Louise and Aaron's Colourful, Handmade Barn Wedding in Cambridge with Plenty of Personality by Daniel Ackerley

Happy Monday everyone, I hope you all had a fantastic weekend? Mine was pretty chilled. After the excitement of last weeks Easter break, I needed a weekend to catch up on house and life admin! I feel super organised now and have a whole lot of jobs ticked off my to do list! How about you? I am kicking off the week with the most wonderful summer barn wedding, set in the beautiful Cambridge countryside. Louise and Aaron are a fun-loving couple, who I just adore. I love their sense of style, their love of colour and I am head over heals for their gorgeous wedding. From the peonies to the seating chart, selfie station to the colourful decor, this wedding is bursting with personality. I know you are going to love it as much as I do. The whole day was captured beautifully by Daniel Ackerley.

Better than we imagined! A lot of hard work behind the scenes but it all came together on the day and was a very special day we want to relive.

Louise and Aaron were married on 23rd June 2018 at The Childerley Barn in Cambridge. ‘It was on the list of registered venues in Cambridge and we wanted to get married on the day. It was the only venue we saw and fell in love. It was down the road from where Aaron’s mum used to live where we hung out a lot when we started dating. We had 80 guests and it took around a year to plan.’

How they met
We met on Bumble the dating app and have been together 3 years (2 years when w got married)

The proposal
Aaron knew I didn’t want to be surprised in a public place with everyone looking so he proposed in our flat with our dog Dusty watching us!

How did you allocate your budget?
We didn’t! We’re both not great with money and it did get out of control especially near the end.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We knew we wanted to spend a decent amount on venue and food. I wanted to save on decoration and do as much as we could ourselves.

How did you choose your photographer?
We knew we wanted someone to make us look cool! Not cheesy. I searched for Cambridge photographers and finally came across Daniel’s work and loved that he’d done a lot of amazing band photography.

The dress
Zetterburg Couture from Heart Aflutter in Hackney. Shoes were just office as you couldn’t see them. My earrings and necklace Aaron had bought me for xmas the year before.

The suit and bridesmaids
Aaron’s suit was from Moss Bros and the bridesmaids dresses were from all different places as they were different floral designs.

Theme or colour scheme
Sort of – pastels and flowers. Basically just very colourful! I didn’t want to be restrained by a colour scheme.

Flowers
There were lots of different ones – I had peonies in my bouquet and on the tables. I had lots of eucalyptus too! I wanted lots of leaves. We had an amazing florist (Elizabeth at Mulberry Flowers) who perfectly match my brief for my flower crown and bouquet – multicoloured and wild looking. For the bridesmaids she made some beautiful crowns from gypsophila and bouquets mainly of leaves and white flowers as their dresses were so colourful. My mum sorted the flowers for the tables which we had and jars and bottles we’d been collecting through out the year.

Decoration
A lot was hand crafted by myself and my mum. I made a “Mr and Mrs Evans” sign that was one of my favourite pieces! I pretty much changed my name just to have that. We had LOADS of brightly coloured bunting handmade by my mum and maid of honour Bec who had come all the way over from Australia.

Food
We decided on a 3 course sit down meal but the Cambridge Dining Co. – I can barely remember it but I know it was delicious and contrary to what I heard about brides on their wedding day I ate it all!

Wedding cake
My mum sorted it with a lady in her village who supplies the cafe with her home made cakes. There were 3 (chocolate, blueberry and lemon and victoria sponge) and the sat on wooden logs of various heights.

Entertainment
We had a DJ who was great! He did the music for the whole day. We sent him a playlist and he took it from there. We also got a giant LOVE sign, dance floor and confetti canon for the first dance. We also had a caricature artist that was really fun for the evening.

Who supplied the stationery?
I designed and made the menus, schedule, table plan etc myself

Personal touches
Pretty much all the decorations! We also had a load of polaroids of mine and Aaron’s life hung from string in the entrance. I made a Photo Booth too! I bought some dress up items and made a little sign and provided selfie sticks. Although to be honest people just put on the fancy dress and wore it around the wedding but that made for some funny photos!

Special moments
When I saw Aaron for the first time walking down the aisle. It was really magical and all my nerves went away. I LOVED the speeches!! I was proud of myself for doing mine as I was so nervous and everyone else’s were so funny but also touching.

Advice for other couples?
Set a budget and try to stick to it! It’s very easy to get carried away. And try not to worry (easier said than done) all the little things I worried about didn’t matter on the day and it just flowed – even when things went wrong like my schedule sign fell off it’s aisle and the frame smashed but someone managed to gaffer tape it back together before I saw!
We had a superstar called Nick who was the venue manger who behind the scenes helped everything run smoothly on the day. I can’t stress how amazing he was! If your venue doesn’t provide this service I advise hiring someone to take the stress away.

Biggest surprise
Aaron surprised me with a gospel choir after the speeches!!