Exciting Bright & Colourful Rustic Barn Wedding

What a pleasure it is to be sharing WWW readers Lucy and Sam’s Granary on the Common wedding held in Yorkshire. You’re going to need to hold onto your seats when you see the bright and beautiful blooms, the golden Autumn sunlight, all the gorgeous outfits and the megawatt smiles.

I mean it was all just ruddy well glorious; from the DIY decor to the magical rustic barn reception, humanist ceremony and cheese tower. It’s always special to hear how loved ones rallied round to help a couple too and Lucy and Sam’s inner circle really did help them craft their day of dreams.

Bloom Weddings I can’t thank you enough for sharing these show-stopping images with us. What a delight.

Lucy on WWW

I was constantly searching through Instagram and Pinterest for wedding inspo on the lead up to the wedding and found WWW one day and loved all of the posts! WWW suited our style and lots of boho/rustic wedding inspiration which was exactly what we were looking for!

Granary on the Common Wedding

The Proposal

In Jan 2020 we visited our favourite spa hotel in Northern Ireland, a place that has become really special to us over the years. We’d had a lovely couple of days visiting castles on the coast, enjoying the spa and eating some amazing food.

Then on our final night, we went through to the River View Restaurant to sit down for a yummy taster menu, then Sam got down on one knee and asked the question! We enjoyed a lovely romantic meal, although Lucy was very overwhelmed and cried a lot and didn’t eat much haha.

The Vision

We knew we wanted a rustic and fun wedding. Having both grown up in East Yorkshire we wanted to be back home for our special day (we live down in London now). Our priorities were a venue with a relaxed atmosphere, amazing food and great photography.

We wanted a natural photographer and after initially being booked for another wedding we were OVER THE MOON when Bloom Weddings got in touch to say they had a cancellation on our wedding date! We are big foodies so our vision was lots of sharing platters, antipasti and Asian food for evening – Nomad perfectly catered for what we wanted!

Budget

£15k budget spent £18k

As I am sure all couples end up doing, we went over budget – originally we had budgeted around £15k but ended up being around £18k by the time we finished.

The Venue

Granary on the Common is a beautiful, converted granary barn in the East Yorkshire countryside. It is also down the road from where Sam grew up and we know the owners which made it extra personal and special. The venue has beautiful gardens, a tennis court which is perfect for drinks reception and relaxed space for guests and two barns that can be used for dining and partying.

Jill (the owner) is amazing and helped put us in touch with suppliers and get the barn set up for the wedding. With the venue being a blank canvas she was more than happy to support where she could and gave us plenty of time to set up.

Your Outfits

Lucy: When it came to my dress I knew I wanted something quite fitted and lace detail. I went with my mum to David’s Bridal and I picked out a few styles and dresses and saw a stunning lace and sparkle detail dress on a mannequin and I was like YES.

It was the first dress I tried on and I fell in love straight away!! I still can’t believe I ended up with the first dress I tried on but it made me feel unreal and it went perfectly with a rustic/boho wedding vibe. I matched it with a beautiful short Vera Wang veil and a BEAUTIFUL gold leaf headband – channelling my inner princess vibes.

Sam: I had a few ideas for what I wanted to wear on our wedding day, but ultimately my goal was to have something ‘different’ and to make sure it fit as well as possible. I learnt a couple of lessons along the way:

• Never pass judgement on a shop before you’ve been in to have a look around.
• Alterations aren’t just for the bride’s dress!!

My suit was a dark teal colour with a thin, yellow and red check pattern in it. The waistcoat actually came with a bright blue camo back which was kinda odd, but again I had that changed for a paisley red wine material and it was perfect and matched my tie/pocket colour perfectly. Moral of that story – if you can’t find what you want, create it!! 🙂

The Ceremony & Music

Our ceremony was in the beautiful gardens of the farm. Obviously planning an outdoor ceremony (with no backup) was risky but OMG we could not have been luckier with the weather, the sun came out just as Lucy started walking down the aisle.

As our venue wasn’t licensed we had a legal ceremony in London two weeks before the big day but we still wanted the ceremony to feel like the real deal so we got in touch with a humanist celebrant. We were SO glad we made this decision as Christine was amazing!!!

