Fabulous Wedding Festival: The Review

A few weekends ago we attended one of the best wedding fairs we have ever been to! Why was it so great you ask? Because it wasn’t your average wedding fair at all! So many fairs these days advertise themselves as ‘unique’ and ‘alternative’ and let me tell you…this fair was true to it’s word!

I woke up the morning of the Wed Fest praying that the sun would be shining and it would be the tiniest bit warm…but that was naive of me! A few jumpers, tights and wellies later we were all piling in Em’s car ready to head down to Devon! After 2 hours of driving, singing and eating naughty food the fair was in our sights and we could see the colourful flags that were lining the drive flying high!

We were just in time to catch the first fashion show in the awesome circus tent! We ran in and gawked over the awesome designs that were being showcased! Angels Carrying Savage Weapons, Anna D’Souza and Jo Amor Clothing but to name a few! It was such a fun and relaxed catwalk, we loved it!

Next stop, the bloggers hut, we had to report for duty of course! Waiting for us was the lovely Celia from Bride Electric, a quick chat later and it was time to explore! We just so happened to arrive at the food and drink area first…I swear it was accidental… We were so delighted to see our friends from Pizza Monkey there! We had heard such great things about their pizzas and were so excited to finally try them! The queue was too big though so we stopped off for a free shot at Oscars Bar, it certainly warmed us up! Back to the queue waiting for our high in demand pizza and we bumped into Laura from Dotty Vintage Weddings, a lovely fellow wedding blogger who was eager to try the yummy food too!

My order for chorizo pizza had been placed and my collection ticket was in hand! We all decided we would take a quick walk around while we were waiting for our food to be cooked so we headed towards the barn where we were greeted by 3 beautiful birds and a horse! It was of course ‘Experience Falconry‘, a company that specialises in creating that ‘fairy tale wedding’! The birds were so stunning and Em quickly made a new friend!

Now…back to the pizza from Pizza Monkey…It was ready! And it was delicious!! After our bellies were full we decided to venture back into the circus tent where an array of floral goodness awaited us, we would recognise those crowns anywhere! We obviously bought one each because we just couldn’t resist the new Crown & Glory spring collection…

Did you know there was an art gallery at this fair? Yep! Specifically designed for all of the fabulous photographers & videographers to showcase their work and there was certainly some amazing talent in this area! The lovely Laura Michelle was one of the awesome photographers we were pleased to see! We had met Laura a few weeks previously at ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ in Bristol and was instantly captivated by her bubbly personality and candid style photos!

Above photos by Laura Michelle

We also had the pleasure of meeting Andy Green from Harrera Images and was astounded by his work! He had photographed weddings in such amazing places around the world and had a great talent for using the location around the bride and groom! His photographs really told a story and we’re fast becoming big fans!

Over to the main yurt next and straight into Fishee Designs Photo Booth (I know…that is SO us, but you know how much we love them!) We somehow managed to drag our fella’s in too! Although I’m not so sure they look like fellas in the pic!

The lovely Jessie Thomson was just around the corner from Emily’s photo booth so we popped over to say hello! Jessie had traveled even further than us to get down there since she was from the Cotswolds! Her styling was looking as gorgeous as ever and although the rain was pouring down at this point everyone in the yurt was still beaming with happiness!

Above photos by Laura Michelle

As I continued to walk through the yurt I noticed that Festival Brides had a stand, this really excited me as we’ve followed these gorgeous ladies for a while now and love all the wedding festival goodness that they share! It wasn’t long before we were chatting away with Laura and Kelly about everything blogs! It truly is something special when you get to have these discussions with people doing the same work as you, we talked about challenges we had to overcome in the beginning and the awesome opportunities that blogging had led us to! I hope it won’t be long until we spend more time with this fun duo!

After all that nattering I was beginning to get a bit thirsty and could think of no place better to wet my whistle than the Cocktail caravan! We chose some yummy concoction of raspberry vodka, apple juice, fresh limes and ginger beer and boy did it live up to it’s expectations! PLUS who doesn’t love a drink that comes in a jar?!

Unfortunately one of the downfalls of wearing shorts and wellies on a rainy day is that you get cold pretty fast, lucky for us we had booked a hotel just down the road from the wed fest (is that cheating?! Hell no!) so after we checked in, dumped our overnight stuff & had a quick soak in the tub we were ready to return for the much anticipated Banquet!

Banquet

Above photos by Laura Michelle

We were amazed at the beautifully decorated tables! Each table had a different theme, I could see gorgeous Moroccan colours and huge candles and pretty dream catchers! It was stunning…and we were starving. We sat down on the ‘bright kitch’ table and it wasn’t long before our starters were in front of us, then our mains and then…oh my the trio of desserts! Scoff catering did a fab job and the live music by Mister Kanish that was being performed while we ate was awesome! They were really entertaining!

As the day came to an end I couldn’t help but think about all of the wonderful things that made this fair special, sure it was outside and it was festival themed but I think the most amazing thing that stood out to me was that it was an experience. It wasn’t just a row of tables with suppliers trying to hand you leaflets, it was so much more than that. We actually got to sample food, listen to musicians, try on accessories and even take part in workshops! A massive round of applause for Becky Joiner who organised such a fantastic day and a huge pat on the back to all of the suppliers that were involved! You all rocked and we cannot recommend you enough!

Much Bespoke Love

Jessica ♥