Watters Lace and Tulle Bridal Gown For A Rustic Barn Wedding

There is something so pure about a white colour scheme, it really is classic & timeless. Lottie & Oli have managed to compliment Owen House Wedding Barn perfectly with this neutral colour palette and in keeping with it's rustic charm dressed it with simple but elegant DIY hessian table runners, paper lanterns, fairy lights and candles to give it a romantic ambience. Lottie really is a beautiful bride, you would never know she'd only given birth 4 months previous as she looks absolutely stunning in her Watters 'Jacinda' lace & tulle gown and doesn't look at all sleep deprived! Together they all make the perfect family & the pictures of them all together are absolutely adorable *swoon*. I am also absolutely in LOVE with the genius idea of adding pic's instead of place name cards, it would have been quite funny rolling up to your seat seeing an image of yourself and then there's the neck ties, but I won't spoil anymore, you need to check it out!

The Brides Fashion & Accessories

Oli The Groom: Lottie was looking for something relaxed, comfortable and unstructured yet delicate. She was also choosing the dress whilst 4 months pregnant with our second child, Will, so there was a fair bit of guesswork involved in the sizing! She chose the 'Jacinda' gown by Watters, simple, pretty and easy to move in which helped on the day when jumping on hay bales and running over fields. The shoes were Freya Rose and the veil was from Agape Bridal Boutique. Lottie is a make-up artist (Elysia make-up) so it was an obvious decision that she would do her own hair and make-up.

The Grooms Attire

Lottie The Bride: Oli wanted something really well fitted and a little unique without being too left field. He also wanted the look to complement the feel of the venue and the type of wedding we were going for, which I guess was relaxed and fun. He wasn’t sure where he was going to find this and actually didn’t until pretty late in the day when he found a Tiger of Sweden suit. They only had one left in his size in the country and the company were really helpful bringing the suit from London to Manchester on the train during a management visit.

The Venue

Owen House was the first and only venue that we visited. We didn’t need to see anywhere else. It was perfect. Vanessa and Dan run the place with help from their family and are genuinely lovely people. They helped us with everything from start to finish and went out of their way to make us feel welcome and set our minds at ease. They have put so much time and love into building a creative and stunning setting for a wedding. The barn itself is well proportioned and looks great, lending itself perfectly to a relaxed and fun atmosphere in a stunning rural setting. The ceremony room wasn’t even built when we first looked at the place but we knew whatever Vanessa and Dan were planning would not dissappoint. The finished result is a perfect extension of the originality and creativity they acheived with the barn.

Colour Scheme/Decor

We really wanted to keep the scheme simple and not spend too much time labouring over the little details. We brought a lot of decorative items from home rather than spending money on things that would never be used again. This also meant the decor was personal to us and had a touch of home about it. The barn didn’t really need that much embellishment, just a few touches here and there to highlight it’s features. The colour scheme was most definitely white. Lottie’s mum made the most amazing centre piece, a halo of twigs and fairy lights, it was suspended from the barn ceiling and looked stunning. We also used a cluster of plain white paper lanterns to create a focal point for the head table and dance floor. There were ALOT of tea lights and fairy lights too which created a warm ambiance as the evening set in.

The Flowers

Oli The Groom: We didn’t want to spend a fortune and Janet at Goose Green Flowers gave us something that was simple, understated and pretty. The only thing Lottie really specified was fresh herbs in her bouquet which also included white daisies, roses and gypsophila.

The Wedding Party Attire

The wedding party was fairly sizable with 6 bridesmaids, 1 flower girl and 8 ushers and this meant we needed to keep things reasonable.We also wanted a casual look that would reflect the style of our wedding, so rather than opting for formal suits and dresses we went down the high street route. The bridesmaids dresses were elegant and simple and were from ASOS. The Groomsmen wore light blue blazers from ASOS, Nazy Chinos from H&M and desert boots from Matalan! This option, as well as allowing us to get the look we wanted and was actually less expensive than hiring.

Ceremony

Lottie The Bride: We wrote our own vows that we felt comfortable reading as we found a lot of examples were a little over the top for us and hard to say without laughing or cringing. Our readings included ‘Us two’ by A.A. Milne and ‘Mirrorball’ by Elbow which were read by Oli’s sister, Georgie and our good friend Paul.

Entertainment

During an afternoon at Altrincham Market we came across a band called ‘The Before Picture’ playing an accoustic set. We asked them there and then if they could do the same outside the Barn during our drinks reception. They agreed striaght away and even offered to learn any new songs that we may have wanted. They were really popular on the day and we were really happy to have them. The background music for the meal and music for the evening was playlisted by Paul Gosling and was the perfect soundtrack to the night. There was A LOT of dancing!

Food

We wanted something filling and not too fussy, so we chose charcuterie sharing boards to start with which was perfect for our trestle table seating plan. This was followed by a lovely steak pie with mashed potato which did the trick. We didn’t have a traditional wedding cake, but a cake of cheese which was great for people to graze on later on and doubled as our evening food. This was supplied by John at the Cheese Hamlet in Didsbury, a man who takes his cheese very seriously and is a joy to talk to. But what would a wedding be without cake, so we had a delicious selection of everyone’s favourites baked for us by the very talented Fiona Flint of Mobberley Cakes Ltd.

Photographer

Our photographers are ACE! We love them! We first encountered Paul & Kelly over a Skype call....which was random and hilarious. We knew they were going to be perfect....and they were. I think we all just bounced off each other all day long and in doing so had a ridiculous amount of fun and came out with THE most amazing photos ever! These two lovely balls of energy are seriously talented and LOVE what they do, and thier photography is testimont to this. Be warned though....if you book them, and you should, you will want to put them in your pocket and take them home with you. So thank you Paul and Kel.

Anything Else

Mums Mary and Suzie were a great help in getting ready for the day, as was Oli’s brother Joe, one of his ushers Steven Pownall and Barbara who cut all the hessian runners for us.

Lottie’s Mum, Suzie made the lighting centrepiece out of a hula-hoop, lots of twigs and some battery powered fairy lights

The white lanterns hanging at different heights, some with LEDs, helped to create a stunning backdrop to the head table and dancefloor for about £70.

Lots and lots of candles, especially in the ceremony room, with careful consideration going towards the scent. We wanted something comforting and elegant in the end went with a couple of seychelles candles from the White Company that were included with loads of regular tea lights in collected jam jars and different glasses. Again, this helped to create a beautiful look at little expense.

We brought a large amount of hessian from a materials shop and cut it into strips for the table runners.

We used collected pictures of our guests from Facebook and partners. We then used Inkifi to get a ‘vintage print’ and ‘mini print’ of each guest. The 'vintage print' was used in the table plan design whilst the 'mini print' was placed at the corresponding place setting. We then collected up the photos the following day when clearing up a put them in the thank you cards we sent to our guests.

Polaroid camera with 2 films which we were able to get a few really good shots from

Our friend Niki provided about 50 neck ties that belonged to his late father, which was very touching. We thought he would have appreciated their use during the eveing as a head-tie for the dance floor.