28

Feb

2014

Daisy and Ben’s Handmade Rustic Barn Wedding. By Rebecca Douglas

It’s Friday woo hoo! I hope you are all suitably excited? I am as I am off on my holidays today, well we fly first thing tomorrow morning (nice 7am flight yawn!) but I have taken today off as I have a mountain of holiday stuff to do, shopping , packing etc and then we are off to the airport hotel this evening! Don’t worry though I have scheduled posts for you while I’m away so you will still get your daily dose of Boho! To end the week I have this super cute rustic barn wedding which has been sent into me by the lovely Rebecca Douglas. The wedding is full of gorgeous handmade details, as well as a lovely colour scheme of sage green, dusky pinks and gold. So pretty!

‘Our wedding day was completely and utterly how we have ever imagined it, relaxed and fun with close friends and family enjoying the day all together.’

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Daisy and Ben were married on the 11th of October with a ceremony at our Kingdom Hall in Rainham and a reception at Chilham Village Hall. ‘The Kingdom Hall is where we both attend regularly for our religious meetings so we both felt so happy to be able to get married in a place that is so important to both of us. We had 80-90 guests and the wedding took 8 months to plan’.

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

How they met
We knew each other through friends & family but hadn’t spent any time together until Ben was offered a spare ticket to Kings of Leon at Hyde Park which me and few others were going to as well. After an amazing day all together touring London, chilling out in sunny Hyde Park and seeing our favourite band we both knew we’d met someone special. Now we have been together just over 2 years.

The proposal
On a weekend that I thought Ben had plans he unexpectedly asked if I wanted to go for dinner on the Saturday because his plans had changed. He kept saying things to throw me off thinking it was going to be something special, like keep changing his mind about going out because it was too cold! He had asked my mum to drop us to Rochester as he fancied having a drink too. We got dropped off in a road next to The Vines, a lovely park near the high street and whilst walking through the snowy park Ben got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! I immediately shouted yes and squeezed the life out of him! What made it more special is, there is a shop in the high street that sells vintage rings and the boxes they are in are the most beautiful, delicate ring boxes and I have always wanted to be proposed with one of them even if the ring wasn’t from there and he managed to get one and proposed to me with it! It was the sweetest thing. Then we carried on walking through the park to the restaurant he had booked which we had both always loved the look of. The table he booked was right in front of an open fire to warm us up after our walk. We had the most cosy and very smiley evening in the restaurant then went back home and rung all the family to tell them all. It was so romantic and thoughtful and completely perfect for us both.

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

How did you allocate your budget?
My parents kindly gave us a set amount of money, which we really tried to keep as our main budget but we also used our wages and savings for certain things also. We talked about the things that we wanted to spend a bit more on like the photographer, reception venue and food and we used the money from my parents to pay for these things so the big things were paid for then we used our wages for the less important things.

How did you choose your photographer?
We searched the internet for so long to find a decent photographer and from the second I went on Rebecca’s website I knew she would be just what we were after. When we first met Rebecca we knew we wanted her to capture our day, her portfolio was everything we wanted for our wedding and we loved her personality and how excited and genuinely interested she was in both of us! When it came to the wedding day she slotted right in, helped out wherever she could and created the most amazing images and memories that we completely love, whenever everyone looks at them we just all relive the day. We were even glad it rained in the end (which I never thought I would say!!) because we got the best pictures we could ever ask for!

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

The dress
I’ve always wanted a very elegant wedding dress, with lots of lace and quite fitted. When I tried this sort of style on in the bridal shops they were way out of my budget! I had already arranged for a friend of mine who occasionally makes dresses to make my bridesmaids dresses, so I went to her and she agreed to do my wedding dress too. She did the most amazing job and made it exactly how I pictured it, covered in a beautiful delicate vintage ivory lace, gorgeous detail on the back, slightly fishtail at the bottom with two layers of lace and an amazing long train with scalloped lace edging. Because the dress was so detailed and had such a beautiful back to it, I didn’t want to cover it up with a veil or any other accessories. I’m really glad I kept it simple because I loved my dress so much and wanted everyone to see what a good job she had done!

The suit and bridesmaids
Ben wore a grey Armani suit with a white shirt and a matching tie the same colour and fabric as the bridesmaids. The bridesmaids all wore the same dresses, they were made out of a sage green silk with a gold lace panel at the top and over the cap sleeves. I searched for so long for bridesmaid dress ideas and as soon as I saw this design I knew that was what I wanted so I took the pictures to the dressmaker and she made them perfectly and they suited each one of them. They looked so elegant. The flower girls wore ivory dresses from Monsoon, there was a crocheted panel across the top and over the sleeves too then soft netting on the bottom.

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Theme or colour scheme
As we got married in the autumn we went for a rustic/barn theme with sage green, dusky pinks and golds for the colour scheme.

