It’s even more gorgeousness from Lucy and Owen’s wedding this morning lovelies, with some especially fabulous portrait shots in both black and white and sun-drenched golden hues.
Lucy is also donning a particularly lovely chiffon shawl for the evening, dreamy.
Oh. And if I was the one about to get wed I would be running to the florist with that bouquet inspiration right now.
Enjoy.
Happy And Gorgeous
Owen wore a TM Lewin navy suit but he was the only one to wear a waistcoat underneath. He looked really happy and just gorgeous really. It was lovely as he turned to watch me as I walked down the aisle with my dad – it’s such a special moment so it was nice for him to be a part of it rather than having to stay facing forward!
Informal, Relaxed And Interesting
Katherine Ashdown was another business mentioned on the information from Chaucer Barn, she was listed amongst a few other photographers. We had a look at the websites for each mentioned and decided that Katherine’s style looked informal, relaxed and interesting so arranged to meet her.
We met for a coffee in Holt in November and Katherine took us through some of her recent wedding photos and we had a good chat about things. After this meeting Owen and I had no hesitation in booking Katherine, she came across as being hard working, creative and fun which what just what we were looking for. She was also an extremely talented photographer.
Part of all of Katherine’s photo packages include an engagement shoot – which on paper we were a bit hesitant about! However we ended up doing this in March on a breezy day in Overstrand and it was fun. We spent a couple of hours with Katherine and she captured some amazing photos which we were really pleased with. We chose our favourite photo which Katherine then made postcards with for the wedding day with details of her website and the login area where our photos would be held. Guests could then take these away with them and look at the photos afterwards.
The wedding photos came through a couple of weeks later and we were thrilled with the results. We had been blessed with fantastic spring weather which made for some stunning light which Katherine really captured in the photos. The detail shots were really special too as these captured the smaller detail of the day.
Project Wedding Cake
My lovely Aunty Liz offered to make our wedding cake which was a very generous offer! She is a very good baker but had never taken on such a big project before. Over the winter she frequently gave me smaller cakes to try (which didn’t help the diet plan!) We ended up having a chocolate sponge tier, a vanilla sponge tier and a fruit tier. Liz also made 2 extra layers of cake which were cut up in the evening on the Saturday.
As we didn’t have a colour scheme I had just said I wanted a simple cake. I sent pictures of my dress and my bridesmaid/flowergirl dresses to Liz which she used to match colour wise. She tea stained the lace which went around the edge of the cakes and we loved the ‘Mr and Mrs’ on the top. The flowers also came from Passion Of Flowers and looked beautiful on top.
The cake was absolutely stunning and delicious – it was just what I wanted. Liz did a wonderful job and we were so very grateful.
Get Into The Groove
We always knew we wanted some live music at the wedding. The venue was perfect as we could have the band in the main room and then anyone who wanted to chat could go into the other lounge areas. We searched the internet and listened to loads of demos and ended up going back time and again to a band called Hula Groove. They are a London based band and are great as they have 3-9 piece options so you can choose the number to suit your venue. We decided to go for the 9 piece which was the right decision – they were super. They played for around 2 hours in 3 sets. They had a great playlist of funky soul classics and some more current tunes. Everyone loved them and there was no space on the dance floor the whole evening!
We struggled to choose this and were torn between 2 songs, We’ve only just begun by the Carpenters v.s You are the sunshine of my Life by Stevie Wonder. In the end we went for the Carpenters, it’s been a song we have listened to a lot over our 11 years together and it also was a family favourite. The band sang this for us and it was beautiful.
Full Of Colour
Chaucer Barn is so full of colour that we decided not to bother with any extra decoration inside. I did buy some great oil cloth from Viva la Frida which my sister in law made bunting with. We tied this up by the entrance and it gave the barn a lovely ‘summer fete’ vibe which was perfect.
We wanted to do something fun with our invites and something different to the norm. A good friend of ours Zamira drew agreed to come up with a few ideas for us. She came up with around 4 different creative routes but the one that really stood out was one telling the story of how Owen and I met. It was an interesting format and was really different to any invite I’d ever seen before. As it was so typographical we were able to purchase a beautiful font to really help bring it alive. Zamira did a fantastic job and is amazingly talented – she managed to capture our story, some humour, romance and beauty and created an invite to be remembered! We also used the same font and creative for the wedding day, we printed the order of events onto an A2 sheet so guests could see what was happening throughout the day and our order of service was in the same design. Zamira can be contacted at mail@zamira.co.uk
We had a lovely local lady offer to do the flowers for the church. She spent hours in the days running up to the wedding putting the arrangements together and they looked stunning. She did a fabulous job.
An Informal Arrangement
When we first visited Chaucer Barn we were unsure of how we would feed people as there was no one space where everyone could sit down unless you had a marquee. We chatted to Andy Parle, a Michelin acclaimed chef, one of the caterers recommended by the venue. He suggested doing stand up bowl food instead. This way people can grab a seat or eat standing up and chat at the same time (guests could choose 3 bowls from 6 choices). We loved this idea and this really helped make our wedding different. The food was fantastic and sourced locally (which was something we were both keen on) and Andy and his team had everything in hand throughout the day. Lots of people said how much they loved the bowl food as they managed to chat to more people as they weren’t tied to a table. It also meant that people could make the most of the wonderful house and garden as the weather was so fine.
