Mar 23, 20214 min read

The Finer Details: Ideas For Your Boho Tipi Wedding

I absolutely love a tipi wedding, in fact I love any kind of outdoor wedding set up, whether it be in a marquee, yurt, or perhaps you're brave enough to just be at the mercy of the British weather and hold an outdoor wedding. Perhaps it's my love of festivals that inspires my love for a tipi wedding, some of my favourite memories are from festivals I've been to where even the weather doesn't impact the day, losing a welly in the mud only adds to the memories, and a tipi wedding can bring about those same festival experiences, where light heartedness, music, booze, and being in a muddy field with your best mates make for those unforgettable memories. Of course Nana and Auntie Sue might not be up for bringing a pair of wellies and corn plaiting their hair, but luckily there's a middle ground with plenty of options in the North East for a more luxury style tipi wedding.

One venue I've had the pleasure of working at numerous times is Bradbury Glade near Sedgefield in County Durham. Their tipi is a permanent structure from Spring-Autumn and although retains that fun festival tipi vibe, the extra luxurious elements mean you're more than comfortable if the weather isn't on your side. Remember however, there's also the cost effective method of having a tipi wedding whereby maybe you know someone with a bit of land, or a farmer who will hire you a bit of land and then you work with a company who will supply the tipi and toilets. This is obviously a lot more work and planning, but couple's these days don't seem put off by that, and along with the options of having a celebrant wedding, you really could get married just about anywhere.

When it comes to a tipi wedding there's the go to style that slots in very well to the tipi: boho. Over recent years, boho has really made an imprint in wedding trends, and one of my favourite things about boho: macrame,. Believe it or not, macrame didn't just become a thing born out of lockdown boredom. It's believed to have originated with 13th century Arab weavers, but became most popular in the Victorian era, again resurfacing in the 1970's which is the decade where boho weddings pull all their inspiration from. By the 80's macrame faded out of popularity but millennilials helped it make a strong come back, especially during the covid crisis.

This is my macrame backdrop and one of the most popular items I hire out. It stands at 2.2m tall and 1.5m wide making it suitable for a range of uses, and being so lightweight it's easy to move around, fulfilling use as your ceremony backdrop, cake stand backdrop, head table backdrop and selfie station backdrop all in one day!

Macrame Wedding Backdrop at Shortflatt Tower

This cake was provided by Jo from The Cake Place in South Shields and for me it completely epitomises a boho styled cake and matches perfectly with my macrame backdrop. Everything on the cake is edible, from the antlers to the skull! For this styled shoot I used macrame as the overall theme and used it in other areas too, from the chair sashes, centrepieces, bouquet wrap, and tassel chandeliers with macrame feathers.

When it comes to tipis and boho, you can't not include a bit of pampas grass into the mix. Pampas grass took off big time in 2020 with an abundance of businesses setting up shop and selling pampas grass and other dried grasses such as the also very popular bunny tails. Because of it's popularity, pampas grass doesn't come cheap, it's also very messy and for those 2 reasons I decided to make my own artificial pampas backdrop, meaning it's more affordable for my clients, and less annoyance for the venue! I only use artificial or dried flowers as they're a more sustainable option. Of course the plus side of dried flowers if you wanted to go ahead and buy your own, is that you'll be able to keep them and have beautiful flower displays at home! I'll share a link at the bottom of this post for my favourite dried flower supplier.

The final element I wanted to mention which has been hinted at from some earlier photos, is animals. Animals at weddings are one of my favourite things and really elevate your photos to the next level! We included a dog and a horse in this shoot, and I also styled my table decor with animal table numbers, as well as animal place settings. The fun thing about animal place settings is you can make them so unique to each individual guest, maybe it's their favourite animal, or maybe this is just the animal you think of when you think of that person, either way it's a fun little talking point and keep sake for your guests. If you like the look of them just get in touch and I can give you more info on costings as well as colour options.