Sarah and Peter's Relaxed and Rustic Cheshire Barn Wedding by Jess Yarwood Photographer

Happy Friday everyone and how are you all this fine Friday? Looking forward to the weekend? Do you have any weddings to go to? Or is it a weekend of wedding planning jobs? I may or may not be going away for the weekend. There are 6 of us booked to go to Leamington Spa to celebrate 3 of us turning 50 this year. One friend has Covid so can’t make it, and I am currently waiting on my best friends’ Covid results to let us know if she is negative yet……so watch this space! Until then I have this rustic Cheshire barn wedding to share with you. Sarah and Peter held their wedding at Dove Barn Weddings in Knutsford. The venue meant they could have complete freedom to create the wedding they wanted and all weekend to celebrate. They put together lots of DIY decoration, which made the day even more chilled and relaxed. Jess Yarwood Photographer was there to capture the day for us.

A perfect day shared with everyone we love. It is a day we will cherish and remember forever.

Sarah and Peter were married on 7^th August 2021 at Dove Barn Weddings, Tabley, Knutsford., Cheshire. ‘Perfect location, style and size for us. We were able to decorate the barn however we wanted and we loved that we had access to the venue from the Friday to Sunday which was great to allow us time to setup. The venue only does one wedding a week. We had 100 guests. We booked the venue about 18 months out from the wedding date. We booked our suppliers early on. Majority of the planning was done in the 9-6 months before our wedding day as we were waiting to hear if the wedding could go ahead (due to covid).’

How they met
We met at Newcastle University. I (Sarah) was in my final year and peter was studying for his masters. We have been together for 7 years.

The proposal
Peter proposed on an island in Malaysia whilst on holiday. He proposed after dinner on the beach in Perhentian Islands. It was perfect and not at all expected.

How did you allocate your budget?
Allocated more money for the bits that were important to us and that would last years to come. We googled to try and find estimated/budget costs for each item and we had a spreadsheet to keep track on costs.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
Splurge – Photographer/videographer, flowers, dress/suits – which were important as these were all things we could keep and look back and remember the day in years to come. We made decorations/stationary ourselves where possible to save money.

How did you choose your photographer?
I looked online and on Instagram at various photographers but kept coming back to Jess. Her work is so natural and exactly what we wanted. I loved that she could also offer a videographer to capture the key moments which was one less supplier for us to book.

The dress
I bought my dress from Pretty White Dress in Hale, Cheshire. My dress is by Evie Young. My headband was a present from my bridesmaids from Bouji Bride Company. My shoes were from Dune.

The suit and bridesmaids
Peter and the best mans suits were bespoke from Reiss. The bridesmaids were a mix of dresses from Asos, Ghost and Ted Baker.

Theme or colour scheme
Pink colour scheme with bright flowers. I wanted the wedding to be relaxed and rustic.

Flowers
Protea, craspedia, roses, foliage’s, trailing Amaranthus and wax flower. I wanted unique flowers with lots of foilage and asymmetrical unlike your typical wedding flowers.

Decoration
Flowers were our main decoration. We also had handmade bunting, white table runners, order of the day pallet and various signs.

Food
Canapes as starters, Pie mash & peas for mains and a trio of desserts (cheesecake, brownie and lemon tart) for dessert. In the evening we had a selection of antipasti style food for people to help themselves to.

Wedding cake
Lemon, Vanilla and Salted Caramel – 3 tiers

Entertainment
Band – Ell and Ali. We had a band for the whole day. They played as we walked down the aisle, after the ceremony, during drinks reception first dance and in the evening.

Who supplied the stationery?
I made it myself (Sarah)

Where are you going on your honeymoon?
We want to go to South Africa on safari and then for a beach break. We hope to go in the summer now that Covid rules have relaxed

Personal touches
Most of the decorations we made ourselves. We had a table to remember people who have passed so they could be with us on the day. Instead of a guestbook we had a polaroid camera station where guests took pictures and signed which was a fun way to remember the day. We also did a game of bingo after the speeches instead of giving favours and used that budget to buy fewer bigger prizes. It got the guests talking and mingling (top prize was a cardboard cut-out of Peter!)

Special moments
Peters uncle Andy wrote a poem which he read during the ceremony – it was something different and relevant to Peter and I (Sarah), it was good fun. We were both really pleased everyone could be with us on the day to celebrate, especially Peters grandparents who are over 90 years old.

Advice for other couples
Make a budget and write the guestlist before booking a venue, then you can target your search to venues in budget and with the right capacity. Think about doing speeches before the meal so that those giving the speeches can relax and enjoy it.

Biggest surprise
There wasn’t really any surprises as we had planned everything ourselves. The speeches were great and we both really enjoyed listening to them.