When gardeners get married.

 Just like everyone else we pick our frocks (£20 charity shop) and our shoes (£10.50 reduced), our scarf (1.99 charity shop). Be assured the dashing wellingtons, (whilst cut at a killer deal), cost far more than the whole of the rest of my wedding outfit. Priorities and all that, the wellyboots will get well used again. We also have a good scrub as often as not, we're muddy. And we don't spend much money on finery as we need it for seeds and tools next year.

We kindly ask chums to gather and forage what they have in their gardens looking beautiful to make bouquets with....no one blinks and eye when asked for a bin bag of ivy or a bucket of berries. We just get it. We did indulge in a few red roses to set the tone, fair trade supermarket bunch for £10 for a large bunch. The only cost of our wedding flowers was £10. Quite happy with that, we didn't need them, but they added a lovely touch. If you work with the season you're in, frugal wonders can happen.

We ask their help to forage around their beautiful gardens and provide free seasonal colour for our tables, laid on old free recycled slate roof tiles cleaned and washed for the occasion.

 They also kindly take the time to lay it out and make it look radiant.

 We borrow the things we don't have like fairy lights, tea lights and improvise rustic peedie vases from 'Nutella' glasses from those who indulge in such decadence! . Table runners replaced table cloth hire, at £2 each, we paid £20 in total for those. Instantly an autumn country rustic theme is born. We added various bits of home made (by friends) bunting which just set things off beautifully

And nature doesn't let us down and it does its own thing and looks beautiful, like we know it always will. Simple, natural and celebrated is often better. The tops of free roof tiles point out the way through the forest.

So we go, nervously with our loved ones, in our recycled finery, our wellyboots and and take our vows.

 In the company of so many wonderful and kind friends who've helped in so very many ways. The old kitchen basket used last week to take veg to a chums house today is filled with song sheets and recycled dried petal confetti. This is our stuff, our family stuff and it played its normal back up role in our lives. A kitchen bottle filled with foraged elderflower cordial quenches our Quaich to welcome our guests.

How grateful we are for the friends that we have and the life that we have and those things that make life nicer from old guitars to baskets, bottles and bags. And how we laughed!

Be assured there will be more on this another time. Just wanted to tip my hat and say thank you for everyone who's contributed to a truly special spectacular day.  All of our friends worked hard to put this special day together for us whilst laughing and chatting and hopefully finding out how much we love them too. And due to their kindness, hard work and efforts, cost a fraction of what it might have. All the better for being hand made with love, a fair bit of charging around to see what we could scrounge and a few pennies.

Photographs here are almost entirely the hard work of my wonderful chum Robyn who I'm hoping won't mind me sharing a few the now.

 

Mr & Mrs McB
Gardener and Rock Legend, finally wed.

(more on that later.)