Katie & David

Katie and David's candlit barn wedding ceremony and reception is just beautiful. Every detail seems perfectly curated, but not at all overly styled. From the all white flowers by Jay Archer to the simply written chalkboard signs. Katie's dress is stunning too, it's hard to combine 'bridal' with 'sexy' and keep things elegant, but this Watters gown delivers and then some... The atmospheric images from Haydn Rydings capture the day beautifully, much better than any words from me can, so I'll let you enjoy them. But be prepared to swoon!

The Bride

Patricia The Bride: I found my dress at Agape in Cheshire after hours of searching (over two years!!) and not finding anything I particularly liked. I wanted to look elegant and classy, but I loved the idea of a low back. The Watters dresses were perfect, though difficult to find, and I opted to add a longer train for more of a wedding dress feel.

The Groom

I wanted a formal and smart look for the groomsmen and myself but not too smart for a barn wedding. The Ted Baker suits from Moss Bros were perfect, with slim fit shirts and we chose the ties to match the bridesmaid’s colours. My wedding present from my new wife that morning was an amazing new Tag Heuer watch, which completed the look!

The Venue

We knew from the start that we wanted a barn wedding, we liked the old English, laid back feel. Initially, we wanted to get married in a church but because we now live up North we weren’t able to do that. When we found the Tithe Barn, with its high ceilings, it was perfect, and we kind of got the church look we wanted! It also meant a blank canvas so we could decorate it exactly how we imagined. We knew we didn’t want anything too bright and out there – more of a vintage theme. I found the Coast bridesmaid dresses about 18 months before the wedding and fell in love with them, so blush pink then became our wedding theme!

The Flowers

Jay Archer and her team were absolutely amazing, I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted, I just knew I wanted everything quite rustic and not too perfect. She took my ideas and made not just our bouquets, but the barn look absolutely incredible with beautiful flowers and candles, I couldn’t have done it without them!

The Ceremony

We had a civil ceremony with a local registrar, we didn’t want a ceremony too long as we knew people would get bored and children would become irritable! David’s godson did a lovely reading called A lovely love story by Edward Monkton about two dinosaurs who fall in love which everybody loved, then a close family friend did a short reading about love and marriage which was emotional but added that personal touch.

The Entertainment

We had a string quartet for the ceremony and reception drinks, I walked down the aisle to Canon in D by Pachelbel as I wanted something traditional. We then chose a mixture of classical music and more recent songs for the reception drinks including walking back down the aisle to “God Only Knows” by the beach boys. Jukebox Function Band then performed a beautiful acoustic set during the wedding breakfast followed by a live performance in to the evening that got everyone up dancing!

The Food

Our amazing canapés and wedding breakfast came courtesy of Caper and Berry. We went a little over budget on our caterer as we wanted the food to be great quality and the reviews were superb. We had a starter of goats cheese and tomato tart tatin, followed by chicken, pancetta, pea and tarragon and a chocolate and honeycomb tart for dessert. Our guests raved about the food afterwards and we were so glad we spent that little bit extra. We also got an “event manager” when we booked C&B who was absolutely brilliant – we hadn’t had a wedding planner and he went above and beyond to fill in all the little details that we hadn’t thought about and made sure the day went to plan. (He even made sure we were fed and watered all day!)

The Photographer

We actually only met with one photographer, Haydn Rydings, when we were wedding planning, and his work looked so good that we hired him pretty quickly. We didn’t want a lot of posed photos so his documentary style of photography was perfect. He was professional and easy to contact from the beginning. Our photos are absolutely beautiful, and we hardly knew he was there on the day. Couldn’t recommend him highly enough!

The Videographer

Deciding on a videographer was actually quite a last minute decision for us, after hearing from friends that they wished they’d got one. We found Kitebox online and absolutely loved their videos, including a drone! Having a video means we can relive the day for years to come and we are so happy we made that decision.