Indie Quirky & Colourful Blue Barn Wedding

Indie Quirky & Colourful Blue Barn Wedding

via

I love it when an individual couple really show off their personalities on their wedding day.

WWW readers Leah and Jim did just that at their wedding held on the 23 rd August 2014 at Ratsbury Barn in Kent. With their unique style Leah donned a blue sash on her pretty dress while Jim went for a waistcoat and flat cap. There were also converse all round, for the couple themselves and the sweet flower girls. Yes.

They crafted their lovely décor themselves, had a fun balloon release and a subtle Beatles theme throughout.

Thanks so much to the fabulous Fiona Kelly for sharing her images this morning.

THE VISION | We knew straight away that we wanted a really laid-back, quirky, colourful wedding full of plenty of detail that would show off our very individual personalities. We didn't want anything to be too formal because that's just not who we are as a couple! We wanted everything to be fun and for all our guests to really enjoy themselves like they would at a party!

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We started planning our wedding two years in advance because we wanted plenty of time to gather and develop our ideas, and it's a good job we did because we had a surprise baby in the middle of those 2 years which took up a lot of our time and focus! First I scoured wedding magazines, websites and blogs to find as many ideas as possible, and I kept my favourite ones in a wedding scrapbook. I found choosing the colour scheme surprisingly difficult! I changed my mind several times before finally settling on blue and purple. I'm a very creative person and so I really wanted to make as much of the decoration as I could by myself. It took a very long time though so I advise other DIY brides to start making things as early as possible! We didn't initially plan on having a Beatles theme, this gradually crept in after we booked a Beatles tribute band. But I think it worked out great and added to the quirkiness!

My mum helped out so much throughout the planning process, making sure I was organised and picking things up from shops for me here and there. She was fab!

THE VENUE | We had the ceremony and reception all at the same place which was Ratsbury Barn in Tenterden, Kent. It was the most perfect venue for our day and everyone commented on how lovely and different it was. The inside of the barn was really rustic, and outside it had various different areas including a mini orchard, a huge lawn of grass perfect for games and a pond with a red bridge going over it. Everything about it was beautiful.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | I knew from the very start what style of dress I wanted, and I thought it was going to be so difficult to find 'the one'. It did take me a while, but in the end I found it in a local bridal shop. I didn't get the instant WOW factor that I'd always dreamed of, maybe because I'm such a perfectionist, but I soon realised that I wasn't going to find anything that would beat it. It had the fitted bodice that I wanted and the perfect flowy skirt that was a must-have. I also reaaally wanted a big bow on the back of my dress, but as it didn't have one, I asked the seamstress to put one on for me. I chose blue to make it really unique and it was the perfect finishing touch. I chose to wear converse instead of heels. I've never really been a high-heel kind of girl, and I wanted to be comfortable. I used the create your own tool on the Converse website and made purple and blue ones with writing on that said 'Bride'. I also wore a Pandora charm bracelet which was a wedding gift from Jim.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Jim didn't want to wear a full on traditional wedding suit. Instead he opted for trousers and a waistcoat, with his shirt sleeves rolled up to fit the laid-back style of our day. He also wore Converse with 'Groom' written on them to match my shoes! He is a massive Beatles fan and was so chuffed with the Beatles tie pin that he managed to find on the internet! My wedding gift to him was a beautiful pocket watch, something that he'd always wanted. I had it engraved with ' 'I do' until the end of time'. He loved it and also wore it on the day.

THE READINGS & MUSIC We put together our own playlists on Jim's Ipod full of all sorts of different songs that we both like. We had a laid back, romantic playlist for the hour before the ceremony and a more upbeat playlist for after the ceremony and the rest of the afternoon.

I walked down the aisle to a song that we picked together. Neither of us wanted anything that was at all traditional, and we soon found the perfect choice which was Songbird by Oasis.

We had just one reading during the ceremony. We opted for a short verse called 'The Walled Garden' which we asked Jim's dad to read for us.

During the signing of the register we played Your Guardian Angel by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, 1234 by Plain White T's and One Day Like This by Elbow.

For walking back down the aisle I wanted something really fun to get the party started! I would have loved We Go Together from the movie Grease, but Jim wouldn't hear of it! So instead we opted for I'm A Believer by The Monkees.

During the evening we had a Beatles cover band called Beatles For Sale. They were absolutely fantastic! They played our first dance for us because the song we chose was a Beatles one, In My Life.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | I chose my sister to be my bridesmaid, and my two nieces and two daughters to be my flowergirls. My sister wore a long purple bridesmaid dress that I purchased from the same shop as my Bridal Dress. I didn't want the flower girls to be dressed up too 'fussy' - that just wasn't the style we was going for on any aspect of the wedding! So instead of shopping Bridal Stores for their dresses I shopped high street stores instead. The chosen dresses came from Next, and it was actually my Stepdad who saw them and pointed them out! They had the 'pretty summer dress' look that I wanted and matched the colour scheme - perfect! Unfortunately they didn't do it in my youngest daughter's size so we found a plain white dress from H + M and my mum added a purple sash around the waist to tie it in with the others. All five of them wore Converse style trainers to match everyone else.

