Kate & Boyd

Ohhh how lovely is it to see some sunflowers?! They just look so vibrant and colourful - they added the perfect touch of yellow to Kate & Boyd's wet summer wedding. And the weather didn't stop anyone from smiling all day long, probably because of those sunflowers ;) Packington Moor looks like a lovely place to get married, the exposed bricks and beams are right up our street and we love that Kate just added some white linen, colourful blooms and fairy lights to create a stunning reception space. As she says, Packington Moor is already a gorgeous space in it's own right. This is a rustic farm wedding at it's very best, relaxed and laid back but with lots of pretty details. And there are loads of DIY ideas to copy - the table plan is SO pretty, but amazingly easy to recreate. Enjoy!

The Venue

Kate The Bride: We looked at several venues when we got engaged but the venue we both fell in love with was the first venue we went to see, which was Packington Moor Barn. We both wanted a rustic feel and Packington was it! It was down country lanes surrounded by corn fields and out of the "City" life that we both live daily! We drove down the drive leading to the converted barn and the butterflies started, we pulled up and walked through the courtyard and into the bar of the venue and we both looked at each other and just smiled. We both knew this was it!

The Beauty

I wanted a natural look with my hair and make up! I had my hair done by Bridal Hair by Sally Logue and Katy Bird did my make up. When I went for my trial both Sally & Katy were so welcoming and so relaxing! I searched and searched on Pinterest for photos of what I wanted and showed them a couple of photos and away they went! When they finished it was amazing, I was so excited to have a glimpse of what I'd look like on the day! When I had my make up trial Katy knew what foundation I was wearing from just looking at me!! That evening I went out with the girls and it lasted all night, so I knew how long it would last on the wedding day! They were both amazing!

The Photography

So our photographers were Anna and Simon Clarke of Anna ClarkePhotography. Now we’re both not particularly keen on having our photos taken and knowing that we'd have a camera follow us around all day made us both nervous! We met Anna & Simon at my Sister & Brother in Law’s wedding and loved how they worked and we got chatting. After seeing my sisters photos we just fell in love with them! So we booked them capture our day. We met with Anna & Simon again weeks before the wedding and we just sat in the courtyard at Packington and talked about the wedding and what shots we wanted and we just talked like we knew each other for years. On the day of the wedding Anna came to my Mum & Dad's and Simon came to our house where the groom & groomsmen were getting ready! They both fitted in like guests, it wasn't like we had a photographer there as they were so natural at taking photos that neither of us felt awkward! Anna took us off into the cornfields that surrounded the barn and it was pouring of rain, we wore our wellies and an umbrella and just ventured out into the haystack & working barns that surrounded the barn. We both had so much fun and laughed so much they made us feel so relaxed about everything. Although it rained like my Mum said, Anna Clarke will bring you sunshine with her fantastic photos even when its pouring down outside! Best rainy day ever!

The Bride

As you do after getting engaged, the first thing I looked at was dresses! I had in my mind a pure lace sweet heart neckline with a slight A line dress, I pretty much knew that was the one. I tried on lots of different style dresses, but I just didn't find what I had pictured in my head, I started to give up until we went into Manor Park Brides in Birmingham and found the dress...well almost...so I tried it on and instantly fell in love with it, but there was a slight niggle! It was a corset back and I had in my head buttons from top to bottom, I told Sarah at Manor Park brides this and she said not a problem we can do that, and as soon as those words come out of her mouth I cried! I knew this was the one! As soon as I knew what dress I was wearing, I knew what accessories I wanted. I had a pearl necklace and pearl stud earrings, I didn't want anything to glitzy, I just wanted simple! Then my husband to be got me Tiffany pearl bracelet as a wedding gift and it just matched the necklace and earrings! It was perfect! I went for a floor length veil, after looking through lots of wedding magazines. The shoes I wore were from Dune. Not too high, but shoes that were so comfy that I knew I could last all day in and party all night in...which I did!

The Wedding Party

I had 3 bridesmaids, my Sister, my Sister-in-law and my cousin. They all wore a gold pleated dress from Miss Selfridge. Both my Sister & Sister in Law were expecting, so wanted something that they felt comfortable in and they all looked stunning. Boyd had one bestman & four ushers! As we were going for the rustic feel we wanted a tweed suit, which we were able to get from Next. The groom had a brown tweed suit with a waist coat so he stood out and the best man & ushers had a lighter brown suit. They all scrubbed up well!

