Authentic & Cosy Rustic Autumn Swallows Nest Barn Wedding

Hold on tight, you’re about to be blown away by Katie and Jamie’s sensational Swallows Nest Barn wedding set in Warwickshire. Their day was all about being authentic to themselves and including the things they love in life. This is an ethos I am fully behind and I have to say their day really screamed them.

First up, Katie and Jamie chose an autumn date as it’s their favourite season, which enabled a super cosy feel to their celebrations. They were wed in the woods inspired by Lord Of The Rings, which looked just perfect. They then partied in the barn which was decked in stylish DIY decorations. The colour palette of greens, pinks and orange was super stunning too.

Keep your eyes peeled for gorgeous outfits, pretty dried flowers, cupcakes and a lot of smiles. Oh and one last thing, their honeymoon in Scotland sounded epic.

A massive thank you to Rebel Love Club for sharing with us these incredible images of such a special day.

Swallows Nest Barn Wedding

The Proposal

Our proposal was pretty magical. We had a trip, with our best friends, planned in July 2019 to go to Edinburgh, after wanting to go for years! Jamie had arranged with my best friend, who was coming with us, to hide the ring at her house to bring with her on trip.

Jamie didn’t know when on our holiday he was going to propose but he had scouted out the perfect location, Ross Fountain, just under Edinburgh Castle in Princes Street gardens.

One of the evenings we had planned to head to dinner but to make a stop off at Princes Street gardens to look round. As soon as we left our Air BnB it started raining, so I was assuming our trip to the gardens would be short and sweet.

I am such a sucker for taking photos, so I wanted to make sure I got a photo of me and Jamie in the iconic photo spot below the castle, in front of the fountain. So my friends took my phone, me and Jamie stood in front of the fountain to get a cute picture in the pouring rain, until I noticed Jamie was down on one knee. I was so excited I actually jumped up and down like a kid in a candy store! A couple of tears later and I said yes!

It was so romantic standing there in the rain… a moment I will never forget!

The Vision

Going into planning a wedding we had no idea what kind of day we wanted to have however, we always knew we wanted our wedding to be authentically us and encapsulate everything we love.

We are autumnal people through and through so we knew it had to have lots of cosy elements. We wanted our ceremony to take place outside and we wanted GOOD food! Not too much to ask right?!

The Venue

Our venue was the beautiful Swallows Nest Barn, a 16th-century converted barn nestled in the heart of the Warwickshire countryside. It was the first venue we went to go and view and we knew instantly it was the one for us.

It felt so cosy and intimate, exactly what we wanted. There is a plethora of options as to where you can have your ceremony here, with access to the woodland and courtyard as well as inside the barn. It felt like home.

They have a beautiful bridal suite on site where you can get ready which was also super handy on the day for touch-ups and waltzing off with the husband to have a private moment together!

The Styling & Decor

We followed a rustic theme throughout the ceremony and reception, we used lots of natural colours and materials. Our main colours were sage and forest green which were so fitting with the barn and forest backdrop. We also had pops of pinks and orange which warmed up our colour palette to give it an almost sunset kind of vibe.

For our ceremony, we had a large A-frame to decorate our outdoor space. This was decorated with pampas sprays and large milk churns, which I created myself with the help of my friend Shannon. All of the flowers that decorated the venue were created by us, they were all either fake or dried which were sourced from places like Facebook marketplace.

The barn was decorated similarly, all the tables had green tablecloths with lots of fake foliage and gold accents. Including tall candelabras which housed a plethora of candlesticks which lit up the barn and gave it such a cosy atmosphere. From the ceiling hung floral chandeliers with candle sticks within to light up the room. On our top table we created a sign that said ‘the Stewart’s’ from off-cuts of oak in Jamie’s workshop, this was one of our favourite details.

To make our decoration stretch further we also used mine and all the bridesmaid bouquets, after the ceremony as decoration for some of the tables in the shoot room and on my top table! It helped tie everything together and meant the girls could just pick them up as they left.

Our guestbook and gift table were so aesthetically pleasing! We found an old suitcase card box on Facebook marketplace which worked perfectly with our theme. It really brought the space together and worked so well with all the beautiful flowers and celestial guest book we had sat on the table too.

A cute feature we included was a ‘10 years of us’ shelf. We had these beautiful shelves next to our cake table which were perfect to house pictures of me and Jamie over the 10 years we have been together. It was a great talking point for our guests and something me and Jamie reminisced on throughout the evening.

Our cake was made by the lovely ladies at ‘the Cakery’ in Leamington. We had a Sicilian lemon flavoured one-tier cake with cupcakes in the same flavour and also in white chocolate and raspberry flavour! As we were only having a small selection of cakes we decided to have a doughnut wall which was filled with pic and mix and Krispy Kreme donuts, this was a massive hit with our guests!

Our signage we created ourselves. I made the designs from scratch on Canva which was super easy and printed them on Vista Print using their FoamX option. They were all waterproof and really sturdy, meaning they were ready for any weather the day was going to bring.

Our confetti was actually all handmade by us too, it was made from bouquets of flowers we had received over a two-year period which made the confetti toss so special!

We were very lucky that our venue were so fantastic at co-ordinating, setting up and styling all our decorations. They knew exactly what we wanted and took the stress out of having to plan and do it all ourselves the morning of.

The Ceremony & Music

Our initial ceremony inspiration actually came from one of our favourite films, ‘The Lord Of The Rings’. One day on TikTok I heard somebody compose a traditional Wedding March into ‘The Concerning Hobbits’, a piece of music myself and Jamie are besotted with. From that moment we knew this is what I’d be walking down the aisle to.

