Natalie & Alex

I am in love with Natalie's Enzoani frock! All beautiful lace and dramatic back detailing in a bohemian style, perfect for her rustic, farmside wedding to the love of her life Alex. And then there's her flower crown and oversized bouquet too. The whole sartorial get-up is blinking dreamy. The pair married at The Secret Barn (how clandestine!) in West Sussex beneath sunny skies and against a backdrop of light-up letters, bunting, wild flowers and bell tents. It is delicious - every last little drop so I just know that you lot are going to fall in love with the styling and decorative details.

The Venue

Natalie The Bride: We stumbled across The Secret Barn by chance. On our first visit we knew this was where we wanted to get married. The barn is beautiful and big with all original features and the surrounding fields made for a perfect festival style wedding that we wanted. Hannah and all the staff who work there couldn’t have been more helpful and kind. They made the whole process so easy for us before and during our big day.

The Menu

Alongside having the perfect venue Petal & Feast also do catering and flowers. We decided to have a more relaxed menu and started the day with British Picnic canapés, then had a served BBQ main and finished with ice-cream from their gorgeous ice cream bike. All the food was homemade and tasted incredible. The presentation also made it really special. We decided for our wedding cake we would have wheels of cheese. Bought locally from Sussex. We also used this as our evening food. All three tiers of cheese went within minutes!

The Accommodation

As festival lovers we knew we wanted as many guest to camp as possible. We were recommended by our venue to use Beautiful Bells. We had 16 bell tents in total including our ‘honeymoon’ tent, which was incredible. Having almost all our guest camp was a lot of fun and it felt like our own mini festival.

The Bride's Fashion

My sister found my dress from a wedding blog and I bought it online from a boutique in the US. After getting lost in New York during the snowstorm I finally received it and it was perfect. It had all the details that I knew I wanted and I felt really comfortable all day. I loved how unusual the dress was with the low back being my favourite detail. I saw these shoes from Acne and instantly fell in love. They were so different and quirky and completely impractical. I only wore them for a few hours until I had to replace them for some dancing sandals, but they were worth it. They were even more special as they were given to me by my work as a wedding gift.

The Wedding Party

After our official ceremony two days earlier we wanted to keep our second big day on a more personal level. In front of our 100 guests form Sussex; Scandinavia and London our great friend Ria Casson held our ceremony in the farms small orchard. Not to finish there we roped in another close friend Amber Jackson to be our Master of Ceremonies. Neither claimed to be fans of public speaking before our wedding, but we’re sure they would jump at the opportunity if asked again now! The bridesmaid dresses were bought from ASOS. There was no colour theme to the wedding but we wanted something that matched the style of my wedding dress. As a little gift to say thank you I gave them each a bracelet from Lisa Angel with their initials on it. There were three best men and one groomsman who were all given a Harris Tweed waistcoat from ASOS and matching bowties and pocket squares from Tie Bar. Chewie bought them all pewter tankards with personalised engraving from which they would all only drink out of these for the rest of the day.

The Flowers

Petal & Feast provided all of our flowers including my headpiece. They used a lot of wild flowers that were in season; I absolutely loved all our bouquets. For the table decorations they gave us DIY buckets and we decorated the tables arraignments ourselves in jam jars that we had been collecting for the last year.

The Groom's Suit

Chewie’s suit is from Gieves & Hawkes on Savile Row. A bucket list ticked for him and an amazing experience high end tailoring at its best. His bow tie and pocket square from Tie Bar in the US.

The Decor

With the help of friends & family we decorated the barn. We didn’t want a particular colour theme but instead wanted it as colourful as possible with a lot personal touches. We made the bunting together with my mum in Sweden. Chewie and his dad made the giant light bulb letters along with all the wedding signs. The table plan was hanging in old wine crates borrowed from work and the tables names were of bands and venues we have been to see over the years. The lace runners on the tables and the napkins were all bought from Etsy and the ceramic vases found on eBay. Together with a giant paper pompom chandelier made by our friends the barn was transformed exactly in to how we envisaged it to be.

The Entertainment

We set up garden games of Jenga and the Swedish game Kubb for our guests to play while we were taking our photos. We had an incredible band that played our first dance and got everyone on the dance floor all night. Once the band finished we had our own playlist to keep the party going. We also hired a photo booth with amazing props and created a wedding book with all the photos. It was an open photo booth that encouraged everyone to get involved. We have some great pictures with the most random group of guests.

The Photography

Our wedding day wouldn’t be complete without Lou our photographer. She made us feel so comfortable and relaxed and understood completely what kind of pictures we wanted. She fitted in really well at our wedding.