Festival Themed West Sussex Barn Wedding: Rachel&Marcus

Rachel&Marcus’ wedding was so gorgeous it’s already been featured on two wedding blogs! With their love of music running throughout this festival themed wedding, their guests were treated to a truly interactive wedding experience from start to finish, and the lovely couple were totally in their element!

We asked Rachel&Marcus to describe each other in three words.

Rachel said; enthusiastic, caring, optimist

Marcus said; beautiful, every way

I made him wait eight hours before I actually said yes… ”December 21st 2010 – the winter solstice. Marcus proposed at home, and then we went to watch the Burning of the Clocks parade in Brighton before ice skating in the grounds of Brighton Pavilion and a lovely meal afterwards. It was fantastic – although I did make him wait eight hours before I actually said yes!”

Wedfest 2012 was born… ”Our philosophy right from the start was that we wouldn’t do anything ‘just because we should’ and that we would only include people and elements on the day that we wanted to. We wanted it to really feel like ‘us’ – the people and things we love. Quite early on, we joked about having a festival instead of a wedding, because we both love music and festival-going, and it just grew from there. Most of all we just wanted a day of celebration – not too serious, and an opportunity for a big knees-up.”

Most memorable moment… ”Our friends and family, arms in the air, singing and dancing to ‘All You Need is Love’ during our ‘sing-a-long song’ in the ceremony.”

The soundtrack to Rachel&Marcus’ wedding was quite something, from Motown, to indie, old blues to White Stripes! Read all about it on awesome wedding blog Hi-Fi Weddings!

Bridesmaids dresses: ”My beautiful bridesmaids wore gorgeous knee-length mauve dresses from Coast.” Wedding dress boutique: The O Zone, Brighton

Wedding flowers: Kate Langdale ”We wanted to keep with the theme of the day and have relaxed, unstructured, ‘just picked from the meadow on our way here’ flowers for the day. During the lead up to the wedding, we collected mismatched bottles, vases and jars from charity shops and friends – we had everything from Hendricks Gin bottles to tiny crystal vases. We gave all of these to our florist who filled them with a mixture of white and pink avalanche roses, sweetpeas, hydrangeas, gypsophillia, lisianthus, delphiniums, larkspur, daisies and grasses.  My bouquet was a mixture of roses and sweetpeas with mint leaves (which smelt gorgeous!) Each of the bridesmaids wore a rose corsage, and the buttonholes were a mixture – each one a different flower from the day.”

Best advice… ”Keep some things a secret from your family and friends – we loved surprising our guests for the badges, a ‘Wedfest 2012 Quiz’ and the bride getting up and singing with the band.”

Badges and plectrums: Awesome Merchandise: “One of my favourite details was the badges we had made. We had two sets of badges made for the ceremony – one saying ‘I’m with the bride’ and the other ‘I’m with the groom’ with embarrassing photos of each of us on them. On arrival, our ushers asked the traditional ‘bride or groom’ of our guests, and were told they could sit anywhere but must take a badge with the appropriate person on. Then, for additional favours, we had two more badges made for the meal – one saying ‘Wedfest 2012′ and one with another embarrassing photo of us both with ‘Team GB’ on it (our new surname is Griffith-Boyes). We didn’t know whether the badges would work out – but people loved them. In fact, our youngest guest (all of four years old) ended the night with eleven of them pinned to her dress – and even our much older guests were fighting over who had ‘the set’ of all four badges. We also had plectrums printed with ‘Wedfest 2012′ on them and scattered on the table for dinner.

As favours, we made ‘Wedfest 2012′ CDs which contained all of the music from the ceremony and the first dance.”"

♥ “Just wanted to get in touch to say a huge THANK YOU for our amazing wedding photos. We are totally blown away by how beautiful they are, as Marcus keeps telling me, he thought there would be a few good ones, but they are ALL that good! You have captured the joy and beauty of the day so perfectly….and made me feel like a beautiful bride! Just wanted to say thank you so much, they are more than we dreamed of…”

“We met them at a wedding fair really early on in our planning, and although we did look at a few other photographers, I think we knew pretty quickly they were the right people for the job. They seemed genuinely excited by our ideas, and the photos speak for themselves – absolutely stunning.”

“Basically, we think you’re fab!… We loved how enthusiastic you were about our ideas, and felt like you really understood our vision for the day and were excited about it. We are, of course, absolutely thrilled with the result – the pictures really capture the details of the day, and the sense of joy, beauty and celebration. On the day itself, we have to say – we hardly noticed you there, you just fitted right in and got on with it – and delivered beautiful photos. It has been an absolute pleasure meeting you and we are so delighted we chose you as our photographers!”

Additional mentions:

Venue: Bartholomew Barn, West Sussex

Details&Decor: “The venue was gorgeous to start with, so it was a case of a few finishing touches. We strung bunting up in the barn, along with paper pom poms in pastel colours from the main beam. My dad’s wife sourced lots of different hearts in natural colours and materials which we hung from the chairs along the aisle.

For our table plan, we named each of the tables after a band or musician we like, and placed a seven-inch single by that artist on the table. For the plan itself, I strung a piece of string along one wall of the barn, and clipped family photos (including our parents and grandparents weddings) along it. In between the photos, we clipped the names of the guests on each table. I also stamped guest’s names onto manilla luggage tags which were tied to their chairs as place settings.

Humanist celebrant: Croianna Bradshaw

The Cake: “Vanilla cupcakes made by the mother of the bride. There’s no one else we could have asked to make the cakes – my mum is a legendary maker of cakes! We decorated them with tiny flags saying things like ‘eat me’ and ‘delectable’ and of course, a love heart sweet. We served the cakes as our wedding breakfast dessert – they went down a treat!”

Caterers: Buns to Banquets

Band: The MP3s