Pretty & Quaint Contemporary Countryside Wedding

Oh, what a treat it is to be sharing the contemporary countryside wedding of WWW followers Jessica and Kyle. They were wed at Milling Barn in Hertfordshire in the autumn. The result? An intimate, personal day with a modern style all round.

Jessica and Kyle actually planned their UK wedding all the way from Texas in the US. No mean feat and by the looks of it, their whole day was planned to perfection. I mean would you look at the divine flowers, the stylish outfits and that gorgeous petal wedding cake?! Oh my! It’s so lovely to see WWW wedding supplier fave Lucy March Studio created the stunning table stationery too.

Steph Kiely Photography, I can’t thank you enough for sharing these totally beautiful images with us. You’re going to adore their pretty and quaint day so much. Be sure to enjoy every single capture!

Contemporary Countryside Wedding

The Proposal

Our proposal was back in 2019. Very quiet, intimate, and just at home, but came after a four-year, long-distance relationship between the UK and the USA.

The Vision

We had two cancelled weddings due to the pandemic, and originally were planning to have our wedding in Miami, Florida. We finally decided that given travel restrictions, and a lot of unknowns, that we would shift the wedding to Hertfordshire where my (bride’s) family is originally from.

We wanted an intimate wedding, with our nearest and dearest (approx. 50 people), and wanted to make it feel like a true reflection of our taste, and what we enjoy. The aesthetic needed to be beautiful, quaint, green, and not overly formal.

And we knew the venue and food were critically important, so we started there. My Dad was the one to find the venue, and given me and Kyle are based in Texas, we entrusted my Mum and Dad to be our eyes, ears, and tasters throughout the planning process.

The Venue

We wanted a venue that could hold both the ceremony and the reception – giving people the ease of being able to walk between the two. Milling Barn was perfect. The green surroundings, and the old barn where we held our ceremony were exactly what we wanted. It felt intimate, and natural – and we knew it would give us great potential for photographs and our wedding video.

The barn where we held the reception was expansive but didn’t feel like our 50 guests would get lost within it. We wanted to make sure the space felt like a continuation of the ceremony, and that even if we had a small number of guests, that we were all close together, and one big family.

The Ceremony & Music

The ceremony is ultimately the most important part of the day. Kyle and I had already got legally married during the pandemic but we had never had any opportunity to share our vows in front of those we love. Our celebrant Louise got to know us and brought our vision to life, she told stories of our relationship, and it felt like a very personal ceremony. Not one that was lifted from a thousand other weddings before.

Our DJ, Mike, was an absolute dream to work with. He went above and beyond on the day and before, even moving the giant urns from the ceremony to the reception room for the wedding breakfast. He made sure he took into account our differing music tastes and accounted for the US guests coming over for the wedding.

I walked down the aisle to ‘I can’t help falling in love’ by Elvis Presley, and our recessional song was ‘Everlasting Love’ by Natalie Cole.

Our music was a real mix of everything we love. From the Lumineers, to Garth Brooks, from Earth, Wind and Fire to the Spice Girls. Our first song was to ‘Old Love Song’ by Zac Brown Band…and it was perfection.

Your Outfits

We wanted to use our budget to focus on the things that would make the biggest difference to the day, for ourselves and our guests. So our outfits weren’t as high on the list as, say, the food.

Kyle’s suit is from Marks and Spencer, an Italian linen blend suit that was originally designed for our beach wedding but was perfect for our revised wedding vision.

My dress was from BHLDN, I wanted something simple and classic but not boring. So I had the belt added to the waist and chose simple statement jewellery like the Hardware Tiffany earrings along with Loeffler Randall shoes to make it feel more modern.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Our photographer, Steph, was the perfect choice. We wanted someone who was going to bring a natural and bright photography style, without making the photos look washed out, or feeling like they were overly posed. We did our first meet on Zoom, and I instantly knew that she would be a good fit for us as a couple. We are not Instagram people who are 100% natural in front of a camera, we love a good picture but aren’t always that comfortable taking them.

Steph totally gets that and made us feel comfortable, and at ease the entire day. She wasn’t too pushy about where we needed to be and at what time, but equally kept the momentum going and made sure we captured everything we had asked her to.

Dean our videographer was an absolute dream too. With a very similar personality to Steph, he made us feel comfortable, which is an impressive feat when you have a camera in your face. He told us before the wedding that a good videographer goes unnoticed, and honestly, he’s right.

He blended into the background without making us feel ‘watched’ but equally prompted us to do certain things that he knew would make a big different to our wedding video, which I hugely appreciated on the day!

The Styling & Decor

Our florist, Kate, was responsible for the gorgeous vision you see in the photographs. She took the time to get to know me, my tastes, my vision, and brought it to life in a way that I couldn’t even have imagined.

I visited her house back in June to see her cutting garden and talk through her process. She uses all reusable vessels, and everything is kept in water so that there is zero waste at the end of the wedding! She’s very eco-conscious and only chooses flowers that are in season, from her own cutting garden.

I had told her how much I love English country cottages, and that ‘wildflower’ look, and she took it and ran with it to bring this gorgeous wildflower vision to life. I gave her full creative license and trusted her completely – and she checked with me every step of the way, from the colours through to the ribbons.

Our table stationery was all designed by Lucy March Studios, and were a simple and elegant touch to the table settings. All of the signs around the venue were DIY. It’s very expensive to get large signs designed, so decided to do that piece by us.

I know a lot of people don’t do wedding favours nowadays, but I really wanted something that was related to us as a couple. We chose personalized luggage tags, with our new hometown on them, encouraging our friends and family to make the trip out to Austin, Texas to come and visit.

We loved them. So if you are going to do favours, give it some real thought and creativity, and you might find that all your guests tell you how much they love it!

Our cake was two tiers, with pressed edible flowers, the flavours were coconut and raspberry, and lemon. It was DELICIOUS!! Honestly, I can’t tell you how many weddings I’ve been to where the cake is an utter disappointment. But Emily Jane Cakes did an exceptional job. It was so tasty, I kept going back for more, and we didn’t have a huge number of leftovers because all of our guests were going back for seconds.

The Honeymoon

We’re planning on spending two weeks travelling around Italy in May 2023. Spending time enjoying each other’s company after a hectic year of work, moving, and wedding planning. We plan to visit Rome, Tuscany, and some of the coastal towns if we have the time.

Memorable Moments

The ceremony was my favourite part of the day and being able to mingle and talk with all of our guests because of the number of people, was a real highlight.

I am so glad we had such a small intimate wedding. I truly felt like everyone got a chance to talk to each other, and to us.

Advice For Other Couples

My two biggest pieces of advice are:

Prioritize what is going to make the biggest difference on the day. To how you and your guests are going to feel and focus your attention and energy there.
Don’t feel pressure to choose things because they are popular in that particular moment. Your wedding photos are going to last a lifetime, so choose things that you genuinely like, like the colour palette, or the photography style. And you can’t go wrong!