Hand Crafted Colourful Country Wedding

Hand Crafted Colourful Country Wedding

via

 

Sam and Becky had the loveliest of wedding days.

They chose Alpheton Hall Barn, Suffolk as the backdrop to their vision of a hand crafted colourful country wedding. There is so much to love about their day, from the colourful DIY flowers, to the personal touches and big fat smiles.

Sam went for black jeans which he teamed with a waistcoat and jacket from ASOS, while the bridesmaids wore vibrant purple frocks and pretty necklaces. Becky fell for an ethereal layered dress which she wore with a flower crown and floor length veil. Swoon.

Thanks so much to The Image Garden Photography for sharing their gorgeous images with us today.

 

 

The Proposal… We had decided to go on holiday to the Isle of Wight in our Camper van (Mavis), we had it all planned to go but then a week beforehand Mavis broke down and had to go into the garage to be repaired. Sam was determined that we should still go, whereas i had almost given up on the idea…..little did i know that Sam had bought a ring, had got it sized to fit and had spoken to my Mum and Dad and most of our friends and family about proposing! Luckily my Uncle Kieran came up trumps by very kindly offering us use of his Camper (Rainbow) for the trip! We had a fantastic time in Rainbow and stayed in a couple of excellent camp sites, one looking right over the sea.

Sam hadn’t been sure where exactly he was going to pop the question, but the time was right when we went took a cable car down to see the Needles jutting out of the sea, it was a beautiful sight, looking out to sea he got down on one knee, I couldn’t have been more excited and blurted out YES before he had finished asking!

The Vision of the Day… We decided to give ourselves almost two years to save and prepare for our vision of a hand crafted country wedding. both sides of our family are creative and we wanted everyone to be involved. A cheerful, colourful, happy feel was what we were after. There had to be lots of bunting with a camper van theme!

The Planning Process… We started by searching the internet for a venue that would be a bit different from the norm. We quickly realised that a lot of venues sold packages whereas we wanted a place that gave you a bit more freedom to make it your own. As soon as we saw the pictures on line of Alpheton Hall Barn we new this was the place we wanted to get married. It’s a beautiful barn set in rural Suffolk, restored from scratch by it ‘s owner, it’s quirky rustic charm won us over. It was so picturesque, right within our budget and somewhere we could be creative.

We found Caterers local to us who used local produce and would provide an informal BBQ wedding breakfast and evening buffet. Once the date was set and the registrar booked the wedding scrapbook was started and the fun creative elements began!

Budget… From the beginning our aim was to keep the budget below £10,000. With savings and generous donations from our parents we managed to stay within budget. Creating our own wedding stationery and doing our own flowers helped to keep costs down.

The Dress & Accessories… My dress felt wonderful to wear, it was layered silk chiffon, buttoned down the back, it felt soft and floaty, long and ethereal. The owner of the shop suggested a full length veil and this really made me feel like a true bride. My shoes were from Schuh, I was sold on the bow detail straight away, plus they were cushioned inside, perfect for dancing! I bought three necklaces as i couldn’t decide which would look best, my bridesmaids helped me decide on the day, the organic looking flower necklace looked right, went with the country feel and also went with the bridesmaid’s necklaces. The thing for me that really completed my outfit was a flower circlet made out of really flowers by florist Alie Blackman. I had been planning to only wear it when I’d taken my veil off after the ceremony, but I loved it so much that I wore it the whole day!

Finding the Dress… I found my dress fairly quickly, there are many wedding dress shops in Colchester so I was spoilt for choice. It seems to be true that once you try on ‘the dress’, you just know it’s the right one! I didn’t want to take the dress off, I was swishing about in it for ages, it clicked that it would suit the venue perfectly, I felt like a woodland fairy!

Groom’s Attire… Sam didn’t want to wear a formal suit, he wanted to feel relaxed with a rock and roll edge. To his surprise I totally agreed with his idea of wearing black jeans, I new that Sam, the best man and ushers would feel more like themselves in jeans. We found leather ties from a retro shop and Sam found jackets and a waistcoat for himself from ASOS. We decided that blue would be a good colour for summer, contrasting against the black jeans.

