Fun Colourful & Unique Handmade Leicestershire Barn Wedding

There is just so much to love about WWW readers Emma and Dale’s Leicestershire barn wedding. They were wed at The Old Cow Shed, in total and utter style!

They had a colourful and bright day, filled with dahlias, handmade touches and there was so much fun to boot. Think outfits that just ooze cool, vibrant confetti moments, disco balls, great tunes and a seriously gorgeous cake table. Oh my.

Thanks so much to Gina Fernandes Photography for sharing with us these tremendously joyful shots which I am sure you will enjoy immensely.

Emma and Dale on WWW

It promotes having a wedding your own way, which is exactly what we wanted to do.

Leicestershire Barn Wedding

The Proposal

Dale proposed on the York walls overlooking the York Minster. He planned to propose in Aberystwyth but covid scuppered his plans.

He was collecting me after I’d spent a weekend in York with my sister, cousin and niece (who all witnessed the proposal), he decided the night before that he was going to propose… so spent the evening in the garage hand-making a wooden ring box. We had our first holiday together in York when we were 18!

The Vision

We wanted people to come away from our wedding saying it was “so us”. We wanted it to just feel like a big party, dancing all day, daftness, silliness, good food and all a bit bonkers!!

The Venue

The Old Cow Shed – Melton Mowbray.

Your Outfits

Dale’s suit was from ASOS, but his mam re-backed his waistcoat with a bird pattern material (the material matched our flower girls’ dress and his mam made our nephew a matching waistcoat and bow tie in the same material).

Emma’s dress was from Elite Bridal and in the evening, changed in the evening the outfit of my dreams, which was a rose gold sequin jumpsuit from Flamingo Bridal.

Emma wore a pink sequin flower crown from Sookrah Designs and had a belt made by them too that matched the headpiece.

The Ceremony & Music

We had a reading during the ceremony which was an excerpt from X-Files!

Emma walked down the aisle to “Emmylou” by First Aid Kit, we signed the register to “The Detectorists” by Johnny Flynn and walked out to “Boom Bang A Bang” by Lulu as it’s the theme to one of our favourite shows “Him & Her”.

We had a band during the street food called “Fidgety Feet” they were a “Dixieland strolling jazz band”, one of them had a drum kit on a Zimmer frame.

First Dance – Islands In The Stream.

Your Photographer

The legendary and incomparable Gina Fernandes.

The Styling & Decor

Flowers – Dahlias dahlias and more dahlias, the best flowers in the world with the most GORGEOUS colours, bunches of these were in disco ball planters on the tables! We also saved interesting beer cans over a couple of years that were also used for mini bouquets on tables.

Emma’s sister crocheted 80 doilies that were both wedding favours and table decorations.

Emma’s mam cross-stitched a “no admittance on party business” sign for guests on the way in.

Our wonderful friend Libby Smith, drew our table numbers, table plan and stationery.

Dale’s mam and sister made the pom pom bunting that ran the length of the ceremony room.

Dales mam made the incredible wedding cakes that were topped with ghosts from “The York Ghost Merchants”.

Our wedding favours were share-sized pork pies from our local butchers in Oakham, everyone had one each (Leesons… they also happen to be best pork pie in the UK winners year on year!).

The Honeymoon

We went to Disneyland Paris a couple of days after the wedding, but are planning a trip to Italy this September.

Memorable Moments

We did our first dance to Island In the Stream by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers (I am HUGE Dolly fan and we love a bit of country music). EVERYONE sang along so loudly, I think our hearts felt fullest during that moment.
Looking around and seeing one group of people dancing to the cha cha slide, another group dancing to Hamilton and another group singing Bohemian Rhapsody (WHO DOESN’T LOVE AN ALL DAY SILENT DISCO).
The impromptu conga line before speeches (we wrote everyone individual taskmaster tasks as their place names).
Dancing to Blues Brothers during Emma’s cousin’s speech because that’s what we did at all our family house parties.
Turning around during the ceremony and seeing everyone we loved and cared about all in one place at one time.
When Gina made Emma climb a fence we laughed hysterically and the pictures of that moment are ace.