Pinks and Lilacs Handmade Rustic Barn Wedding By Toast of Leeds: Boho Weddings

Today I am delighted to have a wedding from my good friend Shelly from Toast of Leeds to share with you. To make it even better the wedding takes place in one of my favourite venue’s East Riddlesden Hall who happen to be one of our lovely sponsors. The couple, Kate and Nathan are absolutely stunning and both look totally gorgeous, so much so that you’d be forgiven to think that this was actually a styled shoot. The rustic barn wedding is just lovely, with lots of handmade projects that not only look amazing but also helped to keep the costs down, mixed in with some beautiful rustic detailing making this wedding a real feast for the eyes. Enjoy!

‘Our wedding day was the best day of our lives spent with the best family and friends we could have asked for, celebrating two people’s sheer love and devotion for each other.’

National Trust wedding Yorkshire by Toast Photography

Kate and Nathan were married on 20th September 2014 at East Riddlesden Hall. ‘Nathan and I were in Australian when he proposed. Knowing that I wanted to get married in a barn, I immediately started to research (google) barns in and around Leeds and East Riddlesden Hall instantly caught my eye. It was actually due to this blog and Shelly’s photographs that I really fell in love with the venue and knew that it was where I had to get married. We had a total of 65 guests. We got engaged in June 2013 but we were in Australian, my mum, sister and best friend began organising some things before we got back but we didn’t return home until the 22nd December. I think my mum was a bit nervous about how laid back I was and bought me a beautiful wedding planner from Paperchase for Christmas and then didn’t stop badgering me for the following few weeks until something was in it so I had a good 9 months from January to September to plan.’

How they met
When I was 18 I worked in a clothes store part-time while I was at college. Nathan handed in his CV (which he claims only to have done after seeing me on the till) and got the job. We didn’t often work the same shifts but after a few months he started dropping hints about going on dates. We had been together 5 years when he proposed and 6 by the time we got married.

The Proposal
We got engaged in Australia on my 24th birthday. He proposed in the morning in bed and then we spent the day celebrating along the harbour.

How did you choose your photographer
The photographer was probably the first thing I was really sure about. I saw photographs that she had taken on this blog and knew I had to have Shelly photograph my wedding.

The Dress
I got my dress on ebay for £99. It was a long shot but I figured if it didn’t work out I’d start again (knowing it could be returned). I went to a wedding in Australia, the bride had mentioned a fantastic Israeli designer (Imbal Dror) there’s a shop in London that sells them for about £8000 so with that off the cards I turned to ebay, I sent my measurements off and hoped for the best. When it came it was a bit big so I took it to a great seamstress in Pontefract my Aunt had recommended and £30 later I had the perfect wedding dress. Too simple to be true – right. The shoes were from Next – a nice Jimmy Choo look-a-like. Veil from BHS it had to be floor length.

The Suit and Bridesmaids
Suit was Red Herring at Debenhams. Bridesmaids dresses were from Coast (last 2 right sizes in the sale – it was meant to be)

Theme or Colour Scheme
With it being in a barn the theme was just that really – a rustic theme. Originally I wanted dusty pink but I was quite relaxed and was just planning on tailoring it around the bridesmaids dresses the bridesmaid dresses ended up being dusty lilac and so we went for pinks and lilacs.

Flowers
I had an assortment of flowers but my bouquets were antique lilac roses. I originally wanted peonies but they are incredibly expensive and hard to get in season I actually think the roses worked better. My Aunt got a business card for the wholesale florist in Leeds. We got up really early Thursday morning (2 days before the wedding) and chose £150 worth of flowers. On Friday Lesley (Nathan’s mum) and nan created the bouquets and button holes and incredibly she set up all the flowers at the venue the morning of the wedding.

Decoration
I made bunting for the beams in the barn from lace and cotton using my cousin’s sewing machine. I collected jars and decorated them with lace for the flowers and to use as candle holders. I bought lanterns which Lesley (Nath’s mum) painted white. I gained (from some generous people) crates and stepladders and painted them white using chalk paint which we used as decoration for the alter and displaying seating plan. Me and my best friend (Alex) spent a lot of our summer baking my wedding cake I wanted a naked cake and decided I could give it ago myself I had the odd hiccup but once we teamed up and got into a routine we just baked cake after cake after cake and froze them (I followed good housekeeping’s naked cake recipe to a t). My bridesmaid Jodie (graphic designer) made all the stationary for our wedding including invitations and table names, which were places we’d been with photos of us there.
My Aunt made some delicious iced ginger biscuits as favours which doubled up as place names. As a guest book a had pictures from our engagement shoot printed quite big and bought some ikea frames and got people to sign the border inside the frame.

Food
GFS did our catering and were accommodating from start to finish absolutely amazing. We had Red Onion and Goat’s cheese tart for starters, Hog Roast and Vanilla Cheesecake it was delicious.

Entertainment
We hired a DJ from Jonny Ross music my only wish is that I’d have had enough money in the budget to get a band but the DJ was fantastic and everyone had an incredible time.

Personal or Handmade Touches
Possibly the most personal touch however was my dad’s pocket watch which was wrapped around the stems of my bouquet. My dad had died a year and a half previous. The pocket watch was one of his favourite items. My best friend (bridesmaid Jodie) told me about a similar idea she’d seen in OK magazine and then I knew exactly how I would make it work for me.

Special Moments
Speeches, speeches, speeches! I stand by the fact that my mum who performed (mother of the bride speech) and Jordan (best man) had the best time of their life (possibly an even better time than us and that’s saying something).
Everyone up on the dance floor – shoes off, beaming with sweat, lots of fun.
Singing ‘All you need is love’ – The Beatles during the ceremony definitely added a lovely touch to a formal situation.

Advice to other couples
My personal advice would be enjoy it. I tried my hardest to be laid back (I’m a pretty laid back person anyway but also very organised – if you can be both) and even I in the final week found it very hard to relax (I started grinding my teeth in my sleep). I did a lot myself and I wouldn’t change that but in doing a lot I piled on the pressure. You can spend a lot of time worrying about how things are going to go on the day BUT what will be will be and ultimately it is the people that make it.

Biggest surprise
The weather actually doesn’t matter! It was overcast and grey it drizzled a bit. I’m a big sunshine person but I genuinely did not care. My dress was muddy and ruined but it was my day and I wouldn’t change it.
Both me and Nathan are not nervous people or worriers but we were bricking it at the altar. I actually thought I was just going to fall flat backwards.
The massive headache I got from laughing so much at the speeches right in the temples.