A Boho Bride and her Handmade and Quirky, Rustic Autumn Barn Wedding

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Stylish decor alert! Be ready to get pinning inspiration boards everyone, as today I’ve got for you the most quirky and eclectic wedding between a very creative couple, whose mutual love of all things vintage inspired them to set up and run a prop hire company, The Curious Fox Props. Check out their site, it’s fab! Sal, a social worker and Bob, a service manager tied the knot on 13th September 2014 at the brilliant venue York Maze in York. And when I saw these “in the moment” images by Paul Joseph Photography, I instantly felt like I was part of their big day and I’m sure you will too.

“We are quirky people and love vintage and eclectic style. We used a lot of our own pieces of furniture and accessories to create the look on the day. We wanted the day to reflect us as a couple.”

Photography by Paul Joseph Photography

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Sal found her gorgeous boho dress for a right bargain and chose practicality (the ability to dance!) when making her dress decision. Don’t you just love the pretty lacy detail and style?

“I wanted a bohemian style dress that I would be able to dance in! I Ioved the detail on the front of the dress. The dress was Ralph Lauren from ebay for approximately £100. It was ankle length which was perfect for the venue as I didn’t want it trailing on the barn floor! I think it was actually meant to be a night gown/dress and it was cream and completely sheer. I bought a champagne-coloured slip to go underneath which worked really well.”

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Sal paired jewelled sandals from Faith, jewellery from Accessorizeand her maid of honour created her pretty hairstyle, adding dried flowers to complete the look.

“I wore sandals, I’m not normally a heel person and didn’t think my wedding day was a good place to start! The sandals were jewelled and from Faith. I’d recommend wearing your shoes at home to wear them in a bit.”

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

Are you looking for inspiration for evening entertainment for your big day? Sal and Bob organised a load of fun activities for their guests – a chillout area for a music jamming session, a ‘pimp your drink’ stand, firepit, tattoo parlour, and the maze’s very fun bouncy pillow allowed the inner child to come out!  You’ll need to scroll down to see all the fab photographs.

“We chose the venue because it was informal, rustic and quirky and it reflected our style and personalities. It allowed us to decorate however we wanted, to do the wedding however we wanted and to choose exactly what we wanted to eat.

We didn’t hire an event planer as we did it all ourselves but we did find that roping in friends and family was a massive help and we couldn’t have done it without them. Karen from York Maze was brilliant and was always on hand to answer and questions / discuss ideas. She made the whole day run smoothly.”

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

Sal and Bob’s décor is so much fun!  Since their wedding, the couple has set up their own business, The Curious Fox Props, putting their talents together to create vintage hire heaven.

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Paul Joseph Photography captured such wonderful images of the couple’s day of fun, laughs and emotion and as soon as I saw the pics I really felt like I was transported into the middle of their groovy evening shenanigans!

“Paul and Kelly from Paul Joseph Photography were fantastic. They made our guests feel at ease and they blended in with our family and friends. The photographs they took were beautiful and we would highly recommend them if you want pictures that capture moments that you can treasure forever. After the wedding, guests asked how long we had known Paul and Kelly as assumed they were old friends!”

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

Sal and Bob, with help from clever friends and family, gave their wedding a very handmade feel, creating the flowers, stationery, favours and décor themselves. This interaction means that everyone can feel a part of the build up to the couple’s wedding day.

“We used dried flowers, buying them individually and arranged the bouquets/ bunches ourselves with the help of our fantastic maid of honour Laura.”

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“Laura my lovely maid of honour plaited my hair into a fishtail and we used dried flowers from Artisan Dried Flowers which were on hair grips. I used inspiration from their website to create my own table decorations and bouquets.”

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Bob’s outfit came from an assortment of shops. His teal shirt was from House of Fraser, waistcoat from Edinburgh Woollen Mill, trousers from Marks and Spencer, shoes from Matalan and bow tie via DQT England. The best men were Bob’s younger twin brothers Ad and Matt and the groomsman was his best friend Chris.

