Colourful DIY Lytham Wedding

Claire and Simon’s colourful DIY wedding at Pemberton’s Farm, Lytham St Annes

I met Claire and Simon at Claire’s sister’s wedding earlier in the year at Owen House Wedding Barn and just remember Claire being so lovely and Simon being an awesome dancer! So when they asked me to shoot their wedding I was super excited! Simon made it clear that it was going to be really relaxed, full of colour and a real opportunity to make every detail personal.

The morning all went very swimmingly, followed by a church service at St Peter’s Church in Bolton, then we headed off to a Sperry Tent within the grounds of Birk Farm in Lytham. I was blown away when I saw the inside. It was a sea of colour and they had gone to every effort to make it the best party possible! I will let the pictures do the talking…

I asked Claire and Simon some questions about the day:

What made you choose the location and style of wedding?

We always wanted to have full control over how the day turned out, so a Sperry Tent on private land was the only option to get what we really wanted. Fortunately, a family member very kindly offered us the use of their land on a working dairy farm, and it was perfect.

The Wedding

I have never seen a wedding so colourful and so personal to a couple - Simon and Claire had done so much themselves and it looked wonderful. Guests were clearly blown away as they walked in to the Sperry Tent. I asked Claire and Simon what they wanted from the day “We wanted the whole day to be a huge party, full of colour, balloons, neons, pom poms and confetti! The tent was a beautiful blank canvas which perfectly complimented the splashes of colour around the place.”

Claire and Simon also did so much of the wedding themselves:

“Every single one of the 150 pom poms was made by hand, we did them whenever we could, in front of the tv, in the car, the garden, it was a true labour of love. The tassels are actually IKEA napkins rolled up, sliced up.... 400 times, Claire's mum Diane, spent many many hours on them.

Throughout the day we had beer troughs, and drinks stations dotted around the place. We made these from scratch from salvaged pallets, we couldn't find any plans online so it was a case of getting the note pad out working up a plan and start experimenting. We've got enough furniture in our garage now to open a pub!”

Supplier Shout Out

“We didn't really have too many suppliers, to be honest. The catering was provided by a friend of the family's catering company (Pig and Rhubarb) so knew they would do a great job. The tent (Original Marquees) was obviously a big part of the day so plenty of online research went into exactly what it was we wanted before committing.

Photographer wise we first met Kirsty from Alfred and Co. at Claire's sister's wedding, she was the photographer there that day and we knew straight away that we needed to have her at ours.”

Full list of suppliers at the end of the blog.

What advise would you give to people planning their wedding?

“If you're thinking of having a DIY wedding, do it! Everyone we spoke to afterwards said how good, and unique it was.

It's more hard work than a 'normal' wedding, but embrace the journey, we loved the planning just as much as the day itself, it felt like a real event but having full control over everything and knowing we would be creating a unique day that was just us was amazing.”