Colourful Relaxed & Fun Essex Barn Wedding For 20 Guests

A very warm welcome to Storm and Alex who are sharing with us their colourful and relaxed Essex barn wedding at The Barns At Lodge Farm. Their day was full of love, smiles and laughter, which was super intimate thanks to their guest list of 20. Despite their change in plans, going from a large wedding to a micro wedding, they had a total blast!

Storm and Alex recently moved back to the UK from Pakistan and Lebanon respectively and I love that they injected some influences from their heritage and travels. Storm looked beautiful in her chic sleek gown which she teamed with a block printed scarf and they also had their Pakistan ‘Truck Art’ painting of their engagement displayed on the day. Gorgeous!

I love all the stylish outfits, the colourful flowers and the very cool transport too. What a special day indeed.

Three Flowers Photography thank you so much for sharing these joy-filled images.

Essex Barn Wedding

The Proposal

(Written by Alex)

So after planning to propose in Thailand, we were trapped in Pakistan (where we used to live) after things heated up in Kashmir and the airspace was closed… Eventually, we managed to plan a holiday to Indonesia and I carried the ring around in my backpack waiting for the perfect moment.

On the top of a volcano… too many people… on a beautiful island…. too many selfie sticks. In the second week of our hols we hiked Mount Rinjani, an incredible volcano on Lombok – it was the perfect place.

On the top of the crater rim, I knelt down on one knee, Storm giggled, and we were engaged!! Cunningly we were out of mobile reception for the whole trek so we could share the moment just with us.

The Vision

Originally we had planned to have a much larger wedding (160 people plus some extra party guests). Storm is from a very big extended family and we have lots of friends from overseas, so we wanted this to be a chance to bring everyone we love together. At the end of the night we were also hoping that some of our guests would go glamping.

Overall we wanted our wedding to feel colourful, relaxed and fun, with lots of people we love involved. We were going to have Storm’s sister’s function band, our friend Hettie was doing the flowers and Alex’s mum painted the design for the invites.

We also just prioritised everyone having a good time so wanted to make sure it was good food, music and a very accessible and flexible venue. The Barns at Lodge Farm were a dream! The team there seemed so lovely and as a family run business you instantly felt at home. The venue itself was beautiful and also very reachable.

For food we chose Gather and Feast for good food we knew would be ethically sourced and would feel sociable on the day. Then of course Charlotte was the perfect photographer to choose for the natural and special moment shots!

Unfortunately like many others, our original date was cancelled due to COVID. We definitely moved between decisions but all our suppliers were so flexible and helpful. In the end, our new date ended up still looking like there would be restrictions, however, we had already agreed that we wanted to keep things much smaller for the safety of our guests and because we were now expecting a baby!

In the end we had twenty guests to include our closest family and oldest friends. Whilst we missed lots of our family being there sharing it with our parents, sisters, grandparents and oldest school friends was perfect.

We still wanted lots of people involved. Alex’s mum, Pauline, painted the orders of service, Storm wrote and read a poem as one of the ceremony readings and Hettie did our beautiful flowers. Whilst we did not have Brooke’s live band Rebels and Records (as we were unsure if we would have a dance floor and we had a small guest list) we still played her original music on the day.

Whilst it was very different we loved our day and at the end we actually did feel it was one of the best days of our lives (neither of us had ever expected it would be!). Because it was so small we felt like we were really present on the day and spent so much quality time with people and each other, which would be more difficult with a larger day.

We have thought about doing a larger, more informal wedding party but we will see how we feel once the baby arrives!

Budget

Won’t share this, but we will say that because it was a smaller wedding it meant we could go that extra mile to have specific details like the wedding favours. We particularly loved the masks we got made from a charity called March in Lebanon that supports youth employment and peacebuilding.

The Venue

The Barns at Lodge Farm were a dream to work with. Bryony, Nina and the rest of the team made it so much fun. My catch-ups with them always felt like I was catching up with friends. Because it had so many different spaces it meant that we could easily adapt to the change in guest numbers.

