Yes, I’ll Marry You, My Dear… Kingscote Barn Wedding

I hope you're wrapped up all snuggly and warm this morning - not only is it freezing outside, I also have a January wedding to share with you today. Joanna and Angus got married at Kingscote Barn in Gloucestershire at the beginning of the year; a day full of romance, shared glances and elegant, individual style. Joanna's wedding dress and jacket are gorgeous; Angus looks the part in top hat and tails. I adore the bridesmaids' capes (want one!) - as soon as they caught my eye, I wanted this particularly wonderful wedding to show you on English Wedding blog.

Joanna's wedding report is fabulous. Her advice is great: "Decide what you care about and plan, plan, plan. Then on the day: Relax.” There’s more — but I’ll leave Joanna to tell her wed­ding story in her own words.

Pho­tog­ra­phy is by the lovely Saman­tha J Pho­tog­ra­phy, based in the West Mid­lands.

Who pro­posed, and how?

Angus pro­posed – he took me to a gor­geous restau­rant over­look­ing Hyde Park, the day before Christ­mas Eve, and then into the Win­ter Won­der­land to pro­pose (on one knee in the snow!) right by the carousel – he knows how much I love fairgrounds!

Reli­gious or civil wedding?

Reli­gious – this was impor­tant to us, and we chose Kingscote Church, and Revd Stephen Ear­ley, who was an absolute angel through­out the plan­ning. We had my sis­ter and a close friend do the read­ings (both of which made us smile a huge amount), chose hymns that we loved (and sang loudly!) chose a pro­ces­sional that I knew would put a smile on everyone’s faces (the Wed­ding March from the Sound of Music, my favorite film) and a reces­sional that suited us both (Grand March from Aida – I’m an Egyp­tol­o­gist, and we both love opera and clas­si­cal music), and we had a group of incred­i­bly tal­ented friends sing dur­ing the reg­is­ter sign­ing – one of Angus’ best men arranged the songs, another friend played gui­tar, and it just made our day!

The wed­ding readings

Proverbs 31, 10–21; 25–31 and Pam Ayres ‘Yes, I’ll Marry You, My Dear’.

The wed­ding dress

Roman­tica – very sim­ple, ivory duchesse satin, sweet­heart neck­line, pleated. I bought it from Pollyanna’s in War­wick, and Tess, who runs Pollyanna’s, made my jacket out of the same fab­ric – she was an absolute leg­end with a nee­dle, and really lovely to boot. I’d rec­om­mend her to any­one want­ing bou­tique ser­vice with­out the exces­sive price-tag that usu­ally entails.

Acces­sories: My veil was bought from Pollyanna’s – fin­ger­tip length, scal­loped edged. I loved it. I didn’t wear any­thing in my hair, as my tal­ented hair­dresser did such a lovely job that I didn’t need to. I wore an antique pearl neck­lace, pearl studs that Angus bought me a few years ago, and a bracelet loaned to me by my lovely mother-in-law, that was my some­thing bor­rowed and blue (it was sap­phire and pearl).

The Groom’s outfit

Morn­ing suit from Moss Bros, laven­der cravat.

Brides­maids

Both gor­geous girls wore floor length dark green hal­ter­neck dresses from Coast, and green vel­vet capes (cus­tom made). They were both absolute angels of good­ness, and I love them both hugely.

The wed­ding reception:

What were your highlights?

The sweetie table cre­ated by my super-talented brides­maid, the food (Straw­berry Field Cater­ing, Bath), the speeches, our first dance, the ceilidh, the last but one dance, where we went up onto the bal­cony and all our lovely friends sang to us, see­ing all the peo­ple we love best in the world together to cel­e­brate with us.

Wed­ding venue styling and details

We picked a deep plum, ivy green and cream color scheme, and wanted to work with the gor­geous nat­ural Cotswold Stone of the barn, so kept every­thing rich, tex­tured and win­try – my amaz­ing Mum made a cake which we adored, and bunting which was so in keep­ing with the color scheme; my Great Aunt paid for the flow­ers, which were lots of ivy, antique Amne­sia roses, and freesias to remem­ber my grandma who passed away sev­eral years ago. We also used lots of laven­der, bay and rose­mary, as well as can­dles, so we could play with dif­fer­ent scents and light­ing effects – we wanted it to be cosy and deli­cious. We also had a ‘photo booth’ of props that I made, and these were incred­i­bly pop­u­lar and great fun.

Wed­ding music and entertainment

We had a Ceilidh Band (Ban­shee Ceilidh), who were amaz­ing, and made every­one dance; then a DJ (Shad­ows Disco and Karaoke) who was fab – he took our playlist and made it into a bril­liant end to the evening. We loved both parts.

Wed­ding day advice

Decide what you care about (for us it was food, wine, atmos­phere and fun) and plan, plan, plan. Then on the day: Relax. Plan every­thing down to the last detail (I had a list of the order of events on the morn­ing, which even included ‘get up, have a shower, dry hair’ etc! I also laid out every­thing I’d need the night before, which was a great idea), ask every­one to do things on the day, then sit back and have a great time.

