Real Rustic DIY Barn Wedding: Vanessa & Aaron

There's nothing I like more than hearing about a bride for whom her wedding day was the start of a whole new life. Obviously marriage is a fresh start for every couple, but sometimes, while planning a wedding a bride {or groom} discovers a whole new creative side to her personality, and that leads to a whole new business. My wedding led me to start Before the Big Day, and it's the best thing I've ever done! Vanessa's love was stationery, and after designing her own, she started a company called Beautiful Ink, which makes beautiful, fairly priced wedding stationery. But that wasn't her only wedding DIY project - between them, Vanessa and Aaron created most of their rustic wedding details, including the table numbers, table plan and table decorations. Wedding favours were mini pots of honey made by Vanessa's father's bees {wow!}, and Vanessa's mother arranged the venue flowers. Add in the prettiest pair of sunshine yellow shoes, Vanessa's gorgeous vintage-style wedding dress, and  handmade headdress by What Katy Did Next, and you've got a wedding that couldn't be more up my street! Huge thanks to Pete and Laura Lawson from Lawson Photography for their stunning pictures - don't miss the reception shots later today.

We got married this summer on 14th July 2012 at Rivington Hall Barn in Lancashire near where my parents live and where I’ve grown up.

I found my dress in the first bridal shop I visited. It’s by Augusta Jones from Limelight Occasions, and it's beautiful. I loved the lace, the tulle, everything about it just worked, yet looked effortless. The tulle draped behind me from my waist like a veil but cleverly was in two parts so it could be scooped over my arms to create a shawl.

As my dress had its own veil of sorts I decided I wanted a headpiece instead. I really struggled to find something that suited my vintage-style dress until I stumbled across Katy from What Katy Did Next. Her work is gorgeous - she really understood what I was looking for, and together we designed a headpiece, which she handmade for me. It was stunning and looked perfect with my dress. She also made my bracelet, and small flower accessories for my hair. She was great! I also added a pearl necklace and earrings from my late Grandfather, which was really special. 

Aaron chose a grey lounge suit from Carl Stewart Menswear near our home in Yorkshire, and co-ordinated it with a cream waistcoat and yellow cravat. His ushers wore the same suits, but with sage green cravats to match the bridesmaids dresses.

Aaron's always worn odd socks and didn’t want his wedding to be different so scoured the internet in search of yellow and green striped socks. Once he found them, he kitted out all his groomsmen in them as well! In the evening Aaron and I both swapped into comfortable Toms espadrilles for dancing in the evening.

My mum loves flowers, so she took the helm in finding the florist, and fell in love with Blossom Flowers in Chorlton, who create really natural and seasonal wedding flowers. Becky from Blossom created all the bouquets and buttonholes using yellow, cream and green flowers and foliage, that looked stunning. My bouquet was tied with tulle to match my dress, and the buttonholes had a hessian bow around them. 

The bridesmaid’s dresses were from Celebration Bridal near my home in Yorkshire and were long chiffon dresses in sage green, which suited my blonde bridesmaids perfectly. They also had flowers in their hair and their bouquets had long trailing yellow ribbons trailing.

We currently live in a small village in Yorkshire and have both embraced country living so were keen to have our wedding theme be rural and country. The barn was a perfect venue and this encouraged our ideas over our wedding theme to develop.

We chose yellows and greens for our colours, to represent the country garden elements we were trying to achieve. We kept our colours running throughout, from the striped straws to the flowers arranged by my mum. It all just felt very natural and personal which was what we wanted.

As a child we used to have school discos and barn dances at Rivington Hall Barn, but I’d never thought of it as a wedding venue until my mum mentioned it. We both wanted a relaxed wedding and felt the barn really made this possible; it’s stunning inside and has lovely grounds.

Our photographers were Lawson Photography and we just fell in love with their photography style - and how everyone is happy and smiling in such a natural way in all their photos!

Pete and Laura Lawson work as a team and captured every moment and tiny detail of our wedding; they are also lovely, friendly people who really put Aaron and I at ease in all the photos. They also live just round the corner from Rivington Hall Barn, so it was meant to be!

♥ Want more DIY wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about more barn weddings? ♥

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Real Vintage Barn Wedding: Gemma & Pete

Brides with one eye on their wedding budget {most of us!}, are going to find huge inspiration from this fabulous barn wedding. Gemma and Pete sought out all the best wedding deals, and DIY'd many of their fabulous wedding details, saving themselves some serious pennies. I'm loving their vintage Victoriana wedding style, and their original wedding details, including a Krispy Kreme donut wedding cake, vintage handbag table displays, and cute Mr & Mrs photo props. Gemma sourced her bridesmaids' dresses and accessories on the high street, and DIY'd her perfect wedding shoes with a pair of stunning shoe clips from eBay - and don't they look fabulous! Stunning photographs published with thanks to HBA Photography, don't miss Gemma's answers to the Before the Big Day Questionnaire - she has tonnes of fabulous advice for upcoming brides and grooms!

My wedding dress came from Gracie Bleu in Matlock, who were just brilliant. I had a very specific style in mind - I wanted embroidery and tulle - quite vintage looking, but more importantly I wanted a coffee or deep cream colour, and Gracie Bleu just happened to have a dress that matched my description!

I struggled to find the exact shoes I wanted as I wanted a taupe colour, not too high, and with some sort of embellishment, not traditional wedding shoes. So I bought some plain taupe coloured shoes from M&S for £30, and embellished them with pearl cluster shoe clips, which I bought off eBay for £10. My bracelet was from coast, earrings and underwear from Debenhams.

