Festival Fun Llyn Gwynant Barns Wedding In Rust & Green

Llinos and Paddy’s Llyn Gwynant Barns wedding in Wales was an utter dream! They had a fun festival vibe, with a weekend of camping by the mountains.

Not only was the setting beautiful, but they really added their own personality to the festivities. There was gorgeous decor in rust and green tones, really stylish outfits and pretty dried flowers. I love the tree-planting idea and the sound of the day-after lake swim!

Thanks ever so much to Fox and Bear Photography for sharing with us these marvellous images of such a special weekend at Llyn Gwynant Barns.

Llyn Gwynant Barns Wedding

The Proposal

We were living in New Zealand at the time and went on a camping trip to our favourite spot on the Coromandel in our little camper van. We woke up early and did the small hike to our favourite viewpoint of the beach as we always do.

But this time he popped the question with a gorgeous ring by a family friend Sian @bertjewellery! On top of a cliff, overlooking a completely empty stunningly beautiful beach on a winter’s morning, it was bliss.

The Vision

We wanted to capture the Welsh culture and countryside with a fun, festival, camping weekend in the mountains. We wanted a casual feeling to the day where everyone could just have a fun time.

The Venue

We fell in love with Llyn Gwynant Barns, its gorgeous location hidden in the Eryri mountain range next to an expansive lake, and its historic barn with stone walls and wooden roof beams.

It was close enough to the village where I grew up, so we could have the ceremony at the local church and have the reception and camping by this gorgeous lake surrounded by Welsh mountains.

Your Outfits

Paddy wore a Reiss, 3-piece, fitted navy suit with a beige-coloured, tweed patterned waistcoat and a rust-coloured tie. Brown shoes and a brown belt. The groomsmen wore navy suits too with rust ties and braces.

I wore a Suzanne Neville champagne-coloured, floor length, slim cut dress, with a pleated skirt with a subtle mountain pattern in the pleats, with no train or a veil.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to wear when I started searching, I would change my mind every time I tried on a different style. I loved so many things about the one I finally chose. It was different to every other I’d tried and seen, and somehow reflected my personality so well.

A talented seamstress and friend of the family helped with alterations and added some green detailing to match my dark green velvet shoes from Justene.

The Ceremony & Music

The music choice was one of our most important. We had seen Michael G Moore at another wedding and were completely blown away. He’s a piano man who can play and sing thousands of songs from memory, and requests from the guests all day and night. He reads the room perfectly and plays to suit the mood and the people, always keeping the dancefloor packed.

For the ceremony, we had Liam McClair who is a close friend and a talented guitar player and singer. He set the mood in the Chapel as people arrived, and our guests commented that the atmosphere as they entered the church was nothing like they’d experienced before, and that was thanks to Liam. He had us dancing up the aisle after the service and our guests absolutely loved him.

Your Photographer

We loved Fox&Bear’s work after seeing how amazingly they capture people at a previous event we’d attended. We loved how they could capture the energy and love in the room through photographs. We decided not to film the day as we knew Fox&Bear could capture the day perfectly just through what they do best.

Dewi was a pleasure to have around all day and he really helped us both stay calm and relaxed while always having fun.

The Styling & Decor

We loved the nature surrounding the barn so we worked with greens, neutrals and rust colours for the decorations. We had gorgeous dried flowers from Rosehip & Wren for the bouquets and all the table decorations and it complimented the theme beautifully.

The groomsmen decorated the barn with fairy lights and festoons to add to the fun festival feeling.

Our gorgeous invites and table plan were made by Feel Good Invites who were a delight to work with and the products received were perfect.

We made our own table names and numbers which were named after our favourite New Zealand birds, and we made our own menus for the tables in both English and Welsh.

Our wedding cake was made by our talented friend Isa from Isabellita Bakes. She made a neutral and rust-decorated lemon cake which was delicious, with dried flowers as added decoration.

The Honeymoon

We wanted a once-in-a-lifetime trip, with a mix of relaxation and adventure. We spent the first week of our trip in Nepal, with the amazing people of the country and the backdrop of the tallest mountains in the world.

We then flew to Maldives for a relaxing week on Komandoo Island, a perfectly peaceful island with clear seas rich in sea life.

Memorable Moments

We loved the drive from the chapel to the reception. It’s the first time you get to be alone on the day and I can still feel the excitement I felt on that journey next to my husband.

As many guests as we could persuade, jumped into the lake the next morning for a refreshing cold swim with us which was so much fun. The relaxing and happy feeling the day after brought was so elevating and we both felt on cloud nine.

Advice For Other Couples

If you decide not to have a videographer I would recommend asking a friend or family member to film the ceremony, speeches and first dance on a good camera so you can look back. You forget so much of the day in the midst of the excitement.

We absolutely loved watching back the speeches together the day after the wedding, just the two of us, a glass of bubbles and a lot of laughing.