Laura and Sam tied the knot in September at Yarlington Barn, Somerset. They wanted their day to have a fun barn dance feel with cider and bouncy castles. Sounds amazing right?

They had a budget of £6000 and with the help of family and a little DIY their day was a huge success. Laura DIY’d her flowers, with pretty gypsophlia and lavender throughout, there was bunting and a home made cake too. Such a loved up happy couple :-)

Thanks so much to Kerry Bartlett for sharing her lovely images with us today.

 

The Proposal… Sam proposed on a long weekend away in Paris, in a small garden round the back of the Notre Dame. He had stolen one of my favourite costume jewellery rings and used that, and when the plane landed back in the UK we went and chose an engagement ring together.

The Vision for the Day… All we wanted was a big barn dance full of fun, cider and bouncy castles! I have been to so many weddings where I have been bored or felt it was too formal for us. The barn had large pots of lavender which inspired me to carry that on as theme and I wanted to do as much as possible myself so got stuck in and hand-made most things.

The Planning Process… We got engaged in June 2012 and originally wanted the wedding a year later, but due to us wanting an outsidey barn wedding and me getting horrendous hay fever every June we changed to September. As soon as we got engaged we searched for a venue and I brought the wedding and bridesmaid’s dresses. Then we had about 6 months of no planning, until just after Christmas when suddenly we panicked we had done nothing for so long and booked everything else.

Budget… We had a low budget as had minimal savings and wanted to pay for everything (didn’t want to put anything on a credit card or get loans) Everything we used was hand-made, given to us as a gift or brought cheaply. Overall we spent between £6,000 – £7,000 and had the wedding car, band and DJ given to us as wedding gifts. My Gran also made the cake and invitations and I had talented friends do my hair and make-up.

The Venue… As soon as we got engaged and landed back in the UK I booked in visits with bridesmaids to lots of venues in the South-West. We both agreed we wanted more of a party than a formal wedding and as soon as I saw Yarlington Barn I fell in love and took Sam to visit who agreed and we booked it straight away.

The Dress + Accessories… My dress was a sample by Romantica and my shoes were from Debenhams bridal section. I wore my mums pearl necklace and Sam brought me a pearl bracelet as a gift that I opened on my wedding morning.

Finding the Dress… My dress was one of my greatest finds/bargains for the wedding, my mum and Gran were splitting the cost and my budget was £1,000. I only went to just “look” with my mum straight after I got engaged and the first dress in the first shop I saw I ended up buying. My dress was a sample the shop owner at White Lace and Promises had got in ready for the sample sale she was having the following week and it didn’t fit me at all when I first tried it on and didn’t come in any other size. It didn’t zip up and I could hardly breathe in it but I loved it and managed to get it for £250 as it was a sample. As I brought it in July I left it for 6 months until I tried it on again and had a panic attack when it was even tighter than before (the joys of 2 weeks of constant eating at Christmas) instantly I started to regret buying a dress that was too small and thought about looking for another one, however decided to lose weight and get fit so January-June calorie counted and did the occasional bit of exercise and come June I had lost over a stone and the zip slid up perfectly!

Groom’s Attire… We always wanted grey suits for the men so hired tails from a shop called Grander Grooms in Weston. I also wanted the button holes to fit in with the whole theme so made them from dried lavender and string.

The Readings + Music… Picking the music for the ceremony we found very hard so decided on traditional and went with Cannon in D but an acoustic guitar version. We were both dreading the actual ceremony so didn’t want any readings as both wanted it over quickly and now looking back it was all such a blur I don’t remember any of it not even the music being played.

Beautiful Bridesmaids… The bridesmaids dresses were also a bargain, originally I fell in love with a gorgeous plum dress from Coast, but then one evening spotted a Sale email from ASOS so had a quick look and found maxi plum chiffon dresses for only £25 each in the right sizes. As I had 5 bridesmaids and the budget was small I couldn’t spend a lot.  I also had two flower girls whose dresses came from Debenhams which Sam’s mum paid for.