We got married at Packington Moor on July 29th 2012. We wanted to get married in a barn, and we only had a window of two weeks in which Pete’s brother could get time off work. A friend suggested Packington and we fell in love with it, and it happened to be free on the dates we wanted - it was just meant to be. We fell in love with it immediately, we could visualise our wedding there straight away, and knew it was where we wanted to hold our special day.

For Pete's wedding outfit, we both wanted normal suits - not tailcoats. Pete chose the colour, and when we went to try the suits, we decided to make him stand out with a cream waistcoat, while his two best men wore grey. The suits had a striped detail which was very subtle, and we chose sage green cravats to match the bridesmaids' dresses. The suits were hired from Formal Affair in Chesterfield.

I really wanted sage green short dresses for my bridesmaids, but the bridal shops only stocked long gowns, so in the end I looked on the high street and fell in love with the dresses in Coast.

My niece’s shoes were from Next, and my friends' were from Debenhams. I accessorized with cream flowers for their hair from H&M, and pearl bracelets {tied with the same lace as the bouquets for a vintage feel}, and earrings from Primark. My friend also had a cream lace bolero jacket which I found on Amazon. 

We chose HBA Photography for our wedding photographers. They were absolutely amazing and really paid attention to everything we wanted. On the day they were so relaxed and friendly - they really helped to make the day special. They then got the photos to us super fast and we are so impressed with the beautiful, creative shots. I had asked for not too many posed shots - I liked the reportage style and wanted memories captured - which they did brilliantly. HBA Photography are the best!

Pete and I got engaged on a cruise round the Med. The highlight was a stop in Venice, and on that morning, Pete prepared a champagne breakfast up on the balcony while I was in the shower. When I eventually came out, I saw the champagne, and initially thought the ring box was a box of chocolates, so I went for the champagne! At that point Pete suggested I may want to open the box! He then got down on one knee. We then went on a gondola ride for two and spent the day in Venice before having a romantic open air meal as we sailed out of Venice.

We decided against a wedding cake as they are so expensive, and always seem to go to waste, so we opted for Krispy Kreme donuts! They looked beautiful stacked on the cake stands and were a real talking point.

I love Victoriana, and anything with scrolls and elaborate detail, so I wanted the feel of the wedding to be along these lines. We tried to make our reception wedding theme different and elegant, and slightly vintage. The tables were decorated with vintage-style handbags filled with fresh flowers by our local florist, Polka Dot Florist in Ripley, plus a collection of tea-light holders and candlesticks, as well as pearls and sparkly glass decorations. 

My wedding theme was inspired by a 'Congratulations on Your Wedding' card I had bought my friend last year. On the front it had ‘things that go together’ like ‘Fish and chips’. So we used this idea for our invitations and table names - each one was named after things we like that go together, e.g. Coffee & Cake, and Take That & Party!

I DIY'd my own wedding invitations and table names with the help of a friend. Another friend helped me make the table plan - I bought the tags from a shop on eBay, and we bought a cheap frame from a charity shop and sprayed it. We then bought mount board and mounted the tags. It cost £20 in total - a bargain!

As wedding favours, we filled vintage class desert dishes {sourced from local charity shops} with lemon bonbons, and a friend DIY'd mini chocolate cupcakes for each guest.

We had tonnes of DIY wedding projects! I created photo-books for the Pete's brothers {the best men} using old family photos, I made quiz cards as icebreakers for the wedding reception, and I bought main wedding flowers wholesale. A family friend made the wedding flower arrangements as a gift. I also bought personalised confetti cones from eBay, and a fun 'Fill me in Party Poster' from the brilliant website Not On The High Street, which we now have hanging up in our home as a momento of our big day. 

I loved every minute of it planning my big day!!! Just remember, stay organised and don't put any jobs off. Stick to a budget - I used a big scrapbook. In one side find pictures of what you like and where you can stick fliers you get from potential suppliers. In the other keep a track of your finances and check them regularly to make sure you don’t go over budget. Also, shop around – charity shops and eBay doesn't mean you are compromising on quality. Don't be afraid to ask suppliers for discounts - they can only say no!

♥ Want more barn wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about vintage wedding ideas? ♥

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Real Beautiful Barn Wedding Video: Samantha & Jamie

Vintage barn weddings are by far the favourite venues for British brides. With so many stunning historic rustic buildings across the UK, there's bound to be one in your area, and they provide a brilliant blank canvas for your wedding ideas. Samantha and Jamie created a stunning elegant pink and cream themed day for their wedding at Blake Hall in Essex. This fantastic White Dress Films wedding video trailer highlights all the best wedding details from their big day. I love the vintage bus, the Space Hoppers {near the end} and the decorations of white bunting, fluffy tissue pompoms, and rose pomanders. Samantha looks beautiful in her elegant Charlotte Balbier wedding gown and crystal studded veil, and I love her huge peony and rose bouquet - a flower trend I predicted would be huge for 2012 weddings back in August 2011.

♥ Want more barn wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about pink-themed weddings? ♥

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Real Gold Luxe Barn Wedding: Casey & Paul - Part 2

Barn weddings will never be the same again! Just take a look at the incredible luxe wedding details at Casey and Paul's wonderful wedding reception. With Amy Osaba on side as event designer and florist, it was always going to be amazing, but it's the DIY-able details you're going to love. Take a look at the contrast between the wooden beams and tables, and the fabric chandeliers and tassel banners. I'm loving the table runners hand-sewn with gold numbers, the burlap tablecloths and the vintage mismatched vases. Guests picked a gold bauble to find out their table number, and rustic logs added height to the floral displays. Every detail beautifully captured by the fabulous Simply Bloom Photography.

♥ Want more barn wedding ideas? ♥ Or how about gold themed weddings? ♥

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