Rosie & Jonny’s Derbyshire Festival Wedding ⋆ Unconventional Wedding

We have a fabulous real wedding to share with you today which was captured by Andrew Heeley Photography. Rosie and Jonny’s Derbyshire festival wedding was called ‘Tie-Knot Festival’, after their favourite local festival. This awesome couple shared with us how they planned their big day, and what made their day so special. Enjoy!

Festival Wedding Tips

Don’t sweat the small stuff.

Honestly, everybody will be too busy having fun to notice!

Be brave!

Do what you want to do. If there’s a part of the traditional wedding day that you’re not interested in then don’t be afraid to ditch it.

Go DIY

A DIY wedding is more effort but can save money. If you have people willing to help with preparation, it can create even more special memories.

Planning A Festival Wedding In 4 Months

Rosie and Jonny got engaged at Easter 2022 and decided to tie the knot in the summer – less than four months later – as they were just so excited to get married! They weren’t sure exactly what they wanted for a wedding day but knew that they wanted to create a relaxed, informal atmosphere that was geared around simply having a good time.

Rosie, a farmer’s daughter, has been to the ‘Y Not? Festival’ in Derbyshire quite a few times and has so many happy memories there that when they found a working farm/DIY wedding venue a few fields over, it seemed meant to be!

So, they hired Aston Hill Barns for the weekend, where they had a barn, plenty of land and a camping area. From there, ‘Tie-Knot Festival’ started coming to life!

Katie at Aston Hill Barns gave us the freedom to do what we wanted. She put up extra gazebos to fend off the heat, extra hay bales for seating and was so helpful with all of our queries and requests. She was awesome!

A Unique Wedding Ceremony

There are so many exciting and creative ways to make a wedding ceremony personal and memorable. Here’s how Rosie & Jonny did it:

“Louise is one of our best friends and a brilliant celebrant at Kickass Gatherings. She created a fabulous ceremony that made us feel comfortable and involved our guests. We tied a knot with teal and magenta ribbons to symbolise our families joining together. Louise incorporated the speeches into the wedding ceremony, which was a really lovely way to involve guests and keep it interesting.

‘Stun Squad’ and ‘Stud Squad’ were our bridesmaids/groomsmen. The Stun Squad rocked the All The Discos sparkly capes to fit the theme of bright colours and good times. The squads made the ceremony so entertaining, although there were tear-jerking moments as well.”

You might also love: Our Ultimate Guide To Wedding Celebrants

Louise put loads of time into making the ceremony personal, putting the speeches in the middle of it, and making everyone love such a great occasion. She really is fabulous at what she does.

Derbyshire Festival Wedding - Keeping It Local & Low Cost

Rosie and Jonny wanted to keep the costs low for both themselves and their guests. This was their solution:

“We wanted to keep the wedding low cost for the guests (and us), so stocked the bar ourselves, hired an ice cream bike and hired a food van. Also, we made grazing tables for our guests to help themselves to throughout the day.

Supporting local suppliers meant a lot to us. We had tacos from Lets Taco Bout It, beer from Derby Brewing Company and an ice cream cart from Cold Eaton Jersey Ice Cream. Kate Dawson (in Derby) designed and custom-made Rosie’s wedding ring and Jonny bought Rosie’s engagement ring from Gemsmith’s in Belper.”

Wear What You Like!

There was no dress code at this wedding! Rosie told us about their comfy clothes policy:

“We wanted to get married feeling comfortable. Jonny couldn’t imagine being in a three-piece suit on one of the hottest days of the year and so we encouraged guests to wear whatever they felt comfortable in at a festival. Jonny was delighted to be getting married to someone who was happy for him to wear shorts and flip-flops all day!

With the money we had saved by going DIY and choosing relaxed food options, this meant that we had extra budget. So we bought t-shirts for all our guests, complete with Tie Knot Festival branding, which brought everything together and added to the theme. The t-shirts were also locally made by Atelier A Clothing. We are incredibly grateful that Louise, our friend and celebrant, created such a bright, fun design which we used for posters, online invites and t-shirts.”

A Wedding Barn Dance!

Rosie and Jonny didn’t want a first dance. Instead, they threw a barn dance! What a perfect way to keep guests entertained and get everyone up dancing together. Andrew Heeley Photography captured some incredible shots of smiling guests having a great time!

Loving this Derbyshire festival wedding? You might also love: Dud & Gina’s Festival Wedding Weekend

We describe Andrew Heeley (Photographer) and James Patton (Second Shooter) as ‘Kings of the Candid’. We love their photos and they did an amazing job on the day. They both blended in really well with the guests and they made the unusual experience of being photographed all day feel natural and relaxed.