Rustic Barn Wedding with Greenery & Sparkle

We’re off to Shropshire today for WWW readers Jo and James’ rustic barn wedding of dreams. They were married on the 29th June 2019 at Pimhill Barn which turned out to be a very balmy summers day. Their vision was for a laid back rustic style celebration complete with greenery and a touch of sparkle, it was all just so very gorgeous.

Their wedding was very much a DIY affair, as they crafted up a storm together with their loved ones to achieve a really personal and stylish vibe. There are so many fantastic details you are going to adore, from the glitter station and signs to the wooden arch used as a backdrop to the romantic ceremony. I was also delighted to see that WWW Supplier Love members Shropshire Petals provided the lovely confetti wands for the flower girls and pageboys, so cute!

I just love all the on trend attire worn by Jo and James and their entire wedding party, the gorgeous flowers and magical lighting. We have both Brightwing Photography and Floodgate Films to thank for sharing with us these utterly enchanting photographs and film. Enjoy it all folks.

The Proposal

James knows that my favourite place to be in the world is at home with our cockapoo Fletcher! So, this is where he proposed in July 2017. He had a rare Saturday off work and had bought the ring months before with one of his best men but didn’t know when to ask me so one Saturday morning he woke up and just decided to do it! My dad already knew as he had asked for his permission, but it was a lovely surprise for the rest of the family.

The Vision

Rustic and laid back with lots of greenery and foliage to compliment the barn’s natural beauty. A very muted colour scheme of greens and whites with a bit of vintage glitz!

The Planning Process

The planning started almost straight away after we got engaged in July 2017, I just couldn’t wait! It started with booking our venue in the August and the photographer shortly after. We then just spent the two years collecting decorative items, researching and booking things. Oh, and saving as much as we could! The wedding was all I could think about for most of the time but I loved every second. Most of the décor was visualised by me but we discussed our ideas together and agreed on most things which is good! I kind of took over the planning process which James was more than happy with!

Budget

We had talked about a rough budget but just tried to be sensible and spend most money on the things that were more important to us-venue, food & photographer. We did end up going over what we had planned but it was all absolutely worth it.

The Details & Décor

Most of décor was done ourselves, with help from our army of friends and family. We always knew it would be more of a DIY wedding, not only to try and keep costs down but because I knew I would love doing it.

The weeks before the wedding were spent stamping small brown gift tags with our initial’s using our beautiful stamp from The English Stamp company, and then tying them to mini bottles of Jägermeister for our favours, my friend Sinead doing all of the lovely writing on our blackboards including the Welcome sign using MDF, blackboard paint and an old gold frame and writing up the Order of the day on an old sanded down pallet.

Other decorate pieces include:

• Old wedding photos of our parents and grandparents in frames displayed on some old step ladders which guests loved to look at and laugh at our dad’s moustaches!!
• White laser cut bunting, paper lanterns and fans from Aldi hung around the inside of the barn and as a backdrop to our cake table.
• Lanterns & candles from Morrisons & Ebay to decorate outside the barn doors.
• Crates from Simply Borrowed Wedding Hire which my dad filled with gorgeous plants to compliment our greenery theme. We then gifted all of the plants we had bought to family on the Sunday before we left.
• Pots of lavender for the wooden tables outside the barn.
• Lovely green paper lanterns to hang in the trees outside and handmade fabric bunting to hang above the cartshed, made by my very talented friend Sinead.
• A wooden arch made by another talented friend to use as the backdrop when we got married which we decorated with artificial hanging wisteria from Ginger Ray. Was so happy with how effective this looked!
• Cake stands, some bought and some borrowed from Simply Borrowed Wedding hire to display the lovely cakes.
• A glitter/ tattoo station next to our photo booth using pots of glitter and temporary tattoos from Amazon. We borrowed a vintage mirror from my parents and set up a table where guests could go and get glittered up! We had some props and two polaroid cameras for guests to use and peg their photos for us to keep.
• An LED vintage LOVE sign from an antiques shop.
• Three artificial eucalyptus wreaths from Ikea hung on the brick wall in the barn.
• Mr & Mrs Smith bunting for behind the top table from Etsy.
• An old wicker basket filled with some confetti homemade by friends and some bought and confetti wands from Shropshire Petals for the flower girls and pageboys.
• Paper confetti cannons for the first dance from Hobbycraft.

