Relaxed DIY Woodland Wedding Ceremony with Barn Reception

We’re headed to the woods in Shropshire with the Bridal Barn wedding of Alex and Rich. First up Alex and Rich had a beautiful and personal ceremony in the woods, followed by a magical barn reception.

It was super important to them both that their day was relaxed with great food and music. All elements for a fantastic celebration if you ask me! And it certainly looked that way with big smiles all day long.

They had some lovely DIY elements, taking on some of the decorations themselves as well as their loved ones contributing too. The results really were beautiful as you will see below. I especially adore the signs, the stylish outfits and the sensational flowers. Oh so gorgeous! Then there was the live band managed by WWW fave Alive Network – Blue Note Mitch. Yes!

Bowl Of Corks thank you so much for sharing with us these totally stunning images. Wow.

Bridal Barn Wedding

The Proposal

Rich took me away for a night and popped the question on a beautiful sunny February walk in St Albans, followed by a celebratory dinner together at The Ivy.

The Vision

We wanted to create a day that was relaxed and informal with good food, good music and great company while keeping our suppliers as local as possible.

Budget

£25K

The Venue

The Bridal Barn was the first and only venue we visited, and we fell in love with the space instantly. It offered everything we wanted with an outdoor ceremony space, the ability to choose all our own suppliers and huge amounts of atmosphere thanks to the gorgeous setting.

Your Outfits

I knew I wanted a lace dress but that I wanted a modern feel, I came across Made With Love Bridal early on in my search and was immediately drawn to the Stevie gown so when I did start dress shopping, I booked an appointment for a trunk show at a local dress boutique Coco & Kate and there was no looking back!

Rich got his suit from Mark Darcy, choosing a green tweed with rust coloured waistcoat and ties which looked great in the rustic setting.

Bridesmaid dresses –  Asos, Monsoon, Whistles and Needle and Thread.

The Ceremony & Music

We wanted the ceremony to feel personal to us and so we asked both of our mums to give readings from children’s literature as Rich’s mum used to be a primary school teacher and my mum ran a nursery. We chose not to know the readings in advance, and it was a wonderful surprise on the day to hear their words for the first time during the ceremony.

Rich also threw in a little extra surprise, having asked his gorgeous nephews to give me my ring during the ceremony and asking me to join the family. It was such a sweet moment and brought tears to a few eyes!

In terms of music, we asked one of our friends, Joel, to play guitar for the ceremony. For my entrance Joel played The Beatles ‘Here comes the sun’ which felt just the right amount of whimsical, and for the exit music Rich chose Hakuna Matata which felt celebratory and joyful.

For the rest of the day, we chose to hire an amazing band, Blue Note Mitch and the Burning Aces. We had a jazz set during the drink’s reception and then two evening sets which got everyone up and dancing with SKA covers of some of our favourite songs along with a few SKA classics thrown in.

Your Photographer

We chose the amazing Bowl of Corks for our wedding photography and we LOVE our photos. It was important to us that the day felt authentic and that was a big part of choosing Archie and Abigail for our photography. Their documentary style was really unobtrusive and delivered beautiful photos without Rich and I spending a large portion of our day away from the party for photos.

The Styling & Decor

I love beautiful small touches so having great save the dates and invites was really important to me, one of my friends designed both for us (thank you Beth for all your patience getting them just right!) and Rich’s friend etched the save the dates onto copper sheet for a unique touch!

We did most of the styling and décor ourselves with the help of our fabulous on the day coordinator Abigail from Bowl of Corks Weddings. I recommend Abigail to anyone who will listen, she did so much to make sure our day flowed beautifully and took all of the on-the-day stress off our shoulders.

I made all the signage, the table plan and small decorations along with a lot of help from both of our mums, and Rich’s dad also made the gin we gave as favours. We found that people really enjoyed contributing to the day and it was lovely how personal everything felt!

We did decide not to take on floristry ourselves and had a great florist in Kate from Camomile & Cornflowers who created all our flowers including the beautiful ceremony backdrop. Kate grows a lot of the flowers herself and anything else is solely sourced from the UK which means we ended up with beautiful seasonal flowers that felt just right in the woodland setting.

The Honeymoon

We managed to get away for a minimoon in Wales the week after the wedding and we’re planning a big honeymoon in Sri Lanka and the Maldives next March!

Memorable Moments

I think the most memorable thing was just seeing all of our friends and family together and celebrating after so long!

Advice For Other Couples

Choose suppliers you love! Not only their work but make sure you feel connected to them personally too, you’ll spend a lot of time with them building your plans and they will be some of the people you spend time with on your day too. We loved all our suppliers and it took so much stress out of planning.

Does it get any more magical!?

Alex and Rich thank you both so much for sharing your stunning Bridal Barn wedding story today.