metres and metres of bunting including a ‘Fliss & Matt’ sign to hang at the entrance. I’d seen something similar on Etsy but shipping from the States was extortionate so I set mum on the task!

Our rather eclectic table names (ranging from The O.C to Denis Bergkamp) were named after things we both loved before we met (including one named after Sophie, the mutual friend who introduced us). We made the signs and table plans ourselves by simply printing on brown kraft paper.

For our place names, we had individual Lego figures for each guest, holding a little flag with their name on. I think making these was probably the most time-consuming job of the entire wedding but so worth the effort. We even used a photo of them for our thank you card.

We’re both big fans of a pub quiz so on each table we also put a picture quiz using photos of us. Guests had to guess the year and location of each photo and there was a prize for the winning table.

The Honeymoon

We spent two glorious weeks hiking, eating and drinking in Asturias, Northern Spain.

Memorable Moments

The dance-floor! We had our first dance to an acoustic version of 2 become 1 sung by our friend Marcel (with husky ‘get it on, get it on’ backing vocals provided by the groomsmen). We then had a very non-wedding band band called Gypsies of Bohemia who did indie styles covers of 90s and 00s pop and RnB. They ended their set with a version of Backstreet’s Back which they’d personalised to be about us. If that wasn’t good enough, they also wore entirely leopard print stripped off mid performance.

Advice For Other Couples

Get your friends and family involved! At first we worried that calling in favours like asking our friends to make the cake and perform our first dance was cheeky but people were honoured to be asked. It made our day feel so personal showed our friends just how much we admired their talents!

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Oh just perfect and so pretty too. I love all the blooms.

Thanks ever so much to Fliss and Matt for sharing their epic yurt wedding reception with us.

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