Allow peo­ple to look after you, don’t try and do it all your­self. Find good, reli­able sup­pli­ers, and tell them what you need. For­get try­ing to impress your guests, and try­ing to enter­tain them every sec­ond – good food, wine and com­pany are the most impor­tant fac­tors – but do think about what they will need (how will they get to the church & recep­tion, how will they get to their hotels, think about what they might need dur­ing the day – I did a bas­ket of use­ful things in the Ladies, includ­ing mints, hair­spray, hair grips, plas­ters, paracete­mol, safety pins and it all got used, some of it by me!) in advance. If any­thing goes wrong, for­get about it. Unless it’s a dis­as­ter, you won’t remem­ber it after­wards.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments

My father walk­ing me down the aisle – it was an emo­tional but incred­i­bly happy moment – and catch­ing the eye of an old friend who made me smile. Angus whis­per­ing ‘you rock’ as I got to the altar. Say­ing our vows and enjoy­ing that moment of togeth­er­ness. Being announced as Mr and Mrs for the first time. The speeches (which were bril­liant) – I nearly cried with laugh­ter at points. Look­ing around the room at all our fam­ily and friends and know­ing that they were all there for us. Danc­ing together for the first time as man and wife. The whole day, really!

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers

The Kingscote Barn were ace – super-professional and incred­i­bly help­ful and friendly. Rachel, our wed­ding co-ordinator answered all my ques­tions almost imme­di­ately and never made me feel as if I was crazy (even when I was)! On the day, she was there, mak­ing sure every­thing ran smoothly, and she took care of every detail (even light­ing all the can­dles for us!), even email­ing us after­wards to con­grat­u­late us. We’re hop­ing to go back for another party soon! www.kingscotebarn.co.uk

Straw­berry Field Cater­ing, Bath – we checked out all the pos­si­ble cater­ers for the Barn, and SFC were head and shoul­ders above the oth­ers. Lee Bishop, who was the cater­ing man­ager, was an absolute gem – the food was out­stand­ing on the day (one veg­e­tar­ian told me it was the best meal she’d ever had!) and he really lis­tened to what we wanted and deliv­ered. We would rec­om­mend SFC with­out hes­i­ta­tion – not only for the food, but for the impec­ca­ble and really kind and gen­er­ous ser­vice we had. Lee sorted out so much more than just the food for us – he took deliv­ery of a rose­bush that I wanted to give to my Mum, he found elder­flower presse the night before (I’d for­got­ten to get any for the recep­tion), he greeted us on arrival from the church with a glass of cham­pagne, and even sourced a whole Ser­rano ham to go with our canapés. Totally bril­liant. www.strawberryfieldcatering.co.uk

Saman­tha Pom­mells – her pho­tos were amaz­ingly gor­geously won­der­ful. I love every one of them, and she has such an eye for http://english-wedding.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=20369&action=edit&message=9detail. She was incred­i­bly pro­fes­sional and friendly – she spent some of the morn­ing with us, and put every­one at ease, and then melted into the back­ground (so much so that I didn’t notice her at the front of the church until after the sec­ond hymn!). Can’t rec­om­mend her highly enough – and she’s a really lovely lady as well! www.samantha-j.co.uk

Saman­tha asked me to men­tion her sec­ond shooter for the wed­ding day — Lucy Sten­dall,  www.lucystendallphotography.co.uk

Chris Ford­ham, Chris Ford­ham Hair Design – my tal­ented and lovely hair­dresser, who did my hair, my two brides­maids, my Mum and mother-in-law, and kept us laugh­ing the whole time. He took my idea (inspired by Down­ton Abbey) and made it per­fect – I loved the style so much! Again, wouldn’t hes­i­tate to rec­om­mend to any­one. www.fhdmobile.co.uk

Princess Wed­ding Cars – again, per­fect ser­vice, and I barely had to do any­thing. Such nice peo­ple, and the cars were per­fect. www.princessweddingcars.co.uk

Ban­shee Ceilidh – they were bril­liant, and had every­one up and danc­ing. Really good music, excel­lent call­ing, and really friendly and help­ful. www.banshee.org.uk

Shad­ows Disco – Paul was amaz­ing – he did exactly what we wanted, didn’t intrude or talk over the music, played a great mix of songs. I barely stopped dancing!

Face­book links for your wed­ding sup­plier address book:

• Saman­tha J Pho­tog­ra­phy https://www.facebook.com/Tiarasandteddybears
• Kingscote Barn https://www.facebook.com/Kingscotebarn
• Ban­shee Ceilidh https://www.facebook.com/pages/Banshee-CeilidhBarn-Dance-Band/321339027907203
• Lucy Sten­dall Pho­tog­ra­phy https://www.facebook.com/lucystendallphotography
• Straw­berry Field Cater­ing https://www.facebook.com/pages/Strawberry-Field-Catering-Ltd-Event-Catering-Company/110627962320241?ref=ts