Kate and Eli came up with so many great ideas for their ceremony!

First of all, it was at home, in their garden, which is a cook’s paradise. All their raised beds were brimming with prime produce just waiting for the wedding to be over so they could be picked. 

They decorated the entire garden with bunting, put up a big gazebo on the patio to provide a sheltered space for sitting and eating or drinking and dressed up the tables really simply with a checkered tablecloth and some flowers in a champagne bottle.

Weddings are all about making people feel welcome. As they wrote on their blog, “Something we felt was important was that our guests, some of whom had never met each other, felt comfortable and able to chat to each other. So we asked each of them to submit a photo and a small paragraph telling us about themselves. We then turned this into a small booklet to go with the order of ceremony that everyone was given when they arrived”.

Two of the most important ones couldn’t be with us, Eli’s little brother Arlen and his wife Diane, so Eli and Kate set up a a Google hangout so they could watch the ceremony live.

Weddings are all about presents: Kate and Eli really excelled here. Books were one of the first things that brought them together, so they chose books for all of their guests, which came custom-wrapped in ribbon, with a packet of wildflower seeds, and an ingenious bottle opener in the form of a key, so everyone got a very special keepsake of the day.

The other really original touch was that they brewed their own beers – that’s right, beers, plural. Not just  a Black IPA, and a Belgique Ale, but Dandelion & Burdock or Ginger Ale for the non-drinkers. How cool was that? Even better, Kate built the bar from which they were served. And an elegant piece of craftswomanship it was too.

What else did they do? Well here are just some of the things that Eli said on the blog