A Homemade and Colourful Wild Meadow Summer Wedding

Well good morning lovely ones! Can't quite believe its 9th December already. Sixteen days until Christmas – yikes! There will be many of you right now however thinking a little further afield to next Summer as you plan your June, July and August weddings and for those of you who are, we hope that Sam and Sam's wedding here offers some inspiration.

Sam and Sam tied the knot on 14th August at Chaucer Barn in Norfolk. I love the sutble colourful nature of these images and that the couple were blessed with such wonderful sunshine for their very pretty and charming outdoor wedding. Bride Sam is a zoo keeper who says she has always loved nature and the outdoors – these lovely and uplifting wedding photographs were sent in by Norfolk wedding photographer, Katherine Ashdown.

"I wanted the day to be outside as much as possible, which is why Chaucer Barn was such an important choice. We both wanted the day to be as colourful, relaxed and comfortable for everyone as possible.

The whole day was so magical and perfect, but one of the best moments was straight after our dance. Sam and I took a bottle of champagne and a couple of glasses outside to enjoy our first real drink of the day (I couldn’t drink before the dance). The garden was lit up with hundreds of fairy lights and candles. We snuggled up under the stars on one of the hay bale sofas and toasted to being husband and wife."

"Sam and I met online. We were chatting for around four months before our first date. We hit it off straight away and I knew that Sam was special and that I wanted him in my life. I moved in with him within a few months and we were together for about four years before Sam proposed. We got engaged in April 2012. We spent all morning fixing some LED lights in our Campervan. As a reward for helping he took me out for a fancy lunch and a walk on Hampstead Heath.

As we were walking I saw a beautiful tree and suggested we climb it. As we were sat high in the branches Sam produced a ring and proposed. I nearly fell out the tree! He did of course get down on one knee once we were safely back down on the ground."

"I found Chaucer Barn online and liked the idea of being able to stay the night before and after the wedding with friends and family. This gave us the opportunity to set up together and then chill out together the next day. I went to visit the barn with my mum and instantly fell in love with it, but the gardens are what really sold it for me.

We wanted to have our ceremony outside and once we saw the willow arch by the wild meadow I knew this is where I saw our special moment taking place."

"I made the majority of the décor for the wedding myself – this was partly to save money and partly because I wanted the day to reflect Sam and I. I made giant paper pompoms in lots of different colours and hung these in the banqueting hall. I used hula-hoops covered in ribbon to suspend multi-coloured butterflies I had made from card and translucent papers. Again these were hung from the ceiling of the banqueting hall."

"My sister made the bunting which we hung in the garden and in the marquee. I also had hula-hoops covered in ribbon with different coloured ribbons suspended from them. These were hung outside from the trees. I made lots of different coloured wool pompoms and strung them together with fishing wire and hung these around the building and in the trees."

"My dress was from London Bridal Couture and was a Mikaella design. It was a strapless dress and the wonderful Tina at the store did an amazing job of adding the keyhole back and sleeves. I loved the scalloped hem to the dress. I also felt it flattered my shape and had the lace overlay which I knew I wanted from the beginning. The shop was very helpful in accommodating the adjustments I wanted to make and made everything seem possible."

"I found our florist Bramble & Berry online – I wanted the flowers to be lots of different colours and sizes and to be mainly wild flowers. We drove to meet Sarah and tell her our ideas. She took them all in her stride and did such an amazing job.

Sarah added her flowers to the willow arch, marquee pole, stair banister and gave us buckets of flowers to fill the small glass vases I had been collecting over the months. The bouquets contained a huge array of flowers and herbs and smelt wonderful. The flowers were such a special part of our day."

"Sam got his suit on a Groupon offer. It was a tailored suit from a store on Savile row. His tie was from Dessy and was in Regalia like the bridesmaids dresses. His buttonhole flower was also made by Bramble & Berry.

As a gift I brought him a pair of cufflinks, again from notonthehighstreet.com – I chose the tree design as we used it throughout the wedding as a nod to how Sam proposed to me. I had them engraved on the back with the date of the wedding,"

"My bridesmaid Sadie, Sam’s sister, was eight months pregnant at the time and this proved problematic. I wanted to the girls to look similar, but be comfortable and happy in what they wore. I didn’t originally what to get the dresses from a bridesmaid shop as I feel the dresses can be too over the top. However with the pregnancy we struggled to find dresses on the high street that both girls could wear. In the end we succumbed and went to Reflections Bridal, through which we found a couple of dresses that the shop were happy to adjust to look similar.

Sadie had an Alfred Sung maternity dress, and my sister Catherine wore an Dessy design – both dresses were in Regalia colour. The girls also had fresh flowers from Bramble & Berry.

The girls wore flip flops from Dessy which matched the colour of their dresses."

"For favours I made a variety of different jams and curds and used these jars for them. I also had butterfly shaped papers with wildflower seeds embedded in them. We had bubbles too, decorated with ribbon around for people to play with."

"We used Expresso Catering for our afternoon tea - they also supplied all the antique crockery and worked really hard to make sure we had everything just the way we wanted it and surpassed our expectations. They also supplied the salads and pavlovas for during and after the hog roast.
The hog roast was supplied by H.V. Graves. They were very efficient and helpful and everyone commented on the quality.

My Mum made the cake. The bottom was carrot, the middle chocolate and the top was a fresh fruit cake. Carrot is my favourite, the chocolate was for Sam and the fruit a modern take on the traditional wedding cake. My brother made the cake stand. He carved a traditional love knot on one level, an eternity knot on the next and a carving of the tree he designed for our wedding invitations on the other."

"We made butterfly shaped cards for people to write messages to us on. These were then tied to a small wooden tree using ribbon. We are going to use the butterflies as a boarder around a photo from the wedding.

We used solar powered white tea lights in the topiary trees in the garden for the evening. We also had 100 paper bag tea lights around the gardens. We hung heart shaped tea-light holders from hobby craft, in the trees."

"Our photographer was Katherine Ashdown. She was recommended to me by my florist Bramble and Berry. After looking through her website I fell in love with her style of photography and her use of nature in her photos. As nature is so important to me and I wanted the great outdoors to feature heavily in our wedding I felt confident that Katherine would be able to capture our day.

On the day she fitted in perfectly and made everyone feel at ease. Sam was not looking forward to having his photo taken, but was smiling throughout thanks to Kathy’s relaxed yet professional attitude."