Colourful Quirky Country Museum Wedding

Pastel pretty countryside wedding ideas galore this afternoon.

WWW readers Lucy and Jonathan were married on the 16^th April 2016 at the stunning Museum of Kent Life and said I do in the pale pink chapel. They envisioned a springtime colourful and quirky wedding day which represented them both as a couple. Complete with golf themed details meeting plenty of hand crafted touches and cute lego men place settings. One of my fave elements has to be the extraordinary blooms arranged by Joanne Truby Floral Design who I have had the utter pleasure of working with in the past. The colour pop whimsical blooms really stood out and Lucy’s flower crown looked oh so pretty.

Transport included a tractor and trailer plus a pastel blue VW Camper Van to ensure everyone travelled in style. Then there were the bridesmaids in elegant blue frocks, Lucy’s gorgeous lace gown and Jonathan’s sharp navy suit. Didn’t they all look marvellous?

Thanks so much to One Love Pictures for sharing these amazing images today.

THE PROPOSAL | I would call it understated romantic! Jon surprised me by proposing on 23^rd December, the day we exchanged Christmas cards- we were at home by the fire and the Christmas tree and the house was like a Santa’s grotto. It was to be our last evening alone before the Christmas family fun and chaos would begin, so it was lovely. The days that followed involved a lot of Christmas cheer- was the best Christmas ever!

THE VISION | Springtime, colourful, country, rustic, quirky (like us!).

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We had 16 months to prepare, which I think was a good amount of time to prepare and save, yet it still flew by! I was organised and had an excel spreadsheet for our budget and our study became the ‘wedding room’ for a year. I gradually bought things through the year, to spread the cost. There was still lots of last minute things to do at the end – there always is for some reason.

BUDGET | Trying to forget!

THE VENUE | We chose our venue pretty quickly. We wanted quirky and as soon as we saw this place, we knew it was the one for us! It was The Museum of Kent Life, Maidstone, Kent. We loved the fact that everything – from the adorable Chapel to the Wagon Store where we would eat, and the Village Hall for the drinking and dancing was all in one place – all in a cute little farm setting!

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | I loved my dress! It was designed by Russell Blackburn and I think it was made for me! It had a deep V back and tons of lace and an amazing layered train. I borrowed a veil from my friend Lauren – it was her mums, and Lauren had already worn it to her wedding 5 years ago. It was so stunning and went well with my dress. I wore simple diamond studs Jon bought me for our wedding day and a crystal bracelet he bought me a few years ago, and a heart diamanté necklace I borrowed from my nan. My shoes were Jenny Packham and adorable and very high! I love heels though and they didn’t come off until about when we were back at our hotel! My hair and make up was done by my friend Hayley of Flame Beauty. She did a great job!

FINDING THE DRESS | I found my dress during a sample sale at Blackburn Bridal managed by my friend Sama. After a day of trying on dresses in four different shops, I ended at Blackburn Bridal and I felt exhausted. Sama picked one of Russell’s own numbers and insisted I give it a try… it was to be my 19^th and last dress I would try. The rest is history!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Jon found his perfectly cool navy suit and grey groomsmen outfits from Debenhams Formal Hire. He was really happy with the slim fit style and we loved the aqua ties which matched the bridesmaids dresses perfectly. Jon wore a navy Armani watch I bought him for the wedding day and gorgeous brown leather shoes from Ted Baker. He looked so handsome!

THE READINGS & MUSIC | My mum and my sister’s boyfriend Luke did our two readings perfectly which both meant a lot to us. We had Ich Liebe Dich by Erich Fried and Scaffolding by Seamus Heaney. Jon was very happy to take full charge of the music from day one! We had a brilliant playlist in the chapel for guests arriving and for our time spent in there. I walked down the aisle to Songbird by Fleetwood Mac and we walked out together to Happy Together by The Turtles. We had an amazing singer – Calli Malpas for a post ceremony acoustic session, and our first dance which she sang an unforgettable version of Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeren, We then danced the night away to Calli and her cool band OCD until we dropped!

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I had 4 bridesmaids: my sister Jess, my sister in law Erin, and my two friends Lauren and Kelly. They wore gorgeous pale blue/green long dresses with pretty lace cap sleeves and diamanté detail from Debut at Debenhams. They all wore their own different shoes to have some individuality. I bought them matching diamanté hair slides from Glitzy Secrets for the big day. All my girls (16 of us!) gave me the best send off into married life with the best hen do ever – in Bournemouth. We had so much fun, but it couldn’t possibly be repeated on here!

