16

Feb

2018

Elizabeth and Antony’s ‘Minimalistic Woodland’ Rustic Barn Wedding in Wiltshire by Nick Rutter 

Happy Friday everyone, how has your week been? It’s been an eventful one here at Boho Towers: Pancake day and then Valentines all in one week! I am super excited for the weekend. I am off to a farm with Dexter today, I love my Fridays with my little man. He starts school in September so I am really wanting to make the most of the next few months. Tomorrow we are all having a sleep over at a friend’s house, which will be lovely. Then on Sunday I am taking Dexter to the theatre which I can’t wait for!  What about you? Now on to today’s wedding. If you are feeling that summer is never going to get here, then cast your eyes over todays sun drenched wedding from Nick Rutter and it will really make you feel that summer is nearly here. Elizabeth and Antony chose a totally stunning summers day for their wedding and set it in the most gorgeous of barn venues with a real laid-back vibe. Complete with wood slabs, greenery and so many other cute decoration details, it has the perfect woodland wedding theme. With a mother who makes cakes for a living and is a florist as a hobby, this wedding was always going to be filled to the brim with handmade touches. In fact, all of their friends and family really pulled together to make the day a really personal affair. What a perfect way to finish off the week.

 Relaxed family BBQ in the country

Elizabeth and Antony were married on 26th August 2017 at Salisbury Registry Office & then Clementines Lower Lawn Barns in Wiltshire. ‘The space we had to ‘play with’ was not only spacious but quirky, historic and beautiful. Also the setting was in the middle of the countryside which speaks to both Antony & I, it’s where we spend most of our time. We had 40 guests at the wedding and 80 for the reception, it took a year to plan.’

How they met
We have been together just over 4 years now. We saw each other in passing when walking to work and then one day I found him on the app Plenty of Fish and messaged him. We then hung out for a few weeks at the local night clubs I worked in (I got cheap drinks there) before we went ‘Facebook official’ how millennial of us and so romantic! Haha!

The proposal
This is the most random thing ever but I love it! Lyall surprised me a week after my birthday with tickets to Duran Duran (supporting act was SEAL! LOL) in Cardiff. The evening was great and the next morning we went to the nearest beach which was Barry Bay haha! Where Gavin and Stacey was filmed! We then sat down for a bit and it was freezing (mid November!) After asking a few times if he was OK and should we go because it looks like it’s going to rain and it’s freezing he finally produced the ring and asked me! I was shocked and ecstatic, I definitely didn’t care about the cold after that!

How did you allocate your budget?
Lyall is an accountant so we had numerous spreadsheets! After getting quotes from all of our suppliers we worked out how much we would need to save a month in order to pay for everything and that’s what we did. It was tough but I am super proud of us for doing it!

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We saved a fortune on the flowers and cake as my Mum is very talented and not only does she have a wedding cake business she also flower arranges as a hobby. Greenery was the main decoration and I got it all from friends and families gardens! My Mum is also friends with the owner of the local garden centre and arranged to borrow a load of potted plants which really helped to complete the country/outdoor feel of the venue.
The venue itself was an absolute bargain! For £1500 we had the whole court-yard, 3 properties and the gardens for 4 days!
We splurged on the photographer, this was something very important to me as i love photography and do a bit myself, Lyall and i also agreed the photos are the only thing you have left afterward so it was important we found someone with a creative eye and good quality product. It was also important to find a photographer that would fit in with our relaxed and intimate wedding, Nick was perfect and when we met him and saw his work there was no doubt in our mind, we booked him before anything else!

How did you choose your photographer?
We met Nick at a wedding fair in Christchurch and straight away I loved his photography. It was different from all of the photographers we had seen so far. He was great at capturing not only the feel of the day but the couples character, his photos were all very creative, beautiful and sometimes dramatic. Nick himself was also so friendly, sweet and enthusiastic! Speaking from experience now, Nick made us feel so relaxed and happy in front of the camera and we LOVE all of our photos.

The dress
My shoes were baby pink suede Vans, I wanted to be comfy all day and be able to dance all night! My jewellery, earring, necklace, bracelet and hair clips were from Swarovski brought by my sisters. My dress was brought from the Organiser Room in Amesbury, a shop I always remember driving past when I was a little girl. The dress was by Madeline Gardener and so much bigger than I thought I would get!

