A Pretty Pale Blue Summer Country Barn Wedding

wpid372770 Sarah Smart Illustrator rustic barn wedding 63

Good morning lovelies, we’ve a day packed with beautiful wedding inspiration for you this fine Friday and we’d like to commence the proceedings by blogging the loveliest of sweet Summer weddings sent in by photographer Laura Babb.

Sarah Smart, an incredibly talented Illustrator, tied the knot with Architect Arthur on 26 July this year with wedding ceremony at Service-Felsted Church, the village Sarah spent her childhood, followed by a reception and celebration at Cressing Temple Barns.

Photography by Babb Photo

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“We knew we wanted something laid back, and not too formal that still had the ‘wow’ factor. We looked at a few locations but Cressing Temple was not only stunning, but such a blank canvas to do what we wanted.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

I love filling our blog with pretty pale blue, it’s a life-long fave colour of mine.

“It’s also steeped in history too which we felt really added something. We both grew up around countryside and our theme just felt right for us.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“We had lots of cornflower blue colours with lots of Yorkshire white roses (a nod to our northern roots) and thistles (a nod to the country feel we wanted).”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography“Our photographer was Laura Babb, who was professional from start to finish.  Laura is full of energy which comes across in her pictures. She really captured the story and happiness of our day. After meeting her, we trusted her explicitly and we were very glad we had her!”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

Being a brilliantly gifted illustrator, Sarah produced all of the stationery and paper products herself.

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“I was choosing between this Jenny Packham dress and a more classic dress but I could DANCE in this dress! This was also the one dress that stuck in my mind the most afterwards so I went back with my Mum and sister to buy it. I love that it is a little bohemian, with a vintage feel. I felt really special in it.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“I wore a fresh wild rose flower and country thistle hair garland by our florists, Flirtations Flowers.” 

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“Arthur and I met in a bar and we had been together three years before he proposed-which was a complete surprise! He took me to our favourite spot in Epping Forest overlooking London for a picnic on a boiling hot day.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“My dad walked me down the aisle to the sound of the CK Gospel Choir singing Van Morrison’s version of ‘Crazy Love’.

We got married in a church so we had the traditional vows but we added our own little stamp at the end so make it more personal to us.”

 

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“Arthurs Grandmother was a soprano so we had the Gospel Choir sing ‘Ave Maria’ whilst we signed our vows which was really moving. They then ended on ‘Lifting me Higher’ with all our guests clapping along!”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“Our flowers were by Fleurtations Florist in Braintree. Yolande was lovely! I had a strong picture of how I wanted the flowers in my head and she captured this-and then some!”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“Arthur’s Grandad wrote poems so his best friend read out one of his poems. We hadn’t told his Grandma so it was a lovely surprise! My Dad had always wanted to do a reading at my wedding so he read ‘Corinthians 13, verses 1-13’.

My ring was from an antique shop we found in Hatton Garden. It’s from the fifties – I loved it instantly and it fitted perfectly so we took that as a sign! Arthur’s ring was from Ruberg (which is where he got my engagement ring from!) as he loved the simple Danish design.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“We walked back down the aisle to The Housemartins ‘Caravan Of Love’ – this was a nod to the band being from Hull which is where Arthur and his family are from. The vicar managed to get everyone standing as they sang ‘stand up’-that was pretty amazing as we walked back down!”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“The whole wedding ceremony was our favourite part of the day – that feeling of walking down the aisle as Mr and Mrs with the gospel choir singing and through our friends and family.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography2015-07-24_0064A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“We had ‘happy tears’ hankies I made from some old material.  The welcome sign in the church was my Grandmother’s blackboard that said ‘Pick A Seat, Not A Side’ and I painted old crate wood for signs such as ‘Order Of The Day’ and ‘Welcome To Our Wedding’ etc.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

Cressing Temple Barns are local and set in the most beautiful historic grounds. We had free reign to do what we liked there which we loved – we didn’t want any kind of ‘wedding package’.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“I made a lot of the decorations myself, which included over 40 metres of bunting.  My bridesmaids made over 100 cranes that we hung from fishing wire – we saved jars for months and had them as lemonade glasses.  We saved (and drunk!) Hendricks gin bottles for table decorations for our table names.  I also printed the songs we had played during our service onto card and put petals in them for confetti cones.

As we had saved all the jars that the table flowers were in, we asked guests to take away a jar each as a ‘favour’, so they didn’t go to waste.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“We had illustrated bunting behind the top table. We hung everyone’s names from string for the seating plan, weighed down by brown bottles we had saved and put flowers from the garden in them. We also had a family tree in the garden hanging by photo frames in an arbour in the walled gardens-which family members loved!”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“Scrumpy Felsted*, a local catering company in the heart of the village I grew up in, supplied all our catering. She was AMAZING! I kept throwing ideas at her she’d never heard of but she took it as a challenge and loved all the creativity.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“My bridesmaid Louie made all the cupcakes. We were lucky enough to have many a trial and we the flavours we had were lemon curd, white chocolate and raspberry and lavender and honey. She made all the little flag details herself.  The top Victoria sponge cake was made by my Mum (trialled and tested many a time!) and the cake topper was an illustration I did of me and Arthur.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Don’t get caught up in small things and don’t be afraid to delegate. You get a feel for those that want to be involved more in your day and those who take a step back so don’t be afraid to give more to those who put their hands up!

If something is too expensive then think twice about how much you need it and can you afford it-although I think ‘you get what you pay for’ when it comes to weddings.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb PhotographyA pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

“Try and do as much DIY as you can if you’re creative and if not, don’t be afraid to ask for help. And make it fun- enjoy it! It shouldn’t be a chore.

And just take time to yourselves on the day itself to let everything sink in.”

A pretty pale blue summer Barn wedding. The bride wears Jenny Packham and a floral crown. Image by Babb Photography

What an absolutely beautiful and incredibly elegant wedding – Sarah, you’re glowing with happiness and love, and I’m so delighted that we have the privilege of sharing your wonderful handmade wedding with our readers today – thank you so much.

Thank also to photographer Laura of Babb Photo for once again allowing us to share her beautiful work. You can see more from London based Babb Photo on Love My Dress here.

Love Annabel x

 

Photographer – Babb Photo
Venue – Cressing Temple Barns
Wedding Dress – Jenny Packham
Bride’s Veil – borrowed
Headpiece – fresh flowers by Flirtations Flowers
Bride’s Shoes – Hobbs
Accessories – Jenny Packham earrings
Perfume – Miller Harris, La Pluie
Grooms Suit – Beggars Run suit + Paul Smith pocket square + Grenson shoes
Bridesmaids – Coast + hair accessories by Flirtations Flowers
Flowers – Fleurtations Florist in Braintree
Transport – Suffolk Wedding Cars (no website) + Vintage Jaguar (email [email protected])
Entertainment – CK Gospel Choir
Catering – Scrumpy Felsted* (no website)
Stationery – Sarah Smart (the bride!)
Hair and make-up Artist – 64 Hair & Beauty

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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