THE FLOWERS | My sister recommended a lady to me called Elli Cawse. She's a lovely friendly lady who really listens to what you want. I decided that I wanted my bouquet to be artificial for two reasons, the first being that I wanted blue flowers, and I wanted the blue to be as bright as possible which was easier achieved using artificial ones. The second being that I wanted to be able to keep my bouquet forever! I currently have it on the window sill in my kitchen and it's a beautiful daily reminder of our wedding. The bouquet consisted of blue lilys, white roses and purple poppies. I wanted poppies because they are Jim's favourite flower.

My three oldest flowergirls carried a lily each, all different colours (one white, one purple and one blue) and my bridesmaid had a wrist corsage as she had her hands full, literally, with my youngest daughter! I decided to have all of these artificial too incase any of them wanted to keep it, and to tie in with my bouquet.

I had quite a few different floral displays around my venue: 'pew' ends which I re-used as table decorations, four trugs filled with displays, two wellington boots and a willow structure which stood in the doorway of the barn where we took our vows. Amongst the flowers in these displays were white orchids, gypsophila, pink mini-gerberas and hops. I wanted the venue flowers to look as rustic as possible to compliment the barn, and Elli certainly did me proud.

THE CAKE | Originally we wanted a tower of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for our wedding cake. We had seen one when we went to a wedding fair at Bluewater and it looked amazing! We were really keen on the idea but we realised after a while that unfortunately it wasn't going to be feasible where the purchasing/ collecting and setting up was concerned. Instead we asked my Aunt to make our cake for us. She has her own cake baking/decorating business so we'd already seen and sampled several of her amazing cakes! We decided on a Beatles Yellow Submarine theme because we wanted the cake to be as fun and quirky as possible! And with three delicious tiers comprising of coffee cake, chocolate orange and vanilla sponge, my Aunt definitely did not disappoint!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | We found our photographer, Fiona Kelly, at Bluewater wedding fair. She had a lovely display of photographs in her booth and as soon as I saw them I knew Fiona was the photographer I had been looking for. Throughout the whole process, from meeting her to finally receiving our amazing photos, she was so friendly, down to earth and made us feel so comfortable and at ease in her company, which I think is a very important factor to consider when choosing a photographer - especially for your wedding day. All her photos were exactly what we were hoping for and more. She really captured some amazing moments of our day and did it absolute justice, giving us something to treasure forever. We are eternally grateful to Fiona Kelly and would most definitely recommend her to everyone and anyone!

THE DETAILS & DECOR | We had lots of little details at our wedding in an effort to try and make it as quirky and also personal to us as possible. Some of the bigger decorations included haybales, a few funky yellow submarine paintings courtesy of Jim, and blue, purple and white balloons that we later used for a balloon release.

Most of our decorations were much smaller and detailed. I had lots of fun and spent so much time making all of them! I made purple and blue bunting all by hand to decorate both inside and outside the venue, although I started to run out of time so my Mother-in-law kindly helped me with the last of it on her sewing machine. I purchased paper straws and made my own labels to stick on them, all of which had The Beatles song titles on them. Organza ribbon was wrapped around the beams in the barn and crepe ribbon wound around some of the tree trunks outside. Jim also got stuck in and put together some paper windmills that I wanted. He used The Beatles sheet music for them and we used them alongside flowers in glass coke bottles for the table decorations. We also dotted a few around outside. I made my own favours which I was particularly proud of! I filled tiny glass bottles with smarties and put a love quote inside each one - like a mini message in a bottle!

THE HONEYMOON | Unfortunately for a few different reasons we didn't get to have a honeymoon after our wedding. But this year we are planning to go to Austria and spend a romantic week in the mountains.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | I don't think I will ever forget how nervous I became as my car turned into the venue and I could see all of my guests seated and waiting for me! I was literally shaking from head-to-toe while talking to the registrars before the ceremony!

We did a balloon release and there was a random tug-of-war between guests, both of which were great fun.

Our first dance obviously! Our eldest daughter came over towards the end of the song so we ended up finishing it as a threesome.

Also the band got Jim up at one point during their set to sing one of the songs with them. He was so good and made me really proud!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Plan the day that YOU as a couple want. It's your day, no one elses, so do the things that will make the day perfect for you both.

Enjoy the planning process because it won't take long for the big day to come around and then it will be gone! At least if you really enjoy the planning process it means you can savour everything about your wedding for as long as possible - if that makes sense?!

If you're having trouble allocating your budget, don't save on the photographer. They're the one person who can and will give you memories that last forever!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Fiona Kelly

Band | The Beatles for Sale

Venue | Ratsbury Barn

Dress | Perfection Bridal & Menswear

Food | Kentish Hog Roasts

Car | Steve's wedding automobiles

Flowers | Elli Cawse floral designs

Cake | Corinne Hopper

Hair & Make-up | Kate Goodman

Totally gorgeous. What a fun wedding.

Thanks so much to Leah and Jim for sharing their brilliant story with us today XOXO Lou

Connectez-vous pour laisser un commentaire

Follow us on