Colourful Candy Fun Wedding | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

Colourful Candy Fun Wedding | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

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WWW readers Natalie and Nick married on the 21st September 2013 at Honnington Farm Gardens, Kent. They wanted their wedding to be colourful and fun, with a play on their surname 'Candy', with a sweet theme which ran through their day.

I adore the multicoloured décor, from the pom poms to the stationery and blooms. Natalie looked utterly gorgeous in a Lyn Ashworth dress from Frou Frou Bridal, while Nick donned a dapper Cad & The Dandy suit.

A flooded marquee, cake collapse and missing DJ didn't affect their day one little bit.

Thanks so much to Juliette Harrison for sharing her wonderful imagery with us this morning.

My husband to be's surname also gave us a lot of inspiration... Candy was to be our surname as a married couple, which gave us some great ideas for little touches like the favours and the design of our invites.

We really didn't want a colour theme as such, although having stressed out the mums with this one (wouldn't it just look a mess?!), we finally decided on a palette of five colours that would pull everything together; duck egg blue, slate grey, coral, orange and hot pink.

Honnington Farm Gardens near Tunbridge Wells was the first venue we visited, it had the informal, country feel we were looking for within the all important budget and on second viewing, with reassurance from parents, we decided to go for it. The set up was to have the ceremony in the beautifully converted Old Barn, canapés on the lawn to enjoy the views and the reception in a marquee.

A major benefit was that Honnington is a DIY venue, available from the Wednesday to the Sunday so it's all yours to set up the day however you want to. We could also supply our own alcohol (saving a lot of money) and choose all of our suppliers.

Having teeny size 2.5 feet, I always said I would treat myself to some designer shoes for my wedding day, but I completely failed to find any I loved enough. In the end it turned out I had the perfect pair at home. Nick had bought me a beautiful pair of ivory satin Armani shoes a few years back that I realised would go with the dress and importantly would be comfortable all day. I had originally wanted to dye them navy blue but no-one would touch them, so with some love, care and cleaning by my patient mum they came up as knew and became my 'something old'.

For my something(s) new... Nick gave me a beautiful Tiffany pearl bracelet on our 7th year anniversary a few weeks before the wedding to wear on the day which was very special and my mum bought me some gorgeous vintage style earrings for my 30th birthday. My 'something borrowed' was a very pretty veil from my sister-in-law and for 'something blue' my mum gave me a garter on the morning of the wedding.

The first shop I visited was Frou Frou in Tunbridge Wells which is where I tried 'Scarlett', it was a sample sale dress so would need a lot of fitting but was utterly beautiful. However, not quite convinced I wanted to do the due diligence to make sure it was right. One thing I did know though was that I absolutely loved Frou Frou, Nicole and Helena were so welcoming and helpful I was really hopeful I would end up buying my dress there. As luck would have it a few months later, I ended up back at Frou Frou for a different dress and while I was there they pointed out that Scarlett was still available. One more try on, lots of swishing, tears from my mum and the all important thumbs up from my maid of honour, the decision was made.

After a somewhat disastrous episode with one company, Nick turned to Cad & The Dandy who saved the day. With the best men, ushers and dads in navy, he chose a bespoke mid blue three piece suit to stand out and have something different from work suits. It was definitely the right choice and he looked completely gorgeous when I saw him at the end of the aisle. So many people commented on how great the suit and colour was. All the men wore blue gingham ties from Timothy Everest at Superdry and an array of bright socks for another flash of colour.

My present to Nick was some handmade cufflinks, one had the map co-ordinates for the bench where he proposed in Paris and the other had the co-ordinates for the barn where we'd say our vows.

Music was a really important part of our day, we wanted it to reflect us and not be anything too traditional. We were lucky to have a very talented family friend who played acoustic guitar before and during the ceremony. I walked up the aisle to 'Romeo & Juliet' (Dire Straits), whilst signing the register we chose 'Ho Hey' (The Lumineers) and 'Mrs Potter's Lullaby' (Counting Crows) and for our big exit as man and wife we went for 'Sweet Home Alabama'.

As we greeted everyone after the ceremony, we had a three piece strolling jazz band strike up to set the tone for celebrating. After the confetti moment, the band led us through the gardens to the drinks and canapé reception. They were a real hit, so much so we had people giving requests, dancing and singing throughout the afternoon.

