Magical Spring Relaxed Barn Wedding

Happy Monday lovelies. I hope you had a super weekend and are refreshed and ready for the week ahead. To get you full swing into planning mode let me share with you this utterly beautiful rustic barn wedding filled to the brim with ideas.

WWW readers Jo and James tied the knot on the 16^th April 2016 at Nyman’s Gardens followed by a reception at Gildings Barn in Surrey. They envisioned a relaxed and personal day and their friends and family were there to help with the planning along the way. The gorgeous barn needed little decoration but it was enhanced with magical fairy lights, bunting, balloons and a paper heart backdrop. Fun touches included the love letter lights, pom poms and typography elements. Their day radiated personality and quirkiness throughout.

Jo looked stunning in a Pronovias gown, with it’s bow belt and lace sleeves, teamed with Jimmy Choo heels. I also have to mention the sweet bridesmaid floral crowns, they looked really pretty.

Huge thanks goes to the wonderful Irene Yap for providing these delightful images.

THE PROPOSAL | July 30^th 2015 at the Little Bar in Tooting. James had secretly contacted a close friend of my family who lived in America who had offered to help him buy a ring should he ever want to propose (a not so subtle hint at a family party!). As we were having our garden redone we were storing some stuff at my parents’ house. In the midst of moving everything into my Dad’s shed, James asked him if he could propose. My Dad was on edge for 2 weeks waiting for James to actually pop the question as he was worried about letting the cat out of the bag. There had been a couple of moments when he was going to ask but there were too many people around and he lost his nerve.

Then a couple of days before we were due to go on holiday with my family we both got in from meeting separate people for drinks and James suggested we went for a drink at the bar down the road to get in the holiday spirit. I was meant to be packing but sensing I’d get no peace unless I agreed and we went to the Little Bar in Tooting for a couple of cocktails. We were taking it in turns to buy rounds and whoever bought the round would choose what the drinks were. On the last round, James came back with 2 glasses of champagne. I was a bit confused as he isn’t really a fan of champagne so was asking him why he’d bought it. He then pulled the ring out of his pocket which created more confusion for me as I was like ‘is that what I think it is’. He said yes, asked the question and hurriedly got down on one knee. The getting on one knee was done so quickly it looked like he had just dropped something on the floor so he did that part again properly once we got home.

We called my mum and swore her to secrecy until the ring had been resized which was when I’d tell my sisters. James rung his family and shocked them with the news the next day. I managed to get the ring resized on the Saturday before we went on holiday on the Sunday. We broke the news to them Saturday night when they were both together (cue lots of screaming).

We text all of our friends from the airport on Sunday morning and had a week away to let the news sink for both of us!

THE VISION | From the start we knew we wanted something very relaxed and personal. We talked about weddings we had been to and what we had liked and what wasn’t quite us. The full vision evolved throughout the planning process but all along we were focussed on having a relaxed day and not something too formal, as we felt something too formal wasn’t very us.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | Everything stemmed from finding the venue really. Once we were back from holiday I set about finding a venue. The rest of the planning stemmed from this and I started the first of many lists to make sure I covered everything. I did the majority of the research and organising but would review options with James once the choices had been narrowed down.

Inspiration came from wedding blogs and Instagram.

THE VENUE | We knew we didn’t want a church wedding or a wedding in a hotel so started looking at other venues which were available. When we were looking it felt a challenge as we were hoping to have a spring wedding and many venues were booked up. This helped us narrow down some venues and we continued to shorten the list based on logistics and cost. As the search went on, we were beginning to feel more and more like we want a hall or something as a lot of the venues felt too structured and formal or that our day wouldn’t feel personal.

We visited one venue which we really liked but there was something missing for both of us. We booked to see another venue the following weekend and in the middle of the week during a lengthy google session, we stumbled across Gildings Barn. We instantly felt excited and after asking some questions of the owners were excited to find they had 2 dates left for 2016 including one spring date. We booked an appointment to view Gildings Barn following on from our other viewing we had already booked. Once we got there we instantly knew this is where we wanted our reception to be and by the time we had made it home we had an email confirmation to say it had been booked.

