Charlotte & Barry

A blush tulle gown for the Bride and white dresses for the Bridesmaids make for one dreamy girl squad. And Bride Charlotte's hair really is done up like a princesses. Disney Princess Rapunzel no less, beautifully braided and full of delicate florals. The Disney themed continued with a DIY post box adorned with balloons just like UP taking centre stage in the gorgeous Red Barn in Norfolk, famed for it's red roof. There was also the sweetest macaroon tower and rustic crate centrepieces filled with flowers arranged (and some grown) by the Brides mum. Katherine Ashdown Photography has captured all the pastel pretty, all the love and some truly romantic portraits of Charlotte & Barry. The ones of them walking through the fields as the sun sets are simply stunning.

The Dress

Charlotte The Bride: I couldn't wait to go dress shopping, I knew I wanted lace and I kept saying I wanted something different, but I wasn't sure what that meant. Every dress I tried on I said it was too similar to dresses I had seen before. We went to Prima Donna and my dress was in the window and I remember my mum and me gasping when we saw it. The lady in the shop told me she had my perfect dress after I had tried on around 6 that I didn't like and she brought in a blush pink gown that was in the window and I fell in love, it wasn't the idea I had in my head but it wasn't like anything I had seen before so I knew it was the one. My shoes were harder to find as I'm quite tall I knew I needed flats but again, I wanted something different and after finding some amazing lace ones on Etsy. I decided I could make them myself. So I customised some Jenny Packham Flats with some lace I bought from Ebay and I adored them! My hair was inspired by the Disney movie 'Tangled' with dried flowers placed in it instead of a headpiece. My hairdresser Gemma Holiday is amazing. I knew she was good, but I didn't realised she would create something so beautiful. 

Grooms Fashion

Barry decided very early on that he wanted to hire his suit, and since he was having 2 best men and 4 ushers we decided it would be easier for everyone. He didn't know my dress was blush pink so I kept trying to hint to him that a dark grey or navy suit would look best. He decided on a blue/navy suit in the end. I didn't want the men to match the colour scheme, I wanted something less than traditional which is why we picked the navy ties with white polka dots. 

Venue

We knew we wanted a barn wedding. I was very inspired by Southern American barn weddings on Pinterest. We needed somewhere local and The Red Barn was the only venue we looked at. We loved the way you could bring in any supplier you wanted, it was a blank canvas and we fell in love with it. 

Colour Scheme & Decor

Our colour scheme was pastel colours but mainly blush pink, mint green, white & gold (anything gold glitter!). We threw ourselves in to DIY projects, including spray painting an unwanted garden arch in gold and wrapping it in faux roses and wisteria. One of my favourite DIY projects was our american mailbox for our cards. This was the first DIY project I thought of when I started planning my wedding, we took inspiration from the Disney movie 'UP' wrote our names on the mailbox & bought about a dozen balloons to float above it. There wasn't really a theme when it came down to it. We just wanted to use anything we loved and that was personal to us, thankfully it all came together. 

Flowers

I knew we would bulk buy flowers and my mum would make the bouquets as she used to be a florist. I wanted wild looking bouquets with pretty pastel colours and lots of green. For my bouquet I had roses, thistles & shamrock. They were important to me as I wanted the roses to represent I was born in England but I also have Scottish blood on my Dad's side & Irish blood on my mums side. Hence the thistles and shamrock. Shamrock is really hard to buy here so my mum grew it in her garden. For my bridesmaids I wanted them to have a mixture of roses, lots of green & gypsophila. For the greenery we used eucalyptus leaves from my Nan's garden. Our centerpieces were just simple white flowers which we grew and the little crates were handmade by my dad.

Bridesmaid Dresses

I originally wanted mint green bridesmaids dresses but after I picked my blush dress I changed my mind. I wanted neutral and they looked so beautiful next to the colour of my dress. We added straps and their shoes were from New Look, all the same colour mint green but different styles. My flower girl was in a light pink dress from Monsoon with ballet slippers. The groomsmen were all wearing the same suit as the groom hired from Goddards.

Ceremony

The ceremony was beautiful. I walked down the aisle to 'A Thousand Years by The Piano Guys' We had 2 readings, my grandad read a passage from Captain Corelli's Mandolin. We couldn't pick who was going to do another reading so we picked a quote from the movie 'The Vow' and had the registrar read it. I remember our first kiss going horribly wrong, we actually headbutted each other but we laughed it off and tried again. We still laugh about it now!

Entertainment

For entertainment in the evening we hired The Matt Strafford Duo. We didn't want a huge band & they were fantastic, I'm trying to find another excuse to hire them again. They got everyone dancing and our guests still talk about them now. I would highly recommend them!

Food

My very talented mum wanted to make my cake right from the beginning. I sent her some photos of cakes I liked and she look inspiration from them and made the most amazing cake. For our wedding breakfast we wanted something simple that we both loved, we had a choice of either beef roast or a chicken roast for a main and for dessert we had the option of strawberry cheesecake or profiteroles. We also had an evening buffet. My mum once again outdone herself and handmade most of what is on our dessert table! The macarons were made by a lovely lady at Nelson's Cottage Bakery & in the evening we also had a candy floss machine which kept the guests very happy.

Photographer

Katherine was the first photographer I contacted. I am a wedding photographer and I knew I needed a photographer who I could trust and who I knew from the start would be amazing. I remember before I was even engaged, I used to admire her photos so we always knew we would choose her. Right from when we met her, I knew she was the right choice and throughout our 18 months of planning she was so reassuring. On the day she was so calm and lovely and she captured our day perfectly. Her photographs took our breath away the first time we looked through them and they still do now. I will always highly recommend Katherine as she truly is amazing at what she does.

Videographer

We originally didn't want a videographer. It wasn't on our list or in our budget but I had seen a few of Tom's trailers on Facebook and I knew if I didn't book him, I'd regret it. I'm so glad I did. He was there all day and captured beautiful moments of our day. Our wedding trailer is something I watch on a regular basis. It's absolutely stunning. Tom & our photographer Kathy are the ultimate dream team. Without them, our day would be a distant memory.

Advice

My advice would be to ask for as much help as possible. A lot of my day was planned by just me, I am so lucky I have such talented parents and friends that helped out so much. I couldn't of done it without them!