Bright Colours, Paper Planes & Dinosaurs: Ren&Tim

“A Technicolor rainbow sneezed paper birds, sweeties, love and garden games at an old water mill.”

We asked Ren&Tim to describe each other in three words.

Ren said; sweet, quirky and lovable

Tim said; gorgeous, boobalicious and ditsy

Shoes: New Look heels and then Iron Fist flats

We are both very colourful people so we knew the wedding needed to be bright… “We didn’t want a big family wedding. We originally wanted small and intimate abroad but due to family we accepted the fact that a big UK wedding was on the cards. We tried to find something that we liked and that would make our families happy. We didn’t really care what happened or where it was as long as we got married so most of the big decisions were made with family in mind.”

“I think the most rock n roll thing I personally did on the day was not cover my back tattoo or hide my nose ring. Throughout my wedding journey I was judged by the majority of suppliers and there was always a mention of how I was going to cover it up or what I could do to make it less obvious. So I booked in with my tattooist to try and get as much coloured in before the big day and although I still have 12 hours left it looked amazing. As for the nose ring, I can’t see it, I don’t feel it, and it is just part of me. If I hide it I would feel like I was trying to be someone else… It took guts to stand there in front of all the people I loved and bare all to them but it was the right decision.”

Make up: Joyce of Brides and Beauty

Our favourite things… “Our cake toppers. Our vows in which Tim promised to not be like Rose in Titanic and ever let me go and where I vowed to stand beside him in the zombie apocalypse with at least a very big stick but hopefully something more useful. Sneaking off just the two of us to breathe and take it all in.”

Dinosaur alternative cake toppers: The Air Castle on Esty.

“Idiot Alert… My plan was to paint each tier one of the wedding colours (yellow, orange and pink) then add my flowers and skulls to decorate. So the week before the wedding I started painting the cakes and it was a total disaster. The yellow was fine but the other two were blotchy and runny and the icing started peeling off… My little sister and maid of honour went into superhero mode and came up with the idea of cupcakes. She sent my dad out to buy massive ones from Costco and we started making some as well pretty much straight away.”

If you are going to DIY no matter how easy it looks. Do not be cocky and no matter how little time you have for the sake of you and the people around you practice!” 

Wedding flowers: Bloom2, Kingsclere, Hampshire

I decided to hell with social convention… “I wanted my proposal to be unique and so I set about daydreaming, all of my best ideas come to me when I float away into daydream world… A plan was forming in my mind and I set about ordering a shower curtain in with “Will you marry me?” and two tick boxes with “Yes” and “No” above them.  I decided to raid my collection of tickets and photos from our relationship and create a scrap book with a list of over 50 reasons why I loved him… I decided to give him clues and do a little treasure hunt through the house starting with the scrapbook and ending with the curtain and a pen.” (Which they subsequently used as their photobooth backdrop)!

The soundtrack… The Girl – City and Color – First Dance: “City and Color are a break away band of one of our favorite bands Alexisonfire by the guitarist Dallas Green. We both fell in love with his voice and soulful lyrics when his first album came out… 2 Months into our relationship I found tickets on Ebay to see City and Color at the Forum. We went together on my 22nd Birthday and it was at this gig that it hit me how much I truly cared for him and I knew that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. Tim kept singing the lyrics to the girl to me on the way home and it has always been a favourite since then.”

Wedding dress: Trudy Lee from Bliss Bridal

A little wedding anecdote… “I had a missed call from the venue so I rang back. The owner was a lovely lady how was very obviously trying to not burst out laughing as she uttered these words, “I think I have your knickers” Definitely unexpected. Apparently my father had picked up a box with Pudding across the front because he thought it was cake. It really wasn’t. It was very expensive and sexy wedding day underwear.”

Another little wedding anecdote… “The minibus service was amazing and went above and beyond for us which sort of made up for the fact that ten minutes before we were about to leave for the venue the wedding car broke down. F**K. People were panicking and kept fussing over me like I would cry or something but I really didn’t care how I got there I just wanted to be there. So I shouted at everyone to follow me and ran onto the bus as we were a little late. I didn’t care about it though. It was fun to be there with everyone and I just wanted to see Tim NOW!” Stewart’s coaches

Wedding décor: “We tried making the cranes ourselves but just kept making wonky pterodactyls so decided to give in and find a professional to do it. Not a failure just a lesson learned. When it came to the cake I was adamant that we had skulls dinosaurs and although it was met with skepticism from the traditionalist family they warmed to it after a few months. We decided instead of table numbers to use some of the videos cluttering our parents’ houses that we adored as children. We also used the Shower curtain I proposed with as a back drop for our photo booth which was a good conversation starter.”

Favours: “I loved the idea of party bags and when we looked into them they were cheaper and much more fun than some soap or some almonds. We filled them with toys, costume jewellery and temporary tattoos and they went down a treat with all ages.”

♥ You have made every part of our wedding journey awesome… ”We chose you for our photographers because you were wonderful, talented and approachable from the start. Your portfolio and website were stunning and once we had met you in person we knew that we had to have you because none other would come close… We adore the photos. They are beautiful and you are so very talented, especially to make us both look so good towards the end of the day when we were exhausted…You have made every part of our wedding journey awesome and we are so very glad we found you through Joyce. No other would come half as close to how comfortable you made us feel and awesome the images are for both engagement and wedding photos. We can’t thank you enough.”

Additional mentions:

Venue: The Old Mill, Aldermaston, Reading

Cake: Fruit Cake Tesco, Cupcakes DIY, Decorations from Twins Cake Shop in Romford. 

Accessories: Smoke Tabby on Etsy (necklace). Earrings – Primark

Hair: ‘Aunt’/ Family friend 

Groom’s outfit: Custom made suit– Young’s Tailor. Shoes – TK Maxx

Bridesmaid’s dresses, shoes &accessories: Apricot, River Island and House of Fraser. Smoke Tabby on Etsy for necklace, Ebay bags, Bracelet – Groupon (Zenzhu)