The suit and bridesmaids
The suit was from Next! A complete fluke but it fitted perfectly and he looked great in it so who says they have to cost the earth! The bridesmaid dresses I struggled with for ages….I had four bridesmaids and they all suited different shaped dresses, I also wanted something really different. In the end I found the dresses at Joules, and they were ones that they could definitely wear again.

Theme or colour scheme 
I had a vague colour scheme but I wasn’t strict on it as long as nothing clashed! The bridesmaid dresses and Lyall’s bow tie was a light, bright green and the boys wore maroon chinos and Toms. The theme was minimalistic woodland.

Flowers
The only flowers I had were in the bridesmaids and my bouquets. They were made with big pink roses, white lisianthus, blue hydrangeas and a bit of  jasmine. The venue flowers were all tubbed plants or cut greenery, things you would find in a garden, roses, hydrangeas, etc.

Decoration
Lots of tubbed plants and cut greenery. On the tables we had slices of trees with a mixture of candles, lanterns and tea lights. We had a lot of fairy lights dotted around the venue, white drapes for the old coach house and barn entrance. My sister and her boyfriend kindly made a gold sign ( Mr & Mrs Lyall). We tried to kept the decor to a minimum as the venue was beautiful on it’s own.

Food
We had amazing food from the Earl of Sandwich, Winchester. I can not rate them highly enough! Not only was the food amazing but their service was outstanding and they didn’t charge the earth! We had BBQed steak burgers, spicy chicken fillets and Halloumi kebabs. Warm potato salad, bread and salad. In the evening my Mum put on an amazing buffet of salmon, olives, fresh bread, cold meats and cheese.

Wedding cake
My mum created the wedding cake, there were four different sized cakes, two were tiered and the rest were displayed on logs at different heights. They were different flavours, either lemon and poppy seed or raspberry, white chocolate and prosecco. They were all decorated in ivy icing and around the bottom edge of each cake was grass and wildlife also in ivy icing. Lyall and i call each other ’Bear’ so my friend Emily made us two wooden bears as cake toppers.

Entertainment
We had a small bouncy castle hidden away in one of the courtyards alcoves with lots of garden games for the children. We also had Cosmic events, they provided a fantastic LED dance floor and great tunes all day and night. For the adults, I am not sure if this is entertainment but we had very good feedback from everyone, we had a friend of ours converted coffee Land Rover serving amazing coffee all day and espresso martinis in the evening! We also had a very cheap bar….

Who supplied the stationery?
I designed the save the dates and wedding invites myself and had them printed via Moo. Saved a fortune!

Personal touches
We did most of the wedding ourselves, we had the venue for four days, two of which we spent setting up. I wouldn’t have it any other way, I love the old-fashioned feel to it like an old school farm wedding, everything local, everything with a story, everything personal, etc.

Special moments
Lyall and I both agree that our favourite part of the day was when we were being driven to our venue after the wedding. Lyall’s parents had kindly paid for Doris’s Day Out to do the job and it was such a fun and relaxing time in the back of the old school camper van sipping champaign and just being together the two of us. A highlight for me personally was when my bosses made me open the present they had got me, a camera, it was a truly special moment. The speeches were also incredible, my little sister did one and it had everyone crying but the best man’s and Lyall’s were so spot on it had everyone laughing again!

Advice for other couples
If a good friend or family member asks if they can help give them a job no matter how small or big, one it makes them happy and two on the day it gives you a warm fuzzy feeling look around and seeing all the things people have done for you.
My tip for on the day is a common one I think but we really appreciated it when we had it. Make time for just the two of you at some point in the day, 5 minutes or 30 just make sure you can step away from it all for a while and chat, reflect and be in the moment, it is so easy to get caught up in it all and then it’s gone!

Biggest surprise
For me it was how everyone came together to help us even if we hadn’t asked, they were just there and it felt so nice to know that we were supported and that our friends and family really cared about us. I am so grateful to everyone and I still don’t know how to thank them all, it was a perfect day and I couldn’t be more blown away by everyone’s generosity and kindness.

 

Supplier Shout Outs

 

For more information on Nick’s work go to

www.nickrutterphotography.co.uk  www.nickrutterphotography.co.uk/blog / 07968 449930 / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / TWITTER

I’m based in Bournemouth Dorset and cover a number of weddings around Dorset and Hampshire as well as across the Country and Destination Weddings. I love vibrant colours, creativity, not shooting generically, shadows, highlights and symmetry. I shoot very naturally, not too posed unless a moment takes us there.

 

 

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