Jess & Pete - Festival Wedding - Croyde, Devon

Why did you choose Yeti?

We love your relaxed style. We can't wait to have the pictures and videos to look back on, but we're strong believers that the day is not about having our photo taken. The day is to be experienced and then we can enjoy the pictures after - and so we appreciate your aim to capture the day how it was and not make it staged. Although we would love to capture some traditional group shots, we really want all of our photos and videos to capture everyone having a great time. We love also that you said you'd capture the moments that maybe we didn't see too. We also loved that you've called out that you will introduce yourselves to guests, so it's not that everyone's asking 'who are those dudes with cameras'. Our wedding has been put together using the talents of as many friends and family as possible (Jess' siblings are singing and doing music, we know all of our wedding bands/ DJ, Jess' cousin is doing make up, and my dad's colleague is doing food). We want everyone, including our suppliers, to enjoy our wedding. We'd love you to feel like you can both enjoy it and enjoy meeting our guests too. Finally we also love that you know and have worked in the area before. We were keen to find someone who appreciates Croyde like we do and gets why it's so magical! We can't wait - thanks again for all your help x

You guys…what do you do?…how do you spend your days?

We both work in London. Pete is a Construction Delay Analyst - he reviews large construction projects when there's been a big delay, to understand where the delay has come from and who owes who money. Jess is an Innovation Consultant - she works with big well known brands to help them come up with & implement new product ideas and new business strategies. Beyond work we're both quite sporty. We met as we were both part of the Welsh Rowing team. Since uni we have given up rowing but we still enjoy running and cycling. Pete is training for an Iron Man this coming august! Most weekends you'll find us doing the Park Run and going for a long walk. Family is very important to both of us. Jess in particular comes from a large, noisy family. We also have a great group of friends and most weekends you can find us off staying with one of our friends or family.

The proposal. Tell me everything. (All the gushy details!)

As context to our proposal story, you need to know that for the 6 years we had been together prior to the engagement, Pete had never bought Jess flowers. When we first started dating that meant it became a running joke that Pete would only buy Jess flowers when he was proposing... Pete had planned a surprise weekend away, Jess knew none of the details. We got in the car to head off on our weekend away but it turned out we were off to the very nice hotel down the road from where we live. Pete had booked a fancy room in this hotel and had organised a big delivery of flowers to be waiting for us there when we arrived!! We walked into the room and immediately the flowers gave away what was going on (before this, Jess had no idea). Pete got down on one knee and proposed! We spent the night at the hotel, having a very fancy celebratory meal there. And the next day, Pete had organised for all of Jess' family to meet at one of the festivals that her dad was organising (again a total surprise to Jess). We headed there and celebrated with them all night. Finally on the Sunday (again another surprise), Pete had organised for his family to meet us at Jess' family home. Again more celebrations!! It was the best weekend ever!

Croyde Beach…..Why this place above any where else?

We chose Croyde for a number of reasons... Jess' family have a house in Croyde, and it has been where they spent all their holidays throughout childhood. Coincidentally, Pete's family also use to holiday in Croyde when he was a child - so they too know the area very well. This made it the perfect place for us, because we wanted both families to come together as one for the wedding and didn't want one to feel they were hosting the other. Since we've been together, we've spent a lot of time in Croyde. We love that when we go there we totally escape from the hustle and bustle of life. The air smells amazingly clear and fresh, all you have to wear are flip flops and hoodies, and you can spend the day walking, swimming, eating or drinking in the pub. Finally the other reason we wanted to have our wedding in Croyde is because we've been to a couple of weddings abroad, and the best thing is that you get a decent amount of time to actually get to know all the other guests - and by the end you all feel like you've been on a magical trip together. We wanted to replicate that same feeling but we didn't want to go abroad. Being in Croyde means that all our guests can go away together for more than just the day.

What experience do you want to give your guests?

We want our guests to feel like they've been on a holiday together with all our other friends and family. We want them to leave feeling they have enjoyed all the great things we love about Croyde, and we want them all to have met each other. Jess' family are well known for their parties, so we also want them to feel that the wedding was pretty bloomin' awesome. A one of a kind wedding, filled with lots of love and silliness. We want it to feel very relaxed and effortlessly fun!

Why did you have your wedding captured on video?

It's a once in a lifetime opportunity to have all of our favourite people in our favourite place. We want to capture this to look back on it forever. We also know that it's going to absolutely fly by, and Pete and I won't be able to be in all places at once - we want to capture everything so we can take it all in time and time again, and maybe even see the bits that we might have missed on the day!