Having a humanist ceremony meant we could personalise it as much as we wanted and be able to tell our story and after 11 years together there was a lot to tell. We had readings from both Lucy and Sam’s mums which was special and important to us to have them part of the ceremony.

I walked down the aisle with my dad to Vitamin String Quartet, In My Blood (because who isn’t obsessed with Bridgerton lol). I will not forget that feeling of walking down the aisle, seeing everyone I love in the same place and looking up and seeing Sam crying – that was a SHOCK. Sam is not a crier at all so I was stunned but it made it even more magical!

After our wonderful ceremony, readings, and a photobomb from some sheep we walked back down the aisle to Love you So Bad by Ezra Furman.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Bloom Weddings were AMAZING!! Annie and Chris are the perfect duo and made us feel so relaxed throughout our day! They captured all of the emotions, feelings and joy of the day!

Swanland Media – Mike was GREAT he captured everything we wanted from our day and were soooo glad we got a wedding video (100% recommend having a video of your day, it is SO worth it). Watching the video takes us right back to the day and is such a special video we will treasure forever.

The Styling & Decor

For the top of the aisle our family friends upcycled an old trampoline and my mum dressed it with fresh ivy and wisteria to make an amazing moon arch. It could not have been more perfect and could not believe we were able to make something so beautiful for FREE. Our florist made some amazing arrangements to frame the aisle.

We had a few days before the wedding to get everything set up and it was all hands on deck. We went candle crazy to bring warmth and light to the barn. Jill had ladders hanging in the main barn covered in fairy lights and ivy which we absolutely loved.

For the tables we had different shaped jars with stunning wildflower arrangements from our florist. My mum made all the place settings with fresh flowers and rosemary, she had also dried loads of flowers from her allotment to make beautiful arrangements to put in the second barn (where we had the bar and night do). We put as many fairy lights as we could throughout the barns.

We borrowed an old bike, milk churns, wooden crates and ladders from a friend. Hobbycraft was my best friend on the lead-up – they had stunning jars, DIY acrylic signs, stencils, table numbers – it was great! Ordered lots from Etsy too – seating plan, guest book and place names!

For the cake my mum made a small traditional wedding cake but because Lucy isn’t a cake lover we went for a cheese cake- which was soooo tasty, covered in fresh fruit and plenty of pickles to go with it!

The Honeymoon

We had originally planned to go to Greece but because of Covid we decided to plan a mini-moon in Wales. We went to North Wales for 5 days just outside of Llandudno in a beautiful Scandinavian style log cabin, with a hot tub overlooking the sea and the mountains – it was unreal!! We could not believe how stunning it was and how lucky we were with the weather, it was almost wall to wall sunshine!

For the second week of our honeymoon, we went down to Pembrokeshire and stayed in a beautiful shepherds hut in the middle of nowhere, again the weather was amazing and went on trips to Tenby, St Davids, and the beautiful beaches!

Memorable Moments

• My dad organised a beautiful car for us to travel to the venue in – driving down windy roads and seeing the venue in the distance with all the nerves and excitement
• Walking down the aisle to the beautiful music, seeing everyone I love in the September sunshine and seeing Sam crying at the top of the aisle
• During our vows the sheep from the farm took an interest in the wedding and started bleating which gave us a giggle
• The unbelievable food
• Running off for a golden hour photoshoot during dessert – they are our FAVE pictures from the whole day
• Sam’s Grandma stealing the show during the speeches with a fantastic hen do story

Advice For Other Couples

Enjoy every minute – everyone says it goes by so quickly but it really does! We both had moments where we would stand and look at everyone, during the meal and on the dance floor and be like omg these people are here for us and this is genuinely the best day of our lives.

Don’t worry if everything doesn’t go to plan, people won’t remember that you forgot to put the cake topper on the cake… they are there for you and to celebrate with you – a few mishaps do not matter.

Do what you want, this is your day!! There will be lots of opinions but it’s important to remember that you need to do what makes you happy.

Oh so gorgeous.

Lucy and Sam thanks ever so much for sharing your very special Granary on the Common wedding story with us.