FRAMLINGHAM WOODBRIDGE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

If a wedding with retro computer games, giant bubbles and pineapples is your sorta vibe, check this one out. Relaxed, candid wedding photography, family and friends centred fun and locally sourced suppliers in the heart of Suffolk.

Santana & Tim had a unique, fun wedding in Framingham, Woodbridge, Suffolk. It was beautifully styled but super relaxed. If you don’t believe you can have a seriously cool wedding on a budget, these guys will soon change your mind – they spent less than £4000! The whole wedding had a heavy focus on family, friends and cool retro touches. Santana & Tim booked me as their wedding photographer a few months before and I became part of a whole host of local, Suffolk based wedding suppliers that made this day what it was!

Getting ready

Santana got ready at home in Framlingham (Woodbridge) Suffolk. Her incredibly beautiful wedding dress was a designer sample that she bought on sale – wait for it – entirely using cash back. She found and bought it from a dress barn in Badingham, which is really close to where she lives. Although it was actually £150 over the budget she had set, she went for it anyway because she felt she was getting a lot of wedding dress for the money! To match the tea length white wedding dress, she chose a sparkly lace topper.

The bridesmaids wore dresses from Lindy Bop with jackets from Collectif – they actually spent less than £100 on all four bridesmaids!

Tim looked really dapper in a houndstooth print suit that he bought from ASOS. I love seeing grooms in something a little more unusual! The groomsmen also wore suits from ASOS and the younger boys wore suits from Next.

The bouquets and buttonholes were completely handmade by Santana using faux rainbow roses. Sadly, though Santana laughed about it, her and the bridesmaids all left their bouquets at home, so they never saw the light of day! Luckily the button holes looked on point so the time she spent making them wasn’t completely for nothing!

The Ceremony in the Barn at Bruisyard Hall

Santana and Phil wanted to get married in Framlingham because it’s the Suffolk hometown they both love and share with 4 children. The Unitarian meeting house where their ceremony was held was a gorgeous setting. The minister was very humanitarian and so down to earth. He actually performed the first civil partnership in Suffolk – cool hey!?

The now newlyweds wrote the entire ceremony themselves. My favourite part was when the best man Rob played ‘I believe in a thing called Love’ by The Darkness on the piano at the front while all the guests sang along. It was bloody brilliant. More mass singalongs at weddings please.

After the ceremony the groomsmen nipped round the corner to the local co-op where Santana had pre-paid for loads of ice-creams. A few runs with cool-boxes later and everyone had a bowl or a cone of ice-cream in hand! They then hopped in a white Cadillac which took them to the reception.

The Reception at Brandeston Village Hall

The wedding reception was where Tim went to playgroup as a child. Santana and Tim wanted to keep everything as local and to support as many Suffolk small business as possible. Wouldn’t it be great if all weddings did this?!

The wedding had a light theme of 1950s, with a cool rose gold, mint green and rainbow colour scheme. The flowers on the tables at the reception were grown in the garden of Tims brother and displayed in recycled baby milk tins. Nearly every other item of decor was borrowed, reused or given to them for free. They spray painted real pineapples rose gold rather than buying plastic.

Santana and Tim had put together a makeshift bar outside for guests to help themselves. The wedding breakfast was a yummy an afternoon tea (made by a caterer that lives up the road from the couple!). It was served using a lot of vintage crockery that was picked up at charity shops or reused from Santanas mums coffee shop. The wedding speeches and toasts were accompanied by a Frampagne from a Suffolk vineyard, alongside local Brandeston Gold beer and Aspals cider.

All the guests were entertained by an indie rock band ‘The Frankie Velvet Trio’ plus a bubbleologist! Bring Back Retro had set up a computer games arcade complete with dance mats, mario and donkey kong which the guests LOVED.

The Party

Around 6pm the whole wedding party left the village hall to be packed down and made their way over the road to the local pub. There was a fire pit, open mic and those that weren’t partied out stayed and danced and sung the night away. There was a second cake of cheese that was from Aldeburgh and not forgetting vegan donuts from another local business. The last ones standing then stayed and camped overnight in the pub garden and crawled in to the pub for brekkie the next day.

I adored this quirky, DIY, retro wedding in Framlingham, Woodbridge. If you’re getting married and looking for a relaxed wedding photographer, find out more about what I offer here!