Venue
Amy the Bride : We stayed in the most incredible barn called "Alfred's Barn" at
Grove Farm in Bramfield which is approx 20 minutes from the venue. We stayed there the whole weekend with our family and friends. It was the perfect place for us to get ready on the morning of the wedding as it is open plan so we could all chat and drink champagne whilst having our hair done. The barn has been tastefully restored with old meets modern. Just my style!
We chose
Wood Farm Barn as our venue as it is very close to where I grew up and we loved the fact the Barn is fairly untouched and hasn't got a very "commercial" look to it. The barn sits on its own surrounded by beautiful countryside, a small lake and a woodland area. It has no residential buildings around so we could make as much noise as we wanted!
Transport
The 1960's
Cadillac cars that picked us up from the accommodation to take us to the venue were arranged by my father, who is a classic car enthusiast. We had no idea what the cars were, all they knew was that they were old and American!
Ceremony
The ceremony was short and personal. I walked down the aisle to 'First Day Of My Life' by Bright Eyes, played by Dan's band mates. The reading during the ceremony was the lyrics from a Ryan Adams song 'My Love For You Is Real'. Ryan Adams is an artist that we are huge fans of so, naturally, the first dance was 'When The Stars Go Blue' by Ryan Adams.
Colour Scheme & Decor
The Bohemian American style for the wedding didn't come from following the latest trend in weddings but from a pure love of this style. Our home is heavily influenced by this style, and lots of our own pieces were used to decorate the venue and bar: everything from a bamboo sofa from the bedroom, to some 70's wicker trays from the kitchen to serve the prosecco!
We purchased a few special bits to add to the decor (that I secretly wanted anyway so I used the wedding as a good excuse to purchase these!) such as an old American mailbox from a farm in the US, wooden beer barrel-top sign from
Brooklyn Brewery and a lovely 'Forever' affirmation banner by
Secret Holiday Co which we had on display as we signed the register.
Groomsmen
The decision for the groom and his men to wear brown suits was made quickly as it suited the 70's theme and I just love a man in a brown suit! Trying to find one though was a challenge as every place we tried only sold blue or grey suits! The groomsmen wore beige linen ties and Dan's tie was custom made using fabric from my favourite textile designer, Brooklyn based
Amelie Mancini. It was also beige linen but with a Cacti print.
Bridal
I was dreading shopping for my dress. I haven't got a traditional taste when it comes to bridal gowns, and I knew I wouldn't find anything locally. However, my dress search wasn't too painful thanks to Instagram. I was perusing the 'bohodress' hashtag and found the account of '
Lucy Can't Dance' a maker of bridal wear for non-traditional brides... perfect! The whole collection was stunning, I could have chosen any of them but as soon as I saw the 'Jungle Fever' dress, I knew it was the one. The lace was made up of an almost fern-like, leaf print and I have a fern tattoo on my arm which is similar as I adore plants and nature so this dress was perfect for me!
Bridesmaids
My bridesmaids wore cream maxi dresses from
Mango which had a 70s look to them as they had flowing angel sleeves. They wore tan clogs and their hair down with plaits in keeping with 1970's hippie style. The flower girls wore floral lace retro style dresses from
Minibasic and they looked adorable.
Beauty
Hair was by a popular local hairstylist
Flamingo Amy, who specialises in retro and vintage style hair. I wanted something very relaxed and hippie like and she got it bang on.