Rebecca & Robert

It's not often you see bunting and lace and converse trainers and rounders and dinosaurs and bathtubs and camper vans and a brass band whipped together in a single glorious mixture at a wedding. But this is exactly what Rebecca and Robert chose to include on their big day on a friend's farm last year. Rebecca looked beautiful in her lace White Rose Bridal frock accessorised perfectly by her peach bridesmaids and metallic converse and super bright bouquet. It's clear from what she shares below that their nuptials was very much a team effort with tonnes of help from friends and family. I particularly adore the portrait shots of the pair dotted around the farm, from in front of barns and lakes and wood piles. They look stunning!

The Bride’s Fashion

Rebecca The Bride: We went to the National Wedding Show at the NEC in October last year where we found my dress. Leigh from Pink Confetti was exhibiting at the show - she was really friendly and patient, and she didn’t rush us (which a lot of the other stands were doing). I also got my veil and my beautiful hand-made vintage style headpiece from Pink Confetti. I didn’t originally want to have a veil but when I tried it all on I couldn’t resist! It just finished the whole thing off. My shoes were from Monsoon and they were a lovely old-fashioned ribbon lace-up style. I’m not used to wearing heels (I’m a total jeans and t-shirt girl) and I was worried about my feet hurting so I also bought a pair of awesome metallic gold leather Converse trainers to wear for dancing which was a good move as I stayed on the dance-floor literally all night! Jewellery-wise, I borrowed a silver locket from my mum which she has had since she was a baby (it was a christening present). My grandad passed away last year and so I had a photo of him in the locket to keep him close on my big day.

The Groom's Fashion

Originally Rob wanted grey suits for himself and the boys but after trying a few on, blue just seemed to suit him better and was a bit brighter and livelier - more in keeping with everything else we had picked. Rob picked a blue suit from Burton and the manager of our local store was super helpful - he ordered all the suits and shoes in all the different sizes to be delivered to his shop so we could collect them and even had them bagged and tagged with each of the guys’ names on! With all the girls having different dresses, we wanted the guys to be a bit ‘mismatched’ too so we didn’t make them all have a waistcoat - only the ones who wanted one. On the day, they all wore the suit slightly differently anyway (some had sleeves rolled up, others had their top buttons undone etc.) so it naturally ended up looking a bit of a hotch potch! We found after trying on many suits at all different price ranges, the main thing when picking a suit is that it fits really well. An expensive suit won’t look good if it doesn’t fit well but a reasonably priced suit will look fantastic if it fits you really well. Also in some cases depending on the style of suit you’re looking for, it can be cheaper to buy rather than hire if you shop around.

The Venue

My friend Nikki’s family own Overton Farm in Smallwood and this is where we got engaged (Nikki helped Rob to light hundreds of candles in jars and scattered them in the field next to the lake!) so we desperately wanted to have our reception here too. Luckily, Nikki’s step-dad Len very kindly agreed to let us have the tent pitched up in the same field where we got engaged which was so special. We were able to have some amazing photos taken by Steve next to the lake in the spot where Rob proposed. They are some of our favourite images from the day.

Colour Scheme

We didn’t have a colour scheme but I guess the vibe we were going for was a sort of vintage, village fete, English garden party, festival feel - a bit of a mish mash! We styled the wedding ourselves and spent ages collecting vintage china for the afternoon tea, decorations and props (like jars and vases, the welsh dresser which Rob painted, old treacle tins etc.) from eBay, charity shops and markets. We also borrowed the old suitcases for people to drop cards into from my grandma (her and my grandad used to take these cases on holiday). My mum helped us A LOT, let us store everything at her house and spent hours washing all the crockery; we really couldn’t have done it without her. One of the most labour intensive decorations, but something that had huge impact, was all the bunting! We bought several different types of fabric and my mum painstakingly cut out hundreds upon hundreds of triangles which she and my best friend/chief bridesmaid Georgina spent absolutely ages sewing onto ribbon. They were double sided too so they really took forever to make and I owe both Georgina and my mum BIG time. We also had another type of bunting made out of vintage doilies which I collected over the course of about a year, cut them in half and then my lovely Aunty Gill sewed them onto some binding for us. She did an amazing job - the bunting looked beautiful and lots of people commented on it. We sadly no longer have any of our grandads with us but we wanted to include them in some way without it being morbid or depressing - this is the last thing they would have wanted! We decided to get copies of their wedding photos and display them on the welsh dresser in the tent, with a buttonhole for each grandad next to the frame. My mum worked really hard putting together a sweet table with old-fashioned sweet shop jars and she made some bunting to go across the front. The fabric she used had special meaning for Rob and I; there was the fabric I had in my bedroom as a little girl, some football fabric for Rob, some fabric with London landmarks on it as we have been living down south for a few years and also some fabric with teapots because I love tea and we picked afternoon tea for our wedding breakfast. We were so, so incredibly lucky to have so much help in putting the wedding together from our family and friends. It was such a team effort and we couldn’t have done it without everybody. Absolutely everybody (parents, siblings, friends) was there the day before the wedding at the farm fetching and carrying, hanging bunting, arranging flowers, making signs, putting candles in jam jars, setting table places. They worked so hard and we’re very grateful.

