You’re a lover of all things festival. You’re also planning your nuptials. So if the idea of an informal, weekend-long outdoors-do fuelled by music, entertainment, fun and food is nudging at you, why not just give in and go for it?! Yes, chuck that wedding rule book out of the window and throw caution to the wind – it’s time to start planning your festival wedding!
There’s a lot to organise for a festival wedding, so it’s important to get into planning mode as soon as you can. Here are a few nuggets of advice that will help you make your wed-fest the best event any of your friends and family have ever been to – even the diehard Glasto-fiends!
Secure Your Wedding Festival Venue
You’re going to need a fair-sized piece of land to accommodate your entertainment and tents, tipis or yurts. You may know someone who owns a field or two or even a sizeable garden, but your best bet is to look up festival-friendly venues that come complete with essential facilities like loos, electric hook-ups, kitchens and somewhere to take refuge if the weather takes a turn for the worse. You could try to secure a camping or glamping site if your budget runs to it. If you’re prepared to go out of season, you may well bag yourself a bargain. Just consider the weather.
Think about where you want to the actual ceremony to take place. A barn makes the ideal wedding fest venue and there are plenty of ready-licensed barn venues around the UK or even unusual country houses with surrounding land that could work really well. As long as you’ve got access to hay bales, wildflowers and a spot of electricity for your serenading band to plug into, and there’s a licence in place for ceremonies and live music, you’ll be away. Be sure to factor all of this – and the hire of tables, chairs and all the other bits and pieces you’ll need – into your budget.
Organise Your Festival Catering
Think about your favourite festival and how much you enjoyed the rustic, down to earth food. Your wed-fest wouldn’t be the same without food trucks and vending stalls. Festival weddings are where you get to cater for all the people. So get down to business with meat lovers’ hangouts and separate veggie and vegan vans and be sure to cater for all those common allergies and intolerances.
To stay in the true spirit of festival, it can be good to go locally-sourced, and street food is a popular choice.
Drinks wise you are likely to need to hire your own bar service, or create your own. That’s generally the way with festival venues as many don’t provide services like these onsite.
“To stay in the true spirit of festival, it can be good to go locally-sourced, and street food is a popular choice.”
Plan Your Wedding Invitations
Wedding fest invitations tend to be more info-booklets than cards; alternatively, you could issue ‘ticket’ style invitations or all-access passes accompanied by a wed-fest guide book.
You’ll need to share things like camping opportunities, overnight facilities and of course your festival line-up. Get these sorted as early on as possible. If your festival wedding is going to last the entire weekend and campsite bookings need to be made, guests are going to need plenty of notice.
Have Fun Crafting Your Festival Décor
The great thing about festival wedding décor is that it’s got that handmade feel about it. So good news, you get to go all-out creative and rustic without breaking the bank. Happy days!
Think paper lanterns in trees; big bold ribbons and bows; candles in old jam jars; fairy lights and (responsibly sourced) wildflowers or dried arrangements in wicker baskets. Make it all fresh from the field and you’ll be on theme.
Signage is essential and a core part of a wedding fest. How else will your guests know where all the activities are happening? There are plenty of places to buy personalised festival signage, or you could go really rustic and handcraft your own from reclaimed wood.
Book Your Entertainment Line-Up
The core element of any wed-fest is the entertainment. Live music is a major ingredient of course, but there’s much more to it than that. Think about your guests and how you can tailor your event to please everyone and get them all inter-mixing.
You could stage a mini fairground with games stalls; set up photo walls to capture lasting memories; hire children’s entertainers to keep the younger guests occupied or bring in mingling magicians and comedians. Zoning your entertainment areas is the true festival way and a DJ or MC will help bring it all together.
Hire Your Photographer
A festival wedding isn’t going to be the regular bread and butter for your average wedding photographer who is used to taking traditional, formal shots. You’re going to need someone with a background in reportage style imagery. You might even look at hiring a photographer with experience in shooting live bands and festivals. Be sure to look carefully at their portfolio and get recommendations. It’s a unique event after all.
Choose your Outfits
It’s time to indulge your true personalities! What you wear to your festival wedding is always going to be about who you are. The wedding fest is a laid back affair, and so your attire is going to need to follow this theme and so will be flowing, free and easy.
“What you wear to your festival wedding is always going to be about who you are.”
Think also about your venue: it’s likely going to be muddy, breezy and well, a bit messy. Long trains and dresses just aren’t going to be practical, so think calf or knee-length or even trousers paired with cowboy boots or special glitzy wedding wellies and you’ll nail the look bang-on.
Get Wedding-Fest Ready with Help from Lucy Can’t Dance!
Alternative and festival brides adore the Lucy Can’t Dance wedding attire and accessories collections. Why not take a look at our festival wedding dresses and see what dazzles your interest?