Our Rustic Barn Wedding

I did it… I got married! It seems so long ago but it was just over one month since our big day and I loved every minute of it.

Decoration

I spent the majority of my planning time thinking about decorations; I loved the idea of having pastel colours from the beginning so I purchased lots of lovely items to make the wedding colourful and fun! Thankfully I have lots of creative friends so they helped massively.

It’s very easy to get carried away, especially when you have Pinterest, Instagram and magazines to look through! I didn’t stop looking for ideas until a few days before the wedding but all the money and hard work was worth it – I was so pleased with how it all looked. Setting up the day before took all day but I couldn’t have done it without my fabulous bridal party.

I wanted the wedding to feel personalised so when it came to the table plan I knew I wanted to theme it around travelling. We spent four months in South East Asia just over four years ago so I put together a plan using a scratch map we already had and named the tables after hotels we had stayed in.

My husband is also a keen cyclist so I decorated an old bike wheel in chalk paint, fairy lights and added lots of travelling photos and momentos to it for our card table.

I loved the idea of having a candy cart but decided to have sweet and savoury options, this went down very well with our guests!

My mum spent a long time knitting the bunting and pom poms, they looked great! We also had personalised bunting made which I absolutely loved. It was so nice to have decorations that had been made by friends and family. One of my best friends made huge tissue poms poms for both the barn and the yurt.

My cousin recommended Hello Goodbye Designs who made our personalised bunting. I absolutely loved the design and the colours, a nice keepsake as a reminder of our special day.

Table Decorations

I loved buying decorations for the tables. I had disposable cameras along with photo props, I am yet to get them developed – something else to look forward to which is always good!

I also purchased pretty chevron confetti from Ginger Ray and a wedding quiz to keep the guests entertained throughout the meal. We had lots of laughs reading them all the next day!

Venue

I think finding the venue was one of the most stressful parts of the whole planning process. They get booked up so quickly so we knew we had to act fast. We liked the idea of having an early autumn wedding which worked in our favour as a lot of couples like the idea of a summer wedding.

We went with the Chilli Barn in Otley which my husband found whilst browsing online. Surprisingly we had been for many walks on the Otley Chevin but never noticed the barn. Looking around the venue we knew straight away that it was the perfect place for our wedding. It felt like a relaxed environment, perfect for the style we were going for.

We also hired a yurt from Yorshire Yurts for additional space which we loved! We arranged to have fairy lights and a log burner which was perfect for when it got cold. We found a lot of guests enjoying the warmth of the fire whilst tucking into our evening food of cheese and biscuits!

Outfits

I spotted my dress in a magazine quite soon after getting engaged and knew straight away that it was the one for me. I tried on quite a few beforehand just to make sure that I was choosing the right style. The dress, veil and floral crown were all designed by Amanda Wyatt – I was fortunate enough to meet her which was lovely.

Two of the bridesmaid dresses were from Kelsey Rose, the others were from very.co.uk and asos.com. I chose four different shades of grey which worked really well and went perfectly with the pastel colour theme.

The suits for the groom and groomsmen were from Next. I left my husband to choose what he wanted – I was so pleased with his choice!

Order of the Day

Since the moment we got engaged we knew we wanted a casual feel to our wedding. We decided that a late afternoon ceremony would be perfect for us so decided on a time of 4.00pm. This also meant that the bridal party didn’t have to wake up really early for makeup, hair etc. I was able to wake up at a normal time and enjoy breakfast with my family and friends before leisurely getting ready.

I really think having that extra time made me feel so calm and relaxed. I was petrified I was going to spend the majority of the time crying but I just felt so happy and chilled out!

After the ceremony we had drinks, photos and speeches. We thought having speeches outside before the meal would be less formal and mean that everyone could sit and enjoy the meal.

For the evening we had a DJ in the barn, lit the fire in the yurt and served cheese and biscuits along with a huge pork pie!

Flowers

The bouquets for myself, the bridesmaids and the buttonholes were arranged by Lily’s of Bramhope in Leeds. Rachel who owns the florist was absolutely brilliant and made the whole process so easy. She listened to my ideas and came up with the perfect bouquets and buttonholes.

The shop also sells lots of lovely gifts, check it out if you live in the area!

The flowers for the tables were bought from Caine Florist in Harrogate and arranged by my step mum. They worked so well with the overall feel of the wedding and went perfectly with the pastel colour theme.

Cake

The cake was baked by my step mum and decorated by a lovely friend of her colleague. The colours and design were perfect, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it looked!

Photographer

Our amazing photographer was Maisy Carr who is based in Huddersfield. I found out about her through a friend at work and was immediately drawn to her casual and relaxed photos. Maisy made us feel so comfortable in front of the camera and was lovely to be around. We couldn’t be happier with our photos – thank you so much!

Overall it was the perfect day and worth all the planning! I will continue to look back at the photos and attempt to choose my favourites to go on the walls in my home.

Recently engaged? Take a look at my previous blog ‘helpful tips from a bride to be‘ for handy tips on how to get started!

Photo credit: Maisy Carr Photography