Lavender Grey Buckinghamshire Barn Wedding with Ski Theme

What’s this? A gorgeous Buckinghamshire barn wedding with a lavender grey colour scheme and a skiing theme? Yep! You read right, it’s time to share WWW readers Leah and Callum’s wedding at Notley Farm in Buckinghamshire.

Their day was just sublime, with the countryside setting, pretty florals and lots of fun on the dancefloor. In fact, there were megawatt smiles all day long, which is so lovely to see. I adore all the stylish outfits, the cool vintage ski theme props and that tower of cheese!

I was thrilled to see WWW wedding supplier Warble Entertainment provided the live band too and by the sounds of it, much dancing took place too. Hooray!

Big thanks to Rebecca Walters for sharing these totally dreamy images with us.

Buckinghamshire Barn Wedding

The Proposal

We got engaged on St Patrick’s Day 2019 on our favourite ski run in the Alps. We met on our ski seasons when Callum was working as a ski instructor and Leah a chalet girl. We are both passionate about skiing and love the mountains so it really was the perfect place.

Callum had chosen and designed the ring by himself and it is stunning.

The Vision

We wanted to incorporate our personailities and passions into our wedding but not have an overpowering theme. Having a lot longer than originally planned to plan our wedding (covid meant we were onto our 4th date!) really consolidated that our main priority was to have all of our family and friends there to celebrate with us, laughing and hugging on the dance floor. That meant an excellent band and flowing drinks!

Our joint love of skiing was part of our vision – reflected in our mountain themed stationery that we designed ourselves, including a wedding logo that incorporated skis and both our initials. The ski theme was also brought to life using vintage skis as our table plan, and theming our table names around our favourite ski runs in Alp D’Huez, the resort where we met.

The Venue

Notley Tythe Barn, Oxfordshire

Callum is a farmer so really wanted to have a barn wedding – and was quite specific that he wanted it to be an old, authentic farming barn rather than a new purpose-built wedding venue barn.

Notley Tythe Barn, a restored 12th century beamed barn on a working farm fit the bill! And given it’s stunning grounds, views of the Chiltern Hills and a grand driveway giving it a fantastic wedding vibe, Leah was sold too.

The chef, Petr, is connected to the venue and we’d heard amazing reviews! We had delicious farm-grown rack of lamb that didn’t disappoint!

Your Outfits

Bride wore a Maggie Sottero dress – a blush vintage sheath dress with tulle overlay. The top was heavily beaded with pearls and crystal embellishments, with a deep V. The multi-layered tulle skirt featured a peak-a-boo slit and long train. Complemented with a cathedral length, one layer veil.

Chosen with the expert help and guidance of Teresa and Vicky at Victoria’s Bridal Boutique in Kent – the most wonderful and helpful wedding dress shop that makes everyone feel so special. Couldn’t recommend them highly enough.

Shoes were from the bridal collection at Dune and chosen as I wanted a block heel given the countryside location but also loved the glitz on the heel.

Groom wore a blue French Connection suit with waistcoat from Moss Bros, with lavender grey woollen bow tie and pocket square from Etsy. Brown leather belt and shoes from Oliver Sweeney.

Callum had gifted me my something blue, and something old as a 30th birthday present. It was so incredibly thoughtful – I had his nan’s aquamarine necklace, which he had taken to the same jeweller as my ring and set in diamonds so it also matched my engagement ring.

The Ceremony & Music

The ceremony was at St. Mary’s church in Haddenham, a picturesque village church overlooking thatched cottages and the large village pond.

The ceremony as conducted by Rev. Casa who brought so much love, joy and enthusiasm into the service. Hymns were chosen based on the hymns that both our parents had at their own weddings.

Music was provided by Jenny the organist, with Pachelbel Canon in D for the entrance music of the bridal party.

The bride’s talented sister, Brittany, played Glasgow Love theme from Love Actually on the piano for the signing of the register.

My best friend and bridesmaid’s dad and boyfriend played beautiful acoustic guitar outside on the lawn to entertain our guests during the canapes.

