Festival Tipi Wedding at Delamere Events, Cheshire

Ange & Dave booked me to photograph their wedding waaay back in 2019. I was excited as soon as I saw their chosen wedding venue as Delamere Events has been on my “wedding venues I want to work at” list for some time. I’m a huge fan of tipi and outdoor weddings so that’s probably not much of a surprise. They had me excited from the start, but when they told me they were planning a festival themed tipi wedding I was all in!

There are so many things that I loved about their wedding. A lot of my highlights are also highlights for Dave and Ange so I won’t go on about them too much, but I also can’t let them go unmentioned…

The awesome couple – obviously! Ange & Dave made me feel so welcome right from the get-go and I had the best day hanging out with them. There were so many personal touches that reflected their personalities throughout the day.
This was my first time photographing a wedding at Delamere Events, and it did not disappoint. It’s is a lovely spot to get married the view across the lake is gorgeous and there’s plenty of space for fun and games too. Although a lot of the credit has to go to Ange & Dave (mostly Ange) for planning such an awesome day!

A Wedding Ceremony Full Of Joy

Ange and Dave chose some fantastic wedding businesses, and I very much enjoyed working along side them all…

However, I have to give a special shoutout to Celebrant Wendi because (and I don’t think she’ll mind me saying this) she was the most unexpected pleasure! Wendi delivers wedding ceremonies on another level! If you’re worried that your wedding ceremony, might be a little boring, or “same old same old” then you *need* to speak to her. She brought so much laughter and personality to Ange & Dave’s ceremony and more important than anything else, in my opinon – made it unique to them! I have no doubt that everyone of their guests walked away thinking that they’ve never been to such a fun wedding ceremony. I’m definitely looking forward to our next wedding together ?

Unique Wedding Photo Booth

Birdie & Co! The bold, bright and flashy marshmellow pink camper van and photo booth! Such a cool addition and totally added to the festival vibe – they also served welcome drinks and ice cream!

And, finally, before I hand over to Ange & Dave…

Wedding Bandeoke!

What a awesome and super fun idea! I have limited experiences of karaoke, mostly down to the fact that not only am I tone deaf, but I have literally zero rhythm. So, bandeoke was another first for me and I loved every minute of it. Such a cool idea to get a little crowd participation!

Delamere Events Wedding – Ange & Dave’s Wedding Story

Can you tell everyone a little about yourself?
I am a controls analyst for British Gas (or as Dave likes to call it – a “transponster” as he still has no clue what I do), and Dave is an Admissions Manager at Salford University. We actually met on Tinder! Messaged back and forth for a while and realised we both have the same stupid sense of humour and taste in music (deal sealer for both of us), so decided to meet up, and have been inseparable ever since. We’ve been together for 8 years now!

What about the proposal?
It was a total surprise! Apparently Dave planned to do it on Christmas Day in front of our families, but a few months before we were at a Dashboard Confessional gig (my all time favourite!), and he decided to just do it there and then while we were both in our happy place, having a great time. He accosted some poor girl at the bar and asked if he could borrow a ring, got down on one knee on the sticky floor of Manchester Academy 2, and popped the question in front of Chris Carrabba and a crowd of people. I obviously thought he was taking the piss as he handed me a bent primark ring, but he insisted he was deadly serious so of course I said yes! After confirming the next day he was actually serious when we were both sober, I was so happy and it was the perfect proposal! He did replace the primark ring with a real one afterwards so he is forgiven for that haha.

Planning your wedding day at Delamere Events…

How long were you engaged / how long did you spend planning your wedding
We got engaged in November 2018, and planned our original wedding for May 2021 so we could save up for our dream wedding. But then the pesky pandemic happened and we ended up having to postpone until April 2022. It felt like we were planning forever! To the point we were almost wishing we’d just cancelled it all and done a low key registry office thing in lockdown, but we are SO glad we didn’t.

