Colourful Country Barn Street Food Wedding

The wedding venue this afternoon was nestled in the loveliest spot in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales. Rosedew Barns is actually in the same village where Dean and Genevieve live, they were also perfectly placed for dreamy portraits in a corn field and on the local beach too. Tying the knot in the summer they were blessed with glorious weather and these lovely shots transport you there in an instant.

Genevieve purchased the first dress she tried on, a 1950’s style frock by Justin Alexander which was perfect for twirling. They boys meanwhile were looking very dapper in Ted Baker suits from Moss Bros with fun polka dot ties. All of the details and décor were contributed or crafted by their loved ones which was a lovely touch.

Many thanks to Rocksalt Photography for providing the beautiful imagery today.

THE PROPOSAL | The proposal took place on a weekend away celebrating Gen’s 30^th birthday at a safari style glamping experience at Pentre Mawr House in Llandyrnog. It’s a fantastic place to stay and we can’t recommend it enough. The safari style glamping tents are kitted out with king size bed, living area, heating if required, bathroom with wet room and roll top bath and outside a hot tub. Everything is based on the land of Pentre Mawr house, which is where you eat breakfast & diner each day. Food is fantastic!

The plan was that I would propose during dinner on our first evening there. However, despite being together for 11 years already at this point, I was extremely nervous! The dining room was very small and there must have only been 2 other couples in the room. Long story short, I chickened out of popping the question there. It just didn’t feel right. Following our dinner we went back to our tent to enjoy the hot tub and a bottle of wine. It was when we were planning to go to bed that I asked Gen if she wanted another present that I had left. This is when I revealed the ring and got down on one knee to pop the big question. Thankfully she said YES! We were so excited we stayed up for hours, opened a bottle of bubbly and started discussing the vision of our big day.

THE VISION | Festival themed with street food and live music.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | The planning process started with us firstly finding a venue. The venue we chose, Rosedew Barns is in the same village we live in so we knew it well and after viewing it, we completely fell in love with it. It was perfect! We didn’t view any other venues. We had 2 years to plan the rest of our day and the long list of things to do was done over these 2 years. Most importantly, we first sorted the registrar, dress, suits, food and the live band.

BUDGET | We didn’t have an exact budget in mind for our wedding day but we were conscious not to spend on things that were not important to us.

THE VENUE | Rosedew Barns, Llantwit Major, Vale of Glamorgan.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | 50’s style Justin Alexander dress from High Society in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan. The shoes were also purchased from here. Jewellery was Emma Kate matching pearl headband and bracelet.

FINDING THE DRESS | Gen had the style of dress in mind that she wanted before trying anything on. The chosen dress was the first one that she tried on! The service at High Society was outstanding and they were extremely helpful throughout the process.

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Ted Baker 3 piece suit from Moss Bros. All groomsmen had matching 2 piece suits.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Music for the ceremony was:

Walking down the aisle – Elbow, Mirrorball.

Signing register – Etta James, At Last / Ben Howard – Only Love / The Verve, Lucky Man / Bob Marley & The Wailers, Is This Love / Incubus, Summer Romance.

Bride & Groom walking out – Michael Jackson, The Way You Make Me Feel.

Reading by Bridesmaid – The Bridge Across Forever by Richard Bach.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | Victoria Bizzell (sister) & Rachael Saunders (cousin).

THE FLOWERS | The Bay Tree, Cowbridge. Our family have used this florist for years and have a good relationship with Bryan there. We know his work well and were completely confident in him achieving what we wanted. However, he did this and more!

THE CAKE | Cakes for Celebrations, Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan. It was important to us that our guests enjoyed our cake on the evening. We didn’t want to bring loads of cake home and it go to waste. It was 4 tiered and compromised of Victoria sponge, carrot cake, chocolate sponge and coconut sponge. We requested that it was decorated with figurines of us. My passion is playing guitar and he created a little replica of my exact guitar and amplifier that I use. Gen is an English teacher and loves reading. For hers, he surrounded her with books, sat watching me playing my guitar. The end product was exactly what we had wanted and everyone commented on how great it looked and tasted!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Hannah Evans – Rocksalt Photography. We could go on forever about how amazing Hannah is! She really helped make our special day. We literally just gave Hannah an idea of the group photos we required and the rest was over to her expertise and vision. Hannah was extremely efficient on the day in getting the job done without being at all invasive. Everyone loved her! The photos that she took well exceeded any expectation we had beforehand. They are absolutely stunning!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Where possible, we wanted our décor to be personal and not just items that we had purchased. It was important for us to look around the room on our big day and know that everything had been made and put together by the people that we love. The groom’s mum made all the bunting for the main hall. The bride’s sister decorated all the jars for flowers and candles – family members had been collecting jars for about a year for us to ensure we had plenty to decorate the venue. Our brother in law made photo frames made from driftwood collected at our local beach by the venue. Our close friend Natalie at Calon Macaron made the macarons for our afternoon tea and evening desert. These went down a treat – our guests were filling their pockets for the journey home. You need to try them – they also make excellent wedding favours! Mother of the bride made heart shaped welsh cakes for the afternoon tea. Our guest book was made up of pebbles, which we had collected from our local beach and a load of sharpie marker pens. Our guests left their messages on the pebbles and these are now in our home, on display in large decorative jars. For our guests to leave cards we used my guitar case for people to place them in. Our confetti was made by the bride’s sister and nieces, using sheet music to make the cones that held it.

THE HONEYMOON | 3 week western USA road trip. This was the honeymoon that we had always wanted and it was literally a dream come true! Best holiday EVER!!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The entire day! But to pick out the real highlights –

The ceremony – Gen arriving and being told you are now husband and wife!

Speeches – All speeches by father of the bride, groom and best man were funny and very emotional.

Photos – Getting away from the party and having some time for just us was lovely. We went to Llantwit Major beach and also to a surrounding cornfield for pictures. It was great to get away and reflect on the day so far.

Partying with our family and friends – The live band were totally amazing – Spirit of Boogie. They’re a 12 piece funk band and the dance floor was never empty! Following that our very close friend, with help from a friend of his, DJ’d for us. We have many memorable moments from the evening party but especially the boys V girls ‘dance off’ and all our family and friends, arm in arm in a circle, singing along to The Beatles – All you Need Is Love!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Just do what you both want to do, what makes you happy and what is important to you both.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Rosedew Barns

Photography | Rocksalt Photography

Wedding Dress | High Society Bridal

Food | Dusty Knuckle Pizzas

Food | JOL’s Fine Food

Macarons | Calon Macaron

Cake | Cakes For Celebrations

Flowers | The Bay Tree

Band | Spirit Of Boogie

So gorgeous.

Dean and Genevieve, thank you both so much for sharing your darling celebrations with us xo Lou