Rustic Meets Elegant Mint & Gold Barn Wedding - Whimsical...

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Ahh how I adore this super sweet celebration.

WWW readers Luke and Katie were married in July of last year and held their reception at Priors Tithe Barn. They created a rustic yet elegant affair in the prettiest mint and gold tones.

Think quirky bow ties and braces for the gents and chic style for the girls. The beautiful details and touches included a popcorn bar, logs and statement tier cake. So very divine.

Thanks so much to Gemma Gaskins Photography for sharing these happy loving images today.

THE PROPOSAL | Luke did very well with the proposal! It was a Friday, and Katie had gone to work as usual, however Luke had been in contact with her manager beforehand and booked the day off. At around 9:30 Katie's manager called her into his office, where he told her she didn't have to work today, and gave her a little hessian bag which had a song lyric printed on the front, with a message printed on a tag saying to go home, enjoy the day and not call Luke unless its an emergency (not finding the right lip colour is not an emergency!), a small wooden heart with a number 1 on, a photo of their first date and an ipod, all tied together with ribbon and a heart wooden peg. Having read the message Katie drove home, with the ipod playing a playlist of their favourite songs put together by Luke, and arrived home to find another bag, with another picture, wooden heart etc and the message said to go to an address by 11am where there is an appointment booked and pack a bag of clothes and heels. Katie packed some items together and drove to the postcode in the message. When she arrived it was a lovely beauty salon in Oxfordshire, and they had an appointment booked and paid for Katie to have her nails done. Upon leaving after the appointment the receptionist gave Katie another bag and message reading go to this address, park up and go shopping, also with a Topshop voucher. Katie got to the Topshop where Luke had arranged a personal shopper to help her find a suitable dress and jewellery, upon leaving Katie was presented with her next message which said grab a bite to eat, you need to be at this postcode by 3pm!, so she grabbed a bite and tried to eat it (unsuccessful with the excitement/nerves!) and headed to the address on the card. She arrived at a hotel that she had always told Luke she loved and wanted to go to, The Crazy Bear in Beaconsfield. Katie parked and went to reception, where she was presented with another little bag with a message saying 'Come to Room 1, knock 3 times and let yourself in x'. When Katie got to the room Luke was nowhere to be seen but another bag on the floor, and a laptop on the bed. In the bag was another message reading 'Watch me' and a USB stick, which had on it a video that Luke had put together with all reasons he loves Katie and photos to music. When the video had finished, and Katie was in floods of tears, Luke came round the corner, got down on one knee and asked Katie to marry him, which she of course said yes to, then enjoyed a lovely meal and stay in the Crazy Bear! He had also arranged for all of their friends to come round on the next day for a party, where they could celebrate the engagement with their friends.

THE VISION | We both wanted the day to be really unique and personal. Katie was leaning towards the more elegant side of the day, and Luke more vintage/rustic. We sat together and went through our ideas, which seemed to combine perfectly (it's like we are meant to be! ;-)). We both loved the combination of pretty fairy lights and glitter, against the wooden barn feel, and thought that mint green was the perfect colour to compliment this, as we could also combine it with gold's and bronze. Pinterest gave us a lot of inspiration and ideas for the colour scheme and theme of the wedding in the very early stages.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We knew that we wanted to get married in summer, neither of us are fans of the cold weather, so as soon as we were engaged we started planning. Katie's mum bought her a Mindy Weiss planning binder which was amazing help initially, there was so much that we didn't realise that we had to consider. Throughout the whole planning process we had so many ideas, and spent a lot of time working together, and the family to make them come to life. Katie is very organised (Luke would say too organised!) so was completely on top of the planning, with the support of her also very organised parents! We also had the help of Ruth Hunter from Finesse Planning in the later stages, this involved a very lengthy 6 hour meeting 2 weeks before the wedding to go through all the plans and ensure everything we had put in place was viable/worked and we had no gaps etc. We had a lot of contact with Abigail at Pumpkin Events when planning the wedding, we initially met at the NEC wedding show where we fell in love with their design, and especially their lace chair back covers. Throughout the planning process we were bouncing ideas off Abigail, which was invaluable! Everything that we were visioning Abigail was able to find/create/make possible for us. We set up the venue with the help of the amazing Abigail and the team at Pumpkin Events the week before the wedding, which was surprisingly very stress free, and Ruth was with us on the day of the wedding to ensure everything ran smoothly and deal with any announcements and issues.

