Relaxed Ruscus Filled Barn Wedding in the Cotswolds

Goodness me, what gorgeousness I have to share with you. Wait until you check out Rachel and Sam’s ruscus filled wedding held at Lapstone Barn in the Cotswolds. The relaxed greenery theme worked so beautifully in the magical barns.

There were seriously stylish outfits, a stunning semi-naked wedding cake and alongside the ruscus there were some immense flower arrangements too.

Danielle Smith Photography has captured the day just perfectly, I just love the happy faces all day long. Thanks so much for sharing Danielle. Enjoy it all.

Relaxed Ruscus Wedding

The Venue

We always knew we wanted to get married in the Cotswolds, Sam is originally from Gloucester and I am Oxford-based, so somewhere in between both of our families seemed ideal!

Lapstone Barn is a beautiful 18th-century barn located near Chipping Campden. It was such a perfect venue for us with the split of the two sections; the Stone barn was full of the character we were looking for and the Northwick barn offered the modern, classy and warm vibe, with the full height windows that gave a great sense of light and space!

We were so lucky with the weather on our wedding day, we had bright blue skies and sunshine throughout the whole day. We held our drinks reception in the beautiful grounds of Lapstone, surrounded by the most beautiful views.

We actually booked our wedding day when Lapstone Barn was still unfinished, but we both knew it was going to be incredibly beautiful when it was completed! The staff were so attentive throughout the whole process, and made it feel that little bit more special!

Your Outfits

I found my dress in the Pronovias flagship store in Bond Street 16 months before our wedding. It was the Epico gown and both my mum and I fell in love with the style and lace detail straight away!

We made some small changes and included off-the-shoulder sleeves, which were done by Duksana at the Bridal Box in Oxford, she was fantastic during every fitting.

I chose a simple, delicate cathedral length veil, as I didn’t want to take away any of the detail from the embroidered tulle within the train of the dress.

For the shoes, I opted for a classy pointed toe heel in ivory, with an embellished ribbon tie – these were from Dune’s bridal range and were so comfy to wear.

Sam wore a tailored navy suit from T.M. Lewin, with a dark grey waistcoat and black monk shoe. I also bought Sam an engraved pocket watch to wear on the day which was given to him on the morning by his Best Man.

The Ceremony & Music

Before we got engaged, we always said that we would ask our good friend Matthew Flannagan to play for us during our wedding ceremony.

Sam, Matt and I met each other in Massachusetts back in 2013 during a summer at Camp America. Matt has been a great friend to us so there was no hesitation in asking him to play for us.

For the entrance music and for when my bridal party and I walked down the aisle we decided to go for ‘Canon in D’, along with Ludovico Einaudi’s ‘I Giorni’ and ‘Can’t help Falling In Love’ for the signing of the register. We then decided to switch it up and go for a slightly more upbeat track, Bruno Mars ‘Marry You’ for when we left.

For the drinks reception, which was held outside in the Lapstone Barn grounds, we booked Otis Lawrence who was our Saxophonist for the day, and DJ for the evening. He was so talented and would play any song requested!

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Danielle Smith was our amazing photographer; she captured the most beautiful photos of our special day which told our story perfectly!

We first met Danielle in Essex 18 months before our wedding and did not hesitate to get her booked that same day! Danielle was very attentive and covered all the photos that we wanted and more.

The shots taken by Danielle and our second photographer, Chloe were so amazing and captured the most honest and natural images of myself, Sam and all of our guests which is exactly what we wanted. We have the most beautiful album to look at which takes us back to the day.

Andrew Colin was our videographer for the day, he was so lovely from the moment we met him and is super talented. He created our full wedding view along with a highlight clip which can be viewed here.

The Styling & Decor

When creating our vision, we knew we wanted to keep the décor simple and elegant. Our wedding stationery was designed by BrandFour and we kept the same designs throughout, from save the dates to the table plan and all signage on the day!

The favours were a split between hand-poured candles with our logo design, along with ‘Mr Hugh’s’ rapeseed oil. Sam and I donated on behalf of our guests to a charity named ‘Moth in a China Shop’, which is extremely close to our hearts in memory of two friends.

For the flowers, we let Millie Richardson guide us and we couldn’t have been happier with the results! We went for soft creams and whites, combined with plenty of greenery and foliage.

Millie transformed the stone barn into an elaborate display with a huge hanging hoop of eucalyptus and ruscus greenery which made our ceremony look stunning!

For the dining tables, we decided to have a 50/50 split of both tall and low-level flower displays. These were a combination of tall, loose arrangements on gold metal stands, with the low-level being circular displays, with an elegant open glass lantern sitting inside, with a large pillar candle.

The groomsmen had simple buttonholes created using delicate rose buds and greenery. We continued the same theme of green and whites within the bridal party bouquets, these were loosely hand-tied and fastened with pale coloured silk ribbon. Our two flower-girls held small posies with Millie creating white rose flower crowns.

Even our Dog Luna who made a brief appearance had a floral collar on the day!

The Food

In keeping with our relaxed theme, we opted for several different canapes during our drink’s reception and a tapas selection of hot and cold dishes for starters.

For our main course, we went for the rib of Gloucester Orchard Farm beef. We designated a ‘carver’ for each table who was made to wear their very own personalised apron!

For dessert, we gave our guests a gorgeous Vanilla Cheesecake with Raspberry Drizzle. However, during our menu tasting at Lapstone Barn a couple of months prior, Sam was adamant we should have the Sticky Toffee pudding, but something about this on a hot summer’s day in the middle of August just didn’t seem right!

As a compromise and to keep him happy, Lapstone were so accommodating and served Sam his very own Sticky Toffee Pudding on the day! We kept this quiet from the guests in case they got food envy!

For the evening buffet we had a selection of stone baked pizzas – we’re big foodies so wanted to make sure there was plenty of things to eat on the day!

One of Sam’s good friends made our wedding cake for us, we chose a 4 tier semi-naked cake with ganache drip, with each tier being a different flavour.

It was so hard to pick but, in the end, we went for Red Velvet, Chocolate & Hazelnut, Lemon & Blueberry and White Chocolate & Raspberry. The cake went down so well with our guests and we even ended up having leftovers which we took home with us!

The Honeymoon

Our Honeymoon was a three-week trip around Italy. We contemplated going on an ultra-exclusive once in a lifetime trip to the Maldives or the Caribbean, but this was much more ‘us’!

We began our trip in Venice, before heading down to Florence and then across to Cinque Terre. We stayed at some stunning places and ate/drank very well throughout the whole trip!

When booking our honeymoon, we knew we wanted a mix of activities as well as having the opportunity to relax during the end of the trip on the Amalfi coast. We spent our last week in Positano and Capri which were absolutely amazing – we can’t wait to go back!

Memorable Moments

The whole day was truly everything I dreamed of and more! I particularly loved getting ready in the morning and the ceremony itself. The feeling of having all your friends and family together in one place, for one day, celebrating you as a couple is the best feeling in the world!

Advice For Other Couples

Make sure you take the time throughout the day to sit back and take it all in, enjoy every second as it really does go too fast!

I would also say not to worry too much about things on the day, you are the only ones who know how things are supposed to be. If you’re having a good time, then everyone around you will too.