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Sal’s two maids, Laura and Jen, wore white lacy dresses, together with shoes from Accessorize and look stunning.

“I’m not sure where Laura and Jen bought their dresses from. I gave them an idea of what I wanted which was lace dresses in white/cream about knee length and left them to it. They both looked fantastic!”  

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We met at Spiders nightclub in Hull (rock club) through mutual friends in 2006. We got engaged in July 2012 when Bob proposed in London. We were engaged for just over 2 years when we got married giving us time to plan and save money!”

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

Sal was walked down the aisle by her Dad to the tune of ‘Everlong’ by The Foo Fighters on acoustic guitar, played by Bob’s brother Ad who created his own version of the song. The couple chose silver bands (suppliers unknown) and close friends prepared two readings for the ceremony.

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography 

We had two readings by close friends Becky and Chris. We asked our friends to choose something that would suit us as a couple and only saw the readings when they were submitted to the registrar. Becky read a passage from a song by Staind called ‘Tangled Up In You’ (but changed a couple of the words). Chris wrote a passage himself which was really special to us.”

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“We had a ‘Pimp your Drink’ stand after the ceremony. Everyone had a jam jar with a tag with their name on it and a token for a free shot of alcohol at the bar. There was an assortment of juices in Kilner dispenser jars and fresh fruits to create your perfect tipple.”

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“Bob’s mum Sue who is a superb baker, she baked us a naked wedding cake which was three layers of different flavour sponge decorated with flowers and strawberries.”

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

“The décor was one of the things we were most excited about as we had free reign to decorate the venue however we wanted and from the moment we saw York Maze we knew exactly what we wanted to do. We both have a passion for design and vintage curios and furniture and we used this to our advantage.  We started collecting jam jars, vintage tea pots, cups and saucers, plates, cake stands, vintage jugs from car boot sales, charity shops, vintage boutiques.

We made all our own bunting using fabrics bought from charity shops. Sal’s mum helped to make the bunting which we attached to hessian string. A lot of the decorations we used we already owned, including Bob’s retro penny farthing, vintage suitcases, eclectic mix of chairs for the jam area, green Chesterfield sofa and wing-backed arm chair (these belonged to Bob’s late grandma Lena), old books, retro Pepsi crate and apple crates, and musical instruments.

We hired in festoon lights from Matt at Wedding Venue Lighting Wedding Venue Lighting. We hired large vintage plates and cutlery from Hello Vintage.  We also hired in the chairs for the ceremony and dining from Black event furniture Black Event Furniture.”

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

“We made all of our own menus and programmes using craft card paper and washi tape. We also made place cards for everyone and the table plan was written with glass pens onto an old salvaged wooden window.”

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“We had a firepit made by one of Bob’s old school friends who luckily is a woodsman and brought all the logs as well. We had loads of marshmallows and veggie marshmallows for everyone to toast and supplied pashminas for guests to use to keep warm and to take home.  

We also had a tattoo parlour which Bob made with friend Andy. Jenny (bridesmaid) bought lots of temporary tattoos and pens and by the end of the night some guests had full sleeves!”

 

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

We had a jammin’ area set up with guitars, ukulele, didleybo’s made by Bob and Chris, bongo drums and a harmonica which went down a storm.  My highlights include the rendition of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Tencious D – Tribute.”

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“For the favours we made bowties in tweed fabrics for all the men, for the women we gave candles decorated with washi tape and everyone got their favourite miniature spirit.”

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

York Maze provided the catering for the wedding breakfast and for the evening buffet. Jason explained that we could have virtually anything that we wanted as all food would be cooked in-house by him and his team. We had a BBQ and food was served up on platters for each table to share. This was great because it got everyone talking to each other. For pudding we had doughnuts with all different toppings. The food was amazing and everyone commented on this. In the evening we had a buffet of bread, cheeses and cold meats to soak up the alcohol!”

boho bride, rustic weddings, barn wedding, paul joseph photography

Bob’s side of the family are pudding mad so to keep them happy we asked friends and family to bake bite-sized treats to have after the ceremony to keep everyone going until the main meal this included cookies, cupcakes, vodka jellies and brownies. We displayed these on vintage plates and cake stands.”

