I think a lot of newly engaged couples dream of finding a bare barn, taking the blank canvas and truly making it their own and somewhere along the way they feel a bit overwhelmed by the thought, by the sheer amount of work involved in something like that... An entire venue transformation. But not Claire & James. They found the barn of their dreams and thoroughly embraced it. So, here's hoping their story gives you the confidence to follow your dreams. Oh and by the way, Claire is gorgeous. Like, ridiculously stunning. Her hair piece, her dress. So so perfect and so many stealable ideas.

Claire The Bride: Our main decision after getting engaged, along with many other Bride and Grooms was of course... The venue! Luckily for us, Andrew Smyth a close relative of James' Mum had a huge empty barn and after getting a glimpse of it at one of the Annual Charity Barn dances, I couldn't think of anywhere that would compare! After sharing these ideas with James, he seemed fairly convinced that it was the perfect location for the laid back and informal day that we were after. However there were many other people (mainly our parents) who thought we were absolutely crazy. Not one to be beaten on anything, it was decided that we would have to prove them wrong. So without looking at any other venues, we started to create Rustic Barn Wedding.

The Flowers

Jil Peterson, who was much much more than a florist by the end of things, proved invaluable to the barn design. Her amazing ideas and fantastic floral arrangements helped me keep my visions on track. When she mentioned a huge floral chandelier like never before, I started to think that perhaps my Pinterest dreams may come true. She went above and beyond what was required and I will always be truly grateful. She even faced her fear of heights in a forklift bucket with us, attempting to hang the chandelier. With the barn being such a huge space, we wanted plenty of flowers in all sorts of crates, jars, buckets and anything else that would fit with the rustic theme.

Colour Schemes & DIY

As for the colour scheme, we wanted soft colours and tones for a summer wedding. My favourite colour is blue, but we somehow ended up with pink (a huge shock to many of the guests). To complete the rustic theme, I had everybody I possibly could working on different DIY projects. My mum and I made Marrow and Ginger jam from our veg patch for the favours, David designed and drew up the invitations and the order of service. The girls wrestled with hessian and twine to complete the invitations. We also made bunting, decorated jam jars for the table centres and created a huge photo collage of all the wedding guests on pallets. Our parents helped with the drapes in the barn, 8 hours of measuring, cutting and forklift manoeuvring sorted this. Then there was fairy lights and bunting to hang. All of these jobs allowed us all to spend time together in the run up to the wedding day, creating many precious memories. There were so many other jobs, big and small that I could never list here. We are both so grateful to everyone who helped out in whatever way they could. They made our special day, unforgettable!

Maids & Men

We wanted the Bridesmaids' and men to be able to relax in their outfits and of course dance the night away. The girls chose the first dress they tried on. It was perfect! However not so simple for the men! Purchases by David, James and his Mum of the incorrect size/shade of suit, resulted in a 3 week search for the men to gather together 3 complete suits from River Island. When thought all was falling into place nicely, only for James to decide he fancied a tweed jacket. Not exactly ideal for a summer wedding but it fitted quite perfectly with the rustic theme. The braces completed the men's look and allowed me my little bit of blue.

Food & Entertainment

We decided to go with a Gourmet BBQ as this is the type of food we really enjoy and we felt it was perfect for the venue. Old Barn Steakhouse were extremely helpful and there were definitely no concerns about anyone going hungry. We served the wedding cake as dessert as we wanted everyone to get a taste of the wonderfully talented Jackie Sherrod's' baking. It went down an absolute treat.

As for the entertainment, we had listened to numerous wedding bands online and we were finding it really difficult to find something that we liked and that would suit the barn. Thanks to Facebook, we were having a look through one of our local bars pages when we spotted ' The Hootin' Annies '. It was probably the quirky name that made us explore further and boy are we glad we did. They were a young, lively and extremely talented band. They played a short acoustic set while the guests were arriving at the barn, which was casual and laid back, allowing the guests to enjoy their ales and cocktails with some excellent music. They then picked up the pace (as did all the guests) for the evening reception. From the very first song the toe tapping started and the dance floor never emptied for the rest of the night.

Photography

We had seen and absolutely fallen in love with the work of Gillian and Tim Higgins of Gather and Tides after we'd seen what they could do with a local Cinema and Bowling Alley on a blustery winters day! The natural shots and laid back style was everything we wanted. So we were extremely grateful when Gillian confirmed availability.

In addition to this, we had seen several of the short videos by Cinematic Tide and loved how it was all put together. Not like traditional wedding videos, as after all, it wasn't a particularly traditional wedding!