Colourful & Creative Outdoor Woodland DIY Yurt Wedding - Whimsical...

Colourful & Creative Outdoor Woodland DIY Yurt Wedding - Whimsical...

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WWWers, brace yourself for a wedding that is sure to knock your socks off and plant a big fat smile across your face this morning. Monday blues are banished.

WWW readers Lorna and Neil tied the knot on the 3rd May 2014 at the Cedar Fields in Leicestershire. They were the winners on the photography give away on WWW last year and I have been so excited to share their wedding with you.

Bride Laura is very creative and owns her own interior textile accessories business ( Lorna Syson) so you can only imagine the crafty touches injected into their wedding.

With a multicolour theme they married outside in the woods followed by a big party in a yurt. Lorna donned one of my favourite dresses ever, a pretty polka dot tulle number with colour pop yellow belt by House of Mooshki. Savour every image folks.

Alexa Loy, thank you so much for sharing your utterly beautiful photographs with us today.

THE PROPOSAL | (Neil) The proposal took place at home, we had just finished dinner and as Lorna was going to relax on the sofa I turned into a Hugh Grant caricature instantly forgetting everything I had practised in my head hundreds of times. Mumbling and scared (even though I was 99% sure she would say yes) I remembered getting down on one knee and showing her the engagement ring was the best way to say that I loved her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I'm afraid its not a fairytale proposal to tell the grandchildren but one I'm sure Lorna will revel in torturing me with!

THE VISION | We wanted a fun and relaxed wedding in which we could be ourselves. Keep the traditions we wanted and created our own when they didn't fit! Something that bought everyone we loved together in a warm relaxed atmosphere full of thought and entertainment. Basically a giant party that made people smile!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | From the day after Neil proposed Lorna was on the internet working out what to do. 'I wasn't always dreaming of my big day so I was a little clueless of exactly what I wanted' We'd been to enough weddings to discuss what we did and didn't want from experience and the rest came from research. It didn't take long to realise we were priced out of traditional hotel weddings with a sit down meal but that didn't bother us, the thought of walking down a red carpet wasn't as exciting as finding our own path. Lorna runs her own creative business so is used to planing and budgeting, we prioritised what was most important for us and set to work. We wanted colourful, outdoors and natural. As soon as we found out about the possibility of a silent disco it was a must!

BUDGET | It started at £8,000 but ended up at £10,000.

THE VENUE | This was so difficult to find, we wanted somewhere that gave us flexibility. We didn't want to send people home at midnight and then be out of the premises by 10.00 the next morning. We found Cedar Fields and it was fantastic, Matt and Annie rent the field out and looked after us along the whole planning process. Having a wedding in a field comes with all sorts of other complications such as electricity and water supplies but with their contacts it all went without a hitch! Our Yurt was gorgeous and they put it up so quickly allowing us lots of time to decorate! The glade at the bottom where the ceremony happened was overgrown so family rented some strimmers and got to work bringing down the stinging nettles! It was a lovely ceremony with friends sitting on hay bales conducted by the lovely ladies at the ceremony company

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | I bought my dress from House if Mooshki, Olivia designed me a dress based on my favourite in the collection but we tweaked the front and back neckline so I could have pieces of lace put in from my mums wedding dress. She passed away when I was younger so it was a really nice touch to have that in the day. They also made me a bright yellow underskirt and matching sash so I could bring some colour into the day.

My headpiece was made for me by my friend Jennifer Kidd she took one of my mums brooches and made it into a hair clip, she even supplied the netting!

My shoes were from the House of Fraser sale a week before the wedding! I was panicking that I wouldn't find anything and then they just appeared!

FINDING THE DRESS | Finding the dress was really difficult, I knew I wanted to look bridal but with a splash of colour and something different! When I found the polkadot lace I was over the moon. Also the yellow was so perfect, I think its such a happy colour and one I always use in my work! From the first day I met Olivia in her London studio I knew she was the right person! I took my friend and bridesmaid Jemma and my soon to be mother in law and we all blown over by her enthusiasm and expertise!

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Neil headed to Next, he knew all along he wanted a blue suit but needed something that looked good on his slim frame! The tie took longer to find than the suit as it needed to fit in with the theme of the wedding and suit all the grooms men.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Our Music was played on the harp by our friend Taz and accompanied by Ria who sang. Both are extremely talented but modest friends, it was the first time many of us has heard them play, and they had never done so together before. It was amazing, so special having two close friends creating such wonderful music throughout the ceremony. They played Panus Angelicas and Ave Maria

For our readings we had Lorna's brother John and our good friend / old housemate Caroline. They read "Oh the Places You'll Go," by Dr. Seuss and together with you

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had four gorgeous bridesmaids, it was so difficult to choose but I chose the people I would pick up the phone and ring first when something amazing happens and if something sad happened. I don't think I could have chosen four girls with more different tastes, personalities and body shapes but the one thing they all had in common was they would wear anything to make me happy. We ended up going for 50's tea dresses in a similar shape to mine but it different tones and green and yellow. Olivia made us four sashes the same as mine in peach and I spent hours sewing matching ribbon along the edges of their petticoats! They all looked fantastic and I was thankful they let me dress them so colourfully!

