The Road To Our Festival Wedding

The beginning!

I said yes! February 2017, on the top of a glacier, thousands of feet in the air, overlooking the gorgeous alpine Austrian landscape, everything changed. Teetering on the edge of a transparent ledge, my wonderful other half, nervously scrabbling around in his ruck-sack, exposing the most beautiful ring. Of course I was going to say yes. I had dreamed of marrying this man since I was thirteen years old.

Fast forward a few months. Luke and I had been together for over three years by this time and we had often had discussions if we ever were to get married, what type of day we dreamed of. Luckily, we were on the same page. The idea of a formal ceremony followed by a typical wedding party filled us with dread. In fact, for me it was almost an overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia. All eyes on us all day was not something we craved. We both absolutely love family and friends’ time. I adore feeding and looking after people; Luke loves music and festivals; we had often discussed our idea of an outdoor festival wedding, filled with music, laughs and fantastic food and there our dream began.

A fork in the Road…

I started by googling outdoor weddings in the Midlands. I landed on Alcott Wedding and Events and I instantly shared the link with Luke. We were hooked. I emailed Lucy within seconds, filled with adrenaline and within hours we had booked a viewing. I was desperate to love it. I was not disappointed. I envisaged an outdoor venue, with amazing bands and a magnitude of food vendors. Alcott was the place.

I was not disappointed. As we approached Alcott and drove up the long winding road, I knew before I had even met Lucy that our wedding was going to be held here. I felt a tingling straight away and I closed my eyes and imagined all of our family and friends there, enjoying the amazing site with us. We sat in the front room at Alcott, nattering away, at ease straight away. In my head, our idea was crazy and extreme- in Lucy’s head this was something that she thrived on and nothing fazed her. We thought our requests were outlandish. We wanted the love of our life there on the day-Murphy, our Labrador- of course, at Alcott this was the norm. Any anxiety I had felt, melted away. I glanced at Luke, I could tell he was hooked too.

The Fun begins.

I am not going to lie. In the early stages of planning and booking, I felt overwhelmed. There was so much to do but at every stage, I felt supported and that I was working within a trusted team. Lucy has a folder. It is immense and every couples’ dream. It is filled with hand-picked suppliers for everything and I mean everything. There are structures, food suppliers, florists, entertainment and all of the logistics you need. Yet, we were offered the freedom to bring anything we wanted to Alcott (as long as Lucy thought it was safe and secure). I was overwhelmed by the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes. Contact is set up by Lucy and I was set on the right track and then the real fun began.

Over the next few months, all logistics were booked and our day began to form. We chose to set our day in the beautiful tipi, which could provide the intimacy and space that we wanted. We viewed the ceremony as a way to share a beautiful time with our family and friends; we booked a beautiful Moroccan yurt for this. It was stunning. It provided such an integral part of our day and looked absolutely perfect on pictures. We worked with recommended suppliers, who literally bent over backwards to ensure that every need was met.

I emailed Lucy. I emailed Lucy a lot. Some days, I would think what am I doing. Why not plan an easier wedding; I would become overwhelmed. I would always receive words of comfort and ease that made me realise that all was okay.

In the lead up to the wedding it became hectic, but hectic in a great way. I loved it. I actually miss it. We had the power to plan everything: table layouts, order of the day, the words at our ceremony, where our guests would sleep. We received schedules that helped to organise our thoughts and ideas and to ensure that behind the scenes, all of the logistics could be upheld. What a team! It is clear that Lucy and her team work seamlessly week in week out- any issues they faced were never exposed to us.

Approaching the day.

We loved Alcott so much that we decided to have a little mini-break there in the lead up to the wedding- we spent our wedding week in a beautiful lodge on-site there, acclimatising Murphy to his home for the week. We were often met with a smile from Lucy and her mom and dad, checking we were okay and really felt at home there. My mom stayed at the B and B for our special day and even to this day talks about the breakfast. Spending time at such a hypnotic place was an integral part of our experience. We literally watched the wedding site transformed in front of our eyes- from beautiful rolling hills to a portrait we had hand-picked. We met some amazing people that week. The Tipi building team. The yurt building team. Florists, furniture deliveries. The week sped by and we never doubted this was going to be the best day of our life.

It didn’t disappoint. I often think about our day. It rained and it was very very windy. Do you know what. it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter one bit. All of the suppliers worked tirelessly to ensure that all of our dreams were met. We had numerous people behind the scenes on site, ensuring that nothing was hindered and our day was amazing. The tipi looked absolutely stunning and so spacious. I had worried that it may look cramped with our number of guests but not at all. It was perfect. Even now we still have guests reflecting on the day and how great the food and music and location was. Our ceremony is a definite point of positivity. Justine, the celebrant is one of the most beautiful people I ever met. Our guests are still in awe that the standard of food they received could be cooked and served at an outdoor event.

Our Perfect day.

We would do it again in an instant. I smile when I think about it. I remember, after having a lift up the road to our accommodation from the friendliest security guard I had ever met, looking down at the site at the end of the evening: the lake lit up, and the sounds of the night with my husband and I realised with a huge grin and feeling of happiness- there was no-where else I would ever have wanted to spend that day and no other way I would have wanted to spend it. It was topped off by a pizza delivery in our lodge from the wonderful Lucy. Honestly, the perfect day.