Homemade Intimate & Personal Barn Wedding with 1000 Origami Cranes

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A happy Monday to you, I am raring to go with a super gorgeous celebration this morning.

WWW readers Fiona and James tied the knot on the 14th June 2014 holding their reception at the Bake Barn in Wiltshire. They hoped to have an intimate and personal day with 40 wedding guests and informal seating for a relaxed atmosphere.

I love the effort they put into their décor, with 1000 home-made origami cranes and a home baked wedding cake. YUM. There were gorgeous blooms, vintage lampshades and an illustrated owl.

Fiona looked so beautiful in her lace 'Bronwyn' by Maggie Sotterro gown while James donned a blue Reiss suit. Perfection.

Thanks goes to the utterly wonderful James Melia Photographers for sharing these images today.

THE PROPOSAL | I came back to our flat to be greeted by a very anxious looking James at the door who demanded I take my coat off and drop my bag on the floor. I was very confused and immediately asked him what was wrong, thinking a family member was ill or something awful had happened! He then led me into the living room which was lit with dozens upon dozens of candles (think Monica & Chandler in Friends!) and 'Yellow' by Coldplay (one of 'our' songs) playing softly in the background. I immediately burst into tears having finally put two and two together and he got down on one knee with my beautiful Tiffany sparkler! It was emotional and perfect for it to be just us two in our first home together.

THE VISION | We knew early on that we wanted our wedding to be an intimate (less than 40 guests with only a few extra in the evening) and personal day with only our very closest of family and friends. We also wanted to make sure that it reflected us and that we only did the traditional 'weddingy' things that fit us as a couple, i.e. we got married in a church, but shunned a top table, favouring a more informal seating arrangement so we could chat to more people.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We had 16 months which was perfect. It meant that we didn't have to rush things once the important parts were booked and we both really
enjoyed deciding on all the little details and slowly working through our to-do list. James enjoyed his practical spreadsheet and I liked pinning on Pinterest like a demon! I was actually really pleased that James played such an equal part in all the planning and making decisions, it meant that the whole day really did represent the two of us as a pair.

BUDGET | I have to confess that we didn't set a budget as such... we just decided that we wouldn't do anything that meant we would be left with debt or credit card bills after the wedding and honeymoon. I'm pleased to say that we stuck to that. With a lot of generosity from both of our parents, we had the day and honeymoon that we had dreamed of.

THE VENUE | St Michael & All Angels church in a beautiful little village called Teffont Evias in Wiltshire and a reception at The Bake Barn on the Fonthill estate just outside of Chicklade in Wiltshire.

For us, getting married meant getting wed in a church. But we also knew that we wanted a very relaxed barn setting for our reception. Trying to marry (pun intended!) those two up was quite tricky initially. In the end, we found the barn first, quite accidentally, after many endless Googling sessions and then looked for a church that was close by. That was when we found St Michael's which was the most idyllic, intimate and perfect place for us to exchange our vows.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | 'Bronwyn' by Maggie Sotterro; a second-hand fingertip, single tier veil which I bought from another beaming bride who had worn it several months before me; beautiful 'Mimosa' shoes in peach by Rachel Simpson; a delicate silver bracelet borrowed from my mum and pearl droplet earrings by Nicholas given to me by James the morning of the wedding.

The only hair accessories I had were small sprigs of fresh gypsophila.

FINDING THE DRESS | I really enjoyed wedding dress shopping. I went on three trips - the first with my mum, the second with my maid of honour Becky and then again with my mum. By the third trip, despite enjoying playing dress-up and getting a better idea of what I liked and didn't like, I was starting to think I'd never get that 'wow' moment many women talk about. That was when I visited Allison Jayne in Bristol. I felt relaxed with Hayley as soon as she greeted me as I arrived and after I briefed her on what I did and did not want - lace, slim fitting (no big and poofy which would have swamped me!), not strapless and something very pretty - she said she had the perfect dress in mind. She pulled out Bronwyn and I selected a few others to try too. The moment I looked at myself in Bronwyn, I just knew. There weren't tears or dramatic scenes, but I looked at myself and had a funny feeling that I had lost interest in any other dress other than that one. I slept on it to be sure it was the one, but I couldn't stop thinking about it and kept imagining wearing it on the day.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | James looked incredibly handsome in a dark blue tailored suit, dark brown double monkstrap shoes and white shirt, all from Reiss, and a tie from Suit Supply.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Two of our closest friends did the readings for us in the church. Jess read an extract from 'I Like You' by Sandol Stoddard Warburg, a sweet and humorous children's book which we felt summed up so many aspects of our relationship together. Then Matt read our religious reading which was from Song of Solomon.

Music-wise, I walked into Pachelbel's Canon in D and we exited to Mendelssohn's Wedding March - A Midsummer Night's Dream. We wanted to come out to something really triumphant and merry in lieu of the lack of bell tower at the church!

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | Three of my oldest girlfriends - Becky, Emma and Nicola. I have known Emma and Nicola since primary school and Becky has been in my life since university so I loved having them all there with me to play a special part in our day. I wanted them to be in dresses they all felt comfortable in and liked the idea of having a mismatched colour scheme so nothing looked too 'done'. We were lucky to find three different dresses that complimented one another but that were quite similar in length and cut. They looked gorgeous!
I have to also mention my two little nieces Lily and Betty who looked so pretty as my flower girls.