THE VENUE | We both knew immediately that we wanted a church wedding, and Upton St Leonards Parish church has a lot of sentimental value in Katie's family, as her parents were married there, her and her brother were christened there and many other family events, so that was an easy option. Katie's parents live on acres of land, so the initial plan was to have a marquee in the field, as we really didn't want to have a wedding package where we couldn't fully get our own ideas or personalities across. When we started looking at marquees, tipis etc for the field, we found them to be very expensive and we weren't falling in love with any of them. Katie suggested looking at a couple of barns, just to see how they felt and got the character of the barn across. The first barn that we booked in to see was Priors Tithe Barn, Brockworth Court, and we immediately fell in love. It was the completely blank canvas that we wanted, to be able to do everything ourselves, but at the same time had so much beautiful rustic character, with such pretty elements, the flowers, the pond, photo opportunities, and it just felt right!!

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | The dress - Jesus Piero @ The White Rooms, Minchinhampton.

Katie got her garter from La Gartier, and also purchased an additional 'Evelyn Bow' to add onto her dress. She wanted to keep it really simple so didn't want too much jewellery or accessories.

The veil - The White Rooms. The shoes - ASOS. Underwear - Boux Avenue. Pearl Earrings - A gift from Katie's flower girl.

FINDING THE DRESS | Finding the dress was so exciting! We had been recommended to The White Rooms in Minchinhampton by Katie's Nan who lived there, so that was where we booked first. Katie was initially looking for something lace and slim, she had found some designers that she liked the look of online so had a lot of ideas prior to shopping. The White Room was so lovely, it provided the dress shopping experience that every girl dreams of. So when we arrived and were settled with a glass of bubbles the lovely ladies Rachel and Lesley talked us through each of their dress designers and what was different and unique about each.

Katie pointed out several dresses that she liked the look of, including this Jesus Piero dress which was nothing like she had imagined she would wear. As soon as Katie tried the Jesus Piero dress on she fell in love with it, and so did her mum. Because of the fact that it was the first shop we had even been to, and nothing like Katie had imagined she would wear, we went to several other shops in Cheltenham and Bristol, but nothing seemed to compare to this first dress. We went back to try the same dress on again several times in between appointments, until Katie finally made the decision to buy it.

GROOM'S ATTIRE | Once we decided on the theme and colour scheme, we knew that we wanted the groomsmen to be comfortable and relaxed, and we felt that a navy/black suit would over power the elegance and delicacy of the mint green and gold, so we agreed that grey was most suitable and Luke began looking. Luke waned to buy the wedding party suits instead of hiring them so he could get a suit and fit that he really loved, and after much searching online found some Farah Vintage suits on ASOS that were perfect. Luke loves Farah anyway, so thought it would also be good to tie in the theme with Farah white shirts too.

The fit of these suits weren't so much suited to our dads so they got something similar from M&S. Luke found the brogues he wanted for all the men in the wedding party from Boohoo, and Luke knew that he wanted bow ties and braces to fit the vintage theme so we purchased an additional bridesmaids dress for Luke's god mother to make bow ties for the groomsmen. Katie arranged Luke's bow tie, but couldn't tell him without giving anything away about her dress. She ordered some fabric from La Gartier to match the exact fabric of the bow on her dress, and had Luke's god mother make his bow tie too so they were all the same shape.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Katie and Luke's favourite 'together' film is PS I Love you, as they watched it on their first date together, so the sound track we had playing in the church as the guests were arriving.

We had 2 readings, one biblical and one non-biblical. Katie is very close with her brother, so he read the non-biblical (FRIENDSHIP BY JUDY BIELICKI), and Katie's best friend and bridesmaid Sophie did the other reading (1 CORINTHIANS,13.)
The hymns in the service were Love Devine all Loves Excelling and All Things Bright and Beautiful, although the vicar forgot the second hymn!

We hired a band for the evening who were incredible, they fitted the theme so well and it was the perfect type of music for us. One guy was doing acoustics on a drum and another singing, they had a big mix of music that they put their own spin on, and in between sets arranged play lists for us which ranged from Mowtown to RnB!

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | The bridesmaids were 4 of Katie's school friends, and Luke's sister. We wanted something a little different for the bridesmaids so decided on little dresses. As soon as we got engaged we remembered a dress we once saw in Topshop which was such a lovely thick embroidered material, and also off the shoulder. We loved the fact that the chest was covered and it was off the shoulder as it was elegant, beautiful material and also the shorter dresses that we wanted. However, Topshop no longer sold these dresses so we took to Ebay and started ordering as and when we could see one come up, fortunately we ended up with all the sizes that we needed and are so glad we went for that option. The girls all wore Miss KG heels with the dresses as they were a nice subtle suede grey and a good height. Katie bought the girls all pearl earrings as their wedding gift which they all wore on the day, and diamanté grips from Accessorise to wear in their hair.

