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Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend? I had a lovely...
22
Jan
2018
Happy Monday everyone and welcome along to another fabulous week on the Blog. How was your weekend? Was it filled with wedding planning? Maybe you attended a wedding? Or are you having a weekend off from all the wedding prep? We are starting off the week and kick starting your Monday morning with this most charming ‘rustic chic’ Cheshire barn wedding from our good friends Kelly and Paul at Paul Joseph Photography, Hannah and Matt chose a simple and classic theme but mixed it up with the rustic styling of the barn at Owen House. A beautiful day filled with lots of personal touches, giant light up letters, festoon lighting, amazing blooms and the most gorgeous location.
Hannah and Matt were married on 24th June 2017at Owen House Wedding Barn, Mobberley in Cheshire. ‘We knew we wanted to get married in a barn, and after viewing a few, we found they were all too ‘polished’. So we found Owen House Wedding Barn and thought we’re free this Sunday, let’s go take a look. As soon as we drove up to the farm, we just knew. We had 85 guests to the day and 120 to the evening. We were engaged for nearly 2 years and I would say 8 months of focus with taking a few months off in the middle to just enjoy the engagement.
How they met
We first met at work. I was new to the business and Matt was assigned to be my point of contact if I needed any help. We got on really well and Matt invited me for a game of badminton. The game, conveniently, ended in a draw! We started to meet more often to walk my mum’s dog in a local country park. Matt first kissed me at the country park. It took him a while to pluck up the courage. He told me to close my eyes and as we used to joke around I thought he had put mud on my face at first and I pushed him away. His face was a picture…when I realised it wasn’t mud I reassured him he had definitely made the right move.We had been together 5 years on our wedding day, so it was an even more special day.
The proposal
Matt bought the ring during a work trip away in Scotland. He had been thinking about it for some time and I had been, not very subtlety hinting. Matt kept asking me if I wanted to go to the country park for a walk (where he planned to propose) but as I kept saying no the ring stayed hidden in the wardrobe for three weeks! Matt began to worry that he wouldn’t get his money back if I said no, didn’t like the ring or it didn’t fit. On impulse after an evening at a friend’s wedding Matt got down on one knee. After telling me why he wanted to marry me and the usual romantic stuff… he thought it would finish it with ‘don’t expect to get married any time soon… it will be at least 2018’ I felt shocked, amazing and just completely in love with both my ring and of course Matt. He picked the most perfect ring and had of course listened to all of the hints I so subtly gave.
How did you allocate your budget?
We originally budgeted £20k.. and it soon ended up at over £30k. We knew the main costs would be venue, catering and my beautiful dress. After this, we tried to be tactical, but we also knew we’d only get married once, so all the little creative bits count.
Where did you splurge and where/how did you save?
It was really important to me that myself and my bridal party felt good on the day, so I made sure I found a hair stylist and a makeup artist that would make us feel amazing. Matt kindly told me I had a £4k dress limit and I liked to think I saved by picking a dress 1.5k less. We saved by designing our own save the date cards and our friend Luke kindly made them for us.
How did you choose your photographer?
After we found our venue, we looked at the photographs on their website and found Paul Joseph Photography. We loved how natural the photos were and thought how perfect this would be as we’re not exactly posers.
The dress
I was surprised by my choice of a ‘princess dress’ by Martina Liana but I knew it was ‘the one’ as soon as I put it on. Veil was a full length stitched edge veil with waterfall front. Headpiece from Jewelled vine. Shoes from Kurt Geiger
The suit and bridesmaids
Navy Herringbone suit with waistcoat from ASOS. This was the hardest part of the wedding by far. I had 2 pregnant bridesmaids, who didn’t want to wear maternity dresses. So the struggle of finding dresses to compliment all bridesmaids was difficult. We found the perfect dress in Debenhams, which was a chiffon material to flow over the girls bumps and still compliment my other girls. We jazzed the dresses up with sparkly belts and straps for extra comfort.
Theme or colour scheme
Our theme was classic and simple. We are both quite minimalistic and the barn’s rustic look spoke for itself.
Flowers
It was important to us that our flowers made a statement but went with the style of the barn. So we kept it simple with mainly using roses and gypsophelia. We also asked Maggie to make up all of the bouquets and buttonholes around this theme.
Deoration
We had M & H lights and Festoon backdrop to sit behind the top table then the band, Flowers and Vases, Candles and gold Jars, Wire letters for the table.
Food
A large selection of canapes.
MAIN: BBQ theme – Steak, Belly Pork, Chicken and Halloumi skewers served on a wooden board. Sides of wedges, shaker salad and coleslaw, served in plant pots, cups and kilner jars.
DESSERT: Trio of our favourites – Lemon Meringue Pie, Brownie and Panna Cotta, served on slate.
The evening food was provided by Pizza Peddlers – Retro Pizza Van.
Wedding cake
Matt’s Mum made our beautiful cake. She is renowned for making the most delicious cakes and is always inundated with requests even though it is just her hobby for now. [email protected]
We had 3 cakes: Lemon, Vanilla and Fruit. The design was kept simple using grey and cream icing with a personalised Mr & Mrs Doyle topper we had purchased through ‘Not on the Highstreet’
Entertainment
Our Band Riptide, played an acoustic set whilst the canapes were served and two sets during the evening, DJ’ing in between.
Who supplied the stationery?
Save the dates – Luke Moss
Invites and Table Plan – Norma and Dorothy
Personal touches
Order of the Day and Place names were hand made by Matt. Favours were homemade flavoured Gin, my sister knew of a lady that made the gins and this way we could our own touch to by having personalised tags.
Special moments
Seeing how happy andemotional all our friends and family were. We are so lucky to have such an amazing group of people around us, and it made it so special they were all there to celebrate with us. The speeches were perfect.
Dancing – Seeing everyone on the dance floor having an amazing time was such a special feeling. To know that all of the planning really was worth it.
Advice for other couples.
Brides to be:
Don’t leave skin preparation till last minute and drink as much water as possible on the run up to the wedding. Don’t stress, this is one of the most exciting times of your lives. Although it can get stressful, it is worth every minute
Both:
Keep a spreadsheet to track everything (we didn’t use a wedding planner
Be realistic with your budget.
Do plenty of research.
If you can do things yourself to a high standard then get involved but don’t skimp on things – it’s worth doing it properly.
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