James and Rachel's Vintage Inspired Colourful Barn Wedding by Emma & Rich

We have another fabulous wedding for you today, courtesy of Emma & Rich. It’s a beautiful colourful barn wedding set in the Scarborough countryside and it’s full of love, colour and lots of DIY touches. James and Rachel wanted to use touches of vintage and a hint of the 70s within their wedding and this they did. Rachel’s’ dress is beautiful with the little daisies attached, and the mix of colorful flowers really make the wedding pop.

A gorgeously rustic, quirky and memorable celebration of love with family and friends in a picturesque setting. Incorporating our love of colour, vintage, unique design, flowers, good food and live music!

James and Rachel's Vintage Inspired Colourful Barn Wedding by Emma & Rich

Rachel and James were married on the 16^th July 2016 at St. Laurence’s Church, Scalby, followed by a reception at The Barn, Coastal Road, Scarborough. ‘We chose to get married at St Laurence’s as we have many family connections to the church and it is the most beautiful church in Scarborough. We chose The Barn because it is in a beautiful and calm country setting, extremely charming, rustic with relaxed feel to it. The venue was only a 5 minute drive up the road. Reverend Mr Pynn led the church ceremony who was actually Rachel’s old head master at secondary school, which was nice. We had 65 guests and the wedding took 5 months to plan.’

How they met
We have been together for 12 years and met through mutual friends.

The Proposal
James unexpectedly proposed on our 11 year ‘anniversary’ with a £3.50 Claire’s accessories ring after a special meal out. Knowing I wanted to design my own engagement ring if he ever was to propose he decided to surprise me with a fake plastic engagement ring! We designed my ‘official’ engagement ring together, which incorporates a Australian Black opal and small diamonds.

How did you allocate your budget?
We wanted to celebrate our marriage with a party rather than a formal sit down meal and traditional format to the day. We are a relaxed and often quite shy couple therefore we didn’t want too much fuss and it was always my intention to design and make most of the little touches to the day myself.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We managed to save money by making a lot of the decorations and invite’s ourselves. We didn’t splurge on any items in particular, however we decided to spend a little more on the photography and the band, as it was really important for the evening to have live music and have some beautiful photos to capture the day.

Why did you choose your photographer?
Our photographer’s Emma + Rich were recommended by a friend. We loved their unique style and approach to photography, which fitted in perfectly with our wedding theme and our relaxed approach to the day. We wanted natural shots to capture the day and those celebrating with us. The end results were even better then we expected and truly beautiful. The video they created to summarize the day was amazing and even captured me brushing my teeth! fantastic.

The Dress
My 70’s style dress with floating sleeves and embellished neon floral beads was bought online, which took nearly 4 months to find and accessorized with a combination of vintage jewellery, including a Vivienne Westwood bracelet and silver/ beaded mother of pearl shoes from Topshop. One of the most important aspects to my outfit, which had to be perfect, was the floral headband/ flower crown. This incorporated wild country flowers and complimented my silver hair with a plait running around the side and vintage ribbons. This hairstyle was created by Gina at Crème de la Crème and was wonderful.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
James’ blue suit was by Noose and Monkey, which incorporated a skull print lined suit jacket and this was also integrated onto the back of the waistcoat, which added a quirky touch to his suit. The 4 bridesmaid dresses were by Mela in a yellow and blue vintage floral print. The yellow daisy flower girl dress was from Marks and two pageboys outfits were from Next.

Theme or Colour Scheme
We wanted to incorporate many colours into the reception/venue decorations and for the cake flowers, including my own bouquet and floral crown. However we also went for a blue and yellow colour scheme for the bridesmaids, best man and grooms man outfits and also the same scheme for the bridal / groom party button holes and bridesmaid bouquets. We also loved the 70’s theme and design style with bold floral prints, patterns and colours, including the vintage lace and ribbons.

Flowers
We went for an eclectic mix of wild country flowers in a variety of colours for my bouquet, floral crown, buttonholes and flowers to decorate the semi naked cake. The church flowers were a mix of classic white and cream flowers. The bridesmaid bouquets were gypsophilia with blue flowers and yellow daisies. The flower girl also had a vintage flower basket with fresh petals to scatter.

Decoration
We had 70’s floral bunting, vintage ribbon and lace decorated jam jars with a variety of flowers in them for table decorations, including mini laced jars with tea lights, all made by myself. We had floral lanterns and an eclectic mix of large balloons, some with floral prints on them in a mixture of bright and pastel colours. We also had an artist easel board for family and friends to draw on, guest book and light box. The barn is also decorated with fairy lights and a lovely log burner, which also added to the atmosphere and rustic theme.

Food
We had Sangria welcome drinks followed by a hog roast for dinner and cake. Including local beer from the brewery.

Wedding Cake
The wedding cake was a semi naked cake created by Andrias Cakes. It was decorated with the country flowers and an individually made copper wire R&J cake topper. The bottom tier was a raspberry Victoria sponge, the middle cake lemon and the top tier mandarin. It was displayed on three natural logs and tasted amazing!

Entertainment
We had a 70’s and 80’s play list for the initial part of the evening and then we had a live rock/indie band play on the balcony for the rest of the evening who were superb and took requests!

Personal Touches
As described above I made a lot of the decorations myself for the venue. We also got brown paper sweet bags designed with our names on them for favours, which we filled ourselves with a variety of vintage sweets and displayed in a crate from 1976. I also designed the wedding invites myself, which was a wooden fridge magnet in the shape of a pig to link with the hog roast and The barn venue!

Special Moments or Highlights
One of our special moments was seeing each other for the first time in the church, the time was finally here and the excitement and happiness was immense. The intimate setting of the barn with just close friends and family made it more special to us both. The day ran so smoothly with the most beautiful weather. David (father of bride) also decorated the wedding car in ribbons, flowers and he attached two toy cats, which resembled our own two cats called Slash and Dolly (who couldn’t make it in person to the Church for obvious reasons!) Which was a funny touch and a surprise. One of my personal highlights was the short walk through Scalby village from my mum’s house to the church with my mum and dad, which was really special to me. One of james’ highlights was our first (final dance of the evening) to Oasis’ Champagne Supernova performed by the band.

Advice for other couples
The advice we would give would be to go with what you want as a couple rather then what others around you want. It is your special day so it should be everything you want it to be! And savour every moment!

Biggest Surprise
I received a personalized photo card through the post in the morning at my mum’s house from James saying he’ll see me at the church, which made me very emotional and such a lovely touch. However it was more of a surprise that I got James to dance to our song in public, having refused for months, even if our first dance was the final song of the evening. Brilliant!