With lots of fun little ideas to keep guests entertained.

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It's not many couples that can include an elephant in their 'how they met' story, or whose engagement story could quite literally be included in a movie, but, Lauren and Matt are the exception. An adorable match Lauren and Matt planned a large country wedding for all of their family and friends at Ridge Farm, complete with fun surprises to keep everyone entertained (a tequila bar, personalised games, sentimental décor.) As inspirational as it is beautiful, today's wedding was shot by Naomi Ncube and is sure to inspire any of you planning a summer wedding.

Beautiful Ridge Farm celebration | onefabday.com

Beautiful Ridge Farm wedding | onefabday.com

Beautiful day at Ridge Farm | onefabday.com

Lauren's mum likes to tell people that Lauren and Matt first met on an elephant, in reality the story differs just a little. Lauren explains..."We met in Thailand the night before the infamous full moon party on Koh Phangan. We were both travelling after Uni with friends and had an amazing 3 weeks island hopping and exploring the country. We were friends first and after a few too many Changs one thing lead to another… The next morning we went to visit some elephants and our friends made us share a very awkward elephant ride together up a mountain! To this day my mum tells everyone we met on an elephant…"

Following their trip Matt and Lauren went their separate ways, with Matt going to Cambodia and Lauren to Australia. They kept in touch, meeting up every now and then, along with their friends, in different countries for new adventures. Eventually Matt asked Lauren out and they've been more than just friends ever since. Beautiful Ridge Farm wedding | onefabday.com Beautiful Ridge Farm celebration | onefabday.com

Eventually Matt and Lauren returned home to England where they decided to buy their first home together. Drama ensued with their flat of choice, but eventually they got the keys, and Lauren got an extra special surprise gift too. Lauren remembers all the giddy excitement..."We were having work done on the flat so weren’t moving in for another few weeks but were so excited about finally owning our own place, that we decided to go and collect the keys after work that day. I remember it was pouring rain and I was waiting for Matt outside the front door whilst he had gone to go and collect the keys from the estate agents – I still remember seeing him walking up the street with his big umbrella and thinking eek! We did it!"

Lauren continues..."The flat was completely empty, and we were walking around in shock, touching the walls and saying ‘I can’t believe we own this!’ and ‘it’s finally ours!’ After 10 minutes or so I started to realise that Matt was following me in and out of each room, every room I went in to, he did too. We were in the sitting room and I was looking up at these horrible curtains that the previous owners had left us and I turn around and he’s down on one knee looking very sheepish! I don’t think I’ve ever been so shocked or surprised about anything in my life before! Sitting there in our empty flat with nothing but a bottle of bubbles and two glasses is the most amazing memory and was the most incredible way to start that chapter of our lives. Boy did good!"

Eager to share their wedding day with all their family and friends Lauren and Matt chose Ridge Farm as their venue. Lauren told us..."We always said we didn’t want to compromise on who we could invite – It was most important to us to be able to invite all of our friends and family and share the day with them so we did almost everything ourselves to try and keep costs down and to make that possible. We also wanted to find a venue where we could do our own thing and stay there with our families for the whole weekend. One of the best bits about the weekend was both of our families staying in the main house for 3 days and spending time together."

Luckily Lauren and Matt's wedding fell on one of the hottest days of the year, allowing them to have their ceremony and drinks reception in the gardens. To put their own stamp on the grounds Lauren and Matt added chalkboard signage, lawn games and dream catchers and paper mache hearts made by Lauren's mum. Lauren fondly recounts..."My mum sewed tiny little beads and some antique keys that belonged to my grandma (who is no longer with us) on to the dream catchers which made them even more meaningful."

As a wedding memento Lauren and Matt had a fingerprint tree guestbook, with each guests leaving their mark in place of the traditional guestbook message.

Indoors things were again kept personal with picture table names and "interesting fact" books for each table. Lauren explains..."We wanted our guests to have fun throughout the meal so we had scratch cards for favours and made up interesting facts for each person in a little book called ‘Someone on this table….’ The guests then had to guess which interesting fact referred to which person on their table. It was a lot of fun and a great ice breaker.. Although the ‘someone on this table has kissed the groom’ fact caused a lot of commotion!"

Lastly Lauren and Matt had a DIY tequila bar hosted by one of Lauren's bridesmaids and cake pops in the place of a traditional wedding cake. Huge congrats to you both and thanks so much for sharing your wedding day with us all!