During the dinner we went for some classic big band background music before the disco kicked off to keep us dancing into the night.

Finding the perfect bridesmaid dress was a little tricky, including racing across Kent to various shops to get what I thought were the perfect ones in the sales after Christmas... only to decide they weren't right after all - sorry Mum!

We were after a neutral colour that would work with bright flowers and accessories, and with a big group was keen that they wouldn't all look like 'bridesmaid robots' in the same outfits but could feel comfortable in a style that suited each of them. Luckily M&S came to the rescue, with their twist and wrap dresses in gunmetal grey (at a fraction of the price of the well known originals) and looked perfect.

On the day the girls looked absolutely stunning and unlike the cliché of brides who say they choose bridesmaids dresses that can be worn another time, it makes me much, much happier that they had such a good time at the wedding I'm not sure the dresses would be fit to be worn again!

Jackie, our florist, loved the ideas and along with the mums we had a great time visiting wholesalers to look at different flowers and colours and then a couple of afternoons playing around with how they could look.

We were absolutely thrilled with the flowers, they were beyond how we had imagined to be and we had so many lovely comments about them. I'll admit there was a tear getting my bouquet on the wedding morning!

When we saw the cake for the first time it was fantastic, mum and her friend had put so much effort into making it perfect. Unfortunately what we didn't expect was a phone call on the morning of the wedding (mid make up session) to hear that the cake had been delivered, set up, but then the table had collapsed!! The bottom layer was ruined and a few flower petals broken, cue cake panic and mad phone calls by my maid of honour to local cake shops for help. Luckily it all came together and with a lot of help by mum's friend, she mended all the problems and made sure it was set up again by the afternoon, minus the frilly bottom but it still looked great. We're glad she was a guest to enjoy a well deserved glass of wine to relax!

We ordered lots of tissue pom poms in our colours and hung them all over the marquee ceiling, the effect was great (and they came in useful for dancing with too). For table names we found 12 old records of some of our favourite music and gave each table a pen to write on them so we have lots of messages to keep. We also had a photo booth with brilliant fancy dress outfits which made for some great photos in the guest book, especially the vegetable outfits!

We loved the idea of having some light up marquee lettering and searched high and low for an affordable option. Luckily we found West Trading Vintage Co on Etsy who made us our Candy lettering. We were so pleased with them and they were a brilliant feature on the day that got a lot of attention, plus they're now a lovely reminder of our day and will definitely feature on a wall at home.

I was lucky enough to win a competition to have a candy stall at the wedding, so we bought loads of sweets and gave everyone a sweetie bag to fill up for the favours.

Our caterers, Glenie Gillies, were fantastic and flexible to provide anything we were after. We had a delicious tasting to narrow down the menu which was a hit on the day, and to keep everyone going in the evening we had hot dogs complete with our own bespoke 50's sign made by a very talented usher.

All credit to my mother in law for supplying 117 peashooters for the tables and her promise it would work... indeed it lead to brilliant carnage and was a great way for tables to interact with each other. The photos are priceless!

Having danced a lot in my younger years I had one little wish to have a great first dance. We were lucky enough to have some family friends who happen to be World Ballroom champions (teachers of the Strictly professionals), who kindly put some moves together for us to the Bruce Springsteen classic Dancing in the Dark. We only had time for a few secret lessons which were brilliant fun, and ran out of time to practice during the few days before the wedding so needless to say were a bit nervous on the night but think we pulled it off. The best part was that we didn't tell anyone so it was amazing to surprise everyone on the night.

Things can and do go wrong... a flooded marquee, a missing DJ, a cake catastrophe, but you just won't care that much on the day, plus everyone loves a good wedding story.

Photographer | Juliette Harrison

Stationery | Jo Gold

Food | Glenie Gillies

Marquee | Cavendish Marquees

Cake | Val Coombes

Flowers | Jackie Hopkins

Hair & Make Up | Nicoll Moss

Venue | Honnington Farm Gardens

Dress | Frou Frou

Band | All Live Music

Groom's Suit | Cad & The Dandy

Photo booth | Snapbros

Candy stall | SweetThingz

Light up letters | West Vintage Trading Co

Wow, such a fun and bright wedding day :-)

Thanks so so much to Natalie and Nick for sharing their wedding story with us XOXO Lou

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