The Flowers… My dream was for me to carry fresh lavender and the bridesmaid’s gypsophila. Again as the budget was low I decided to make all the bouquets and buttonholes. However regretted this every step of the way. Being stood in Asda at 7.30am being told that no gypsophila had come in with the delivery like it did every other day 2 days before my wedding when I needed 20 bunches was not fun. Luckily Morrison’s came to the rescue!!  Also sourcing Lavender when the season is over is near impossible, having brought dried lavender as a back-up for my bouquet and my mums Lavender bush we were supposed to be using dead I frantically started ringing every florist in the local area 3 days before the wedding. Then on a Google search I came across Cheddar Lavender field and rang them, seemed to be a miracle but they had one row of very late blooming but perfectly purple fresh lavender. To keep them simple I bunched the gypsophila together and my lavender together and used lace to tie them.

The Cake… We were really lucky that my Gran is an amazing wedding cake maker and offered her services for free to make us an amazing four tier fruit cake.

Your Photographer… Kerry (http://www.kerrybartlett.co.uk/) was amazing from day one, we had our pre-wedding shoot down on the beach and after we had spent a few hours with Kerry and realised how comfortable she made us feel and how much we liked the results we couldn’t wait to see our wedding photos. And she didn’t disappoint us, the whole wedding it felt like she wasn’t there, but still managed to capture the day perfectly. We have had so many compliments about our photos and I still struggle to pick a favourite!

The Details + Decor… As the budget was low and I wanted to be involved as much as possible I decided to get crafty and make hundreds of jam jars covered in lace, string, raffia and ribbons. As the barn has a massive outside undercover area I knew people would be sat mainly outside as September tends to be warm I wanted to focus on the outside area. So I covered it in bunting, jam jars, candles, wooden hearts etc. Mark who owns the barn also has hay bales and big barrels you can use which looked perfect with my decorations. We also hired a bouncy castle, space hoppers and outside games to keep our guests entertained.

The tables inside I wanted quite simple so had a pot of fresh lavender in the middle with each napkin having a sprig of dried lavender on, I also had paper sweet bags which were purple striped to carry on the purple theme. I used brown luggage labels for name tags which I individually hand stamped everyone’s name on!

For the ceremony I hired simple white wooden chairs and decided to decorate each end chair with a small bunch of dried lavender and string.

The Honeymoon… The honeymoon was two weeks in Agadir, Morocco in 5 star luxury. Have never been so spoilt or eaten quite so much!

Memorable Moments… The whole day was amazing, not sure I can pick one special moment. Sam’s would be when his dog arrived by surprise complete in his wedding attire of a purple bow tie and hat!

Advice for Other Couples… Plan everything, and have back up ideas. 2 days before my wedding I was stood in Asda having a break down with no flowers for myself or my 5 bridesmaids!

And no matter what, everything works itself out! All the stressful times soon passed and things seemed to go perfectly right in the end! My wedding day was amazing, and I have very quickly forgotten about all the nightmares and hours spent stamping each individual name tag, menu and order of the day!

Also if you are having a barn themed wedding, string will be your new best friend! I used balls and balls of it!

Credit Where Credit is Due…

http://www.kerrybartlett.co.uk/ – the photos were even better than we ever imagined!

http://www.yarlingtonbarn.co.uk/ – perfect location for a wedding, amazing views and Mark and Kate who run it are great.

http://www.combyne-arvester.co.uk – amazing band our best man surprised us with

http://www.southwesteventhire.co.uk/ – chair hire

http://www.eclipseentertainments.co.uk/ – DJ our other best man paid for, and we also hired bouncy castle, space hoppers and outside games.

http://www.lavenderandco.co.uk/ – my lavender saviour!

http://www.whitelaceandpromises.co.uk/  the most amazing bridal shop!!

http://www.mkxweddingcarhirebristol.co.uk/ – the wedding car my parents got us

http://victoria-mansions.co.uk/ – where we stayed on our wedding night

 

Oh so sweet. How much of a bargain was Laura’s gorgeous dress?! Thanks so much to Laura and Sam for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today XOXO Lou