What were you most looking forward to about your wedding?
For me, it was the whole festival feel – music, food vendors, the amazing setting, everyone having a great time. For Dave it was the toasted Marshmallows (literally the only thing he was concerned about forgetting in the planning stage haha). I was also really excited for for ceremony. Our celebrant, Wendi was amazing, she made it so personal and funny. We also decided to write each other’s vows, so had no idea what promises we’d be making on the day! It was so different from any ceremony we’d been to before and we were really excited for our guests to hear it.

Did you have a specific theme, style or colour palette?
Our theme was Festival. We absolutely love a festival. We’ve been to countless gigs, since we met, and we get to festivals every year. So when we saw we could get married in a field with beautiful tipi structures, we just knew we had to do it. We didn’t have a set colour palette as such, we even let our bridesmaids choose their own dresses and the groomsmen choose their own suits. We just wanted everyone to be comfortable, and as we didn’t have a set colour theme it came together perfectly. My family is Italian, so we had to have Bonboniere – traditional Italian wedding favours of 5 sugared almonds each representing a good wish for the bride and groom.

Where did you find inspiration when planning your wedding?
We were at a wedding fair at a local venue, and saw photos of someone else’s festival wedding which was also at Delamere Events. We just instantly fell in love with it and got to an open day as soon as we could. We did a LOT of research, Pinterest boards, took a lot of inspiration from festivals we’d been to.

Did you do anything to make your wedding unique to you or your story as a couple?
Our ceremony was completely unique to us, as mentioned above it was totally personal! We were encouraged by our celebrant to include a symbolic action – some couples like to pass the rings around all the guests as a “ring warming”, or make a cocktail where the ingredients represent parts of their relationship etc, but we decided to have a time capsule. We each prepared a little package for the other which we will open on our first anniversary. My bridesmaid, Mel and one of Daves best men, Mark looked after these and handed them to us to lock away in the box. We thought it would be an extra little thing to look forward to once the day was over. I was also thrilled that Wendi read a hilarious little message from our cats.

Did you enjoy the planning process?
We mostly loved the planning process! They type of wedding we had meant we had free reign on everything, from the structures and layout of the site, to food vendors we had a blank canvas to work with. It did feel a little overwhelming at times, but we had a clear vision of what we wanted and had a lot of fun putting it all together. I think the only thing I would do differently is try to worry less! The downside to having free reign is that we had to deal with so many different suppliers, trying to rebook them all for a new date during the pandemic was challenging, and as we’d booked most of them such a long time before our new date, it was hard to keep on top of finer details with each of them and make sure everything was on track, but every single one was amazing and we had absolutely nothing to worry about.

Your Wedding Day…

Where did you get ready?
We got ready at The Swan hotel in Tarporley. All of the wedding party and some of our friends snd families stayed there the night before, which made it so much more fun getting ready and it was lovely to all have some drinks the night before and for everyone to get to know each other before the big day. I was so nervous. I didn’t sleep the night before! But getting ready with my bridesmaids and our mums, made me feel so much better.

How did you feel when you saw each other for the first time?
We were both really emotional. Dave said he was so happy he nearly cried and had to turn away while his best man handed him a tissue. I felt the same. As soon as I got out of the car and saw everyone there I welled up, and again as I got to the aisle and saw Dave. I really had to tell myself to get a grip so I didn’t undo the hours of make up I’d just had sat through!

Was there any part of the day you were particularly nervous about?
I think for me it was the ceremony, standing there in front of all of our friends and family and reading vows that we’d written ourselves. It definitely helped that we didn’t know what we were reading though! As soon as Wendi dropped her first F bomb and everyone had a laugh, I relaxed immediately and just enjoyed every moment. For Dave it was his speech, but he also nailed it once he was up there.

Did you or Dave plan any surprise for each other?
Just the time capsule and our vows I think which I’ve already mentioned above. One of the surprises we did have for our guests were our personalised IDo! festival wristbands. Our guests loved them and they made great little keepsakes.

