Rustic & Magical Farm Barn Fairy Lights Wedding - Whimsical...

Rustic & Magical Farm Barn Fairy Lights Wedding - Whimsical...

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The planning process wasn't all smooth sailing for Leigh and Abi after their original wedding venue let them down. But Alcumlow Hall Farm came to the rescue with their enchanting barn and this was the first wedding ever held there. How special is that?

WWW readers Leigh and Abi tied the knot on the 8 th August 2015 and envisioned a unique and rustic wedding. And oh my did the barn deliver that vision, it looked oh so magical draped in reams fairy lights. They then added their own gorgeous touches which included hessian details, a naked cake and DIY blooms. Perfect.

Many thanks to the amazing Dan Hough Photo for providing the wonderful imagery.

THE PROPOSAL | Leigh proposed on our 1 year anniversary, he'd asked my step-dads permission beforehand which I thought was really sweet. We went out for a lovely meal and he popped the question almost as soon as we'd sat down! I think he was nervous, but we both knew we had something special. We had both been in long term relationships before, but nothing had ever felt like this and we knew we were soul mates.

The next day he took me to the jewellery quarter in Birmingham to pick my ring and he proposed again, but this time on bended knee!

THE VISION | We had always wanted something completely different to the weddings we'd been to before. It was really important to us that our day wasn't too formal, as we wanted guests to enjoy themselves and let their hair down.

We loved the idea of a village fete/ rustic type wedding, and so the search began for inspiration on Pinterest, wedding magazines, blogs. It wasn't long until we were hunting for bunting, glass jars and twine!

At this point we didn't have a specific venue in mind, but the end result was better than we could have ever imagined......

THE PLANNING PROCESS | I started the planning about 3 weeks after Leigh proposed! I like to be organised so I got straight on to searching for venues, dresses, you name it!

At the time, Leigh and I were renovating our new house so he left the planning to me (isn't that normally the way anyway?!) So I roped in my sister in law Zoe who was an absolute godsend, I guess it helped that she loved weddings herself and was super organised. I really don't know what I would have done without her looking back.

Most of the important things were booked within about 3 months so it gave me time to concentrate on the finer details and work out where to save money.

THE VENUE | This is where fate took an interesting turn....

We had always wanted somewhere different, somewhere unique, but unfortunately the budget wasn't allowing for that and so we both settled on a venue based in Cheshire that we liked and thought we could decorate to our theme.

We had 7 months to go and I contacted the venue, only to be informed that the wedding planner had left 6 months before and we should have been updated. Both Leigh and I were concerned because no one had kept us up to date and so we asked for a meeting with the owner.

We were assured by her that everything agreed would still stand and to not worry... only to have an email from her a couple of hours later to say they wanted another £1500 for price increases this year!

We were shocked, devastated and worried as we'd not budgeted for this and to be honest, felt that the venue wasn't worth the price they were now demanding.

The next day, we frantically searched for a new venue as we weren't prepared to pay more but couldn't find anything that was available on the date we'd booked.

It was by coincidence the very same day that my sister in law decided to head to Snugberry's on the A34, Alcumlow Hall Farm. She had always taken my niece and nephew for ice cream and had become friendly with the owner Bev. Zoe had told her about my situation and wondered whether she knew of any suitable venues, only for Bev to say she thought she could help out!

The following day, I went to see Bev with Zoe and my mum, she said they were about to start renovation on a disused barn at the side of the farm.... To say you needed imagination, creative thinking and vision was an understatement! I think most brides at this point would have thanked Bev for her help and ran!

The barn had no real roof, was filled full of wood chippings, had no sides, and the outside was just mud and weeds!

But Bev spoke so passionately about her plans for the barn and I believed that she was going to turn this into a magical venue. She said that she was confident it'd be finished in time for August and was more than happy to help given the situation we were in.

I couldn't say no, this had always been my dream venue and I instantly trusted Bev, there was something about this woman who had shown great kindness in a time full of stress, I knew she wouldn't let me down and so we changed our venue!

Now that we had full control of organising the big day, we felt so much better! We knew that as long as the barn was complete everything would turn out just fine. We had to organise everything ourselves; caterers, luxury loos, the brewery etc. This was exactly how we wanted it in the beginning and it had finally come true!

The money, work, hours and stress that Bev, her partner Todd, along with other helpers at Alcumlow Farm must have put in to make our dream day come true was absolutely incredible. The venue was better than we could have ever imagined and we were so excited to say that we'd be the first couple to have our wedding reception there!

Even up to the last week, Bev and Todd were tirelessly working to make sure everything was perfect for us, we'll never be able to thank them enough for their help and hard work and anybody looking to get married at Alcumlow will have something so incredibly special and unique.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | I found my dress very quickly, although I would only say yes to it once both my mum and Leigh's mum approved. It was really important for me to make sure Leigh's mum was involved in the wedding just as much as mine, as she doesn't have a daughter and I think you tend to miss out with sons.

My veil was Richard Designs and I'd found that on Ebay from a shop closing down.

My earrings where freshwater pearls from the Manchester Christmas markets last year, and Leigh's mum managed to find the matching necklace which both she and her late husband bought for me. It made wearing the necklace all the more special.

