Outdoor, Real Weddings

12.12.2011

Being a bit of a country bumpkin myself i have to say i really connect to Rachel and Nick’s wedding ethos. They wanted an outdoor wedding, combined with sourcing food locally to reduce food miles… making their wedding environmentally friendly and supporting their local community.

Rachel and Nick also went to a lot of effort to craft their wedding pretty, pom poms, floral lettering, wooden hearts, and lanterns were order of the day. And i so love Nick’s grape soda badge instead of a traditional wedding ring… a couple that went with their own gut, and it turned out perfectly.

Thanks so much to the fabulous Sheffield based wedding photographers, PH Weddings for sharing their work today, here is what they had to say about the day;

“We loved photographing Rachel & Nick’s wedding day, it was the very first outdoor ceremony we have photographed in the UK, unfortunately UK law dictates that ceremonies outside are not legal. This is such a shame considering how beautiful our countryside is. Rachel & Nick were not put off by this – they decided to have the ceremony they have always dreamt of by getting married outside in Whirlow Hall Farm gardens in Sheffield. Their legal ceremony took place the day before at the Town Hall.

Rachel gave Sam the dog one last cuddle before she left for the Farm with her gaggle of bridesmaids. We passed hens, sheep and goats on our walk to the ceremony and the sun burst through the clouds at just the right moment as Nick turned to see his beautiful bride. Rachel’s sister and Nick a family friend conducted the ceremony together, friends read out personal readings for the couple and then Rachel and Nick exchanged promises to each other. By this point there was not a dry eye in the house – including me!

The newlyweds then greeted all their guests and they chatted in the gardens while drinking Pimms and eating yummy canapes from PJ Taste. We had time for some photos in the fields surrounding the farm before guests made their way into the lambing barn which was dressed by Ascot marquees and decorated by Rachel. With pom pom flowers, floral table settings, wooden hearts twinkling fairy lights it was just stunning. At the head of the marquee sat two different cakes, one traditional and one with layers of cheese – mmm!

Speeches were both emotional and funny – it was clear just how much they are both loved by their family and friends. The evening kicked off with ice cream from Our Cow Molly and a dessert table filled with cakes made by the family. We took some more photos as the sunset and left the guests dancing away and taking photos of each other with fancy dress on.

Without a doubt this is one of our favourite weddings, Rachel & Nick made their day truly personal and it was a reflection of their brilliant personalities and their love for each other.”

Names….  Rachel and Nick

Wedding Date…. 25th June 2011 (official date on wedding certificate due to silly law not allowing outdoor weddings in England is 24th June 2011)

The Proposal….  On our 10th anniversary, 21st December 2009, the snow was deep the dog needed a walk, the proposal occurred in the woods attached to the local park.  I (Rachel) was totally blown away as Nick had never kept a secret from me before and this was the biggest secret ever!  The ring he chose fitted perfectly, the dog (Sam) seemed delighted too!

The Vision for the day….  Ideally we wanted to get married outdoors but realised we could only do this in Scotland or abroad, we are proud of our Yorkshire roots so getting married anywhere else really wasn’t an option.  We had to think outside the norm to realise our dream and realised that by getting married the day before at the Registry Office we could have our ‘marriage’ ceremony wherever we wanted.  We had visions of an eclectic and relaxed day for all our family and friends, above all else we wanted it to reflect us.

We wanted to include our family and friends as much as possible, and as we were already legally married we had my sister Jane and Nick’s friend Andy as our ‘celebrants’ and were able to write all the ceremony ourselves.

The Planning process….  The planning process was very difficult as my Mum died very suddenly in February 2010, we had already set a date and started to make some tentative plans, the thought of doing it all, and in particular buying my dress were at times very upsetting.

We took control of what we wanted and decided very quickly what we didn’t want, we didn’t want a hotel reception, we didn’t want it too formal, we decided that we just wanted to enjoy ourselves.

Budget…. Approximately £6,000

The Venue…  Whirlow Hall Farm Farmhouse Gardens and Lambing Barn, Sheffield.  A local educational charity which hosts residential and day courses for school children to show them how food gets to our table etc.  We buy our meat from the farm shop and we knew that they had a large barn which we could use for our reception.  We were also delighted that the fee for hiring the space was going to such a good cause.

