Stylish Balloon-Filled Garden Wedding

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So I’m kind of in love with today’s real wedding, because it’s pretty much two weddings in one.

A dreamy, romantic, super stylish castle wedding, and then a fun garden party with bursts of colour, fabulous food and lots of dancing. Put both together, and you have the very special day Felice & Max created for themselves and their guests.

Captured by the awesome Marilyn Bartman Photography, this cool Dutch couple pulled out all the stops with an abundance of balloons, lights, lanterns, and even a fire breather.

Scroll down to see how you can follow their cue, and throw one heck of a party, while still having all the personalised touches, romance and style of a more low-key celebration.

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Our Love Story

We met eight and a half years ago in Amsterdam at a party. Very soon after we met Felice had planned to go to Australia in her gap year to travel, which would of course not be the best thing for a starting relationship.

Long story short, Max decided to join Felice on this adventure. So when we knew other for four months we went on a five month trip through Australia together.

We bought an old Mitsubishi van and crossed all of the Eastern and Southern roads. That was really amazing, and that’s why when we returned we immediately moved in together.

The proposal was in Rio de Janeiro, and since it was on the second day of the vacation we had an incredible holiday in Brazil and celebrated it extensively in sort of a “pre-honeymoon”.

Our Wedding

Our theme was colourful, with a bit of a bohemian style in a castle setting. We really wanted to do the ceremony and dinner outside if weather would permit.

We chose our venue, Kasteel Hoogenweerth in Maastricht, because of the fact that it had the combination of a very romantic, castle-type setting but it was across from a big cement factory which gave it a modern element. Also, the fact that it was on the water helped a lot. Plus, the location was very flexible in letting us doing it our way.

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The Ceremony & Music

Our two sisters both spoke during the ceremony.

Max’s sister Viviane gave a beautiful speech about her brother, her own wedding, family and love. Felice’s sister Lara spoke about the beautiful sisterhood and deep connection, and also about how Max is like a big brother to her as well.

Furthermore, two of our best friends recreated the story about how Max and Felice met in a very personal and fun way.

Processional song was: ‘She’s Like a Rainbow’ from the Rolling Stones. This was the song we always played in the van in Australia.

Our First dance song was ‘First Day of my Life’ just us, followed by ‘Feel This Moment’ by Pitbull together with the bridal party.

First dance with the father of the bride was ‘Perfect Day’ by Lou Reed’.

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The Decor & Refreshments

Max’s mother and one of her best friends took care of the flowers, which were absolutely amazing. It was beautifully colorful and it really brought a lot of atmosphere.

The lights in the trees at the dinner tables as well as the colorful lanterns we brought ourselves and the bridal party hung them. Furthermore, we had some great balloons that made everything complete.

The dinner was sit down, on the water under the lights and colorful lanterns. There was a mix of tapas like food, vegetables, fish and meat. And of course wine.

The Photography & Style

We loved our photographer, Marilyn. The pictures on the website looked stunning and in real life she came across very well.

She was very enthusiastic, you could clearly see that this is what she loves to do. She has an eye for beauty, which is key for a good photographer, we thought.

The bridal party wore light pink lace dresses, they looked like angels. One of the bridesmaids picked them out. All of the groomsmen wore a blue suit and the same colorful tie. The bride wore a white big dress with an open back, and the groom wore a tailor-made blue suit.

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Favourite Moments

We loved that the ceremony was exceptionally personal. Max’s brother in law really married us, so he became a civil servant for a day. This was probably, together with the amazingly touching speeches, why the ceremony became super personal.

And this theme stuck the whole day. We had amazing stories by our friends and family the whole day and this was super special. Our fathers both had amazing stories, as did a lot of our friends.

One of my foreign friends told me afterwards that this was the most personal wedding she had ever been to. I thought this was a huge compliment.

In the end what makes the day is the people that are there. That is what we found incredibly special and even overwhelming.

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Advice for Other Couples

With the budget, we thought the most important part is drinks, music and food and the rest will be OK. In the end, once you are at it, it’s hard to stop.

We probably stepped a bit over the budget but not too much. The key is to really keep track and to make choices at some point. We killed the idea of a photobooth at some point for example.

I would recommend going with a venue that allows you to do everything, but that can also arrange everything you don’t want to do. This saves a lot of stress. It means you can do it your own way, but if needed there is always someone to step in.

For our honeymoon, we went to San Blas Islands and Colombia. This was amazing. Definitely do that. It was such a special holiday – we were really on a high and we could bring back randomly moments from the wedding at any time. It prolongs the dreamy, pink cloud feeling.