Retro & Magical Rustic Barn Wedding at Healey Barn

WWW readers Faye and Dave’s retro rustic barn wedding was an absolute dream! They were wed at Healey Barn in Northumberland on a wonderful spring day.

I love how their wedding had an old Hollywood glamour feel, with Faye looking radiant in her 50s-inspired look and Dave rocking a tweed check suit. Their table stationery was ever so stylish and I love the retro Cadillac wedding car, just epic.

From the gorgeous flowers to the candid moments, Paul Santos Photography was there to capture it all in authentic style. Thanks so much to Paul for sharing with us these tremendous shots of one very fabulous celebration.

Faye and Dave on WWW

It was such a great source of inspiration for us – particularly for those lovely, personal details. When I started planning, I would look at other barn venues including Healey Barn. It allowed me to really envisage what things could look like for own day.

Retro Rustic Barn Wedding

The Proposal

It happened at Brantwood Gardens, a historic house in the Lake District. Our trip had been delayed multiple times because of COVID, so it already felt special to finally have a change of scenery.

After visiting the house, we went down to its gardens overlooking the lake. We sat on a bench to admire the views and that’s when it happened. Afterwards, we wandered down to the café to enjoy a sticky toffee pudding. It felt like our little secret that we’d just got engaged!

The Vision

The ultimate goal was to have fun and for our wedding to feel authentically ‘us’. We wanted it to feel relaxed, but also magical in the right places, so it was about striking that balance.

The Venue

We’d looked at several barn venues, but as soon as we arrived at Healey Barn in Northumberland, we fell in love with it because it had:

A magical indoor ceremony room. The fireplace, candelabras and the twinkly lights are so pretty. Being indoors was also a big plus, in case the weather turned bad.
Connected spaces. The courtyard, ceremony room and dining area were connected, so it meant guests could have their own space if needed but meant everyone was within reachable distance.
Amazing food. We received so much praise about the food. We had duck, tarka dahl, a pizza oven in the evening, and s’mores on the firepits.

Your Outfits

I always thought I would choose a 1950’s tea dress, but then I tried ‘Josie’ from Rebecca Ingram, and knew she was ‘the one.’ The dress had a classical, old Hollywood feel to it. I felt curvaceous, confident, and often wear a red lip, so it was the perfect match.

I paired the dress with a short pearl veil which was attached to a headband and swapped it out for a minimalistic headband in the evening. The satin shoes were from Rainbow Club. I wanted something I could wear again, and they were so comfy.

Dave’s suit was from Marc Darcy. It was a modern take on tweed and was paired with a copper dicky bow (so fun!) and some smart brown brogues.

The Ceremony & Music

I walked down the aisle to a piano version of the Main Title from ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ by Ennio Morricone. Every time I listened to it; I would cry. Glad to say on the day, I held it together.

We asked both sisters to do readings. My sister did a reading from Winnie the Pooh, and Dave’s sister wrote a reading for us, which made it more personal.

We’d met whilst teaching in South Korea, so we sprinkled some of that into our day too. We walked back down the aisle to an acoustic song called ‘Bom, Bom, Bom’ by Roy Kim which means ‘Spring, Spring, Spring’. We love that song and because we got married in April, it was perfect.

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Photographer – Paul Santos

I mean honestly, just look at his pictures! Paul is amazing. He was a true professional and from the moment we had the first phone call, we knew we were in safe hands. He made us feel so relaxed, was incredibly fun to be around and really captured the day so stylishly.

Videographer – Pat Holt

Pat had created a video for our friend’s wedding, so we already knew how amazing he was. We’ve watched our videos repeatedly. It’s been so special to be able to relive it and have it captured on film.

The Honeymoon

We spent our honeymoon in Marrakesh, Morocco. I got a bout of food poisoning at a pub the day after our wedding, and then Dave got ill whilst in Morocco. Safe to say, it wasn’t the most romantic of honeymoons, but a good test for being together through sickness and in health!

The Styling & Decor

Decorations – Healey Barn is already beautiful, so we just added small personal touches. We put some small Korean wedding ducks on the top table – a nod to how we met and used items we already had to be less wasteful.
Cake – Our wedding cake was made by my cousin, Becca. I need to get her on the Bake Off! It was a delicious carrot and lemon cake, decorated with edible wildflowers.
Flowers – Healey Flowers were excellent. I’d said immediately that I wanted something wild looking and they looked like they’d been picked up from the nearby Northumberland woodland.
Colours – I wanted a palette which would pop against the navy suits, so chose a vivid burnt orange tone as the main colour. We paired them with soft pinks and some deep reds.
DIY – For our stationery, we chose a fun retro font template on Etsy. For table names, each one represented a significant place from each year of our relationship so far.
Signs – One of my favourite features were our name cards. Our friend Yoon helped to translate everybody’s names into Hangeul (the Korean alphabet). It added a lovely personal touch and meant a lot to see people taking them home.

Memorable Moments

Arriving at the venue in a white Cadillac. I wasn’t bothered about having a car, but my dad insisted, and it was hilarious. Blanchland village waved us off and it really set the tone for the day.

Entering the wedding breakfast to Queens of the Stone Age. They’re our favourite band but we couldn’t find an appropriate place to use their music. We eventually used ‘Smooth Sailing’ as our entrance theme for the wedding breakfast, wearing sunglasses. It was our corny, rock ‘n’ roll moment and an incredible feeling to share the joy with everyone.