FUN, BRIGHT LATIN AMERICAN INSPIRED WEDDING

Giant cacti, Alpacas and rainbows sound like my thing. Jodie and James wanted a bright and happy wedding day, so it should come as no surprise that the couple would decide on all the colours of the rainbow for their colour palette, symbolizing diversity, inclusion and reconciliation.

“Rubery, while perhaps not the most glamorous of locations, is a place very important to us,” the couple began.

“Jodie moved to the West Midlands in 2015 fresh after graduating, to start a job working at St. Chad’s Rubery as a Mission Apprentice. We have worshiped there ever since and consider ourselves part of the community,” they explained.

“When we were in the early stages of wedding planning some 8ft tall cactus store decorations in John Lewis caught our eye – we wrote to them and they very kindly agreed to let us have them! That combined with our friendly local alpacas who had previously stared in a flash mob nativity that Jodie organised gave us our Latin American theme.”

“We did a lot of shopping around for some of our suppliers, we looked online for the bus, we knew the kitchen garden reception venue would be good. But a lot of our suppliers were people and organisations that we knew well already. The cakes we had at church made by Oven Number 9 (some friends of Jodie’s) and the real junk food project (a food recycling organisation that we volunteered with together).”

“Jodie and James had met the alpacas a couple of years before when they had stated in a flash mob Nativity that Jodie had organised (the donkey couldn’t make it-its a long story!)”

“Jodie made the signs using a printable from Something Blue, she also made the cake toppers. James’ sister in law (and owner of the fabulous Molly Rocker Bakery) made our cake whilst one of our friends made some of the cakes we had at church,” they told us.

“We also DIY’d our orders of service, printing them out on a photocopier and then hand cutting hole punching and tying them together (we had a crafternoon with some of our friends who helped us to set up a production line) friends and family from all over helped us to make pompoms (which after the wedding got recycled into Christmas wreaths). The confetti was made by Jodie’s mum and Grandmother using roses that were grown in their gardens (the secret to good rose petal confetti – a microwave!)”

“The bouquets were made by Jodie and her mum with flowers that Jodie’s mum had grown and some that we bought from Morrisons the day before.”

“The bunting in church was made by James mum using fabric that we had got from the Birmingham scrap store and bought from a local fabric shop. We also used scrap store fabric to make the ribbons on the chairs,” they added.

And then who could forget the dress- handmade by Jodie’s mum recycling her own wedding dress!

“Jodie’s mum was a real powerhouse of wedding planning. We were also given a wedding planning calendar which actually proved to be really useful! We first sat down together and drew up a schedule of all the jobs that needed doing and when by. Then we spent some time working out what was going to be important to us when planning the day. We decided we wanted the wedding to be inclusive (making sure different diets were considered, that venues were accessible and that children felt welcome on the day). We also wanted to try and be eco-friendly (recycling and trying not to produce too much waste, all the food was vegatarian). Once we had these values set we came up with a budget (there is no upper limit to how much you spend on a wedding so we wanted to set a budget to guide our decisions) then we drew up a guest list, so we knew how many people we wanted to have. We realised that there were a lot of people who we wanted with us but realized that the most important part of the day for us would be the service in church so we decided to put on some light refreshments (samosas and mimosas and lots of cake) at church. Once we had this we went looking for venues for the evening do and fell in love with the kitchen garden it was comfortably in budget and the staff seemed amazing and they would take care of all the catering and clear up (win!)”

“Once the venue was booked we set about sorting decorations and logistics for the day, Jodie’s mum made a big list of all the things that needed doing and we allocated them out between ourselves and some of our very kind friends.”

“A couple of months before the big day we went on a weekend away with an organisation called engaged encounter, the weekend was focused of preparing for marriage, It helped us to forget about wedding planning for a bit and to remember how much we love each other and be excited about getting married! We would definitely suggest putting time into some sort of marriage prep and trying to enjoy being with one another, especially as the process of planning a wedding will at times get incredibly stressful. Let the people around you help and stay focused on the reason behind the wedding. And once you get there enjoy every second of the day there will be memories for life!”

Dress: Pre-owned I Groom’s suit: Walker Slater I Hair: Le Keux Vintage Salon I Shoes: Irregular Choice I Photographer: Olivia Moon Photography I Cakes: The Real Junk Food Project Birmingham and Oven No. 9 I Ceremony Venue: St Chad’s Church I Reception Venue: Kitchen Garden Café I Double Decker Bus: Midland bus hire I Alpacas: Oasis Animal Encounters I