Emily and Lee's Laid Back Outdoor Devon Wedding by Emma Stoner

Happy Bank Holiday Monday everyone, I hope you are having a good Easter? For those of you lucky enough to have Easter off work, I hope its been a good one for you. Was the Easter bunny kind to you this year? We had to do our Easter egg hunt this morning as we were away for Easter Sunday, so there is still a lot of chocolate going around our house! Today I have this fabulous wedding to share with you. Emily and Lee chose a chilled out farm wedding and it’s absolutely adorable! There is something super relaxed about a farm wedding, maybe it’s all those open fields and animals, but this wedding is oozing character, fun and personality. I just love the outdoor ceremony, the barn decoration looks exquisite and as for the reception, what a party! A fantastic wedding from beginning to end. Big thanks to Emma Stoner for the lovely photos.

A relaxed day in a stunning location, filled with a whole lot of fun! We didn’t want a particularly formal wedding, but having our friends and family around us was so special after years of lockdowns.

Emily and Lee were married on 4^th September 2021 at East Soar Farm, South Devon. ‘We live in South Devon and love spending our weekends walking the South West Coast Path. East Soar Farm is a popular spot for hikers as they run a ‘walkers hut’ where you can pick up tea and cake on route! I couldn’t think of anything more special than having our ceremony in the coastal spot where we enjoy walking together. I also love that East Soar Farm provided bell tents for our guests, so we were able to make it a whole weekend event. We had lots of guests travelling from Gloucester and London, so having a Friday night pre-wedding party really added to our weekend! The venue put on a fantastic Friday night dinner feast for us in one of their walking barns, which created a really lovely relaxed setting for people to get to know each other ahead of the big day. We had 92 day guests plus evening guests. We got engaged the previous June (in the midst of lockdown), so around 14 months before we got the married. Most of our planning was very last minute though, as with all the government restrictions we were expecting to have to move our wedding date to the following year. It wasn’t until the road map for lockdown easing was announced in March time that we actually started most of the planning!’

How they met
We met at university in Bournemouth, we were next door neighbours. We then moved back down to Devon together after university, and have been together for over 9 years.

The proposal
We got engaged in the June of lockdown. Lee took me on a drive to our favourite beach, South Milton Sands, where we regularly go for a drink after work to debrief about our day.

How did you allocate your budget?
The focus for our budget was on everyone having a great time, rather than the more ‘weddingy’ things.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
My one main splurge was a large neon E&L sign for inside the wedding barn – it was a fantastic centre piece and I don’t regret spending the money at all! It now sits above our bed though, and it’s quite a statement for inside a house….

How did you choose your photographer?
We chose Emma Stoner because when I was researching weddings at East Soar, I saw that she had done another wedding there and I loved her images. She has such a relaxed and natural style, and really captures people living in the moment. She took so many fantastic photos on our day of people just laughing, smiling and enjoying being together.

The dress
I got my dress from Lovely Bridal in Honiton. My beaded hair band was only cheap from Etsy, and my shoes were Primark’s finest!! (I’m not great at wearing heels, so just went for shoes I already owned as I knew I could last all day in them!)

The suit and bridesmaids
Suits from Burton, bridesmaid dresses from ASOS.

Theme or colour scheme
We didn’t purposefully chose a colour scheme, but ended up with everything being a nice natural green with hints of pink. It really suited the venue, surrounded in rolling green countryside.

Flowers
Our main bouquets were provided by the very talented Claire Kenyon at Pepperberry flowers. I know nothing about flowers and didn’t know what I wanted, and Clare did such a fantastic job of guiding me through everything and helping me make decisions. For the flowers inside the barn, Claire supplied greenery and the smaller pots of flowers were home grown by my Mum and her friends. The day before our wedding we spent all decorating the barn together and it was actually one of my favourite parts of the weekend, and surprisingly relaxing!

Food
Instead of canapes we had mini boxes of posh chicken nuggets (my favourite) with dips. For our main meal we had a buffet of posh barbecue foods and salads, followed by big sharing pavlovas. In the wedding we had a wood fired pizza van.

Wedding cake
My very creative Mother in Law made our wedding cakes. She did a spectacular job, with a full woodland themed cake table and 4 different cakes!

Entertainment
DJ

Who supplied the stationery
Papier, and some bits made by me

Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We had a mini-moon in Cornwall and were so lucky with the weather. We’re hoping to do a bigger honeymoon to Japan next year, once Covid restrictions allow.

Personal touches
A friend of my Mum’s conducted our ceremony and it was really personal. I also wrote a poem about Lee for the ceremony, which I loved putting together.

Special moments
Seeing everyone together was just so special. My favourite moment was something I hadn’t planned at all, which was when Lee and I walked into the barn with all our guests in – everyone stood and cheered, and I felt instantly so overwhelmed, emotionally and very, very lucky. It was also just a great party – drinking games from the offset, the dance floor was packed, and the shots were flowing.

Advice for other couples
It sounds cliché but it really does just go so fast! Try and pause and enjoy every second. Our day was so special that I sometimes think back and feel like I miss it – I know that sounds strange as it’s just a day, but you spend so much time planning and it’s so much fun, and it’s sad when it’s over!

Biggest surprise
I think the most surprising thing was seeing which people felt most emotional on the day. Some people got quite emotional during the ceremony, and it just felt like a really nice comfortable environment to appreciate each other.