Ciara and Richard’s Picnic Style Barn Wedding in York By James and Lianne

Today we are heading back to the midst of the summer for this gorgeous barn wedding in York and a big dose of sunshine. James and Lianne photographed this gorgeous wedding full of country-style and a picnic theme. With amazing food, a Ceilidh Band, a beautiful BHLDN wedding dress it really is a day to remember and a feast for the eyes. Well done to Ciara and Richard for planning the whole thing from Singapore, what an amazing day you had.

‘Our wedding day was very relaxed and informal with a garden party feel as people sat in the sunshine and chatted over gin and ice cream. From getting ready in the morning to dancing in the ceilidh the whole day was full of fun’

Ciara and Richard were married on 2nd August 2015. The ceremony was at St Lawrence’s Church in York and the reception was at Tithe Barn in Nether Poppleton. ‘As we currently live abroad in Singapore it wasn’t easy for us to choose our wedding venues, but the beautiful church was just up the road from where we used to live! Our wedding in St Lawrence’s was actually a church blessing as we did ‘the legal bit’ in Singapore a few weeks beforehand in a small ceremony with 4 close friends. Getting our marriage blessed in the church was very important to us as we got to share it with all of our special people. We had 80 guests, which was just the right number for the barn venue. The planning process took about 18 months and although stressful at times it was very enjoyable! The internet was our best friend during this time as we had to book everything online or through Skype calls with family, friends and vendors. We never even saw our venue in person before we booked it – just some pictures online.

How they met
We met almost 8 years ago whilst at Leeds Uni on the infamous Otley Run. When I offered to buy Ciara, who was dressed as a sea siren, a drink, she replied “I’ve got a drink thanks, but you can by me a shot if you like.” Pure class.

The Proposal
The proposal was a complete surprise! I had been working in Singapore for 2 months and Rich had just got a job offer out here too. He was due to arrive one Saturday but as I was doing some paperwork at school on Wednesday he turned up completely out of the blue! I was so shocked and very happily surprised. On Friday he took me to the Swissotel in the city. Looking at the night city view, Rich got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was perfect. Rich had put so much thought into it, as he knows cityscapes are my favourite views and of course he chose a beautiful ring.

How did you allocate your budget
Our top priorities when it came to spending were the food and photographs. During the planning our budget ended up growing a bit.

Where did you splurge and where did you save
We splurged on our photographers and are very happy we did so! We also ended up adjusting our budget to allow for a videographer which was a wonderful addition. The dress ended up costing more than we had originally planned on too. In terms of savings we decided to send e-invites, designed our own orders of service and I took a taxi to the church – a huge saving over the cost of a wedding car for a 10 minute journey!

How did you choose your photographer
We found James and Lianne online and felt their approach to photography would fit into our day easily. They were marvellous. Both of them integrated into the party seamlessly and we got so many beautiful picture memories from the day.

The Dress
My dress was by Catherine Deane, via BHLDN. My accessories were from a lovely jewellery shop in York called Palenque – they were my something blue! The shoes were Irregular Choice and actually got more compliments than the dress, I love them!

The Suit and Bridesmaids
The suit was by Hugo Boss, which was a bit of an extravagance as we only went to get inspiration! The bridesmaids chose their own dresses from a pale pink/neutral colour palette.’

Theme or Colour Scheme
We didn’t have a particular colour theme in mind, but as we began choosing suppliers and decorations they came together in a country picnic style.

Flowers
We know nothing about flowers, but Rachel from Ducks and Daffodils put together some beautiful wild flower bouquets and buttonholes for us in a range of seasonal colours.

Decoration
We had a blank canvas to work with in the barn and set it all up the day before with help from friends and family. There were already fairy lights in the rafters so we complimented these with sparkly gold garlands. Susie, our caterer and a Godsend, laid out eco-friendly place settings – even tying the cutlery with ribbon and thyme! We used lemonade cans as vases for centrepieces and a wicker picnic basket for cards. Naming the tables was a last minute dash around York taking photographs of street signs!

Food
Susie from Cobble Kitchen and her team served food from their vintage food van called Marcel (yes, he’s French!). We had a picnic style dinner with guests filling their lunch boxes with sandwiches, pies, salads and more. After the meal Cowlick Creamery served their wonderful ice cream from a bicycle cart in the garden.

Wedding Cake
We had cheese tiers and a selection of cupcakes instead of a traditional cake.

Entertainment
We hired Fiddler’s Wreck Ceilidh Band for an acoustic ceilidh, as there were strict noise rules in the barn. Their fiddler also played during the meal, which was lovely.

The Stationery
We designed our e-invites on Paperless Post and used a free printable to design our orders-of-service

Personal or Handmade Touches
We did everything ourselves, down to choosing and buying the glassware! Having a DIY venue was great as it allowed us to hire any vendors we wanted. However, it was a lot of hard work sourcing everything and setting it all up the day before. That said, we really had everything we wanted on the day.

Special Moments
The readings in the ceremony were particularly special and moving, as we chose pieces personal to us. Relaxing in the garden after the meal and chatting with friends and family was a particular highlight, thank you sunshine! Letting our hair down in the ceilidh was great fun!

Advice to other couples
Invest in capturing the day by choosing excellent photographers and hiring a videographer. Even if you can’t afford one – the video captures the memories in such a different way to the pictures and is well worth it. For brides, take time choosing the dress – I went through 3 choices before settling on the right one. Leave enough time in the day for people to relax together without being ushered to dinner, photos or speeches! It’s a great chance for people to enjoy themselves and for you to catch up with each other and your guests.

Biggest surprise
Sunshine. We were only in the UK for 10 days and it rained for 8 of those. Luckily we had glorious sunshine on the day, which made the day that little bit better (especially for eating ice cream!).

Supplier Shout Outs

• Photographers – www.jamesandlianne.com
• Videographers – www.davespinkphotography.co.uk
• Caterer – www.cobblekitchen.com
• Ice cream – www.thecowlick.com
• Cupcakes – www.sunshinebakeryleeds.co.uk
• Cheese tower – www.love-cheese.co.uk
• Ceilidh Band – www.fiddlerswreck.co.uk
• Flowers – www.ducksanddaffodils.co.uk
• Invites – www.paperlesspost.com
• Venue – www.poppleton.net/tithebarn
• Dress – www.bhldn.com
• Suit – Hugo Boss
• Jewellery – www.palenquejewellery.co.uk
• Glassware – www.wilko.com

For more information on James and Lianne’s work please go to:

www.jamesandlianne.com / FACEBOOK / @jamesandlianne / PINTEREST / I: Jamesplester