As Gildings Barn does not have a wedding license, we needed to find somewhere to have our ceremony as we wanted to have everyone present at our ceremony when we became man and wife. As our reception venue was in Surrey we looked at registry offices in the local area but unfortunately they held no more than 50 people. So we booked our local registry office for the ceremony and would arrange transport for guests. However, after discussions with our families we realised this would be a bit far so started looking for somewhere a bit closer. The majority of other licensed venues would only let you have your ceremony there if you were also having your reception there.

One day I was looking at Gildings Barn on Instagram and saw another venue someone had married at. This was on the West Sussex Border just a few miles from Gildings Barn. I contacted Nyman’s Gardens who said as their licensed venue is outside they only normally hold weddings from May- September but if we wanted to take the risk we could hold our wedding in April. We rushed down to see it that weekend and fell in love with it as it was the most beautiful setting which complimented the barn perfectly.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | My dress and veil were by Pronovias. I had a hair clip which I purchased from Anusha at Notonthehighstreet.com. My shoes were by Jimmy Choo and were the quickest decision of wedding planning! I had a browse online just after we got engaged and spotted the shoes. I then went shoe shopping with my mum a month or so after we were engaged and purchased them before we’d even thought about dress shopping! I ordered some personalised sliders from Adidas with Mrs D written for them for the evening when the heels became too much.

My hair was done by my regular hairdresser who works opposite my parent’s house. My make-up was by Sophie Cooke through The Bridal Stylists.

FINDING THE DRESS | I was a little bit daunted before I started shopping for the dress as I didn’t have much of an idea of what I wanted, just what I didn’t want. I had no idea what would suit me as I’d never worn anything like this and knowing it was the dress I would look at every day for the rest of my life made me think I had to get it right.

I decided the best place to start was for my mum and I to have a day out trying on some dresses so booked a couple of appointments in local bridal shops. By the end of this day we had narrowed it down to 3 contenders, 2 of which were Pronovias. 2 of the dresses were quite similar and by the next day I realised I couldn’t see myself getting married in either of these but I could see myself getting married in the third dress.

As this was a Pronovias dress, we booked an appointment at the Pronovias store and my sisters came along to help. Unfortunately they didn’t have the dress we’d seen but after trying on some other dresses which were similar in style we found another dress which felt very special. So now I had to decide.

I took one final day off and booked an appointment at the store in Wimbledon and one at the Pronovias store as I couldn’t find a store which stocked both dresses. My Mum and Dad came with me and although my Dad liked the first dress his face when I came out of the changing room in the second dress said it all. I also felt this was my dress. I tried it on with a veil and it felt perfect. In the excitement, my technophobe Dad even managed to film it on his iPhone!!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | This was a very easy process. We had a day out when we went to apply for our marriage license and after some Christmas shopping decided to start having a look at suits. James knew he wanted a blue suit which narrowed down his choice. We went into House of Fraser to have a look and he came across a Hugo Boss suit he really liked.

A few weeks later we were in Cardiff at the same time as his best man so we went to try the suits on together and although Hugo Boss no longer had the suit he’d seen, he found another suit in the same shade of blue and we bought the suit for him and his best man that day.

As the colour scheme had evolved to be quite pink and the bridesmaids would be wearing pink we purchased pink ties from Hugo Boss and matching socks from Ralph Lauren for James, the best man and the Dads. We didn’t have any ushers.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | We found picking the readings for the ceremony quite difficult as a lot of readings seemed to be either overly romantic or slushy or there were a few which felt a bit negative so weren’t giving the right message.

My younger sister read ‘Us Two’ by A.A. Milne which we chose as it is about journeying through life together, James jokingly calls me ‘Pooh Bear’ and it also mentions a dragon which is a subtle nod to James being Welsh. My childhood friend read ‘My Funny Valentine’ which is a lovely poem about being perfect for each other.