The Decor

With Packington Moor, there isn't much you need to do to it! It is just an amazing venue as it is. For our table centres, we collected tree slices and got all of our friends and family to collect different sizes of jam jars etc and wrapped them all in string, just to add that extra rustic touch. Then our florist Lily Jones supplied the rustic flowers to give it that country feel. There were lots of different colours in there as we didn't want to have one set colour. Whilst going through magazines and Pinterest we both fell in love with a light up LOVE sign and we contacted several suppliers and after speaking to quite a few we found a supplier called Jack Loves Jill. I contacted Amy and she was so helpful from the start and really friendly, we booked her straight away! We knew that sign would go perfect against the brick walls and so many guests commented on the sign. It looked amazing!

The Flowers

Being in the Events industry and working with Lily Jones for 4 years I knew how amazing their flowers were and trying to describe flowers that I don't know the names of and Lily Jones would just know what I mean straight away. We wanted gypsophila for the pew ends tied in hessian for the church and then for my bouquet I wanted sunflowers with lots of other wild flowers, they were stunning! For the bridesmaids they just had sunflowers keeping it nice & simple. The groom & groomsmen had a smaller version of my bouquet for their buttonholes. They looked amazing against the tweed suits.

The Ceremony

We got married in our village church, so every time we drive past of it memories of our special day come flooding back! Having asked Boyd what his favourite part of the Ceremony he said watching me come down the aisle and I have to agree...Standing at the top of the aisle seeing all of our friends and family that came to celebrate our special day with us was just overwhelming and then to see at the bottom of the aisle my best friend and the man I'm about to marry, I think that was my favourite bit, it's fair to say I cried a lot!!!! Having my dad give me away and my sister as a Maid of honour we didn't feel that my Mum was involved as much as we wanted her to be, so we asked her to do a reading. My Mum wanted to personalise it so she wrote her own and she did us both so proud! It was a great way for my Mum to be involved in the wedding and we will treasure the reading forever. It’s what made the ceremony personal to us.

The Reception

Throughout the drinks reception we created a playlist of our own back ground music which Packington played in the background, but with all the laughter and children playing I don't remember hearing it, I just remember everyone enjoying themselves. For the evening entertainment we searched the internet for a band, we both love going to festivals & gigs so getting the band right for the night was such a big deal to us! After listening to several "wedding" bands we eventually found the band that we both loved. We went onto Live Wires website and listened to their repertoire and there were so many songs that we loved like The Beatles, Kings of Leon, Paulo Nutini and the fact that they were the best that we listened to made our choice so much easier. We had so much fun with them on the night, the dance floor was full. It was so much fun!

The Food & Drinks

To welcome the guests our reception drink was a glass of Pimms with 4 options of canapés. Mini fish & chips, mini beef burgers, tempura king prawn and goats cheese tarts. For our main we had a pork spring roll followed by herb crusted lamb with country vegetables and for dessert we had vanilla cheese cake. For the evening guests we had Packington Moor’s homemade sausage rolls and pasties! After visiting the venue several times before the wedding day, we always had a sausage roll in the farm shop, so knew these would go down a storm with out guests. They certainly did too! The Cake was the wow factor. Neither of us are a big fan of icing so we wanted to go off the traditional path. We went for a 5 tier naked wedding cake, with mixed berries and gypsophila. A cake maker Michelle Holland who lives in our village makes these cakes and she's amazing. Packington Moor cut some of it up for guests to have in the evening and it was so good!!

The Stationery

For our invites we went for a brown kraft invite, we didn't want anything fancy, we just wanted something more relaxed to suit our theme. To seal the envelope we produced a sticker with 2 love birds and our names and the date of our wedding. For the table plan board, we borrowed a pallet from our friend and wrapped it in fairly lights and hung individual cards from them. For the table numbers we burnt numbers within smaller tree slices and they were free-standing against the table centres. To add extra touches to the venue, we had a polaroid camera and created a frame so people could take their photos and instantly hang it up. As the night went on the funnier the photos got! We also produced a love story time line on a pallet. We did all this by hand and we enjoyed creating it all before the big day, we didn't realise how creative we actually are.

Advice

After booking a summer wedding, we were hoping for the sun, but from the moment I got up at 6am to the time we went to bed at 2am, it rained none stop! It didn't stop us from venturing out into the cornfields in our wellies, in-fact it gave us so many more happy memories! The rain is supposed to tighten the knot, so don't be disappointed! Even one of our ushers said "I'll never be miserable on a rainy day again”. We kept being told to spend as much time together as you can because it goes so fast, and trust us, it does! There were times throughout the day we'd grab each others hand and take a step back and look around and try and take it all in, but after seeing all the amazing photos from Anna Clarke there were so many moments that we missed! If you forget to do anything, don't worry because no one will know, it's your day, it will be amazing whatever.