What was your favourite part of your day?
We both said the same thing – when you took us away for a walk around the lake. It was just the two of us, it was so lovely to just step away from it for a few minutes and take it all in. We looked over from the other side of the lake and just watched everyone having a great time.

Choosing Delamere Event Wedding suppliers…

How did you choose your wedding venue?
We went to a wedding fair at one venue, where we saw the photos of the festival wedding, after that we went to straight to Delamere Events and loved it instantly, We did see another similar venue to make sure we weren’t being hasty but I think we knew we wanted Delamere as soon as we saw it. It was just the perfect setting, a beautiful lake, plenty of space for everything we wanted and such a relaxed atmosphere.

What advice would you give to couples looking for a wedding venue?
I think it’s just a personal choice for each couple, its like moving house you just get that feeling and know when it’s right. I would say make sure you have a good chat with the venue and make sure you feel comfortable with them, ask all the questions you can, think about catering options, what other suppliers you’re allowed to bring in and try to imagine how you can make the space work for you.

What was your biggest worry or concern when choosing a photographer?
We both HATE having photos taken (sorry Chris haha), we just always feel so fake and awkward posing for photos, so we were all about finding someone who was great at candid natural shots. We’d seen gorgeous photos from a work friend of a wedding Chris had done, which were exactly what we wanted, so we knew he ticked that box. It was also really important for us to have a photographer we felt comfortable with so we weren’t conscious of a camera pointing at us on the day. From our first interaction with Chris, we felt like we’d known him for years, and in the nicest possible ways we didn’t even notice him on the day, apart from when we found a few spare moments to go and check in and have a chat.

What advice would you give to couples who are looking for a photographer?
Just make sure you’re comfortable around them, look through a few different weddings they’ve done, decide what styles you like and make sure you communicate that with them.

What was the best thing you spent money on for your wedding?
Dave would say Marshmallows haha. I would say our extra little outdoor areas, we reused our ceremony stretch tent to set up games and a sweet bar to keep the kids entertained, and we had a beautiful naked tipi wrapped in fairy lights with a fire pit and benches for the adults to chill out under. They added to the festival vibe and complimented the main tipis perfectly.

Would you like to give a shout out to anyone in particular?
Honestly, it’s hard to pick just one, all our suppliers were incredible. Ryan at Delamere Events was an absolute dream to work with he couldn’t do enough for us and co ordinated the day perfectly. Hannah from All about me was amazing. She managed our order with all of our structures and decorations, the all about me team setting up were so professional and it was magical seeing all our plans being built and coming together. Wendi our celebrant was just so much fun and really set the tone for the day! Kitty and Dave from birdie photo booth were with us all day and were just brilliant people. Our guests loved them! Chris, everyone sung your praises too and commented how you were capturing absolutely everything for us. Our band, the Deadbeats were fantastic. Their energy was amazing and our guests really enjoyed them, they were so attentive to the crowd and even gave lots of attention to the kids. They also tolerated us doing bandeoke for their final set which was both brilliant and terrible! The suppliers who weren’t there on the day but were also a massive part of it were Alice at Delamere flower farm who gave us the most beautiful flower arrangements! My hairdresser Katie and make up artist Hayley – both were so lovely helping us all get ready in the morning and keeping the nerves at bay.

And finally… Any words of wedding planning wisdom?
Yes. Spreadsheets. Lots of them. For everything! Though that’s just my general rule in life haha. I do love a spreadsheet, but even if it’s just lists or a wedding planner, it’s so important to stay organised, know where you’re up to with suppliers and when payments are due etc. Put your trust in the suppliers, they know what they’re doing and are there to make your day how you want it. Finally just enjoy it!

Congratulations & Thank you!

A massive congratulations to Ange & Dave, and thank you for choosing me to photograph your wedding and sharing your story with us all.

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