Well, I think today’s couple, WWW readers Nik and Mike certainly had fun on their wedding day! Our pair chose Tewin Bury Farm Hotel in Hertfordshire to host their day, which took place on Friday 22nd June 2018. According to Nik, their best day ever can be summed up by the three Bs; BBQ, booze and booty shakin’! Sounds like an absolute blast and I think you’re going to love reading all about this one. I’d also like to add one more ‘B’ – beautiful. There are so many gorgeous touches that Nik poured time and love into, make sure you check them all out!
Brook Rose Photography was on hand to photograph their fabulous day and it’s easy to see why Nik and Mike can’t stop looking back at their images as she’s done a simply fabulous job. Thank you ever so much for sharing them with us.
Macramé fans are in for a treat with Nik’s festival touches as well as all the fabulous DIY and I’m pleased to hear that plenty of gin was drunk in the name of created table décor! Enjoy WWWers!
The Proposal
August 2016. We booked to go to Las Vegas for a UFC fight (how romantic!) We found out we were having a baby only days after booking so our plans to have a crazy Vegas cliché trip were no longer on the cards of course, but were were still excited to go and have fun together! We planned to go to the fight, have lovely dinners, and take a helicopter trip to Grand Canyon.
After a crazy long flight being four months pregnant we made it, we took a lovely trip for sunset at the Grand Canyon, we sat on the edge to take in the views and Mike asked me to get his phone out of his back pack and then said, “Oh can you get that box too” It then clicked… I pulled out the box and he open it.. a beautiful ring was staring at me! TOTAL SHOCK! We never really spoke about marriage and Mike never gave anything away, he was a closed book when it came to marriage, so this was the most beautiful surprise (apart from the pregnancy of course).
Had the best ever engagement party with all our friends and family, best playlist ever and me being six months pregnant …another sober occasion!
The Cake
Heaven is a Cupcake
Naked Victoria sponge cake, with brownies and cupcakes for guests. We didn’t do a cake cutting as we didn’t feel the need to follow tradition.
The Vision
SO we were meant to get married in 2019, two years after giving birth to our son, give me time to get my energy back and baby weight gone, but my Mike had another idea, he had the idea that we should get married the weekend that Glastonbury would be on… 2018 is the year Glastonbury has a break so he thought perfect, if we get married GLASTO weekend we can spend the rest of our lives celebrating our wedding anniversary at Glasto every year!
Our happy place…Genius!
So off we went hungover to our first wedding venue … and left with it booked! Haha it was perfect, local, beautiful, and not at all in budget… but who cares!
So the vision was a festival theme with a hint of romance and boho vibes! LAID back, chill and party party party. Music played a massive part, we wanted every tune to be picked by us! We wanted everyone dancing, drinking and having the best time ever!
We wanted a hog roast/BBQ, no sit down meal, late quick ceremony and a long party.
I wanted our wedding to be authentic, I like to be creative but with work, gym, baby and everyday life its hard so having the wedding coming up I got right involved in making things and I loved it! I wanted all the little touches to be handmade and personal.
The Planning Process
I didn’t know where to start… Weddings. Never gave it a second thought, I had started a Pinterest board a year before but just because I loved all the creative ideas. so, I started adding loads, started picking things up from various shops, online etc. and slowly it was all coming together. I found my dress in October 2017, then from there I got my florist, photographer, cake etc.
It was mainly peoples recommendations. It’s so hard to pick the perfect people to be involved in your wedding. We love live music so having a band was a must, my family are quite musical, so my cousin sang our first dance acoustically on the guitar.
Planning slowly just came together all of sudden, I spent months prior avoiding the gym and doing all things wedding related with a gin in hand.
The Venue
The Tythe Barn at Tewinbury Farm
Your Outfits & Accessories
Wedding dress
Isla by E & W couture; BEAUTIFUL detailing, gorgeous back, fitted perfect, custom made DREAM dress. I bought this dress from the most beautiful wedding dress boutique in Hemel Hempstead Old Town called Halo & Wren, dream shop, dream owner (Jemma) and the most gorgeous, quirky laid back non-traditional dresses.