The lovely thing about Chaucer Barn is that it is literally a barn you hire for the weekend. This means you have no management team in the barn telling you what to do and when to do it! The caterers, equipment and the band were all brought in off our own back so we could choose to go at our own pace and make our own decisions. This obviously does make for a lot of organisation pre wedding! We also were lucky to have a fantastically good team of friends and family on hand in the run up to help pull everything together. We had the barn for 4 nights and the immediate wedding party all stayed there for the whole time. This was great as we had the nights leading up to the wedding day and the nights afterwards to enjoy it. Andy Parle and his team also fed us on Friday night and Sunday morning which was a real help. The Barn and its beautiful location made for a wonderful wedding weekend.
We also had a free bar which certainly helped make the party go with a bang! We both feel we created an intimate, unique and luxurious wedding which was hopefully memorable to our guests.
Our wedding was on the day after the Royal Wedding. This worked a treat as the already long May bank holiday weekend turned into a 4 day weekend which meant everyone had extra time to get to Norfolk (90% of the guests lived at least 3 hours from Norfolk!). We all watched the Royal Wedding whilst eating cake and drinking tea at the barn – it was a great rehearsal!
Venue – Chaucer Barn
Photographer – Katherine Ashdown
Entertainment – Hula Groove
Catering – Andy Parle
I know. Those portraits are completely wall-worthy.
Loving your look Lucy.
Big Sun-drenched Love
Charlotte xxx
Lucy is so beautiful and the photos are too!
I still can’t stop swooning over the BM dresses and invites!
And the pic of them in the twilight looking meadow..Winner!
Such a lovely day and congrats to you! x
WOW! Those shots of the bride and groom sitting in the field with the sun wrapped around them are some of the best I’ve ever seen – jut gorgeous. Makes me want to don my wedding dress, pick up my husband from work and hotfoot it to the nearest field for a day of fun and frolicking
(rain notwithstanding) xx
Breathtaking portrait shots…so beautiful!!! xxxx
LOVE the photography! The meadow shot is unreal.
Px
Beautiful! Can we see a pic of the cake which is described but not shown (apart from the cake topper) – I’d love to see how the lace looked around the cake as it sounds different to the norm.
Beautiful!
x
Actually in love with the invites! And everything is gorgeous x
It’s all so gorgeous!! Love everything,and the photography is stunning!!! xxxxxxx
I am getting married a week on Saturday, and if my wedding dress, venue and photographs are half as beautiful as these I will be a very happy lady!
Stunning!
WOW….. The first thing that caught my eye about this wedding was the BM dresses. How utterly unique. They look amazing!
Lucy is a beautiful bride and the photos are absolutely spot on.
I am in love with these invitations – who supplied these? Love how they’re so personal!
Hello Lovelies
is it me or is it freezing today? I am sat huddled up in a cardigan like it’s the middle of winter.
I could really do with a sun-drenched field right now!
I’m sure Lucy will be back with answers to your Q’s folks
Charlotte xxx
The invites were done by a friend who did it as a favour for us. She can be contacted on mail@zamira.co.uk.
Katherine should have a picture of the cake she can hopefully supply, or I do have one at home. Let me know!
Thanks once again for all your messages!
What gorgeous photography! And it looks like it was an amazing day, I wish I had been invited!
And those invitations are so lovely, I wish I had thought of them.
Loving the lace dress. I shall be wearing my Pronovias lace gown on Saturday and can’t wait! xx
@ charlotte – it IS ruddy freezing today, i too have busted out the cardi!!
i am seriously in love with Lucy’s make up
and hair
and dress
and bm dresses
and flowers
you get the picture!
mrs r.now x x
Really beautiful dress and love the bridesmaid dresses too. So pretty!
Rachie xo
Okay, she’s RIDICULOUSLY gorgeous, is she actually a real life person?! Actually, she looks a lot like Katherine Heigl…
Wall-worthy and then some! I love this! Peridot’s comment – is she actually a real life person made me chuckle… I couldn’t agree more, Lucy is stunning!
The lens flare on these photos is to die for, I’d have them all on my wall (if I looked anything like Lucy!) as big canvases. Katherine’s photography is gorgeous.
I have to ask why the lady in church has her hand up (near the start)… is she objecting?! Made me smile.
Claire x
Goodness more amazing comments today! Thank you all so much for your lovely words. Lucy is indeed a real person (hard to believe) and the wedding real, although if I had staged it it would not have been so amazing!
Lucy and Owen had book marks to give out to the children in the church, then the vicar had a few left and asked if anyone else would like one and Lucy’s grandma put her hand up! x
Serious case of bridal-beauty-envy right now :-/ How ruddy gorgeous is she???? I see a hint of Jodie Kidd in some shots, but there’s someone else Lucy resembles, just can’t put my finger on it. No doubt it will come to me at some ridiculous time in the wee small hours!
Gorgeous sunset shots – one of my favourite things. Congratulations xx
Beautiful images and a fantastic look. What a great day! Love the lady with her hand up!!
Beautiful photography, I love the card made up with how they met x
Pingback: Wedding Ideas Magazine Feature… « The Katherine Ashdown Blog
Pingback: Love Story Wedding Invitations | SouthBound Bride
I really like this blog because it presents best pictures of marriage. I have been looking for something similar to this for some time already, and finally bumped into your post