Jemma and Jamie’s Sunny Countryside Barn Wedding. By Paul Underhill

Todays wedding has lots of the things that I love most about weddings 1) sunshine 2) an outdoor ceremony 3) a gorgeous venue 4) a very happy couple! Put them all together in a big wedding pot and out comes a super pretty and relaxed wedding day! Jemma and Jamie chose Kingston Country Courtyard for their big day and they were blessed with amazing sunshine. Having the wedding ceremony and reception all in once place, as well as accommodation for their wedding guests made the whole day much more personal. Add in flowers chosen for their meanings as well as not one but four bands, this wedding not only has lots of meaning but it also rocks! Thanks to  Paul Underhill for the gorgeous photos.

‘A perfectly laid back countryside day of glorious sunshine, great friends and family, good food, amazing music and non-stop dancing! We couldn’t have hoped for more.’

Jemma and Jamie were married on the 22nd August at Kingston Country Courtyard, Corfe Castle. ‘At Kingston Country Courtyard you are able to have the ceremony, reception and accommodation all in one venue which we were very keen to do as we did not want guests having to travel around. Kingston itself is a stunning location with amazing views and a beautiful 18th century barn. It made our day really special to both be able to get ready there with our friends and family around us the whole time and the day flowed really nicely from one part to the next. It was all the more fun that the majority of our guests stayed at the venue overnight so the following day we were able to get up with everyone and enjoy a full English breakfast (and our hangovers) together! We had 70 guests and the wedding took 5 months to plan’

How they met
Jamie was playing in a local band with my cousin Jack (the best man) so I would go and watch them play and then go out and drink with them afterwards! One thing led to another and we have now been together for 3 years.

The proposal
Jamie proposed while we were walking our 4 month old puppy at Maiden Castle in Dorchester. Maiden Castle is an Iron Age hill fort and from the top of it you can see across the whole town. Jamie proposed at the top of the hill at dusk.

How did you allocate your budget?
We were very strict with our budget spending most of it on the big things like the venue, photographer and food and drink. Everything else we tried to home make to keep costs low.

Why did you choose your photographer?
He photographed my bridesmaid Roxy’s wedding in 2012 and we absolutely loved the photos and the style of photography. We wanted very natural photos and felt that he was very unobtrusive and yet managed to capture every little moment.

The dress
The dress was by Alfred Angelo and the shoes were Anne Michelle. The only other accessories were a silver brooch that belongs to my mother which I wore in my hair and a pair of sapphire earrings that Jamie bought for me.

The suit and bridesmaids
The suit was vintage 1970’s accessorised with a vintage pocket watch which was my wedding present to Jamie and the bridesmaid dress was from Coast.

Theme or colour scheme
We didn’t have any theme or colour scheme.

Decoration
We had very minimal decoration – just flowers and candles.

Flowers
All of the flowers were chosen based on their meanings. We had sweet peas (delicate pleasures) for the centerpieces, ivy (fidelity) wrapped around the candelabras and a sprig of rosemary (remembrance) at each place setting. The bridemaids bouquet was freesias (lasting friendship) and the brides bouquet was freesia (lasting friendship), alstroemeria (devotion), lisianthus (appreciation), eucalyptus (spirituality), gypsophilia (everlasting love), phlox (our souls are united), peach roses (confidentiality, love, passion) veronica (fidelity) and alchemilla mollis (love always).

Food
A home made ploughman’s buffet of bread, cheeses, meats, pork pies and quiches with salads, pickled onions, chutneys and apples followed by Purbeck ice-cream in waffle cones served from an ice-cream trike out in the courtyard. In the evening we used a local company called Kingsbere Kitchens who served locally produced burgers and hotdogs from a burger van in the courtyard.

Wedding Cake
The cake was a chocolate sponge cake with butter cream icing and the only decoration was a string of bunting on the top tier.

Entertainment
We had a lot of live music! Many of our friends are musicians and were kind enough to play at our wedding so the live music started in the courtyard while we had ice cream and continued throughout the day with Jamie himself playing with 3 different bands! We finished the night with our favourite local band The Amy Mayes Band who we had both agreed we would want playing at our wedding the very first time that we saw them together.

Buy or DIY your Stationery?
A friend of ours who couldn’t make it to the wedding designed our invites and we made the table numbers, table plans and place settings.

Handmade or personal touches
Our friends and family grew all of the sweet peas and my mum and I spent the day before putting all the flowers into the vases and jam jars that I had collected. The buffet was handmade by Jamie and the quiches were made by Roxy the bridesmaid and my sister Emily. The table numbers were chosen by us to represent our lives together eg, 1057 was the number of days we had been together when we got married. All of the flowers were chosen by the florist and I based on their meanings.

Special moments or highlights
The first dance was the biggest highlight. We had 2 songs mixed together, the first being Guillemots “Made up love song 43” which then faded into The Prodigy “Out of space” at which point our friends flooded the dance floor which was just amazing.

Biggest surprise
The best mans speech! I won’t go into too much detail but he was heard to say beforehand “Jemma will either laugh or walk out and never speak to me again!” – luckily I laughed!

Advice for other couples
Its easy to say don’t stress but in reality it is a really stressful time so what we would say is don’t let the stress of it take the enjoyment out of it – as long as you finish the day as a married couple nothing else really matters and in a few years time even something that seems really disastrous on the day will just be a funny memory!

Supplier Shout Outs:

• Flowers by Leanne Poole Floristry Designs contactable on 07759 220384.
• Evening food was by Kingsbere Kitchens –Facebook page
• Wedding cake by Blissfully Vintage –www.blissfullyvintage.com
• Venue –www.kingstoncountrycourtyard.com/
• Photography by Paul Underhill –www.paulunderhill.com
• Bands –Vanilla radio www.vanillaradio.co.uk,  Ansell & Gretel www.ansellandgretel.co.uk ,  Howling at the Moon www.hatm.co.uk , The Amy Mayes Band www.amymayes.co.uk

For more information on Paul’s work go to:

www.paulunderhill.com
www.paulunderhill.com/blog/
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