My sash was something borrowed from my friend Laura, she wore It to her wedding in July 2016.
As I’m 5”11 I didn’t wear big heels as I did not want to tower over the Hubby, so I wore some rose gold (comfy) block heels from ASOS.
Pandora stud earrings
My amazing handmade real flower crown
That Jacket! The beautiful hand painted leather jacket was painted by a good friend called Ria, she free hand painted this as a present to me on my wedding, was a dream! In love!
Beauty
Make up was by my old school mate Holly who is now a MUA. She went for rose gold/gold eyes with a pink lip. We all felt amazing and soooo pretty AND glam!
Hair was by a lovely hair dresser called Tiffany I was recommended by Halo & Wren. Tiffany is amazing, little beaut with so much talent. We all had boho waves to match our flower crowns, my step daughter/bridesmaid had milk maid braids and looked insane!
Groomsmen
Husband wore a brown tweed suit from Moss Bros with Clarks desert shoes with sage green tie from etsy.
The best man wore the same but with matching blush pink ties same as ushers
All ushers and father of the bride wore Moss bros waistcoats, shorts with ASOS chinos, Clarks shoes and ASOS blush pink crochet ties.
Page boys: my son Ross and nephew CJ wore short, shirt, bow tie, braces and desert boots.. my son Ross actually pooped his nappy and we had to lose the shorts literally minutes after he walked down the aisle as it all leaked out, so most pics he has on just a nappy!
The Readings & Music
Our music was from The Good habits, all other music was picked by us. Plenty of gin and whisky was drunk while making eight hours of playlist.
The Flowers
Herbert and Isles, all bouquets, flower crowns, button holes, hair pieces and the amazing chandelier was from these amazing florists.
My bouquet had a macramé wrap and a picture of my late brother Ross (who my son is named after).
Your Photographer
The amazing Brook Rose Photography!
Bridesmaids
Bridesmaids: blush, sage and mint green.
Three of my bridesmaids wore floral chiffon boho style short dresses from Union People on ASOS. One Bridesmaid (my sister) wore a Boohoo dress in a blush colour and my nine month pregnant maid of honour wore an ASOS maternity mint green dress. All wore Baby breath flower crowns.
The Details & Décor
All handmade by myself (wifey) well most of it, some things purchased from Etsy.
I hand made the cool hoop wreaths that displayed our pictures, we had pictures of us at Glastonbury on all tables with a bottle Hendricks and makers mark with baby breath, these are our fav drinks, so we had to drink 5 bottles each prior to the wedding… easy for me..not so easy for my husband!
I LOVE Macramé wall hangings, so I found some amazing ones on Ebay, they scream boho.
I bought some letters, covered them with pictures of me and mike, then painted them different colours to imitate the Glastonbury sign. We spelt out COOPSFEST and drilled them to crates added some bunting. We also had a tepee to reflect Glastonbury also, we had a line up which was displayed on a letter board and easel.
Our wedding favours were Jaeger bombs, we know how much our friends like to do shots, so we thought the idea was perfect… thou I think some people may have had more than just one!
I found a pallet at work and had an idea to paint it sage green, I made it into a story of me and my husband, by adding a timeline of pictures.
Our beautiful letter box was handmade from Etsy.
All the little things I bought were from so many different places, The Range, Hobby Craft, Amazing, eBay, Etsy, charity shops etc.
Our wedding was BBQ BOOZE AND LOADS OF BOOTY SHAKIN!
We had a quick ceremony at 4.30pm, casual speeches outside, no sit down meal or table plans, just bbq in the garden, drinks and dancing. We didn’t do a lot of the traditional stuff, we wanted a party and for everyone to feel happy!
