A Pretty, Relaxed and Rustic Spring Time Barn Wedding

Hey there lovely people 🙂 Seeing as the whole country appears to be experiencing sun today, except us here in Whitby (no, wait, I think it's trying it's hardest to appear from behind the clouds), I needed these blog pages to shine with something bonny and bright. The lovely, rustic barn wedding of Thomas and Helen's took place on 25th May 2013 at the cruck barn, located behind the Craven Arms in Appletreewick.

"We didn’t have a particular theme in mind for the wedding
but with the décor of the cruck barn (behind the Craven Arms in Appletreewick). We knew we needed something rustic
and pretty – nothing formal. We just wanted everybody to have a fun and
relaxed time.

We didn’t have a colour scheme for a long time as we
wanted to avoid formality. However, as we started to pick bridesmaid
dresses, cakes etc our scheme of yellow and sage green started to take
shape."

"We got together whilst we were still at school through
two of our friends. I went on my first holiday away without my family
with my friend Holly. Unknown to me her boyfriend at the time (the best
man) was also on holiday on the same island, Gran Canaria, with his best
mate Thomas. We got on well but it wasn’t until he arrived at my sixth
form in September that we finally went on a date, after a bit of gentle
pushing from our friends as we were both a bit awkward. We stayed
together through university (Helen at Nottingham and Thomas at Chester),
eventually moving in together in Nottingham and then finally moved back
home to Yorkshire in 2011.

After eight years
together, Thomas proposed at the top of Malham Cove as the sun went
down. Unbeknown to me he had been trying to propose for a couple of
weeks and finally after various hold ups including me falling bottom
first into a stream, he got his chance! He got down on one knee and
produced a beautiful family engagement ring. After the Spanish
inquisition and still with a wet coat from falling into the stream I
said yes."

"My dress was a Sottero Midgley design, purchased from The Bridal Boutique in Guiseley. I
wasn’t too keen on having a big traditional wedding dress and whilst a
few 50’s style dresses had taken my fancy when looking at the blogs I
hadn’t seen anything in the magazines that I really loved.

I tried to
keep an open mind when I was looking at dresses and ended up trying over
30 on with my mum and sister in tow. I was tempted by a couple of
fishtail styles (surprisingly slimming!) but finally found my dress at
the bridal boutique in Guiseley."

"I was so happy when I found it and
couldn’t stop swirling around it in the shop. The team were amazing and
really made me feel special. However, once I bought it was a huge worry
until the wedding; is it bridal enough?, is it too white?, should I have
gone for a meringue?, will I have too much shoulder exposed? If it was
possible to worry about it I did. It was so hard not discussing my dress
paranoia with Thomas, as he’s normally the one that keeps my craziness
in check.

On our big day I loved my dress. I felt myself but glamorous
and really enjoyed that I could dance and enjoy myself without being
restricted by my dress."

"Wendy at The Hedgerow in Threshfield was our brilliant florist. She was recommended by the craven arms and
after looking at some of the previous work she had done we knew she
would be perfect. We wanted informal, spring flowers that would work
well with the barn décor. We loved the yellow billy balls she
recommended & the rosemary in the button holes that smelt gorgeous."

"Bridesmaid dresses were probably the biggest challenge. I didn’t
have a colour scheme and didn’t really know what I wanted. We tried
lots of styles on but couldn’t find a style that suited everybody. In
the end I found From This Day Forward,
who could make the dresses as we wanted them. It worked really well
getting them made as it allowed everybody to have a slightly different
style in the same fabric. It was nerve raking as you don’t get to see
the final product until close to the big day but luckily they looked
great and the 50’s style skirts worked really well with my dress.

I got the bridesmaids pearl earrings and bracelets from notonthehighstreet.com as their bridesmaid gifts. Classic and simple."

"Thomas lives in a t-shirt/flannel shirt and jeans
so it was a challenge to get him into a suit. We didn’t want the formal
wedding/morning suit so found a grey 3 piece suit from Reiss for him and
his best man instead. We couldn’t believe our luck when we found the
perfect suit in the sale and the only 2 sizes left that fit perfectly
for him and his best man.

As we had got a discount on the suits Thomas
was able to treat himself to some Grenson wingtip brogues, styled up
with some accent yellow socks."

"As a graphic Designer Thomas created all of our wedding stationery with me as artistic director/brew maker. I had also seen Wedding Tea Towels
in a magazine and loved the idea. After wrapping 60+ tea towels and
wedding information cards with twine and brown paper a simple card did
sound like a better idea but looking back they were definitely worth it
and it’s nice to see them in our friends houses when we pop round."

"We got married at Silsden Methodist church (England), my
family church. We then had the reception at the Craven Arms Cruck Barn,
Appletreewick. When we first starting looking for venues we wanted
somewhere with character and a relaxed atmosphere. We love a good
country pub so when we found the cruck barn hidden behind the Craven Arms in Appletreewick –
it was perfect.

We first visited in January and loved the open fires,
proper ale and high thatched roof of the cruck barn. The food was
amazing so after only visiting one venue we were sold."

"Our
table plan we made from an old chalkboard we found in a vintage shop, a
chalk pen, Thomas’s artistic skills, string and some print outs. I love
the final effect and have now used the blackboard in the kitchen.

The
table numbers were pictures from various trips in the Yorkshire dales,
which Thomas overlaid with a number. We used the corks from the many
celebratory bottles of fizz we had drunk since getting engaged to stand
them up. I miss not having champagne in my fridge permanently now."

"As the barn was so beautiful anyway, with the exposed thatch roof,
we didn’t want to have too much decoration in the barn. However, I did
really enjoy picking out/making pretty things for the venue. My mum made
hessian runners with lace trim for the tables and I had a group of
helpers making bunting, lace jam jars for the flowers/candles and tissue
paper pom poms for in the tepee relaxing area outside. It was fun
making everything but towards the wedding the weight of doing so much
ourselves did create some stress that I probably could have avoided.

We made fruit jam as our favours, again after seeing a similar
thing on a blog. The kitchen (and Thomas) was covered after we had made
70 jars of jam one Sunday afternoon. For the 2 children at our wedding
my mum made some bags out of some spare fabric and I found various toys
in discount stores, which kept them entertained throughout the day."

"My grandma made the fruit cake using the old baking tins she used
to make my mum’s cake. I then had it professionally decorated by Susan
at Cake Couture Wrose.
We kept things quite simple and pretty with an ivory cake with lace and
edible pearl detail. Susan did a wonderful job to tie in with my dress
and décor ideas."

"Our photographer was John Hope.
John was fantastic. The pre-wedding photo shoot he did with us really
put us at ease and ended up being a great day in itself despite the
initial nerves.

He was really open to our ideas and his previous work
was just the documentary style photography we wanted. We wanted the
traditional family photo’s but also wanted to capture the feel of the
day as well. John also did a photo booth in the evening, which I would
definitely recommend. It got everybody involved and are some of the best
pictures we have of our guests."