A Shropshire 'wedfest' with Needle & Thread dress & all the greenery

The self titled 'Wedstival' of Emma-Jayne and John at Pimhill Barn in Shropshire is absolutely amazing from start to finish. I knew from looking at the first image captured by Clara Cooper Photography that their wedding would be fit to bursting with stunning details, fashion and foliage, not to mention emotion. The embellished detail on Emma-Jayne's Needle & Thread gown is truly exquisite and catches the light beautifully at the outdoor ceremony and speeches. I'm in love with the wooden bar, the semi naked cake and don't even get me started on all the lush greenery florals adorning all this fabulous wedding decor. The whole day looks an absolute dream, especially the festival survival packs full of glitter. Where can I get one? Make sure you are sitting comfortably, because this wedding deserves your undivided attention.

Dress

Emma-Jayne the Bride: I fell in love with my Needle & Thread gown pretty early on and after ruling out some more traditional options I ordered it to try on at home. Not wanting to miss out on the ‘bridal boutique’ experience my mum decorated my old bedroom with full length mirrors and fresh flowers for the first try on. We opened the box together and we knew almost straight away it was the one. The detail in the dress was even more beautiful than we imagined. I went for a greenery crown instead of a veil for a more ethereal feel. Two of my bridesmaids, surprised me with a ‘something blue’ Swarovski bracelet and my mum gave me with one of her 70s bangles to wear that I’d always loved that completed the look. As our evening was festival themed I added some serious sparkle later on with Gypsy Shrine gems and extra glitter.

The Grooms Fashion & Accessories

John was tasked with finding a black three-piece suit which proved a lot harder than you’d think. After a long search we found the perfect one in Ted Baker. John teamed it with a pair of Church’s black brogues with matching belt and cufflinks.

The Venue

I’d secretly had my eye on Pimhill Barn before we’d even got engaged and after our first viewing we didn’t need look anywhere else. Ginny and Ian at Pimhill have done a truly amazing job renovating the 17th century barn and it made for the most prefect blank canvas. Set in the Shrewsbury countryside and with the grounds of Lea Hall for pictures it was exactly what we both imagined for our Big Day.

Colour Scheme/Décor

The Pimhill interior has a real wow factor so we wanted to simply enhance it with fresh greenery. We dressed the barn and bar area ourselves so the whole bridal party all arrived the day before to lend a hand. We’d always wanted long candle lit tables with lush greenery so we laid eucalyptus from the tree in our garden down the middle and added scented candles. My mum created an amazing hanging arrangement, with help from my dad, who also made flower boxes filled with greenery and trailing ivy set all around the barn. We wanted to make the most out of the barn’s features so decided to have our ceremony space take place framed by the huge doors with our guests sat outside. We had two arts and crafts chairs set at the ceremony table really helped add to the sense of occasion. I’d created all of our stationery so we continued the same style throughout with table numbers, seating plan and some signage plus each guest also had a personalised menu at their place setting. The rustic bar came from Tipples and fitted in perfectly with the surroundings so we decorated with more greenery and festoon lighting.

Florist

I wanted big, green and wild so when I found Sophie at Flowers with Wild Abandon it was just meant to be. She created two beautiful pedestal arrangements that framed our ceremony space as well as all of our bouquets and the flower crowns. I completely put my trust in Sophie who created everything with just one request – the bigger the better - and she absolutely delivered.

Bridesmaids

We chose ReWritten dresses in concrete with halo braids for a relaxed boho feel. The mini maids wore a very similar style but in off white with greenery crowns to mirror mine. I was lucky enough to have a maid and man of honour so he wore his own grey velvet Reiss jacket in grey to match in with the girls.

Ceremony

The ceremony was one of my favourite parts of the whole day, everyone commented how excited I was and I think it really shows on the pictures. When the registrar asked ‘do you take this man’ I answered with a loud “Yes please!” that got a chuckle from the guests. We wanted a non-traditional reading with a twist so our Aunty read ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ by John Cooper Clark with lines like ‘I wanna be your vacuum cleaner’ it helped set the tone for a fun day and completely reflected us as a couple.

Entertainment

We love music and we always knew it would really have a big part in the day. I wanted to walk down the isle to ‘There she goes’ by the La’s as me and John are fans of the band but it also had significance for me and my Dad. I contacted Barry from the band who came and played it live for us, I kept this as a surprise for John until the day. Barry played throughout the day until after dinner when our band ‘Dirty Weekend’ played until the small hours. Our evening had a festival theme so they were the perfect choice. The lads played a mix of music based on UK festivals from the Isle of Wight to V Fest. All of our guests loved the band and even my Gran (89!) didn’t stop dancing. I also made a festival pack compete with a personalised lanyard, ticket, glitter and glow sticks for each guest. Absolutely everyone got into the spirit with glitter beards everywhere!

Food

John is a chef and we love food so we worked with Northern Fields to create our menu including bespoke dishes based on some of our favourite things like lamb rump with charred onions and goats curd and textures of strawberry for dessert. All of our guests chose between three starters, mains and dessert ahead of the day so were looking forward to the food well beforehand and Northern Fields exceeded all expectations - we had so many great comments. In the evening we had burgers, in keeping with the festival theme, with fairground onions and braised beef. We picked our favourite wines for the day and did our own bar that included our signature cocktails.

Photographer

Lucy of Clara Cooper Photography came highly recommended by one of our friends. We instantly loved her work but it was Lucy herself and the enthusiasm for our plans that completely won us over. On the day our mutual love for RuPaul’s Drag Race emerged and it was nothing but fun from there. I would highly recommend getting a second shooter if you have the option as there were so many extra little moments caught on camera. Lucy managed to completely capture the mood of the day and went above and beyond to ensure everything went smoothly - she just absolutely got us as a couple and we were beyond thrilled with the results.