Eco-Friendly Tipi Wedding: Benji & Sally

Lydia Stamps Photography

August 6, 2013

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Getting married in a village called Lover has got to be some kind of augury for a loving and wonderful marriage right? It also makes for some pretty damn cute photos! Benji and Sally’s amazing homespun wedding just oozed L.O.V.E. Married in the local church, the reception took place in the old vicarage gardens, the bride’s parent’s home, in two tipis which they rented for the occasion.

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“The whole day was amazing! It was the best day of our lives,” Sally began. “I love the fact that my family and friends were so involved. Benji and I took the week before the wedding off work and drove down to the Old Vic from Brighton. I’m one of six children my parents are kind, loving, amazing people and famous for a good party. Everybody worked all week non-stop before the wedding to make it the great day it was, and we can never thank them enough for making it so perfect. It feels like the day belongs to them as much as it does to us. The whole wedding process has definitely brought us closer to our friends and family which is definitely one of my favourite parts!”

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“We didn’t want to be constrained by a theme, colour schemes, or particular style we just did everything we liked”, she continued. “We knew that the main thing we wanted was everybody to enjoy it, and we tried to make it as laid back as possible. We knew we wanted local wildflowers, eco products, local suppliers, great bands and the gorgeous teepees and we generally tried to do anything we could ourselves. Our disposable tableware was made from fallen palm leaves in India, helping people in poverty to have a fair wage, and a lot more attractive and eco friendly than paper plates.”

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“We also went to a ‘pick your own’ and picked enough strawberries to do a massive batch of jam for favours, and some cherries too. I bought some trim, ribbons, and funky fabric from the laines in Brighton and dressed the jars up, then wrote some labels. I dressed up that table with a load of old suit cases and the RSVP postcards from everyone. Other favours I did were little packets of wildflower seeds in envelopes from Amazon, I also bought an old botany book from eBay and cut out circles of flower illustrations to stick on. We displayed them on an old school desk covered in newspaper and plant posts, tins and soil.”

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“Everybody at the wedding seemed to say to us how chilled-out the day was but they could see all the detail and effort that we had all put into it. Rock n Roll Bride was a massive source of inspiration to me and when ever anybody tried to say something can’t be done, or tried to steer us towards convention I tried to take a leap in the opposite direction! As I said before we wanted everybody to be happy and relaxed so no shaking hands in a line, no seating arrangements, and no high table to make anyone feel uncomfortable and take up time that could be spent with all our lovely guests enjoying the day!”

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