I walked down the aisle to an orchestral version of ‘Chasing Cars’ by the Vitamin String Quartet which is a song we love and felt perfect for the location. During the signing of the certificate we had ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’ by Stevie Wonder followed by ‘Let’s Stick Together’ by Roxy Music. We wanted something upbeat to walk out to so chose ‘You Make my Dreams Come True’ by Hall & Oates.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | As I am one of three girls, there was never any doubt in my mind that I would ask my 2 sisters to be bridesmaids. They were the perfect choice as they know me better than anyone else so knew what I’d need on the day and gave us a very special morning together getting ready.

We went out for a shopping trip together to look at dresses and didn’t manage to find their dresses but managed to get an idea of what we all liked. Following on from this and after sending several ideas round, I ordered some dresses online for them to try at home. They instantly fell in love with their Coast dresses and they were the perfect choice for them. As the weather could turn chilly, my sister Louise found cardigans in Karen Millen which had a flowery lacy back so fit with the theme. They chose their own shoes which were similar in style and with flower crowns added their look was complete.

They both did an amazing job on the day of making sure everything was running smoothly and that everyone’s glasses were kept topped up.

THE FLOWERS | As we wanted quite an informal and relaxed wedding we wanted to do the table flowers ourselves and my mum very kindly did these for us. We made an early morning trip to Covent Garden Flower Market a couple of days before the wedding and purchased everything we needed. We had done a couple of research trips there and in this time managed to buy small vases for the table.

We also wanted some flowers for Nyman’s and purchased a tray of Daisy’s which we put into terracotta pots also purchased at Covent Garden.

For the bouquets, buttonholes and headdresses I knew we would need the skills of a florist so following one unsuccessful meeting with a local florist a friend recommended Helen Cranmer who had done her wedding flowers. Helen and I arranged to meet for a coffee and Helen was instantly a dream to work with! My friend Natalie designs invitations and had designed our invitations featuring flowers. We had gathered flower ideas using a secret Pinterest board we shared between us. I showed Helen the invitations and she instantly understood what I wanted. We then looked at a couple of other pictures I had gathered on shape and style. Within a day or 2 I had received an ideas sheet from Helen which had captured everything perfectly and made my selection.

When the flowers arrived they were better than I could ever have imagined and absolutely beautiful! I can’t recommend Helen’s work enough.

THE CAKE | I found a cake design quite early on which I really liked which was a pale pink butter-cream covered cake with sugar paste flowers. When I started looking for somewhere to buy the cake from I was finding it difficult to find someone who could produce a plain butter-cream covered cake at a reasonable price. After realising the cake was going to be pretty expensive I thought I’d get a quote from Konditor & Cook where James once bought me the most amazing birthday cake from to see if the price was comparable as we knew we’d love it. It actually came in a lot cheaper than other cakes I had seen online. We ordered 3 tiers in different flavours – Curly Whirly, Lemon Chiffon and Victoria Sponge.

As we needed to transport the cake they were supplied as 3 cakes with dowelling in ready to be stacked at the venue. We added sugar paste roses from Cakeology in Raynes Park and bought a penguin bride and groom from CakeToppersbyTina on Etsy once they were stacked.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Irene Yap was the first photographer I looked at and I fell in love with her photos straight away. However, wary of jumping in too quickly we looked at a few other photographers but kept going back to Irene so a couple of days after starting our search we booked Irene. And subsequently became the first people to book her without speaking to her first!!! We then met with Irene a couple of months before the wedding to make ourselves familiar and discuss the plans we’d made and knew we’d made the right choice.

On the day itself Irene was an absolute dream to work with and many of our friends and family have commented on how she seemed to be capturing everything without being intrusive. When we received our photos back we were blown away by how beautifully everything had been captured. Everything looked even better than we could remember and the photos were the perfect souvenir of our day.

We decided against having a videographer as despite a few people suggesting it, it wasn’t something we felt we wanted or was very us and therefore we couldn’t justify the cost. Instead we asked one of my sister’s boyfriends to bring along his GoPro and this is being edited into a short video for us.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | As Gildings Barn was a blank canvas, we were pretty free to do what we wanted as long as we didn’t do anything which would be permanent. From the onset James was adamant he wanted lots of fairy lights and he contacted Bows Hire who produced a beautiful fairy light canopy for us. We hired the ‘Love’ light and our card box from Vowed & Amazed.