THE FLOWERS | We both knew right from the start that we wanted all white flowers, we wanted them to be pretty and elegant but didn't want them to take away from the dresses or theme of the wedding, so had a meeting with a florist that we met at a wedding show in Cheltenham and having gone through all the types of white flowers came to choose the ones we wanted for Katie's bouquet, and the bridesmaids bouquets. We also had a mini version of the bridesmaids bouquets made for our flower girl which was so cute. The men all had white button holes and other family were able to order white corsages.

As Katie and her bridesmaids flowers were all round, we wanted to keep this theme and Hydrengea were ideal for this, so we had Hydrengea at the pew ends (we bought some green in here to bring the theme in) and also Hydrengeas in milk churns, to again combine the elegant and rustic theme. We didn't want to go overboard with flowers, so had them on alternate tables in china white wellington boots from Waitrose, and on the other tables we had bird cages, with a small Hydrengea underneath. The milk churns, bouquets etc we also bought from the church to the venue.

THE CAKE | For the cake we had a recommendation from Luke's mum, to Curtis & Co. Jenny was amazing, we went for a consultation and got to taste all the different flavour options which was very fun, then got to designing the cake. Katie and Luke knew that they wanted a round cake from researching online, this seemed to fit better with the theme of the day and round flowers, and 4 tiers was suitable based on the number of guests. They decided to have the cake mint green to fit with the theme of the wedding, and had the pattern embroidered on 2 tiers to match the bridesmaids dresses which looked beautiful. Katie also had fake buttons put down the front of the cake, to match the buttons down the back of her dress, and a bow to add extra elegance. We had a sugar crafted peony added on top, as these flowers were also in Katie's bouquet, which finished it off nicely.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | We had researched the photographer for a while as we really wanted to ensure that we had the day captured perfectly and this is such an important element. We met with Gemma Gaskins with Katie's parents having found her online, and went through her portfolio which we loved. We discussed ideas with her which was great as she was able to contribute and show exactly what she could do for us, and we booked her straight away. She was great on the day, so polite but firm (and she managed to stay especially patient considering she was 4 months pregnant!).

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We had so many ideas about the design and décor, and got a lot of it from Pinterest. When we started getting ideas into place we went to a wedding show at the NEC in Birmingham, where we met Abigail from Pumpkin Events. We knew the theme we wanted, the colours we wanted, a mixture of lace, glitter, wood etc and Abigail put together a wish list for us, so we could work with the list together to get everything we wanted and needed, from little signs down to the more important elements like tables! We tried to do as much as we could ourselves to make it really personal, and also got a lot of creative ideas from our friend who created the stationery design, Harrie. We put gold wax heart stamps on the back of the envelopes and glitter inside, we covered the mason jars with lace and burlap ribbon, we covered mini champagne bottles for the morning of the wedding in glitter, and cut all the fabric for the bunting ourselves (we had to ask Luke's mum, auntie and god mother to sew it for us!) amongst other things. The room ended up just as we dreamed, the vintage elegance, with rustic elements like the wooden candle bases, newspaper heart confetti and the barn itself. The bar area was also a completely blank canvas and we loved how it turned out, we wanted to make it look different to the barn area itself so added more character, signage, hay bails and barrels, and Abigail helped us source the perfect bar to fit in this area. A lot of time and planning went into the details and décor on the day and we couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

THE HONEYMOON | Initially for the honeymoon we were thinking of going to Africa, Luke had mentioned Sri Lanka several times but it wasn't somewhere that we could agree on. When we went to Virgin to explore more options and look through hotels etc, the lady suggested Sri Lanka and it just looked beautiful. It had the balance that we wanted of relaxation and also having plenty to do, so we booked 2 different hotels in different areas in Sri Lanka so we could explore, go white water rafting, on an elephant safari, a turtle sanctuary, it was just perfect ☺

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The whole day just seems a blur now! The most memorable moments were standing in front of all our friends and family and saying our vows to each other, the feeling was incredible. Also, sitting at the top table and looking round the room seeing our favourite people in the world all in one room was amazing. Everything turned out so perfectly it as such a dream of a day, we could not be happier. The one thing we worried about was the weather on the day of the wedding, and it ended up being storms the night before and torrential rain on the morning of the wedding, but running out of the church alone together under an umbrella was such a good memory!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | The advice that we were given over and over again was to just enjoy every single second as the day goes so fast, and its so true! Just relax, and enjoy it, not everything will go as planned (it didn't for us we forgot several things!) but it all makes the day unique and memorable for you!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Venue | Priors Tithe Barn - Gloucestershire

Church | Upton St Leonards Parish Church

Photography | Gemma Gaskins Photography

Dress | The White Room - Jesus Piero with added bow from La Gartier

Shoes | ASOS

Bridesmaids Dresses | Topshop Limited Edition

Flower Girl Dress | The White Room

Suits | Vintage Farah

Hair | Anna White

Cake | Curtis & Co

On the day wedding planning | Ruth Hunter Finesse Planning