THE FLOWERS | This was probably one of the only parts James didn't have a particular view on, so when we found a florist we liked, I gave the brief of several flowers in colours that fit the soft, muted colour palette we were following for the wedding - peonies (my favourite), roses (which were in both my mum's and James' mum's wedding bouquets), freesia and others thrown in the mix to give lovely texture.

In the church, we wanted it to be very simple so we just got some bunches of gypsophila through the florist and hung them on the ends of some of the pews.

The chaps all had lovely small spray roses and thistles for their buttonholes. All James asked is that he didn't have a big massive rose or peony stuck out on his chest!

THE CAKE | Homemade by the groom! We wanted a very simple (but very delicious) chunky, Victoria sponge. James is a dab hand in the kitchen so he slaved away the day before (!!) the wedding making it. This meant that it was one of several areas we saved a big chunk of money on because we DIY'ed it ourselves.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | Like many couples, the photography was so important to us as our lasting memories from the day and was one of the first things we wanted to book well in advance to make sure we got exactly who we wanted within our budget. We met with a couple of photographers and emailed several others, but didn't get 'the feeling'. James and I equated it to going on a first date and we wanted to get that bit of a spark since it was such a vital thing to get right.

Then one evening, after yet another extensive Googling, we came across James Melia. His work was just what we had been looking for - natural, emotive and artistic. After a quick Skype session (essential, since he was up North and we weren't!), it didn't take us long to make one of the quickest decisions of the whole wedding planning process.

James and his lady Jo were exactly what we wanted. They were like two extra guests and they made us feel so relaxed in front of the camera, most of the time they had us in stitches so a vast quantity of the photographs are us looking in fits of laughter. It gets said a lot, but we really can't place an exact value on how pleased we are that we picked them to capture our day for us.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | Vintage lampshades, hay bales, mini rose plant, Polaroid cameras and 1,000 (yes, 1,000!) white origami cranes all played a part in the details and décor for the day. Those bits and pieces, along with the vintage wooden chairs we sourced from a local village hall and other 'undone' features gave us a kind of rustic country feel. We wanted it all to be very relaxed with simple, clean details to stay with the muted and classic look for the day.

Now is probably an appropriate time to explain the 1,000 origami birds and the story behind why we decided to use them as one of our main decorations in the barn. Rewind eight years to when James and I went on our first date... we were sat in a Wetherspoons pub (I was 19, I didn't take too much impressing) and he spontaneously folded my napkin into an origami crane. It obviously worked its magic because here we are! Anyway, when I started looking at wedding blog after wedding blog for bits of inspiration, I came across the Japanese legend that if an individual folds 1,000 of the cranes, they are granted a lifelong wish. Plus, we thought they would look amazing "flying" on the backs of the wooden chairs, as well as draped from the big fireplace. Not one to turn down a challenge, James said yes and committed the bulk of his evenings in the lead-up to the wedding to folding them all!

For our invitations, we wanted to source all the card ourselves because we were very particular about the colour and stock that we wanted. We decided we wanted to commission an animal illustration to be our image across all of our stationery. We settled on a barn owl - a British countryside animal that we're both fond of. After looking around, we came across Matthew Lissmore who drew us an owl in just the kind of style we were looking for.

THE HONEYMOON | Bali and Singapore. We wanted to go far enough away from home that it felt that bit extra special and not somewhere we would go for a usual summer holiday. Bali offered a great balance of culture, exotic landscapes and lush rice fields. James and I are usually culture-vultures and our breaks tend to be to cities so we stopped at Singapore on the way back. We had an amazing time and it's all thanks to friends and family who contributed to the trip as our wedding gift.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | There really are too many to mention, from setting-up the barn the evening before where we were running out of time and us, along with some family and friends, were frantically tying strands of origami cranes to the back of 40 chairs.

The whole ceremony is something I think we'll remember for all of our days. Not to mention the fact my best friend Emma was in tears for almost the entire time (I have probably seen her cry twice in the near 20 years I have known her!).

The amazing speech that James' two best men, Nick and Rory gave, which included a kind of rap that they had both weaved lots of our favourite bands and singers' names into.

Later in the evening when many of us were milling around outside taking in the sunset and there were several tiny baby rabbits hopping around nibbling on the grass. It was such a sweet, Disney-style moment.

The last song of the night was 'Times Like These' by Foo Fighters and all of us that were still there, or still standing, grouped in a big circle and jumped up and down singing at the top of our lungs.

There also has to be a special mention to James' nan who danced with almost every man at the wedding - what a woman!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Prioritise what means the most to you and save money on the things you can be a bit more inventive with. For us, the photography and having a live band was something we wanted to splurge a bit on because both meant a lot to us as a couple. But then we saved on things like not having a traditional cake or big floral displays that would only be seen for a short amount of time in the church.

Try your very best to soak in every moment. We had hired a vintage Jaguar for James to self-drive and when he drove us away from the church, we went on a little drive to give everyone time to arrive at the barn before us. It gave us ten minutes to let it sink in that we were now married, as surreal as it was!

Finally, when in doubt, and when you think you've found what, or who, you're looking for, just go one last Google! It became our best friend during the planning and just as we were about to settle, we found something even better.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Bake Barn

Photographers | James Melia

Florist | Young Blooms

Bridal Shop | Allison Jayne

Band | Patch and Tomo

Hair | Melanie Giles

Make-up | Jo Bilham

Car | Great Escape Cars

Groom | Reiss

Best Men | Charles Tyrwhitt and M & S

Bridesmaids | Jenny Packham for Debenhams, ASOS and BHS