We had the barn from Friday morning, and we spent the whole day with loads of our family and friends decorating and getting it ready which was hard work but such good fun. I had a vision in my mind of how I wanted it to look and felt all of our hard work and planning really paid off in the end.

We hired festoon lighting for inside the barn which Hipswing supplied and put up for us. We also hired tables, chairs and the Bar from Tipples in Shrewbury. We had trestle tables which we put up and dressed on the Friday with the foliage and flowers from the florist and tealights dotted through.

The Venue

Pimhill Barn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

We had been to look round other barns but found them all too ‘dressed’. As soon as we saw Pimhill we fell in love with its natural beauty and gorgeous outside space. My bridesmaids and I loved staying in the Courthouse the night before the wedding which is next to the barn and perfect for the bridal preparations in the morning. Ginny and Ian who own Pimhill are wonderful and allow you to be as creative as you want to be with the barn!

Shrewsbury also means a lot to us both so was the perfect location for us.

The Readings & Music

Walking down the aisle: The One, Kodaline

Just married: Signed, Sealed, Delivered, Stevie Wonder

First dance: Loving You, Paolo Nutini

Second dance (because we couldn’t decide!): You make my dreams, Daryl Hall & John Oates

We had the Hot Jazz Biscuits play our first and second dance and they were brilliant. Sophie, our photographer recommended them and they were amazing. The dancefloor was full all night.

They played for most of the night and really got everyone dancing and having a great time! They also supplied the speakers and were a huge help with the set up in the day.

Your Outfits & Accessories

My dress was Adrianna Pappell and along with the headpiece were from The Dressing Rooms in Halesowen. It was the second bridal shop I had visited and they were so lovely and helpful. I love 1920’s style so the shape of the dress and beautiful detail was just what I was looking for.

My shoes were from Office, I was attracted to the glitter heel!

I chose new earrings and a bracelet from Pandora to wear on the day which my parents and James’ parents kindly bought for me. I then had my mum’s old charm bracelet tied round my bouquet as my something borrowed and James’s grandmother’s sapphire ring as my something blue. I am quite sentimental so these things really meant a lot to me.

Bridesmaids

We got the bridesmaid dresses quite early on and were exactly what we were looking for. They were Lace & Beads from House of Fraser. The beautiful beaded detail tied in with my dress and both girls (my sisters and Jay’s sister) looked stunning.

Our flower girls (my twin cousin’s) wore dresses from Monsoon and looked beautiful.

Beauty

One of my sister’s best friends Emily from Salon Blue in Bridgnorth did the bridesmaids and mother of the brides hair and helped me with my headpiece which was difficult to secure in my short hair but she did it!

We had the lovely Laura and Grace from Studio Beau in Bridgnorth to do our makeup. The wedding day was really hot and we were worried about the make up sliding but it stayed put all day!

Groomsmen

The waistcoats, jackets and groomsmen pocket squares were from Peter Posh in Tettenhall. James’s tie and pocket square were from Etsy and the other ties were from Marks & Spencer’s. We then asked the groomsmen to wear a white shirt and black chinos of their choice that fit well. We bought all of the shoes online from Shoeaholics.

Our pageboys wore white shirts from River Island, black chino shorts and braces from H&M and black vans we had bought them for their birthday. They looked adorable.

The Flowers

Big Little Things. Sarah and Fran were both lovely and did an amazing job with our bouquets, buttonholes & pew ends! I wanted lots of foliage of all different shades and textures with hints of white. The twine used on the buttonholes complimented the tweed suit jackets well whilst keeping with the greenery theme.

I wanted to be quite involved with the flowers so Sarah and Fran supplied us with buckets of ruscus and flowers to decorate the inside of the barn with which we did on the Friday afternoon. We collected gin bottles for the flowers which we placed down the middle of the tables dotted through the runners of greenery. We selected flowers of different textures and only had a couple of stems in each bottle to keep them simple. I was really pleased with how it looked.