One thing we hadn’t dreamed that Sam would have to wear was a moon boot! Two months before the wedding Sam fractured his foot playing football. He was in a cast up until 10 days before the wedding!! We were very fortunate that for the ceremony he was able to wear a ‘real’ shoe and to help him walk Sam’s Mum Christine bought Sam a wooden walking stick and decoupaged it with maps, it looked great! Sam wore the moon boot for the rest of the day and it became a feature of the wedding!

The Readings & Music… We had two readings, one a sweet poem about walking hand in hand but still being your own person – read by my chief bridesmaid Gemma and the second was a funny poem by John Cooper-Clarke called ‘i wanna be yours’ – read by Sam’s cousin David. We wanted music be a big feature of the day as many of our friends and family are very talented musicians. While signing the marriage certificate Sam’s best man Ben sang two amazing songs on his acoustic guitar, one being ‘Stand by me’ by John Lennon and the other was ‘May you Never’ by John Martyn. For the reception Sam’s plan was to have a family and friend’s band, Sam had been planning to play the drums himself but the moon boot prevented that! Luckily a family friend was able ‘step’ in! Called ‘Clive foot and the long notes’ our brilliant friends and my Dad John performed a great set, it got everyone dancing! Two surprise songs were also performed for us by my Dad and Uncle Dave, first they sang ‘The Jacksons’ a Jonny Cash song with the words adapted to be all about Sam and I, and the second was a blues number called ‘One legged Jackson’ you can guess who that was about!!

We had a DJ later in the evening who goes by the name ‘DJ Jazzlord’ he did an awesome vinyl mix of soul, funk, latin and 60′s beats which got everyone grooving! Our first dance was to Louis Armstrong ‘Wonderful World’ and as surprise gift Jazzlord gave us the vinyl copy to keep!

Beautiful Bridesmaids… I knew right from the start that I wanted to go for a vibrant summery colour for the bridesmaids, in a style that would have the same feel as my dress – floaty with a sweet heart neckline, we found perfect dresses in Hobbs. For the shoes I asked them to find ones that were bright! The bold necklaces from accessories gave a real colourful look that I was going for which completed the outfit.

Page Boys… My three adorable nephews were page boys, they wore fab stripy shirts, cargo shorts and converse style trainers all brilliantly selected by my sister in law Mahri-Claire. I wanted the boys to feel comfy and relaxed and at the same time link in with the wedding party, their outfits worked really well, they looked so lovely and could still run about and have fun without feeling restricted!

The Flowers… My plan was always to do my own flowers. My Mum Anne had done her own for her wedding in the 70′s and they looked so natural, just what i wanted to achieve – like they had just been picked from a meadow. I did an evening flower workshop which really helped me to understand how to make button holes and the bouquets. As it grew closer to the wedding I realised that I was taking on a lot doing it on my own and luckily we new a talented florist, Alie Blackman who was willing to help me with it the day before the wedding to achieve exactly what i wanted. I had shown Alie my scrap book of ideas and she ordered many different types of flowers form a wholesalers for me to work with. Alie and I made each button hole different and the page boys had fab little button holes too. It was so wonderful having all different flowers to pick and choose from to create the the bouquets. I used a colourful mix of different sizes, tied with a ribbon, with the stalks showing to give it the rustic look. I was so thrilled with the way they turned out, especially as it was a really quick turn around to create them all. I was even more delighted that in my bouquet were roses from my Grandma and Grandpa’s garden.

For the table decorations our vision was to have a selection of glass bottles on each table with a random mix of flowers in each. My Aunty Chrissy did a marvellous job scouring all the charity shops around Newcastle for bottles and found many quirky, unusual bottles which worked really well on the tables. My bridesmaid Rachel did a fantastic job arranging all the flowers in the bottles. We also had big metal buckets supplied by the venue which Sam’s Mum packed full with a lovely mix of foliage from her garden and Sam’s favourite flowers – Sunflowers! The buckets hung from the walls in the ceremony room which looked so cheery! My Mum also planted two big pots inspired by a drawing of flowers on our invite, they looked wonderful as I walked down the aisle and again when Sam and I walked back up the aisle together!