Flowers

Sara Rafferty from Sara’s Flowers made the bridal bouquet, bridesmaid posies, buttonholes and corsages. She did a marvellous job (given that we couldn’t name a single type of flower and were worse than useless in giving her a brief!) and the flowers were just beautiful. To decorate the tables, we bought sweet peas and gypsophila from two different online florists and arranged them ourselves with lots of help from our mums and also Rob’s sister-in-law, Beci. We filled jam jars and treacle tins and these went on the tables. For the top table, I went on a mad dash to Waitrose the day before the wedding and bought some bunches of ‘English country garden’ type flowers and we arranged these in glass vases. We also put some flowers in big milk churns outside the entrance.

The Wedding Party Fashion

I had a right old posse of bridesmaids and flowergirls (9 altogether!), and my mum’s extremely talented, lovely and patient neighbour, Nida, made dresses for them all. I bought all the fabric online and we designed similar but slightly different dresses for all the girls so that everybody had a dress that suited them and that they were hopefully happy with. They all looked stunning!   

Ceremony

This was the absolute best part of the whole day!! I had been really nervous about walking down the aisle - literally petrified! - but I actually loved the whole thing and couldn’t stop beaming all the way down. We both started to get a bit teary when I got to the altar but we kept it together thankfully! The service was lovely and we’re so grateful to Rev Gill Stanning for her beautiful words. We also had three readings; one from Song of Solomon and another from Ecclesiastes by my Aunty Miranda and then an excerpt from Pride and Prejudice by my cousin Carolyn. We had asked Carolyn to pick her own reading as a surprise - we knew every tiny detail of the day so it was amazing to have a surprise to look forward to and Carolyn’s reading was such a special moment. Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favourite books and the bit she chose was light hearted and just perfectly suited the mood of the day.

Entertainment

We were really honoured to have Winterley Methodist Church Brass Band play as we arrived at the farm and then during our welcome drinks. They are incredible and they gave me goosebumps! My Uncle Kevan plays in the band and he couldn’t resist bringing his trombone to join in. It was also a little nod to my grandad. He passed away not too long after we got engaged and he would have absolutely loved the day; he was really looking forward to having his whole family together. He loved brass band music and followed Winterley Methodist Church Brass Band in particular so it would have meant a lot to him to have them there.   During the afternoon we played games outside including a massive game of rounders! All fueled by the beer bath which the groomsmen kept topped up. Rob made the skittle alley himself and had a lot of help on the morning of the wedding from the groomsmen who were all there with him at the crack of dawn setting up the hay bale seats and the games outside. In the evening we had an AMAZING band called Mister Kanish who played an awesome mixture of different music, all with their own twist and kept everyone on the dancefloor all night. They were so friendly and such a good laugh, they judged the crowd perfectly and played all the right stuff - they even played the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme which went down a treat with all our 80s and 90s babies! Everybody loved them and the wedding would not have been the same without them.

Food

I am a MASSIVE tea drinker, it’s my favourite thing in the world so we decided on a traditional afternoon tea with sandwiches, cakes and scones all of which were homemade by Alice and her team of tea ladies. They were so friendly and helpful, keeping everybody topped up with tea. Alice was a dream to deal with before the day and, when you feel like you’ve got a million jobs to do, it’s so nice when somebody is as organised as she was! She was completely unflappable as well and so laid back. Her food went down and absolute storm and everybody loved it. For the welcome drinks there was a choice of Pimm’s or cloudy lemonade which were both served in jam jars from glass drinks dispensers. We also bought some party food from M&S which was served as people arrived - traditional British type stuff like pork pies and sausage rolls (we’re really glad we did this as the ceremony was running a bit late and people were definitely ready to eat something by this point). In the evening we had a hog roast followed by a choice of desserts served in jam jars which were made by Rob’s dad and his step-mum. They made champagne jelly, banoffee pie, black forest gateaux and lemon posset which all went down a treat.

Photographer

My mum and I went to a wedding show and met Steve from Bridgwood Wedding Photography who spent ages talking us through what he does and showing us his portfolio. He was so laid back and easy to talk to, and his albums looked awesome - I knew he’d be the perfect photographer to capture our day and luckily, although he hadn’t met Steve, Rob trusted me to book him. We 100% made the right decision and we love the photos; they are even better than we could have imagined. Steve captured the day perfectly and I’m just so glad we picked him; the photos are all we will have to remember the day by in years to come so it’s a huge decision. He has a really natural style but with a kind of retro/grungy twist. Really different to anything else we’d seen. We obviously spent quite a lot of time with Steve on the day and we had a ball; he’s such a laugh and really put us at ease. Absolutely everybody has commented on how brilliant the pictures are.

Videographer

We didn’t have a videographer but my brother, Joel, brought his GoPro camera and set it up at the back of the church and also in the tent during the afternoon tea. As a result we've got some ace timelapse footage of the ceremony and wedding breakfast. He also strapped it to various peoples’ heads whilst the band were playing at night so we’ve got some pretty cool videos of the party!