Most of the female guests wore floral outfits to go with the theme and some Scottish family wore kilts, everyone looked amazing in the laid back chilled vibes we hoped for. We had drinks and canapés outside in the beautiful sunshine following the ceremony, speeches followed, not a dry eye in the house. We had pictures, chats, jaegers bombs then it was food time, the hog roast was served outside, then once our evening guests arrived, so first dance happened in the Barn with my cousin Chris played a Justin Bieber song acoustically (we are sooo cool lol) then it was followed by UB40 I got you babe. From then we danced the night away with tune after tune, Beyonce, David Bowie, Peter Andre with the last song being Loch Lomond, all my guests joined my Scottish family to bounce around like crazy Scots!! It was a great moment.
We joined everyone for breakfast the next day and then off we went to the USA the following day, the whole next day I cried because I was so overwhelmed with how much I appreciated everyone’s love and presence. This day was so special, and I’ve been buzzing ever since! I would do it all again if I could, I literally look at Brook’s pictures every day and reminisce.
The Honeymoon
Dream trip to California and Las Vegas.
We started off flying to LA where we spent two days in Santa Monica, we rode bikes along the beach to Venice and slept loads as life without a toddler plus jet lag is tiring. While we were away my MOH had her baby boy one week early which was bittersweet as I had to wait eight days to see him! But was amazing news to receive!
Picked up our car and off we went. Travelled down the coast, we went through some cool places…one being Compton.. being big rap fans, this was so cool and slightly worrying. We headed off to Huntington beach, then Laguna beach and Newport. We stopped off with nowhere to stay so ended up in a Motel 6 which was a little different to the nice Georgia hotel in Santa Monica. We went to see Jurassic world 2 as my husband made the sets for this movie so we waited to see his name in the credits. Proud! We also met Dennis Rodman at a bar and he basically told me my husband was HOT which I already know Dennis!
Next stop Palm Springs. The drive was a dream through the mountains and desert. visited the dinosaurs on route. We arrived in our amazing Colony Palms hotel, romantic gorgeous place. We relaxed for two days, sipped Prosecco by the pool and were in bed by 9pm (bloody jet lag!) Palm Springs is a mid-century dream! LOVED!
Next stop Joshua Tree. Nowhere to stay again so quickly booked a Campervan in right next to the national park. It had an outdoor shower and was soooo cool, it was sooo hot but amazing. We watched the stars while drinking beers and being all cringe, was so special.
Next stop VEGAS!! After four hours’ drive through the middle of nowhere (so cool) we passed a ghost town .. it was soooo creepy, schools, diners, homes. all deserted. Then we finally made it to Vegas, car dropped off and let the fun begin. Cosmopolitan hotel was beautiful, we gambled, drank, danced and had a blast… but it’s time to get home to our little boy! Missed him soooo much!
Best time ever! If we have a girl (some day not yet) she is going to be called CALI for sure!
Memorable Moments
When the florist brought my bouquet with my brother’s picture it was a very emotional moment with my sister, friends and Mum.
My son pooping his pants minutes before we got married.
Dancing to the last song of the night- Oasis Don’t look back in anger. Everyone made a circle, me and my husband danced, sang and he wore my flower crown while everyone sang out loud with us, it was amazing!
Dancing to Artic monkeys with my best friend and MOH, even though she was nine months pregnant, it’s our thing and we got to do it.
Spending the best day with my husband, family and friends!
Advice for Other Couples
ENJOY, don’t sweat the small stuff, soak it up, have fun, dance with everyone and just have the best day and night ever!
Take time to go and do some private pictures because they will turn out amazing and you will never regret it.
Take a minute in the night… to be with your husband/wife alone and watch all your guests have fun, take it all in. Everyone is there for you and it’s an amazing time.
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Photographer
Brook Rose Photography
Venue
Tewin Bury Farm Hotel
Dress
E and W Couture from Halo & Wren Bridal
Flowers
Herbert & Isles
Hair
Tiffany Rose Hair
Leather Jacket
Rianna Casson
Cake
Heaven is a Cupcake
Selfie Pod
Picture Blast
Make Up
@makeupby_hollyb
Wow! So much fun! Thank you so much Nik and Mike for sharing your brilliant day with us. Rachel x