The ‘party’ element of the reception was really important to us as we love a good dance together with our family and friends. We had a band called Lose Yourself to Dance which included a fantastic sax player. We danced together as a couple and with our family a friends the whole night! As a joke, we had a ‘last dance’ to ‘I’m Still Standing’ by Elton John.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Rebecca Walters was our photographer. We chose her based on meeting her at our friend’s wedding where Leah was bridesmaid. She was so friendly and relaxed and feels like a friend in the lead up and on the day of your wedding.

We also loved her candid style and how her photos really capture the true essence and emotion of the day and are thrilled with her shots.

We weren’t originally going to have a videographer, but someone told us that would be a mistake and boy were they right! We worked with a family friend – Timmy at Murch Films – and whilst they normally specialise in sports videography, he absolutely SMASHED the video. I still watch it about once a week whenever I fancy a smile!

The Styling & Decor

We wanted our decorations to reflect the rustic/ski theme so included items such as vintage skis and a vintage toboggan to display our guest book (which was jenga pieces!).

The colour scheme was lavender grey – reflected in the bridemaid dresses, grooms party bow ties and stationery – however we also wanted pops of colour which came through with our meadow-style flowers.

Flowers were high on our priority list. I’d been following Henrietta Hickling for a while on Instagram as knew her as a friend of a friend (in fact she went to school with my bridesmaid) and I just LOVE her vintage, rustic style of flower arranging.

She created some absolutely stunning bouquets, as well as a floral beam for the barn and ‘mossy brick’ style centre pieces – they were so unusual as look like flowers are just growing out of the table and we loved the blush tones mixed with pops of blue and brighter coral.

Callum’s mum, Jacky, was super helpful with decorations, not only did she hand make bunting from lace and hessian, she also did all the flowers in the church and the grooms party buttonholes. As an ex-florist it was fantastic to have her expertise and also felt extra special walking into the church knowing how hard she worked for our wedding. I am very blessed to have not only a lovely but also a very creative mother-in-law.

As not big cake eaters, we decided to have a cake made out of cheese which went down a treat! Jacky also decorated this beautifully with fruit and flowers, as well as a ski-themed cake topper.

The Honeymoon

Alongside our wedding, our honeymoon got continuously changed and pushed back!

Straight after the wedding, we went to a small Greek island called Andros for a minimoon. Fully recommend just taking a week off to do nothing but relax and reminisce about the wonderful day.

Our big honeymoon was the South Africa and Mauritius. We absolutely loved safari and the winelands in South Africa, and the beaches in Mauritius are amazing.

Memorable Moments

So so many!

Our vicar, Rev. Cassa made the ceremony so wonderful and happy – she was so game for a laugh. Callum notoriously clapped in a rendition of Shine Jesus Shine at a friend’s wedding, so had the whole congregation clapping at ours which was hilarious and really set the fun tone for the ceremony.

Being newlywed in our gorgeous vintage Rolls Royce car, having a moment just the two of us, and the lovely chauffeur stopping at the side of the road to say “the sun has come out, I’m putting the roof down!” Callum and I then sat on the beautiful drive to our venue and waved as all our guests arrived and it felt so surreal to think “we are finally married and just so happy this has happened”.

The dance floor of the wedding was epic – constantly full and fuelled with expresso martinis on tap!

Advice For Other Couples

“It goes so quickly” – you’ll hear this over and over again in the lead up to your wedding, but it couldn’t be truer!

Honestly, I spent the day saying “I can’t believe we’re already at this bit”. Take moments throughout to stop, pause and take it all in.

Also, the weather is totally out of your control. The week of our wedding was a beautiful Indian summer heatwave. Woke up on the morning of the wedding to thick mist and drizzle. I am a sunshine loving girl and this was so important to me – we’d even chosen our venue primarily based on the outdoor space and views. Despite stressing about the weather the lead up about this, I managed to stay level headed on the day. When the sun came out at the perfect timing for our canape drinks, I felt even happier than if it had been sunny all day!

This is obviously a personal decision, but I also did a speech as thought it was important for there to be some female representation up there and wanted to take the chance to say some nice words about the groom too!