Crafty & Rustic Outdoor Barn Wedding at Preston Court with a Justin Alexander Dress | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

Crafty & Rustic Outdoor Barn Wedding at Preston Court with a Justin Alexander Dress | Whimsical Wonderland Weddings

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I don't think there is much about this wedding that I don't love and I just know you guys are going to fall head over heels too.

Sarah and Steve tied the knot on Thursday 8 th August 2013 at the whimsical Preston Court, Kent. They wanted a simple yet rustic DIY wedding with lots of the music that they love. Keeping to a clean ivory colour palette there were pretty flowers, bridesmaids in the loveliest dresses and crafty touches galore.

Sarah looked divine in a Justin Alexander tea length dress with bow shoes, while Steve wore a sharp black suit with custom converse. So much personality, so much fun.

Thanks so much to the utterly wonderful Fiona Kelly for sharing her photographs on the blog today.

THE PROPOSAL | By Steve: The day started like every other monday morning. Sarah went off to work before me and left me to struggle my way out of bed! Luckily, I had booked the day off work, unbeknownst to Sarah.

I made my way to Highgate Station (where we first met). Once I had arrived I sent her a video message saying I had a surprise for her and that she should meet me at the station entrance asap. When she finally got there with Henry (the child she was nannying for) I wasn't there. She text to find out where I was and this was my reply:

"Do you remember when it was beautiful and white? Even now I still think you're pretty alright! Come meet me now, if you think you could... Our romantic first date in Highgate Wood!"

Once she had entered the woods, I sent her my location using my phone. She followed the map until she found a tree with a card and a single rose tied to it... The card read "I have a question for you". I appeared from behind a tree, said some lovely things, got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.... She said yes!!!

THE VISION | Our original vision was a simple rustic wedding. I think we still achieved that look, though it was definitely not simple! Sarah is incredibly gifted at arts and crafts so she wanted to create a lot of the decorations herself - to keep the cost down too!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We were both addicted to Pinterest, we used it as a source of inspiration with boards full of dresses, suits, table plans and DIY decorations. We didn't stick to a timeline in regards to planning- some things we found very quickly, like the venue, and others took months to find like the dress!

BUDGET | Not a budget wedding. We tried to keep a low budget with lots of DIY, we made the invites and a lot of the decorations ourselves - even made our own outdoor photo booth with props.

THE VENUE | Preston Court, Preston, Canterbury, Kent, CT3 1DH. Preston Court is a truly amazing venue, comprising of two beautiful rustic barns, vintage organs, a carousel, steam trains, and a little island on the lake where the ceremony took place.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Justin Alexander 8465 (latte/natural), shoes - Dorothy Perkins, hair - Accesorize, pearl bracelet - was my Gran's.

FINDING THE DRESS | I spent ages Googling dresses. I knew a tea length dress would suit our rustic venue but I needed something with detail! I'm artistic and couldn't stand the idea of a plain white dress. Also I'm a redhead so even a WHITE dress with my complexion seemed scary! When I saw the Justin Alexander (8465) I instantly fell in love and when I tried it on and it fit like a glove, I saw that as a sign - the perfect dress for me!

GROOM'S ATTIRE | I wasn't planning anything fancy with the suit. I picked up a nice three-piece suit at Next for a very reasonable price. I wore a light blue shirt with a dark blue tie. The only 'stand-out' item I wore were my shoes - I had a custom pair of converse made which were grey with the word "Groom" stitched on the back!

THE READINGS & MUSIC | There were no readings as we preferred a shorter ceremony. Our taste in music is very similar so coming up with the music was fairly easy. We both love acoustic singer/songwriters and for the ceremony had a bunch of our favourites from that genre, including: Josh Pyke, James Vincent McMorrow, Ben Howard and Jose Gonzalez. For the rest of the wedding we wanted to include into the mix of acoustic stuff, a bit of classic R&B as we both absolutely love Sam Cooke ("Nothing Can Change This Love" was our first dance). The DJ played lots of great tunes from that times and everybody had a great time dancing along to the classics!

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My 9 year old niece was my flower girl/ junior bridesmaid, her dress was from Monsoon. I also had two of my closest friends as my bridesmaids, we looked at lots of traditional bridesmaid dresses before eventually finding the gorgeous cream, 50's style dress from Joy the store.

THE FLOWERS | Angela is a superb florist, should understood our vision perfectly, we had roses and peonies in pale peach and cream, with eucalyptus all wrapped in hessian. On the tables we had the same flowers, but in mismatched jars and vases.

THE CAKE | Melissa is so talented! We had a collection of stunning "vintage shabby chic cupcakes" decorated in cream, mint, and peach for all our guests, then a big swirl frosted cake for us to cut- it looked very simple, but inside it was a three layer Oreo cake with vanilla cream! Amazing!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Fiona Kelly was our photographer who did a great job of capturing our big day. She has an amazing ability to make you feel incredibly at ease in front of the camera and because of that, it was a pleasure having her at our wedding. We now have a collection of truly superb photographs of the best day of our lives and Fiona made that happen for us!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | There were so many little details its hard to know where to start... our table plan was handwritten on the windows of a miniature London telephone box which we filled with fairy lights to add interest once it got dark. Our place settings were DIY vintage luggage tags hung on every chair. The tables were covered in mismatched doilies (found on ebay). We had paper pom poms and bunting hanging inside and outside the barns. We made a photo booth area, using a bench, a hanging picture frame, lots of paper medallions as a backdrop and a box of DIY props. We had lawn games in the court yard which went down a treat!

THE HONEYMOON | Unfortunately, we still haven't had a honeymoon. After the wedding we didn't have the money to go away and we both really wanted to start a family! Sarah is now pregnant (due November), so we have planned a Babymoon this August (for our anniversary!)

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | It was such a fantastic day with so many great moments that neither of us will forget! The weather made the day so much better though! As did the garden games that the DJ brought along. A funny moment was when a wasp got stuck under the lining of a bridesmaid's dress (caught on camera too!) But our absolute favourite moment came shortly after the ceremony and everyone had made their way back outside the Kentish Barn. Sarah and I decided to have a quick peek inside the barn to see how everything was laid out and to put some music on for the guests. The first song on was a favourite of ours "Accidentally in Love" by Counting Crows and we couldn't help having our own private first dance together, complete with silly jumps and crazy spins!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | The same advice many gave us: Enjoy the day and take lots of photographs! It goes by so quickly but it will last in your memory forever. Nearly every computer/device I own has a wedding snap as the background wallpaper so it'll be very difficult to forget!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Fiona Kelly

Venue | Preston Court

DJ | Disco Shed

Flowers | Dream of Flowers

Cake | Fairy Dust Bakery

Oh my so so lovely.

Thanks so much to Sarah and Steve for sharing their wonderful wedding day with us XOXO Lou

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