The Cake

A family member, and mum to our beautiful flower girls, the lovely Michelle made our wedding cake. I asked her a little while before the wedding as she is so good at making cakes and I think/hope she enjoyed the challenge! We told her we liked the semi naked cakes and decided to have lemon (which she did gluten free for my mum and nan), Victoria sponge and chocolate. She decorated it with sprigs of eucalyptus, and it looked and tasted incredible.

We both love cake and always knew we wanted a cake table instead of a dessert, so we asked lots of family and friends to make cakes and they all looked and tasted amazing.

Our friend Sophie made ‘Fletcher’ cupcakes which looked amazing! We didn’t have Fletch there on the day, so it was a way of remembering him!

The Food & Drink

Our caterers were the amazing Rustic Roast Kitchen who provided us with gorgeous canapes and a Summer BBQ menu delivered on paddle boards and dishes to the tables for guests to help themselves. This fit with our relaxed theme and was perfect with how hot the weather was in the end. They then had a pizza oven for the evening which was the one thing we both wanted from right at the start. Pizza and cake!! Heather and her team really were brilliant, the food was delicious and they went out of their way to make sure our day was perfect.

Tipples bar hire had their rustic looking bar set up inside the barn which fit in so well with the barn and our styling. They provided welcome drinks of Pimms and bottled beer and plenty of prosecco and wine for the tables.

Your Photographer

Sophie at Brightwing Photography was our photographer. We had spoken to a couple of different photographers whilst searching but after meeting Sophie we knew she was the one for us! She invited us round for a cup of tea and to have a chat and we instantly clicked and felt like she really understood our style. We loved her natural and informal approach and wanted to get away from some of the staged, embarrassed wedding photography poses as this really isnt for us! On the day she made us laugh and smile and feel completely at ease which we think shows from our photographs.

Your Filmmaker

Ollie at Floodgate Films.

We didn’t meet Ollie before the big day but he came as another fab recommendation from our photographer Sophie who we trusted. We thought his work was beautiful and loved his cinematic video style.

On the day Ollie was completely calm, and James really felt like he had an extra usher with him for the day. What a talented young man.

The Honeymoon

We had always wanted to go to Italy as neither of us had been and decided to go to the Amalfi Coast for 10 days shortly after the wedding. We stayed in Sorrento and Amalfi and booked through Trailfinders in Worcester. They were brilliant and arranged the whole trip for us. They set up a gift list account for us so guests could make donations to the account as wedding presents which then paid for the honeymoon!

Memorable Moments

• Decorating the barn on the Friday with music playing, plenty of food and drink and enjoying the buzz with our closest friends and family before the big day. We can’t thank them all enough.
• Seeing each other for the first time as I walked down the aisle.
• Looking round and seeing everyone using the paper fans we had bought in a panic a few days before the wedding when we saw the temperate was going to be 29 degrees!
• The speeches- my dad, our two best men and James. All beautiful, hilarious and emotional all at the same time!
• Our twin nephews/ pageboys who were playing outside and shouting through James’ speech and him telling them to shut up!
• Dancing with all of our favourite people to the band all night until 1am.
• The lads dismantling the wedding arch at the end of the night to use the hanging flowers to dance with!
• Doing shots of the Jägermeister we had for favours with everyone.
• Having some time away from everything for our photos in the gardens of the barn.

Advice For Other Couples

• Start planning as soon as you can- pinterest and wedding blogs will become your life!! Oh and Microsoft Excel!!
• Book your venue and photographer first as they get booked up quickly!
• We weren’t planning on having a videographer but a friend of ours talked us into it. BEST DECISION EVER!!
• Remember the day is about the two of you. Do what you want and try not to be too influenced by anyone else.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help, friends and family are usually so happy to be asked and they were what made our day so perfect!

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Oh so beautiful!

Jo and James thank you both ever so much for sharing with us your stunning wedding day xo Lou