THE FLOWERS | My bridesmaid Francie helped me choose what flowers to go for, we wanted in season British wild flowers to go along with the feel of our day. She recommended stocks and peonies. There was a colour theme of tonal blues and greens with yellow and peach added in so my step mother headed to a local wholesaler and we managed to get a gorgeous selection, topped up by some supermarket finds in just the right colour. My step mother and Francie spent the morning before making up the bouquets for me and my bridesmaids as well as the mens button holes.

THE CAKE | The cake was made by my business mentor and now good friends wife, Andrea Daly-Dickson. She co-owns a company called Two cousins bakery in the midlands, and created a naked cake. I was so impressed, sent over some pictures I had fallen in love with on pintrest and we turned up so a beautiful cake covered in fresh fruit!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Our photographer was a star!!! We luckily won the WWW competition and we were paired up with Alexa! I was so delighted, that first meeting we had with her I was so nervous but she put me at complete ease and we had so much confidence in her. We did a engagement shoot with her in Battersea Park and kept in touch with us through all the planning. I was really excited for her to turn up on the actual day, and as you can see she took fantastic photos! I am really proud of showing off my wedding pics and it's all thanks to her!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Being a owner of a creative business I knew that the decor was really important to me, this highlighted that Neil and I saw the world differently, turns out he wasn't too fussed which gave me free reign! I made everything myself with help from some very generous friends! From the pompoms, the bunting which I made from old clothes and offcuts of my own designs, these fabric offcuts also made the napkins on the tables. the circle paper streamers which I made from off cuts of my wallpapers and a copy of the financial times (thought it might make us rich one day) My thought was to keep within the range of colours rather than trying to make everything match would give an easier feel.

I have a studio at Cockpit Arts in London which is full of similar small designer maker businesses to mine, the whole building was collection jam jars for me, I ended up with around 600 jars, which had the flowers and candles in as well as being used for our welcome drinks.

We had a Photo Booth made by Lorna's dad with photos of our family getting married from parents to grandparents and props and photographs supplied by Colonel Mustards Dress up Box which was lots of fun!

Our food was fantastic, we had a great hog roast, I sent a message ahead asking to keep the best crackling for the bride and groom! My Step family created some lovely salads the morning of the wedding and we had a buffet set up! We also did a Lorna and Neil wedding bake off where we invited people to bring along cakes for us to judge! One of my old school friends won the much admired bake off apron!

Our signs and tables numbers were made my Neil's dad, some of the wood was from a Cherry Tree that had fallen down in Neil's parents garden and was planted in memory on his Grandmother.

When it got dark we had fire pits outside and a friend of ours bought lots of sparklers it was a sea of people with headphones on dancing with sparklers in the field. SO much fun!

THE HONEYMOON | We jetted off to Borneo for our honeymoon! A trip of a lifetime doesn't even describe how special it was! We dived with sharks and turtles off a tiny island staying in our own beach hut, one of only 20 on the island. Followed by trekking in primary rainforest seeing wild orang-utans and monkeys, again in our own private hut looking of the river.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | For me it was walking down the aisle seeing all of friends and family and having Neil waiting for me at the other end, the glade looked magical, friends had decorated it that morning so I hadn't seen it yet! Also at the end of the night when the silent disco was happening and seeing all of the generations and groups friends blended into one with headphones on singing out of tune. Priceless

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Know what is important to you, and prioritise! Remember to take a bit of time out to step back and see your friends and family enjoy themselves. Also have a fantastic photographer! Memories are always there but looking back at pictures means you can remember small little details!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Alexa Loy

Venue | Cedar Fields

Yurt | Cheltenham Yurt Hire

Dress | House of Mooshki

Headpiece | Jennifer Kidd

Bridesmaids dresses | Lindy Bop

Cake | Two Cousins Bakery

Photo Booth Fancy Dress | Colonel Mustards Dress up Box

Bride's Shop | Lorna Syson

Studio | Cockpit Arts

Ceremony | The Ceremony Company

Oh my. Amazing.

Thank you so so much Lorna and Neil for sharing your wonderful wedding story with us here at WWW xo Lou

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