Alison and Joe’s Rustic DIY Farm Wedding. By Laura Rhian Photography

Happy Wednesday everyone, we are now half way through the week, so it’s officaly nearly the weekend! You will recognise todays happy couple as it is Boho bride and groom Alison and Joe. Alison wrote for the blog last year in the Diary of a Boho Bride feature, where she told us all about her wedding pans and shared with us her wedding story and journey. Today I am delighted to be able to share with you all her beautiful wedding. A rustic wedding mixed with shades of purple, hessium and wood which all takes place on her parents farm in a recently built barn. So much of the wedding was handmade with lots of DIY projects being set to add personality to the day as well as cuting costs. I’m sure you will agree this is a charming wedding from beginning to end! Big thanks to Laura Rhian Photography for the images.

‘I know it’s a cliché but our wedding day really was the best day of our lives. It was relaxed and down to earth and just what we wanted.

Alison and Joe were married on 7th June 2014. The Ceremony was at Saint Lawrence’s Church, Rushton Spencer and the Reception was in a marquee at Catswall Farm, Denford. ‘We chose the church as it is where I (Alison) was christened. It is in a small village where my Dad originates from and my grandparents lived so holds lots of special memories. We will also both be setting up home here in 2015 when we move. It is quite an unusual little church also known as “The Chapel in the Wilderness” as it is situated in the middle of the countryside on top of a hill.
The reception came as a natural choice as Joe’s Dad had just finished building a barn on their farm so we decided to have the reception there to enable us to have a relaxed and informal day and make it to look how we wanted it to. We had around 100 day guests and another 80 at night. We got engaged in September 2012 so the planning took just over 18 months.’

How they met
We had kind of known each other through mutual friends a while but we met properly on a night out in 2008 when we had both had one too many drinks by the end! We dated for a while and got together a few months later. We have been together ever since and in that time travelled around the world together.

The Proposal
The proposal didn’t quite go to plan… We went away for the weekend to Yorkshire where we had planned on going for a nice walk around a lake we had seen before going on to a spa day the day after. The weather was not on our side though and Joe ended up proposing in the hotel when we got back.

How did you allocate your budget
We didn’t want to spend too much on the day as that’s not really us. By having the reception at Joe’s parents house we saved money on the venue and did a lot of DIY elements ourselves. The biggest proportion of the budget was spent on the marquee lining and tables etc for the barn.

How did you choose your photographer
My mum suggested Laura Rhian Photography to us as she already knew Laura. As soon as we saw Laura’s photos we knew instantly that she was what we were looking for. Relaxed and informal and capturing moments through the day along with a natural style. Neither of us particularly like having our photo taken so we didn’t want anything too staged or over the top.

The Dress
My dress was a Sincerity dress costing under £800 – I knew I wanted to spend enough to have a beautiful dress but didn’t want to allocate too much budget on this. I wore jewellery that I already had and my shoes were from Debenhams – again not at great expense!

The suits and bridesmaids
The suits were hired from Greenwoods 1860 suit hire. We did consider buying suits but it cost us a lot less than expected to hire from Greenwoods so went with that option. The bridesmaids dresses were from Debenhams as were the Jenny Packham flower girl dresses.

The Theme/Colour Scheme
We had the colour scheme of plum along with a natural theme of wood and hessian.

Flowers
I had beautiful flowers with a lovely natural feel to them. My bouquet included blue moon roses, peonies, lizyanthus, freesias, larkspur and eucalyptus. The same flowers were also used on the tables which bought all of the marquee décor together.

Decoration
We had a very relaxed and natural theme to the decoration. My mum and sister made an endless supply of bunting in mixed fabrics which really made the marquee our own. The tables were decorated with slices of logs and a mixture of jam jars and bottles decorated with hessian and lace which we did ourselves.

The Food
This was another area we wanted to keep down on cost so we decided on a hog roast in the day time and bacon baps and oatcakes in the evening. We also had an icecream van for the desserts which went down really well (when it stopped raining!)

The Cake
My mum and sister made the wedding cake. We had different tiers of fruit cake, chocolate cake, lemon sponge and jam and cream sponge – so there was something for everyone! It was iced in a natural style and decorated with hessian and lace to match the rest of the decorations. We had a brilliant cake topper made of ourselves too which just finished it off and made it personal to us.

Entertainment
Our evening entertainment was a rock band – The Three Wise Monkeys. A few family members had seemed a little concerned that we had a rock band but as soon as they came on everybody was on the dance floor having a great time.

DIY or Buy Stationery
I am a graphic designer so buying stationery was never going to happen. I designed and printed all of our invites, order of service booklets, table plans, favours and tags etc.

Personal Touches
We did the majority of things DIY including – all stationery and printed material, decoration and reception venue, wedding cake and then used suppliers who were friends or friends of friends.

Special Moments 
The entire day was special and we both had aching faces the next day from smiling so much. Particular highlights included the speeches given by the best man, my sister and Joe – all were brilliant and entertaining. It was also such a great feeling to have everybody welcome us into the marquee as Mr and Mrs Boote and realise just what special family and friends we have.

Advice for other couples
Not to get stressed over things. Everybody wants to have the perfect day and things work themselves out. I would recommend getting things ready in plenty of time if you are organising or making things yourself as we had a big rush in the final week when it would have been good just to relax. I was worn out by the morning of the wedding!

Biggest surprise of the day
Not getting upset over the monsoon rain and thundering and lightning! Luckily the sun came out in the afternoon. And although everybody says what a great day you will have – you don’t realise just how great it will be until it’s happening.

Supplier Shout Outs

• Marquee – www.malibumarquees.co.uk
• Hog Roast – www.pig-out.co.uk
• Bar – www.themobilebarcompany.com
  Matt at the mobile bar company couldn’t have been more helpful
• Vintage Ice cream van – www.wearelollapalooza.co.uk
  Special thanks to Nicole who was really great – they also have a crepe van too if you are looking for something a bit different
• Wedding stationery and print – www.alisonboote.com
• Band – www.threewisemonkeysrock.co.uk
• Flowers – Helen Critchlow
• Suit hire – www.1860.com
• Wedding transport – www.facebook.com/staffordshire.knight
• Photographer – www.laurarhianphotography.co.uk

For more information on Laura’s work please go to:

www.laurarhianphotography.co.uk/blog
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I am an alternative wedding photographer, based in Staffordshire. My approach is fun and informal and I focus on getting the best from my couples by getting them to have fun with each other, rather than using traditional posing. I love to shoot weddings for couples who are doing something a little different and are having a relaxed and creative wedding day.