Sophie & Hal’s Joyful, Colourful & Sustainable DIY Barn Wedding at Low Hall The Lakes

The Dress

ASOS

My dress was by Beauut, via ASOS. I also visited a boutique called ‘Songbird Bridal’ in Keswick who have sadly now closed down as I would have definitely recommended to other brides. They provided me with a really lovely experience and helped me define the styles I was interested in.

I wasn’t too taken by lace or really long flowing material, in fact one of the dresses I loved during my dress try on at Songbird was a beaded 1930’s style flapper dress!

This definitely inspired the dress I chose for the day, which was fairly simple in fit but beaded, and ivory white in colour which I adored.

My bridesmaids dresses were form Warehouse and Little Mistress.

The Ceremony

My dad, Mark, accompanied me into the ceremony, to the sound of an acoustic version of Melt by Jones.

Walking down through the woods with my dad and seeing Hal’s face was pretty special.

Kerrie, of The Birds & The Bees Celebrant Services, officiated our ceremony. We knew we didn’t want a registrar from the off so a celebrant was the perfect choice. Kerrie was absolutely amazing and the ceremony was tailored to us in every way.

She had great suggestions for areas we weren’t sure about, was completely accommodating to all of our requests, and it meant all of the people we wanted to speak & be a part of our ceremony, were. Even got to share a beer during it, and our dog was right by us the whole way through.

We had wanted to have guests sat on hay bales, but the good old British weather didn’t allow for that – so Kerrie suggested having everyone stood around us. It was amazing having all our guests essentially within touching distance and felt so much more intimate.

We both wrote our vows separately and hear them for the first time during the ceremony. We had some soppy lines! But this was one of mine to Hal; “I promise to make back seat driver comments when you’re driving and make comments when you’re cooking even though your cooking is secretly better than mine.”

And Hal’s to me; “I will be a shoulder to laugh on, to cry on, to snuggle up to on a cold winters night and be a shoulder that out children can sit or stand – enabling them to view the world and all the wonders it holds.”

My sister wrote a reading that was based on our sister relationship and special bond, plus a brief summary of mine and Hal’s relationship thus far. It generated a lot of laughter and equal amounts of tears.

Hal’s sisters adapted ‘I wanna grow old with you’ from The Wedding Singer and it was lovely. We hadn’t heard either of the readings before the ceremony so all the sisters had us weeping!

We tied the knot with a traditional hand fasting ceremony – both our mums tied our hands together.

Sophie of Glasswing Jewellery created our rings. Hal had my engagement ring made by her from a piece of see glass, discovered on our favourite beach, where he proposed, so it only felt right to get a matching wedding ring for me, from Sophie too.

The sapphires are sourced from ethical suppliers, the silver and white gold are recycled. We used the box from the engagement ring to carry our wedding rings on the day as even that was constructed from wood, and absolutely beautiful.

Hals’s ring was from Flinn & Steel and made out of Tungsten.

The Reception

Sustainability is super important to us (all our vendors, apart from our DJ, were Cumbria based), so Harriet of Cumberland Flower Farm, living only 25 minutes away from the venue and having such a beautiful selection of UK grown seasonal flowers, meant she was the only choice for us.

We also wanted our wedding to be bright and colourful – we’re both quite loud and outgoing people and wanted the day to reflect that. Also, being a summer wedding, we knew we’d have pick of the crop of colourful flowers so that really helped bring the theme to life.

We didn’t want to go over the top with decoration however – the barn is so lovely in itself, so we just wanted to add a bit of ‘us’ to it. My sister spent most of the day before the wedding making an amazing banner for us, which we will eventually hang in our hallway.

The tablecloths on the top table were from my Granny’s collection, almost all of the vases were borrowed from various family members or generously donated from other friends weddings.

We’re a pretty sustainability aware couple, so wanted no single use anything, and used as much second hand and gifted/thrifted as we could. 

Apart from the bouquets for bridal party & button holes for the grooms party, we opted for DIY buckets, so all of the flowers in the venue were styled by my amazing helpers the day before!

Brief we gave Harriet was bright and colourful, which she absolutely delivered on. Foilage was taken from parents property which included ivy, honeysuckle and eucalyptus. I dried my bouquet after our wedding day – its in our living room in one of the vases from the day.

We used lots of paper balls and reusable bunting to decorate the barn. The willow arch we installed in the woods and decorated with sunflowers, was grown by my parents on their land about 25 minutes away from our venue, and constructed the day before.

The first time I saw it was just me and hal, after we’d almost finished the inside of the venue – we walked down to the woodland area and it was the most lovely surprise. Once we’ve finished our house + garden renovation – the arch will be put up pride of place.  

We shared wildflower seeds in glass vials as ‘favours’, which also doubled as name cards. My parents supplied the seeds and the vials were left over from a work project.

I got really familiar with Canva for our stationery; table plans were hand written by friends helping the day before and menus were designed by me and put into production on one (very long!) night by Hal and I.

Our caterer was Lucy’s On A Plate/Lucy’s of Ambleside. My mother and godmother made a selection of cakes for us including coffee and walnut, Guinness and chocolate and carrot cake.