Lauren & Ryan

Well there's one thing this wedding is not and that's dull like the current British weather, so if you're in desperate need of a break from the grey skies, and April showers this beautiful bold pink wedding will most certainly brighten your day. Loulabel's coral florals bring the wow factor, as does the DIY Liberty print bunting decorating the rustic barn at Nancarrow Farm, and just wait until you see Bride Lauren's one shoulder Anna Campbell gown from Coco & Kate. Ross Talling is the genius behind the lens so make sure you get your pinning fingers at the ready, because these are captures you'll want to swoon over again and again.

Wedding

Lauren the Bride: Ryan proposed in July 2015, just before an incredible, month-long trip to Vietnam. We spent the following four weeks on Cloud 9! We planned our dream day steadily across the next two years, trying to ensure it represented us perfectly as a couple – lots of food and lots of fun! Ryan and I are both primary school teachers, so we knew straight away that we wanted to get married in the summer holidays (leaving us with more time for honeymooning after the big day!) My parents live in Cornwall, so we spend much of our time down there and couldn’t think of a better or more beautiful place to tie the knot.

The Venue

Once we had decided that we wanted to get married in Cornwall, the search for venues was on. There are many stunning places to hold a wedding in Cornwall, but Nancarrow Farm was our number one, right from the moment we visited their website. When we first stepped foot on the farm a few weeks later, we just couldn’t get the place out of our heads and booked our wedding immediately. A sustainable and organic working farm, Nancarrow’s ethos is ‘from field to fork’. As well as being an incredibly beautiful place to get married, they use all of their home-grown resources, from their livestock to their vegetables – it all comes from the farm. As real foodies, we really wanted the food to be a highlight of our day, and knew that at Nancarrow, even the word ‘highlight’ would be an understatement. Nancarrow features beautiful barns, glorious green fields and the most stunning views. We loved the idea of our nearest and dearest being on the farm with us across the weekend, all with a beautifully rustic room (or tipi!) in which to rest their heads. The Rusty Barn, in which we were married, is a very unique and special renovation, as is the recently built bridal suite where myself and my bridesmaids got ready for the big day. From our first meeting on the farm, we were made to feel special; we knew that the staff at Nancarrow really cared about our wedding and wanted to provide the best possible day for us. The Nancarrow Farm team truly are outstanding and provided us with the day of our dreams.

Food

Our food was OUTSTANDING. The canapés, spicy n’duja sausage rolls, wild garlic and pesto arancini balls and hanging Nancarrow beef (served rare) with Cornish sea salt, were mouth-watering. And they kept coming! They were served and enjoyed by our guests in abundance. Due to the more substantial canapés, we skipped the starter and delved straight into the main course – beautiful beef, cooked to perfection, with crushed potatoes and gorgeously sweet, roasted vegetables. Our pudding was the most decadent, moreish brownie, served with Cornish clotted cream and salted caramel with raspberries. It was incredible. The fantastic head chef, Darren, and his wonderful team, are so knowledgeable. After a meeting to discuss our tastes and what we wanted from our wedding feast, Darren designed our wedding menu, just for us, and it completely exceeded expectations. We even discovered extra slices of brownie in the bridal suite at the end of the day – those little touches make all the difference.

Décor

I knew right from the word go, that I wanted a rustic but pretty and polished look for our wedding. The boldness of the Coral Charm peony was my inspiration and starting point for all of our ideas and colour choices. My mum and I spent hours making metres upon metres of mismatched Liberty fabric bunting in shades of pink and coral; we collected beautiful pink and mercurised silver and gold glassware and purchased reams of raspberry pink velvet to don the long tables with in the barn. I wanted a very homemade feel to the day; all calligraphy and signage was written by myself, including the place names, order of the day and menus on vintage-style mirrors. We created our own guestbook from a blank scrapbook, and located polaroids of all of our guests using social media; these were used for our table plan, but then doubled up to be used in the guestbook (along with many fabulous, brightly-coloured stickers!) Our completed guestbook will be something we’ll treasure forever. Our sweetie table was a real hit, too. My mum and I handmade beautiful, rose-iced and glittered ‘cherry bakewell’ cupcakes and our favours were homemade pink meringue kisses, wrapped up in little bags for each place setting. My wonderful mum also painstakingly handmade over seventy gorgeous pink napkins and our absolutely stunning, three-tier, coral pink, raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream cake – what a star!

Flowers/Florist

Flowers are my thing! They were one of the aspects of wedding planning that I was most excited about (much to the confusion of my now-husband!) We found the incredible Lou, from Loulabel in St. Agnes, online. We met, weeks later, in a gorgeous little coffee shop in St. Agnes, and chatted for hours about flowers and our inspiration and ideas for the day. She is a real artist and I trusted her vision completely. We exchanged emails over the next 18 months, and when I saw our bouquets and hair flowers on the day, I burst into tears! I couldn’t get over the beauty; Lou had totally produced flowers that I had dreamed of. The flowers in the Rusty Barn (especially the stunning, meadow-like crate) were a real talking point; they were outstanding and I couldn’t have asked for anything better. The flowers for mine and my bridesmaids’ hair were too beautiful to put into words, and they stayed bright, bold and fresh right through into the night. Lou used Coral Charm peonies (my biggest love!), cabbage roses, pink alstibe and many gorgeous greens, including eucalyptus and mint, which meant our bouquets smelt absolutely INCREDIBLE! Cornish meadow dreams right there!