My mum made our beautiful bunting which was used around the main room of the barn and in one of the smaller rooms of the barn. We added balloons and pompoms around the rooms to add some more colour.

Behind the stage was a large heavy curtain which I wanted to add a bit of glitz to so I made heart curtains using a heart shaped hole punch on gold card which I stuck to fishing wire. These were tied to the curtain poles and created a perfect back-drop for the stage. A disco ball above the stage completed the glitter look!

I printed photos of us and important places such as where we met to create a ‘story of us’. This were printed in a polaroid style and hung from twine using mini pegs. I also made some signs to go round the room such as the Dancefloor Rules. We had a basket of blankets in case people got cold and a basket of flip flops for when the dancing started. In the ladies toilets there was a basket of toiletries which was appreciated!

Outside we had a table football, table tennis and coconut shy for during the reception drinks. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great during this time so they didn’t get used too much but they did provide some entertainment.

As James is from Wales and I am from London people often liken us to Gavin & Stacey and therefore our tables were named after TV couples with Gavin & Stacey being the top table. A framed photo of each couple was placed on each table along with a vase of flowers and tea lights in various holders. Instead of place names we printed a photo magnet for everybody.

Our favours were miniature bottles of raspberry and vanilla vodka which I brewed for a couple of months before the wedding. The bottles were bought from eBay and the labels through Etsy.

We hired a photobooth for the evening through The Photobooth Guys and we picked them as we really liked the lighting and that it was a backdrop rather than squeezing into a booth.

For some reason when we started planning the wedding I developed an obsession with the idea of having a mariachi band play at the reception. James didn’t see how this would really fit in so I let it go and we started to look for a DJ to play the evening. Then just before Christmas my Dad took the whole family to see The Mariachis play and we had the best time. My Dad suggested that maybe we asked them if they would play the wedding and luckily they said yes!! Apart from my family, no one else knew who we had hired or what type of music there would be so it was a complete surprise when they came out in the evening and everyone loved them!

THE HONEYMOON | Having watched quite a bit of Keeping up with the Kardashians together (no judgement please!!) we had watched the Bora Bora special a couple of times and always joked that if we ever got married we’d like to go there for our honeymoon. So when we started discussing honeymoon options we kept coming back to Bora Bora and the decision was made.

We went to Trailfinders and they helped us to plan our perfect honeymoon which included overnight stays in Los Angeles as part of the transit, a week in Moorea and a week in Bora Bora in an over the water hut. The entire trip was amazing and a complete once in a lifetime experience.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Seeing everyone’s faces when the band came out was very special.

I think it is hard to pick out particular moments but the whole day felt amazing and so full of love and happiness. We loved looking round and seeing how happy people were. It was so lovely to have everyone who was so special to us in one place and enjoying our day as much as we were.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | We started our wedding by thinking about what we had enjoyed most at other weddings we had been to and this helped shape our day. Remember to think about what you want and make sure you have something which you both really want and means a lot to you rather than doing what other people want, or what you feel you should do.

Also remember the wedding is a celebration of a marriage so try not to get bogged down by the details or stress over everything and make sure you enjoy the planning process. Things will happen which are out of your control but there is always a solution and even if things have to be slightly altered from your initial plans, you will still have a wonderful day and you will still be entering into a marriage with the man you love.

And one final piece of advice which was given to me on the wedding morning by our driver…. If a bride is ever tiring of smiling for the photos, there is always one word they should think of which will make them smile – ‘testicles’! Apparently it works every time!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Irene Yap Weddings

Ceremony | Nyman’s Gardens

Venue | Gildings Barn

Make-up  | The Bridal Stylists

Invitations | Natalie Boo Mosquera (details on request)

Love light | Vowed and Amazed

Fairylight canopy | Bows Hire

Flowers | Helen Cranmer Floral Design

Dress | Pronovias

Photobooth | The Photobooth Guys

Band | Mariachi Mexteca

Car | DS Wedding Cars

Just brilliant. It looked like everyone had such a blast.

Jo and James, thank you both so much for sharing your wonderful wedding here today xo Lou