Steph and Tom’s Colourful, Fun DIY Festival at Maisemore Court Lakeside Weddings
Maisemore Lakeside Photographer
Steph and Tom’s wedding at Maisemore Court Lakeside Weddings was such a fun, colourful festival-style celebration. With chic DIY styling, personal touches and a few surprises along the way, Steph and Tom designed a fun day centred on making sure their guests had lots of fun, and they absolutely succeeded in that. Keep reading to see how they styled their fun DIY festival wedding at Maisemore Court.
Getting ready at Hatherley Manor Hotel
Steph and her bridesmaids started their day getting ready at Hatherley Manor Hotel in Gloucester, which was a lovely hotel with lots of natural light and space for everyone to get ready. The bridesmaids wore gorgeous satin dresses in mismatched shades of orange and gold - Steph had a vision for how she wanted her colour scheme to be and it absolutely paid off!
Lakeside celebrant-led ceremony
Steph and Tom had their ceremony by the lake in front of a gorgeous hand-made hoop, with beautiful rugs in front of the ceremony spot. In typical British style, there were some early concerns about the weather, but also in typical British style, it all cleared up at the perfect moment and left blue skies for the rest of the day! So the gamble in having an outdoor ceremony 100% paid off. Steph and Tom had a celebrant-led ceremony, meaning there were lots of personal and meaningful touches to the ceremony. This was all followed by colourful petal confetti and a procession back to the marquee for the reception.
Festival drinks reception with Indian dhol drumming and dancing
The reception started in style with Prosecco and Indian dhol drumming, which was lots of fun for the guests. There were also lawn games for guests to enjoy, making it clear right from the start that the day was going to be about celebrating and having fun. Canapes were provided by Hungry Monkey, who also did the wedding breakfast.
Fun, casual group photos
When you’ve planned an absolutely epic and fun-packed festival wedding, the last thing you want is to be dragged away from it all to stand posing for hours. Steph and Tom didn’t want too many formal group photos, so we just took a few minutes to do some informal and less posed group photos, keeping the style casual and relaxed.
Festival style wedding breakfast and speeches
Steph and Tom kept the festival vibes going by naming each of the tables at their wedding breakfast after festivals they have been to - what a great idea! They had food by Hungry Monkey catering and desserts by Ciccio’s Kitchen, both of which meaning that nobody went hungry! I absolutely love taking photos of a stretch tent marquee because the directional light looks so good. I really enjoyed photographing Steph and Tom’s speeches in the afternoon sun.
Natural, relaxed couple portraits
The sun came out for us in the afternoon and I was only thinking one thing - this is going to make some amazinggg couple photos! We kept the vibe relaxed and natural - earlier in the day I scoped out a few nice spots around the grounds of Maisemore Lakeside Weddings. For the couple photos, we went for a walk and spent a few minutes in the sunshine before heading back for the reveal of a bigg and very fun secret.
Surprise brass band and evening celebrations
Ok, let me tell you now that Steph and Tom KNOW how to plan a party!! I was in on the secret of the surprise brass band and I was soo excited to see the arrival of Brass Junkies. We weren’t disappointed - it was soo much fun and everyone loved it! It was such a great way to get the party started as they started outside on the lawn and made their way into the tents and to the dance floor.
The evening celebrations continued with a DJ and an Indian street food cart - oh and a couple of tequila shots of course!
DIY festival wedding styling
The styling and attention to detail at Steph and Tom’s festival wedding was incredible. The orange and gold colour scheme was so vibrant and looked excellent and there was so much detail in the centrepieces and the bridesmaids outfits. Maisemore Lakeside Weddings comes as a “blank canvas” for couples to put their own stamp and personality onto and you can see how much effort Steph and Tom went to to design an epic festival wedding here! The setup for the lakeside ceremony was all designed by the couple, as was the painted wedding sign on the lawn, and the flowers too.
Festival wedding photos on analogue film
For a day as colourful, vibrant and fun as Steph and Tom’s, you know I had to take a roll of film with me. I documented the day on Kodak Portra alongside digital, and was so happy to get the negatives back and see their photos in analogue as well as digital. Carrying 3 cameras (2 digital, one film) around with me all day is probably something I’ll be explaining to a chiropractor in years to come but it was definitely worth it for the photos!
Suppliers
Getting ready venue: Hatherley Manor Hotel
Wedding venue: Maisemore Lakeside Weddings
Photographer: Suzie Smith
Canapes and Wedding breakfast food: Hungry Monkey
Desserts: Ciccios Kitchen
Drumming: Mistry Music
Surprise brass band: Brass Junkies
DJ: Wedding Jam
Looking for a festival wedding photographer in Gloucester?
I absolutely loved photographing Steph and Tom’s festival wedding! Are you planning something similar? I would love to photograph your wedding too! get in touch by tapping the link below to tell me about your plans and check availability for your date.