FINDING THE DRESS | I knew I wanted lace and was quite sure of the style I would pick. I was out one Monday with my mum and step dad and we passed a bridal shop called Golden Couture Brides in Crewe, and my mum suggested we take a quick look.... Only for me to then try on loads of dresses!

The style I thought I'd pick just didn't look right so I took the shop owners advice and tried on an "A" line lace dress, it looked beautiful! My poor step dad had been waiting in the car for ages, so my mum told him to come up to the shop.... he took one look at me and burst into tears, I knew I'd found the dress, but to be doubly sure we came back the following Saturday with Leigh's mum, and once I had her approval that was it, dress purchased!

GROOM'S ATTIRE | We managed to get Leigh and his best men fixed up at Marks & Spencer's with their gorgeous blue suits. The rest of the groomsmen purchased their suits from Next.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We had a string quintet at the church and reception, which made Pachelbel's "Canon in D" sound absolutely beautiful.

My sister in law Zoe read "Marriage Joins Two People in the Circle of its Love" by Edmund O'Neill, and our vicar John Varty read Ephesians 5:21 end which is very traditional but meant something to us both.

We walked out to "All You Need is Love" by The Beatles!

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I chose my two second cousins, as I had been a bridesmaid for their mum 20 years ago, and I thought it would be lovely to have them part of our special day. I also had my best friend Amie who I've known for 15 years.

I managed to find the perfect green dresses for our bridesmaids at Debenhams, and they were also in the sale!

My beautiful flower girls were my two Nieces and they looked so cute in their ivory dresses that I'd also picked up in Debenhams.

THE FLOWERS | Parsley and Sage in Longton was out florist, I had come across them on Instagram and loved their vintage style arrangements. We went for an appointment with Charlotte and she was fantastic, I knew our flowers would be beautiful. My bouquet was better than I could imagine, I've dried the flowers out as I don't want to chuck them away!

To keep costs down we decorated the venue ourselves, but I purchased the flowers from Parsley and Sage which were very reasonable.

THE CAKE | We had a "naked" cake which meant no icing or frosting, I though the look of the cake would be perfect with the venue we'd chosen. My only concern was if it got too hot would the cake sink but it didn't and it was gorgeous.

A family friend made it as she has her own business and as always it tasted amazing.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | There was never any question as to who the photographer was going to be!

I'd known Dan Hough for a couple of years as I'd worked with him previously and his work was incredible and right up our street. We went for an engagement photo shoot with Dan at Delamere forest, which really helped us to relax and feel comfortable on the day.

I think he really enjoyed capturing our wedding day, especially as we were up for trying different things and exploring at the back of the barn! My dress ended up being pretty dirty and ripped by the end of the night but I was so pleased that I'd worn it out and captured some amazing memories.

There are hundreds and hundreds of photos and I'm finding it so difficult to pick my favourite ones!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We collected lots of little bits and pieces for the wedding from everywhere imaginable. One of the bargains were the jars that someone had decorated with lace and hessian themselves from Ebay, I think about 30 jars cost about £10! Leigh's mum ordered hessian online for the tables, and the name tags were made by myself, Zoe and Leigh. The flowers for the table were bought extra from Parsley and Sage and my godmother had lots of Hydrangeas growing in her garden so we used them to fill up the milk churns - which we lent from my friends uncle! We decided we wanted a sweet table, so we bought the jars and sweets ourselves, they definitely went down a storm. The favours were different coloured mason jars with a tag that Leigh's mum had made me with various coloured love heart buttons, so cute. We had always wanted an old fashioned red double decker London bus, and would you believe, Bev's blacksmith knew the people at Routemaster Buses. Everyone commented on how fantastic it was to be picked up from the venue and taken back again!

The end result was just fab - I didn't realise how creative we all were!

THE HONEYMOON | We had a mini-moon straight after the wedding and went to The Grove at Narbeth which was lovely. Our main honeymoon is booked in October, we are heading to Singapore for 3 nights and Bali for 13, and it can't come soon enough!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | I'll personally never forget the look on my step dads face when he saw me in my dress - emotional! Not forgetting Leigh's when he first saw me walking down the aisle. I think we are both very thankful that Leigh's granddad could be with us as he'd not been well. I think just the whole day was just so memorable and so amazing it's hard to pick!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | After the stress we'd been through at the start with our first venue, my advice would be to make sure you have absolutely everything in writing from your venue, what they are offering you, and also make sure you have a contract.

With regards to the rest, shop around, do not always pay the first price you see! There are plenty of bargains and sales out there if you take your time. Try and make things yourself, or rope in family and friends that are creative.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Alcumlow Hall Farm

Photographer | Dan Hough Photo

Make Up Artist | Liz Clough Make Up

Florist | Parsley and Sage

Hair | Frankie & Andrew at Acropolis House of Style, Kidsgrove

Caterers | Ridgway Caterers

Loos | Luxury Loos

Brewery | Wincle Beer

Cake | Victoria Higginbotham [email protected]

London Red Bus | Routemaster Buses

It just goes to show that things usually happen for a reason. What a beautiful day.

Leigh and Abi, many thanks for sharing your wonderful story with us xo Lou

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