THE FLOWERS | My beautiful blooms were created by Joanne Truby who is a real talent! I didn’t really know too much about flowers but she taught me so much and I now know I love succulents and craspedias for Jon as they apparently resemble a golf ball! Our flowers were really special – especially my gorgeous flower crown I asked Joanne to make, which I kept a surprise from Jon which was nice.

THE CAKE | I had the idea for a throwback to our childhood cake in the style of giant fondant fancies one day, and then neither of us could think of anything else as original or that jumped out at us as much as this! As soon as we had settled on this idea, we knew just the person who could create this. My friend from school, Laura is not only a fantastic baker but has always been an amazing artist. We had 3 giant fondant fancies of different flavours: fruit for the smallest layer (we have frozen this), chocolate and then blueberry sponge with blueberry filling, with white chocolate decoration all over and Lego cake toppers to resemble us! It was all to die for.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | My friend Hayley who did my make up and hair recommended Denise – she thought Denise’s photography style would suit our personalities and our wedding vision and she was so right! We had an engagement shoot with Denise in June 2015 which helped us get to know Denise and to also learn to feel comfortable in front of the camera. I would recommend this for any camera shy couples although you might not imagine you would enjoy it. It was so great and we have some lovely photos to look back on now. Our wedding photos were fantastic and the style suited the venue and setting so well. Denise and Kirsty did a brilliant job on the day and we felt so at ease with them there with us. I would recommend One Love Pictures to anyone and will definitely be calling on Denise in the future when I think of an excuse to do another shoot!

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We did everything ourselves with helpful hands from my sister, mum and auntie with table décor, napkin holders, favour bags and Save the Dates. It was stressful at times but really fun to have a reason to get together to get things done and with a great result. I felt proud to have done a lot of it ourselves as it made it individual. I made my own wood slice save the dates, and invitations and Order of Services which I completely underestimated how long they would take! But they were so worth it. Jon and my sister and sister in law helped me with these too. We didn’t have a set rigid style, but wanted to incorporate unique little features which were personal to us. So Jon made a fab Lego based table plan which had individual Lego men for every guest. We made wooden golf flags as table names, and for favours we had a personalized golf ball for all the men, and individual birthstone crystals for the ladies. Several people complimented us on what a nice touch this was. Also – thank goodness for lights! We had a ton of fairy lights all over the village hall where the music and dancing was in the evening. My friend also saved loads of little glass yoghurt jars for me for a year which I used to line the footpath outside and on the tables filled with tea lights. We had lots of hessian to match our rustic, farm setting. My mum and sister helped me make little bags decorated with lace, ribbon and wooden heart buttons (leftover from the invitations), and I made hessian table runners. I also spent many evenings with a glass of wine and my beloved heart paper cutter – making table confetti out of old music scores I bought on eBay. My sister and I also made a great Order of the Day chalkboard using her artistic skills.

THE HONEYMOON | Our honeymoon really was our trip of a lifetime. We loved planning it together too. We did 19 days around Vietnam, starting and ending in Bangkok which is a city we both love. Our honeymoon was a perfect combination of relaxing, city, beach life, history, culture, food and cocktails!!!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Too many to list but it really was the best day of our lives (so far!). We talk about it all the time and it was worth every penny and moment of stress. There’s no other place to mention but our food was amazing too – thanks to Zest Catering. We had lots of compliments about this. I really loved the speeches too – my dads, Jon’s and the best men all completely pulled it out the bag and had the room in fits of laughter and tears all at the same time, it was the most fabulous way to end a great meal.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Just enjoy and relish every moment, as it really whizzes by in a flash. Enjoy the build up, enjoy the preparation. A work colleague said to me once and it really stuck in my mind to be true: people are shocked by wedding costs and the time and money that goes into what a lot of people say is JUST ONE DAY. But you have to try to take on board that it’s more than ONE DAY. It’s all the special memories and moments along the way that we will never forget. The late nights cutting and sticking, the champagne collecting and sampling! The dress fittings, the togetherness of friends and family excited about the upcoming nuptials. It’s all really special. And there I was thinking I’d never become a Bridezilla! x

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Denise Rimmer – One Love Pictures

Flowers | Joanne Truby Floral Design

Singer | Calli Malpas

Band | OCD

Hair & Make Up | Hayley Chuck – Flame Beauty

Caterer | Zest Creative Catering

Dress | Blackburn Bridal

Galina Hnaticova

Cake | Laura The Baker Catterall – Facebook

Just magic.

Many thanks to Lucy and Jonathan for sharing their really wonderful wedding story with us xo Lou