Photographer

Our photographer was the incredible Ross Talling. Ross’ photos are hard to put into words; he captures such emotion in every shot, telling the story of your day beautifully. We adored Ross’ attitude and approach to wedding photography from our first meeting; he aims to be unobtrusive and we can honestly say, we hardly noticed him for most of the day. Looking through our photos, we kept saying ‘did you know he took that?!’, as Ross just went unnoticed, capturing our day beautifully without interruption. We adore our photos; they sum up the emotion and happiness of our wedding day flawlessly. Even when it came to our bride and groom shots, Ross kept it short and sweet, keeping us away from our guests for no longer than 15 minutes. He reassured us that ‘he wanted us to enjoy our day’ and not spend hours posing for photos. Even when faced with rainy weather and grey skies, Ross managed to capture those awe-inspiring shots. My dress, however, didn’t fair too well down the muddy lane, but the photos make it well worth it!

The Bride

My search for the dream dress begun at the wonderful Coco & Kate Atelier Boutique in Warwickshire. With an Australian maid of honour, I’d been made aware of the stunning dresses designed by Anna Campbell in Melbourne. As one of the few Anna Campbell stockists in the UK, I visited Coco & Kate, full of excitement. As soon as my mum and I entered the boutique, we were floored by the detail and embellishment of the dresses. The amazing Sophie made me feel at ease immediately; she is incredibly knowledgeable and professional and the boutique is absolutely stunning. I adored every visit; Sophie and her mum, Elaine, were so helpful every step of the way. When I tried on Tash, by Anna Campbell, I just knew it was the one. With the intricate embellishment and unique, unusual one shouldered style, I didn’t want to take the dress off! I loved the sleekness of the skirt (which would allow me to dance into the evening!) but the beautiful train added a real elegance. The dress was also incredibly comfortable, which is always a bonus. My dusty pink, velvet block-heels came from Whistles, and were an early purchase – when I saw them, I just knew! I always wanted flowers for my hair, so didn’t go for a veil and am so glad I made that choice – my hair was once of my favourite parts and I don’t think it’ll ever look so perfect again. I have the amazing Laura Seddon, a family friend, to thank for mine and my bridesmaids’ stunning, boho hair. My platinum and diamond studs were my ‘something old’; an heirloom from my late grandmother.

Bridesmaids

My, oh my, my bridesmaids looked gorgeous! My sister, Hannah, wore a beautiful, soft pink, two-part dress with a pleated skirt from Oasis; my maid of honour, Jordi, wore a coral pink, sequinned tulle dress from ASOS, and my bridesmaid, India, wore a stunning dusty pink, lace dress from Jolie Moi at John Lewis. The girls wore their hair with flowers, which complimented their dresses beautifully. I loved the subtle clash of the dresses; they looked perfectly imperfect together, bringing out the bright, bold pinks and corals in the flowers. I gifted the girls with different earrings from Accessorize; their shoes were from Topshop and Office, but they changed to sparkly flats later on – except my maid of honour, Jordi, who donned her Adidas Gazelles! She pulled the look off 100%!

The Groom and Groomsmen

Next, with a soft pink, velvet bow tie from Mrs Bow Tie. My mum handmade the boys’ pocket squares from Liberty fabric picked out from the bunting. Our gorgeous best men, Zack and Will, and groomsmen, Ben and Piers, looked equally as dapper in matching suits and grey bow ties from Etsy. The boys all wore tan brogues and embellished their suits with stunning buttonholes, which picked out flowers from my bouquet.

Ceremony

Our ceremony was filled with such emotion. The Rusty Barn doors were shut just before myself, my dad and my bridesmaids walked in, closing the guests inside. The amazing Joss White begun to acoustically sing ‘Tenerife Sea’, as the doors opened and we walked in. I get goosebumps just thinking about it! Our ceremony was short and sweet, but we had written our own vows; a surprise to each other, and so filled with emotion. We exchanged rings; sandcast beauties in white gold by Justin Duance, Cornwall, and had two readings – ‘Love is a temporary madness’ from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, read beautifully by my bridesmaid, India, and ‘I will be here’ by Stephen Curtis Chapman, read by my wonderful mum. Joss White played ‘I wanna be yours’ by the Arctic Monkeys, ‘Here comes the sun’ by The Beatles, and ‘Grow old with me’ by Tom Odell, as we signed the register – we had so many comments on how fantastic his voice and performance was. Highly recommended!

Entertainment

Our entertainment was FABULOUS! Joss White performed during our ceremony, and afterwards in the courtyard as our guests enjoyed canapés and prosecco. His voice is stunning; a true talent who also writes and performs his own original music. Our evening entertainment was Kaj Music, who is a little bit of a legend in Cornwall. Kaj puts on an incredible performance – he has such variety in his setlist, from Motown to modern hits. He performed a version of ‘Something Changed’ by Pulp for our first dance and his rendition of it was outstanding. We couldn’t have asked for better music across the day and had so many compliments. Kaj kept our guests dancing way into the night!