A Handmade Dress For A Colourful Rustic Spring Barn Wedding

It’s a beautiful Friday and the weekend wind down starts here. Did you catch our proposal story this morning? Our new Friday morning feature shows the beginning of the journey we see in our real wedding features and I love that our readers are embracing it – we’ve been inundated with proposal stories – if you’d like to share your own, you can do so here. Now for the lovely Tom and Lauren, childhood sweethearts, they went their separate ways but found each other again a number of years later and finally tied the knot on Saturday the 16th of April 2016 after a nine month engagement. The couple chose The Great Barn in Rolvenden, Kent as their venue as they loved the rustic, countryside charm of it but also that it was a blank canvas and they really put their stamp on it.

The colourful flowers are absolutely stunning, there’s a ‘Pimp Your Prosecco’ bar and they set up a seating area with comfy armchairs and hay bales and the fabulous Emma of ELS Photography was on hand to capture it beautifully. Also, I know you will be swooning over Lauren’s dress all the way down the post, it is in fact a one-off made by a very clever friend. What a lucky lady.

“We met at secondary school, dated for a few years, had a fling in our 20’s and started something more ‘grown up’ a couple of years ago. We were engaged for nine months – long enough to grow a human, so long enough to plan a wedding. We wanted to encapsulate spring in an organic, unfussy setting full of earthy, natural beauty.”

Lauren was able to rely on her very talented friend Caz Wright to bring her dress idea to life, and the result is really stunning. I love the gold bead detailing and beautiful lace bodice. Sally at Floral Studio made the gypsophila grip holding the veil in place.

“Caz made my dress from scratch based on trial and error, and using lace trim sourced from Portobello Road’s Antique Arcade. Based on my original idea, she drew a sketch, sewed a lining template that we tweaked and played with until it was perfect. Caz also made the veil using the same beads as on the dress.”

Lauren had her hair done at CL2 in Cranbrook and did her own make-up. As a nod to the first time she dated Tom from 1999-2001, she wore Chanel’s Allure perfume. Her mum lent her a gorgeous Tiffany & Co. necklace which she teamed with her own bracelet and a pair of Swarovski earrings.

The bride wore bright pink Ted Baker sandals before changing into a floral pair of Hunter wellies for photographs around the farm.

Groom Tom looks dashing in his light grey 3-piece suit from DKNY and gorgeous floral tie and pocket square by Sun London. His best man wore his own suit with a tie and pocket square also from Sun London to match Tom.

Lauren was walked down the aisle by her dad Len to ‘Between Two Lungs’ by Florence and the Machine. The couple chose an extract from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and poem ‘I Carry Your Heart’ by EE Cummings to be read during the ceremony, two readings which touched them (and made them cry). Their school friend Jenny also wrote a poem which was personal to them.

Lauren chose an eternity shaped ring to match her stunning 1920’s engagement ring and Tom opted for a plain platinum band, both from Grains of Gold in Brighton.

Lauren and Tom chose Emma of ELS Photography to capture their beautiful day. I just love the range of images that really give you a feel for the different parts of the day, the couple’s overwhelming emotions during their ceremony, the gorgeous photos of them sitting and chatting with their families at the ‘Pimp Your Prosecco’ bar and that amazingly colourful confetti shot.

“Emma captures people and moments brilliantly, made us feel really comfortable and we barely noticed her zipping around the room taking pictures on our wedding day.”

I absolutely adore the flowers in this wedding. Sally and her mum from Floral Studio put them together using bright flashes of vibrant reds, purples and pinks that really pop. They really do look like they have been scooped up from a spring meadow that morning.

As well as catering the wedding, Home Gurr’own provided lighting for the barn and designed the stationery. Lauren and Tom then collected various candle sticks, doilies and table cloths from charity shops and added lace table runners from H&M to really put their stamp on the barn.

 

The couple had the great idea of asking each of their five siblings to make their favourite cakes which were then served with tea and coffee like a vintage tea party while the band was playing.

“The best part of the day, apart from marrying our childhood sweethearts, was taking a step back and watching all our favourite people in one place secretly through a window.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“Enjoy the planning but try not to fret over the small things. As soon as the ‘big day’ arrives your attention will be on things that matter. We intentionally went for a ‘rough and rustic’ style over something more polished as apart from being truer to ourselves, it also meant that any short falls on the day would be easily disguised.”

I love Lauren’s words of wisdom, it can be so easy to get swept up in making everything perfect but sticking to your own style always works. Thank you so much guys for allowing us to share your day with our readers. Thanks also to the fabulous Emma for the gorgeous images.

Love Caoimhe xx