Festival Wedding Ideas

If you’re a big fan of festivals, a festival themed wedding may seem like a brilliant idea. There is so much you can do with a festival wedding especially if you’re looking for a more relaxed and less formal day. Here are a few festival wedding ideas.

What’s important when you’re planning your wedding is that you make it truly yours. This will mean different things to different couples, however, I am a firm believer that a wedding day should be all about the couple and not dictated by anyone else.

There were definitely aspects of my own wedding that some of our guests may have found odd or some family members didn’t approve but we had everything that we wanted, out way.

Which Festival To Choose

If you’re thinking of a festival themed wedding you’ll probably have a festival in mind already. I know for a lot of people it’s Glastonbury, but if that’s not your cup of tea it could be Leeds or Reading or anything else at all.

Sit down with your partner and discuss exactly what you love about that particular festival.

All About The Music

Of course, with a festival themed wedding, the most important thing is the music. If lots of your friends are part of the local music scene you could ask them to all play a small set each over the course of the evening. This would add plenty of variety and they would still be able to enjoy the festivities.

Alternatively, you could ask your favourite local band or group to play. We really wanted our first dance to be to live music so we paid the bad we had a small rehearsal fee to learn the song we had chosen. Most are also pretty good at requests for favourite songs and will play background music between their sets.

Festival Wedding: Street Food Fest

One of the best things about any wedding is the food. Having a festival wedding gives you a huge scope of food that you can use, the most obvious being street food trucks.

My advice would be two get at least two food trucks. This gives your guests a choice and means that they won’t be queuing for too long.

Opt for food options that can be cooked ahead and served from the street food truck in bulk rather than need to be individually cooked. This could include, curries, chilli con Carne, noodle dishes, and paella.

While pizza sounds like a lovely idea, I know so many people who have been to a wedding recently where this was the food option and said it was a disaster. As each pizza has to be individually stretched topped and cooked in the oven, taking around 5-6 minutes per person. Even with two pizza chefs on it took hours for all the guests to be fed and they all had to queue for ages too.

Ceremony and Venue

I recently wrote a post all about how we had a wedding celebrant for our wedding and really think one would work well for a festival wedding too. Remember, if you choose to get married in a random field, which isn’t part of a licensed venue, you won’t be able to have your legal ceremony there.

There are of course lots of ways around this –  you could have your ceremony in a church, or registry office before the wedding festival reception takes place. Or you could choose to get married in registry office legal a few days before and then have a celebratory ceremony on the day.

You may be lucky and find a venue that is licensed and has the capacity for your festival themed wedding which is perfect if it works for you.

To get the full festival feel you may want to hire a tent, marquee or tepee. This will also provide cover if the great British weather decides it’s not on your side for the big day.

A few other things to consider, especially if you chose a field:

• Make sure you have full permission from the land over.
• You may need a temporary event license from the local council – this will tell you what time music needs to stop by, even if you’re in the middle of nowhere!
• Think about you’ll get power, such as a generator there and the additional costs that might involve.
• Arrange parking for your guests.
• Make it clear on the invites if it’s in a field, advise on footwear and clothing.
• You’ll also need to provide tables, drinks and seating
• Think about extras which might make your guests more comfortable such as blankets and quiet areas.

Festival Wedding Details

One way to really go all out with the wedding festival theme is the little details. Everything from asking your guests to wear wellies to giving everyone wristbands and lanyards instead of favours, there is so much you can do.

Proper Portaloos

One of the worst things about being at a festival is the awful toilets! If you’re having a festival wedding in a field that has limited facilities, my advice would be to get the best portaloos your budget will allow. You won’t regret it and your guests will 100% thank you for it!

Don’t forget to add on an extra day of hire if you or your guests are planning on camping out overnight!