Flowers
My bouquet was so beautiful, it included a few different coloured vintage pink roses, with some smaller pink spray roses too which were all embedded in white gypsophilia. They were bound in ivory satin and the same gold lace used for the bridesmaids dresses. The last detail I had was my nan’s pearl brooch on the front of it, I really wanted something personal on my bouquet and having my nan’s brooch made it so much more special to me. The bridesmaids each had balls of white gypsophilia bound in the gold lace to match their dresses. The flower girls had a small posy of the white gypsophilia and a head garland to match, they looked so cute! All the ushers and little page boys had gypsophilia buttonholes and Ben and his best man had a vintage pink rose backed onto gypsophilia.

Decoration
We kept in with the barn theme and had lots of hessian, wooden boxes and sliced logs for the cake and evening buffet. We had fairy lights up around pillars and hanging between the pillars. Then lots of flowers in vintage vases all along the tables with candles in between.

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Food
We eventually decided on a Hog Roast which was gorgeous and went down very well!

Wedding Cake
It was a three tier cake made by my sisters and a couple of friends, the top layer was fruit cake, the middle was red velvet and the bottom layer was a rich chocolate cake. It was all covered in a rough white royal icing and topped with hessian bunting with the words ‘Just Married’ and spaced out over the cake were small bunches of white gypsophilia and small pink spray roses. It looked and tasted amazing!

Entertainment
For the evening entertainment we just wanted to make it like a big party and make it all about music as it was what bought us together in the first place. My brother, brother-in-law and his brother got together as a band before the wedding and planned to play some of our favourite songs for an hour in the evening! It was one of the best parts of the day, they played a selection of music from Kings of Leon to Stevie Wonder! It got everyone up dancing and it made it so personal too. Then we carried on with the music right until the end and we didn’t leave the dancefloor the whole night!

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
Right from the beginning we wanted to do most of the decorations ourselves because I’ve always loved the idea of getting to my wedding and thinking ‘We’ve done all this!’. We started by making our invitations. I got the invites printed onto recycled brown card then arranged for a few friends and family to come over and complete them with bunting across the top cut out from materials that matched our colour scheme and string to tie it all together.

Personal or handmade touches
• For the reception, we had 5 long tables to set out at the reception hall and along each one I wanted small vintage cut glass vases with little flower arrangements in each…to get these we spent the most part of our engagement searching charity shops and bootfairs! We had to get 48 vases so we got everyone involved and looking for them! Only the week before the wedding we finally had enough! In between these we had little tealights in glass holders and then along the top table we had also collected vintage glass candlesticks to go in between the vases.
• I also made all my napkins into bows using a lace ribbon with pearls in the middle. Another thing we made ourselves were the table runners, we bought the hessian and the fabric and cut each one to the length of the tables and stuck the lace in the middle of the hessian…that was probably the most fiddly thing!
• To keep with the rustic thing we got a friend of ours to cut up some logs into slices to put the cake on, the drinks dispensers and the evening buffet food on to.
• The table plan was the last thing I made, I have a really old suitcase that I wanted to use for the table plan so I covered the inside with lovely green and pink floral fabric then stamped each individual name onto big tags pegged from string hanging inside the suitcase. This was along the top then on the bottom of the case we had a space for people to put their cards.
• I made sure that the children attending the wedding had enough to keep them enjoying themselves so made little activity books for them and various other things and they were so happy!
• I absolutely loved making everything myself and would definitely recommend it because it gets everyone involved and saves so much money too!

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Special moments or highlights
Daisy: One of my favourite moments of the day was turning up at the ceremony and standing at the bottom of the aisle ready to walk down, seeing Bens face when he saw me took all the nerves away and I just couldn’t wait to get to the end and marry him!
Ben: I think one of the moments was when the evening started and both our families got on the dance floor together, it felt like one new big family, we all have a love for music and that bought us all together right through the night.

Biggest surprise
When Ben’s best man turned up on the morning of the wedding with a pair of earrings for me to wear on the day and a handwritten letter from Ben to read before opening the jewellery box. I have always wanted to wear earrings that match my engagement ring on my wedding day and he managed to get me some! It was the biggest and best surprise of the day

Advice for other couples
No matter what you will stress about the wedding the whole time you are planning it but once the day is there you completely forget about all the little things you worried about and the day just makes it all worth it. Just enjoy planning the wedding and try not to let it control your life! Everyone has always said to me the day goes so fast so try and take it all in at some point during the day and that is the best advice I got. Try and sit back and take in that its your wedding day and just enjoy it. Choose a really good photographer, we spent the most amount of money on the photographer and we are both so glad we did because at the end of it all they are the biggest thing that help you relive your wedding day.

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

Image by Rebecca Douglas Photography - www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk

 

Supplier Shout Outs:

 

For more information on Rebecca’s work go to:

www.rebeccadouglas.co.uk
FACEBOOK
@BxDouglas

 

 

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Comments

    Kate

    It is amazing what you can do with a little time and effort. THIS is the best way to show your own style. The photography is simply stunning as well ;)

    Reply
    Harriet from The Zoots

    I just love the shot of them both at nighttime in the rain, truly lovely. It’s great to hear how personal the wedding was to them, lots of DIY bits, using a friend to make her dress and using her brother & brother-in-law for the entertainment. How lovely! Thanks so much for sharing. x

    Reply

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