The Cake… My Mum Anne, lovingly made the most amazing, and very tasty cakes. Each cake had a ‘mini mavis’ camper van on it, to give the idea that Mavis was going on a journey thought the cakes! The first cake was the ‘Isle of Wight’ cake. My mum”s classic lemon cake which she covered in royal icing, creating the sea and sand. On top were The Needles and lighthouse, that Sam had made out of icing.The centre cake was the more traditional of the three, a carrot and nutty cake with buttercream and large roses crafted on top. The third cake was the ‘trippy sunflower field’ cake, a scrummy gluten free chocolate brownie cake. Each cake was joined by mini bunting, linking the cake journey!

Your Photographer… We chose Sharron Gibson from The Image Garden to do our photography. We had seen Sharron’s work online and instantly new that she would capture our day perfectly. Sharron did an amazing job, when we saw our photos we were blown away! So were our friends and family. They really captured the essence of the day but more than that they also have an artistic beauty! These photos will be an amazing reminder of our big day.

The Details & Décor… One of our main features was bunting!! Sam’s Aunty Gill was the bunting queen! She made metres and metres for the main barn and personalised ‘Becky and Sam’ bunting for the ceremony room, it was fantastic!

For favours both Mum’s put their creativity into action. For the girls Sam’s Mum Christine made pretty patterned envelopes and labels for poppy seeds called ‘Bridal Silk”. The boys had our family recipe – Grandma Beere’s Indian apple chutney made by Becky’s Mum Anne. We made fabric lid covers, tied with ribbon and a label with a photo of Grandma Beere herself at my Nanna’s wedding in the late 1940′s.

My Aunty in law Ann made the most beautiful heart ring cushion with ribbon embroidery – the detail in it is so intricate and colourful, it was perfect!

Both Dad’s and my broth Greg wore ties hand made my Ferris Design, the colour linked in with the bridesmaid dresses and went with the grooms parties pocket squares.

The camper van table numbers and camper van map table plan were made by Sam. Luckily he loves to draw and this kept him occupied when he was off work with his foot in plaster! Each camper was different, which of course included Mavis and Rainbow! Smaller versions of the campers were placed on the map, picking out places where our guests had come from.

With my maiden name being Beere (silent ‘e’!) We had to have something beer related, so for the cards table we found a vintage beer crate from the young’s brewery.

It is tradition in our family that everyone who gets married in the family gets a quilt, my Mum Anne made the most wonderful ‘I Spy’ quilt, it lots of embroidered detail, depicting Sam and mines life together, the more you look at it the more detail you see!

The Honeymoon… Due to Sam’s foot still needing to fully recover we decided to postpone the big holiday until the new year, but we did go on two mini breaks. For two nights we stayed in a star gazing pod in Dorset. It was a cosy wooden dome with a perspex roof to see the stars at night. It was very relaxing, but overcast, so we did a lot of good cloud gazing instead!

We also went to our friend’s wedding in Italy, it was fun to celebrate with our friends on a mini moon!

Memorable Moments… We have so many wonderful memories from the day. All day the barn was filled with so much love and laughter, it felt so amazing having all our friends and family together. The speeches for us were very memorable, My Dad, Sam, Best man Ben and Amy (Sam’s sister) gave speeches that we will never forget that made us laugh and cry!

Advice for Other Couples… Take moments throughout the day to stop, take a deep breath and look around, take it all in! Also, don’t let your husband to be play football weeks before the wedding!!!

Credit Where Credit is Due…

Photographer: The Image Garden

Flowers: Alie Blackman floristry

Venue: Alpheton Hall Barns

Catering: Pau’s Catering

Dress: Bee Mine – Colchester

Handmade ties: Ferris Design

Hair: Bridal and Vintage Hair

DJ: DJ Jazzlord 

 

Those flowers! And how beautiful did Becky look?

Thanks so much to Sam and Becky for sharing their stunning wedding with us today XOXO Lou

Войти в систему, чтобы оставлять комментарии

Follow us on