We didn’t want to get married in a church or inside at all actually. We had always envisioned a beautiful outdoor ceremony in some sort of woodland or forest which made our LOTR aisle music that little more whimsical! This decision helped carve our whole day and all our colour schemes.

The ceremony itself was only around 20-30 minutes, we had some lovely readings which we felt represented our love and life together. Standing there just listening to our registrars was such a flaming moment for both of us, we could finally breathe and just be in the moment with one another.

We were very particular about our music, we had an amazing guitarist called Paul Martin who played beautifully for our guests from their arrival all the way through to the speeches! He was the perfect addition to our day and made the ambience of our wedding so whimsical and special. We actually found Paul at the National Wedding Show at the NEC! He was the first vendor we booked.

The evening music consisted of a local DJ who was happy to play any playlist/song we gave him and he was great at filling the dance floor and getting people moving and grooving!

Your Outfits

Katie

My beautiful wedding dress was made by the designer ‘Martina Liana’, but I bought it from a lovely boutique in Derby called ‘The Wedding House’. When looking for my dream dress I was searching for something whimsical, floaty and for it to have sleeves.

This dress had it all! The way it fit around my bust, the boning and mesh detail, the gorgeous embroidered leaves and flowers and the long train. I knew the moment I slipped this dress on I’d be walking away with it. It was my whole Pinterest board hung right in front of me!

I paired my dress with some simple white heels from Raid which were swapped for some Converse in the evening and I accessorised the dress with dainty gold jewellery, all celestial-themed to match my bridesmaids’ hair pieces. My hair piece however was created by ‘Everlasting Flowers by JM’ on Instagram, she created my DREAM dried flower comb with intricate falling flowers which sat in my hair.

Jamie

Jamie’s suit was from Moss Bros, we hired them for Jamie and the groomsmen.

We had been set on having a full tweed suit, with Jamie having a 3 piece and the groomsmen having a 2 piece. They all fitted great and looked even better on the day. They were a beautiful sage green and matched the theme of the wedding brilliantly.

To compliment the suits they all had tan leather brogues, sage green ties, and buttonholes which matched the bouquets. The groomsmen had brown leather braces and Jamie had a waistcoat.

Your Photographer

We found our amazing photographer Steff (Rebel Love Club) through Instagram. We knew exactly what sort of style of photography we wanted and how we would want them edited and Rebel Love Club was exactly that!

We loved their candid style of photography and on our big day they made us feel so comfortable and relaxed whilst having our photos taken. As an avid social media creator myself I was used to having fashion photos taken of me but Jamie wasn’t so confident so it was great to see him really getting into it and enjoying the process.

Our photos came out INCREDIBLE and we couldn’t have received a better service or photos from our day! Steff added such joy to our day and everyone from our wedding was saying how fabulous she was with everyone!

The Honeymoon

Anyone that knows us, knows that we aren’t really people who enjoy sunny weather. Give us a rainy, cold autumn/winter day and we’re happy so the idea of going on a hot honeymoon was practically our worst nightmare! As our journey into marriage started in Scotland (basically our favourite place on earth) we decided to do a budget-friendly, 2-week adventure through Scotland and visit some places we had yet to explore!

We started off with 4 days in Edinburgh exploring through the old and new town, visiting some of our favourite spots and eating ALL the food possible!

We then headed off to Loch Lomond, a place we had visited briefly but wanted to explore more of. We decided to camp here and as we owned our own kayak it was the perfect place to do all the water sports! We even managed to get a tan.

After 4 days in Loch Lomond we moved up to Fort William. On our journey to Fort William we passed through Glencoe, possibly the most incredible place we have EVER driven through in our lives, it was truly breathtaking. If you haven’t been already then I’d add it to your bucket list immediately.

We camped again in Fort William at the bottom of Ben Nevis as our plan was to hike Ben Nevis the following day. This was probably one of the HARDEST things we’ve ever had to do, it wasn’t just physically but it was mentally tough but to say we’ve done it is such an achievement for us!

The following day we moved onto the Isle of Skye, another breathtaking place to visit. It has so many beautiful quaint towns with some of the best sunsets and starry night skies we’ve ever seen! We stayed in the cutest log cabin and it was probably a highlight to our trip!

Our final leg of our honeymoon consisted of heading down to Glasgow and spending some time with our friends, eating all the food and catching up before heading home! It was truly a dream. I never wanted to leave.

Memorable Moments

A few memorable moments from our big day would be:

Our first touch. It was so calming to be able to speak to one another before the ceremony without seeing each other. It meant that the surprise of the dress was hidden but we could still have such an intimate moment with each other.

When our lovely guitarist started playing ‘Concerning Hobbits’ and we both knew it was time, it gave me goosebumps as we both patiently waited to see each other. It was the moment we had both waited for for so long.

Another memorable moment was when all the ceremony and formalities were over and we could finally dance the night away. We did a shot with our whole groom and bridal party and headed to the dance floor where we both locked arms and skipped around the room to 500 Miles by The Proclaimers, our hearts just felt so happy.

Advice For Other Couples

Our advice for other couples would be:

Don’t sweat the small stuff on the day, those small details won’t matter and your guests won’t even notice if everything isn’t perfect!
Ensure you take time for yourselves, we managed to steal so many moments away with one another which allowed us to properly catch up and embrace every moment.
Dance!!!! Dance to every song, dance till your feet fall off, dance till you can’t dance any longer!
Consider cupcakes instead of a massive cake! It’s so much more convenient for guests and it’s less waste!
Listen to your photographer, let loose and enjoy having photos taken! They know best and will get you the most beautiful shots!