A real wedding inspired by festival style - Xander and Christine had a gorgeous colour-tastic wedding in Ballymena, a relaxed BBQ theme with tipis and bales of hay

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Prepare to be blown away by Christine and Xander the very talented and creative bride and groom from today's Real Wedding. This very sweet couple said 'I do' in a very chilled out and colour-tastic wedding in Ballymena, the laid back affair had a relaxed BBQ theme with the guests dining in tipis and drinking from old jam jars, watch out for bails of hay and plenty of cool people hanging about!

No surprise that this wedding is so uber-fabulous - Xander and Christine are the photographic duo that is NavyBlur - so you can imagine they had lots of ideas when it came to creating their own one fab day. The epic Jeff Newsom was the man they called on to capture all the fun, and we're delighted to be able to share his work with you all today...

So how did these love birds meet? Well I'll let Christine fill you in...In the summer of 2007, Xander who's from England, decided to go to Canada for 10 weeks to be a counsellor at an amazing kids sports resort camp. At the same time, I was going out with a team from N.Ireland for 2 weeks to the very same camp to be a part of the hospitality teams. So while Xander was paint balling, water-skiing, skate boarding and generally living the life (all for the kids of course) I was scrubbing toilets and showers!

Anyway, the night we arrived Xander was about 5 weeks into the camp, he saw a minibus pull up and being the nosey (he says helpful) guy he is, came over to see who we were. At this point, I saw a tanned, scruffy boy walking towards us and said to my friend 'he's a bit of alright' (who says that?!). The 2 weeks I was there seemed to be spent with me finding excuses to be in the same places Xander was (he loves this part of the story) but we were both pretty unaware that each liked the other. On my last night there, we kissed, and that was when we suddenly realised that he liked me and I liked him!

Even on her wedding day Christine just couldn't resist picking up a camera...

Anyway, back to the love story... The next 5 years were an adventure of travelling back and forth between London Gatwick and Belfast International to see each other, and after a year Xander decided to come to N.Ireland to study and did the bravest thing any boy could ever do and moved in with my family and ended up staying for 4 years! At the same time, we were starting a business together in photography and had fun all the way.

Those five years together laid the foundation for a very happy partnership, so no wonder Xander was keen to seal the deal and he did it in very romantic style...One random Friday morning (the 8th April 2011 to be precise) in Xander's family house, we were making a cup of tea together in the kitchen. Xand told me to go sit down and he'd finish up. I didn't really like being told what to do but left the kitchen and was about to head into the living room when he said 'no, no just sit on the stairs so we can chat'.. again I was being a bit huffy as he was telling me what to do but I sat on the stairs anyway. He then told me I should get the post which was hanging through the door and so of course I went over, flicked through and was happy to see there were two (not very exciting looking) letters, one addressed to me, the other to Xand. While stirring the tea he flippantly mentioned something about it probably being the bank and I opened my brown envelope to see a piece of paper with the words 'will you marry me?' and I turned round in floods of happy tears to see Xand holding a box with a ring in it... I was pretty shocked for the first two minutes, but of course I said yes and put the perfectly sized ring on my finger. He is the best!

While Xander and Christine opted for a traditional church ceremony at the High Kirk Church in Ballymena, to make their vows to each other, the couple incorporated strong, vibrant colours into their accessories and decor giving the church a funky feel.

Xand's buttonholes were crocheted cameras which was the perfect little touch to tie in our photography jobs but without going overboard. Our very talented sister-in-law handmade Xanders, his two best men and the dads and each had their initials stitched into the front. Xander's buttonhole was made a bit more 3D to have a spy cam inside, but unfortunately the camera failed as he arrived at the church so our fun groom cam idea didn't work out!

I'm sure the guests knew by the decor of the church that the reception was going to be pretty special - and so it was. On this beautiful Summer's day, Xander and Christine led their guests to a meadow nearby where a festival awaited...

Picking a venue was the easy part for these love birds, after finding Magnakata tipis they were instantly hooked on the tent idea, asked a family friend if they could use their field and they said yes... so it was perfect.

We had our guests sit on hay bales and drink out of jam jars and we just loved the overall look and feel of our day… we were blessed with the sunniest day of the year (we actually had a whole week of glorious sunshine) and it was the cherry on the top of a perfect wedding for us.

Xander and Christine are surrounded by creative friends too, there are some seriously cool ladies and gents at this wedding.

The bridesmaids even picked their own style and colour for their shoes and accessories.

How did you come up with the whole plan for your wedding - it's amazing! Our initial ideas were outdoorsy and colourful and the final outcome was outdoorsy and colourful so we were happy! When we got engaged, we knew we wanted something like the tipis to create a totally laid back and unique atmosphere outside, then having a giant BBQ was the obvious follow on and it worked perfectly on the day.

Xander and Christine are both creative types, working together in their own photography company, NavyBlur, meant that the photography for their wedding day had to be perfect...

...Our photographer was the out of this world Jeff Newsom from California. He is more creative than anyone and it was the best decision ever to have him photograph our day. He brought along Rog from Epic Love for the fun and we loooooooved having them both!

Our decor ended up being hundreds of woolly pom poms hung around the tipis, we had sooooo many friends involved in the making of them and they were the perfect splash of colour.We just wanted people to see our wedding and say 'that's just so Xander and Christine' and I think we achieved it!We genuinely loved every minute of our day though, so many good memories!

A favourite moment of mine has to be when our band (Xander's friends) started to play the Black Eyed Peas 'Let's Get It Started' and Xander, who used to sing/rap with them when they were younger, took the mic and remembered ever single lyric, word for word and everyone simply loved it! They went mental on the dance floor and I just stood smiling my head off beside him looking out at the sea of friends and family dancing to my new husband!

Grace & Saviour provided the chiavari chairs, and created an awesome bar top for the drinks reception and cake display consisting of 3 old bush mills distillery barrels with a re-painted old wooden door on top.

Xander's dad handmade the giant X&C light bulb sign… it was one of our favourite decorations on the day and it turned out to be the most instagramed/facebooked item from our wedding!

The s'mores brought Xander and Christine back to their camp days where love blossomed.

What advice would you give to brides and grooms planning their day? Do it together! I was so happy Xander wanted to be involved in every single aspect of the day. He's a lot more creative than I am and he thinks outside the box, but we really did love decided things and making things together. It really came across as our day and we loved that. The last week was definitely a mad stress/panic to get everything done and in the end some things weren't as they should have been…. but on the day it didn't matter. Nothing mattered except that our friends and family were there, having a great day and celebrating with us getting married.

It looks like Chritine, Xander and their friends and family had a brilliant day, we loved the laid back feel to the whole day and all the wonderful colours! Congratulations to the lovely couple and thank you for sharing your special day with us.

Of course a huge thank you to Jeff Newsom for sharing his wonderful work with us at One Fab Day, for more of Jeff's work check out jeffnewsom.com.

The Wedding Details