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“Our favourite part of the day was the speeches which we did after we had eaten. We were both relaxed and the speeches were funny and emotional.”

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Now, what about this for a first dance idea – a breakdance competition. I love it!

“We didn’t have a first dance but organised a breakdance competition!  No-one can breakdance so we thought this would be funny! Laura’s (maid of honour) brother Steve Purdon designed our breakdance T-shirts which all the competitors wore.  Bob also changed into a dragon onesy. Bob, his brothers Ad and Matt, and friends Chris, Phil and Rich all participated and the songs they ‘danced’ to included ‘Tricky’ by Run DMC, ‘No Sleep Til Brooklyn’ by Beastie Boys and ‘Rappers Delight’ by SugarHill Gang. The photographs taken by Paul and Kelly of the dance-off were amazing!”

Sally + Bob's awesome country rustic wedding at York Maze.

Words of Wedded Wisdom     

1. Be organised.  Do want you want to do (you’ll never please everyone). Ask for help from friends and family.  Get wedding insurance (just in case!)”

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Wow! I’m blown away by the attention to detail with the quirky props, Sal’s stunning bohemian style, the playful venue and how personalised their day was, as shown by Paul Joseph Photography‘s fabulous images. A big thank you to Paul and Kelly and to the happy couple for sharing your day with us.

And don’t forget to check out the couple’s vintage hire business via TwitterPinterest and Facebook – for loads of wedding or party vintage inspo.

Happy browsing!

Love Jo -xxx-

 

Photographer – Paul Joseph Photography
Venue + Catering – York Maze, York
Bride’s Dress – Ralph Lauren found via ebay
Bride’s Shoes – Faith sandals
Bride’s Hair Accessory – Artisan Dried Flowers
Bride’s Jewellery – Accessorize
Bridesmaid’s Dresses – Suppliers unknown
Bridesmaid’s Shoes – Accessorize
Groom – Teal shirt from House of Fraser, waistcoat from Edinburgh Woollen Mill, trousers from Marks and Spencer, shoes from Matalan and bow tie from DQT England
Florist – Flowers designed and purchased by the couple with help from bridesmaid Laura
Decor + Props – Own props by Sal and Bob, festoon lights via Wedding Venue Lighting, large vintage plates and cutlery from Hello Vintage, ceremony and dining chairs from Black event furniture Black Event Furniture
Cake + Treats – Naked cake by Sal’s mum and treats baked by friends
Rings – Suppliers unknown
Stationery – Handmade by Sal and Bob
Makeup – by Sal
Hair – by bridesmaid Laura

 

Jo Singletary

Jo Singletary View all Jo's articles

Jo hails from and lives in sunny Australia, is currently working towards her dream of being a career coach and a few of her favourite things are watching the sunrise over the ocean, morning walks on the beach, butterflies, and supporting the guide dogs charity.

5 thoughts on “A Boho Bride and her Handmade and Quirky, Rustic Autumn Barn Wedding

  1. There are far too many beautiful and clever ideas in this wedding for my liking… I have creative envy!! Where to start on my favourite ideas, there are far too many things I love to list them all! However my top two are – the breakdance-off (with added t-shirts, wow) I want to do this – and the ‘pimp my drink’. I want to do this too. Wish I could pinch this idea…maybe for a party?!

    Congratulations both on looking oh so fabulous and creating such a lovely day xx

  2. I love everything about this wedding- the beautiful golden light in the photographs, that gorgeous dress, the barn and all the amazing decor! Like Katie I adore the ‘Pimp your drink’ idea and will be stealing that for my birthday party…!

    Bow ties as favours? How fantastic! Off to check out The Curious Fox now…

    Sxx

  3. Wow I would never have guessed the original purpose of Sal’s dress! I am loving the fishtail do as well, a firm favourite style of mine too.

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