Your Outfits

Storm bought her dress second hand from Still White (an online second-hand wedding dress shop). I went to do one fitting so I knew the types of styles that suited me (essentially sleek, simple and structured) and thought it was more environmental and economical to look for something second hand.

Still White is a great option as most brides are happy for you to try their dresses on and are super welcoming. The dress I chose ended up being an Alexander McQueen that in the end had not been worn.

As I am half Indian (Storm) and we had both lived in Pakistan, I accessorised with a block printed red scarf and wore the necklace my mum wore at my parents’ wedding.

Alex bought his suit from Charles Tyrwhitt. Both of us wanted to have outfits that we much more summery and more informal.

The Ceremony & Music

We had the ceremony in the old granary at The Barns – it is so beautiful.

Our sisters – Hannah and Brooke entered first and Storm was accompanied by her mum, dad and unexpectedly the family dog.

We wrote our vows together which we repeated to each other. Storm also wrote a poem to read on the day which focussed on family and love. Alex’s dad, Phil, read an excerpt from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. The whole wedding was very intimate and personal.

Ho Hey – The Lumineers (for the aisle)
There will be time – Mumford and Sons (signing)
Vivaldi – recomposed by Max Ritcher (signing)
I wish I knew how it would feel to be free – Nina Simone (exit)

Not sure where this would go, but Storm arrived in a VW campervan with her mum, sister, nan and cousin singing along to her favourite DIVA music. Would definitely recommend.

Your Photographer

The lovely Charlotte Kitchenside from Three Flowers Photography was our photographer. We instantly loved her style and vibrancy in her work and she did not disappoint. Our photos are beautiful and really capture the happiness of the day.

The Styling & Decor

We did not do a traditional wedding cake as thought this would be wasteful as we had a lot of dessert. Instead, we opted for a Brownie tower which was eaten by the guests.

We had pictures of us and bottled fairy lights all around the room which the ushers and Alex set up. We also included a few extra pieces like our Pakistan ‘Truck Art’ engagement picture.

The flowers were absolutely incredible. We gave Hettie a broad theme of colourful, summery and seasonal with our wedding colours. As the wedding was so small we also got the full wedding buttonholes and corsages just to make it that bit more personal.

For colours, originally Storm had planned to have six bridesmaids with all her cousins. Therefore Storm wanted a scale of colours and different styles of dresses to suit people’s different skin tones and preferences. Her main goal was that her bridesmaids felt comfortable and could wear their dresses again! On the grooms’ side we chose navy with yellow ties to match.

But as the wedding, reduced (aunts, uncles and cousins did not fit in the 30 people restrictions) we did not do this. However, we still kept to the general theme of colours and suggested guests try and also fit within that if they wanted to. They did and it looked beautiful.

The Honeymoon

We spent a week in a lovely apartment in Rock, Cornwall.

Due to travel restrictions and also being very careful with COVID due to the pregnancy we did not want to travel abroad.

Memorable Moments

Seeing each other for the first time at the ceremony
Saying our vows
Hugging everyone at the end of the ceremony
The speeches
Our friends doing the treasure hunt around the barns
Dancing together

Advice For Other Couples

Enjoy the couples photos – this is something we were actually very nervous about (both hating photos) but it is the time you get to spend alone together and enjoying each others company so make the most of it.

Find great suppliers and then trust them! One of the things I think really helps (if you can 😉) is taking a bit more of an open approach with some details. We really trusted Hettie as such a talented florist and while we gave her a guide, I knew she knew better than me about flowers. She gave me suggestions once the flowers arrived and just said go with what you think! The results were amazing!

Small weddings are special – we originally planned a massive wedding, but seriously at small weddings you do get to really enjoy your day in a different way. Everything was much more personal and you spend it with the people you spend most of your life with. We think a good mix is probably a small ceremony and meal and a larger party 🙂