The Dress + Accessories…..  A bargainous £299 from Copplestone Bridal in Liverpool.  I had a pair of funky black and white spotty shoes from M&S which have had several outings since and wore a triple strand silver bracelet my Mum wore on the day she married my Dad. I didn’t have a veil (too scratchy and claustrophobic) and forgot to put a jewelled slide in my hair before I left the house to go to the wedding!

Finding the dress….  I knew what I wanted but was put off trying on what I wanted at local bridal shops, I was determined not to wear strapless and wanted something a bit different.   My twin sister Jane and I disappeared over the Pennines for the day, and spent a fabulous morning trying on loads of dresses (Jane did too!) before I found the one, which was Gwen by Amanda Wyatt.

Groom’s attire…  A single breasted grey suit by J Lindeberg and a red/white close check shirt by Paul Smith purchased from Seasons in Sheffield.  A pair of black M&S shoes finished off the look.  Nick decided to not wear a tie as he hates them!  I thought he looked very handsome :o)

The Readings + Music….  I arrived to our ceremony to ‘Songbird’ by Fleetwood Mac, listen to the lyrics and you will see why.

We had two readings, The Lovely  Love Story by Edward Monkton was read by one of my best friends Jemma who is also a primary school teacher and did the voices of the dinosaurs brilliantly.  The second reading was The Ent and the Entwife from The Two Towers by J R R Tolkien, one of our favourite books; this was read by Nick’s friend’s Alex, who has a very broad Yorkshire accent and did the reading justice.

Our ceremony ended with The Beach Boys ‘Wouldn’t it be Nice’ just because it makes us smile.

Beautiful bridesmaids…..  I had my cousin’s granddaughter Abbie, who was very excited.  We also had the daughters of two close friends, Maisie and Jasmine as flowergirls.  Our wedding day was also Jasmine’s third birthday.

The Flowers…  All the flowers other than the buttonholes were silk, which I arranged myself.  I wanted certain flowers in my bouquet, specifically lavender as this is such a reminder of my late Granny Powell.

The Cake…  The wedding cake was made by my 87 year old Granny (Lily) she had been feeding it brandy for months prior to the wedding.  My sister and I iced the cakes and I ordered a bespoke birds nest and eggs from America.

As Nick doesn’t like fruit cake we also had a cheese tower from one of our favourite shops, our local cheese shop Silverhill Dairy.

Your Photographer….  The amazing Helen and Paul from PH Weddings, we literally had no idea that they were there most of the time.  We were blown away by the quality of the photos and loved having the engagement shoot which meant our dog Sam could be involved.

The Details + Décor….   Nick and I are big kids at heart and one of our favourite recent films is UP, we went to the cinema to watch it and were the only people in there without kids.  When we were discussing the wedding, I knew that Nick wouldn’t want a ring, so decided that I was going to get him a Grape Soda badge like Ellie gives to Carl in the film, Ebay was my saviour, and although we had to explain the story behind the badge to some; those who had seen the film found it incredibly touching.

We wanted a village fête atmosphere and the majority of our decorations were handmade, my sisters and nephews were so helpful in decorating the barn/marquee and also the farmhouse garden for the ceremony.

In memory of my Mum we served Chateuneuf du Pape as the wine at the Reception;  if she had been with us she would have been loving the atmosphere of the Reception and enjoying a glass or two!

We decided to limit the amount of food miles for the reception and had a locally sourced produce BBQ to add to the relaxed feel, and cakes/desserts made by my Granny and Nick’s Aunty Maisie.  We had individual ice cream tubs from Our Cow Molly, another local farm which we frequent; their Bakewell Tart ice cream is awesome.  In the evening, and despite the heat we had Pie and Peas from our local sandwich shop, Sean’s, the pies are still a talking point today!  We also had a bar provided by a local guy recommended by a friend who is a real ale lover, we wanted something different to what you normally get and he definitely delivered with a keg of local ale and huge variety of bottles.

The Honeymoon….  We spent an amazing 2 weeks on safari in the Masai Mara and in Zanzibar relaxing, memories that will last a lifetime.

Memorable moments…  Some are memorable for the wrong reasons, such as the DJ playing our first dance as part of the background music for the reception, only we knew, but it did make me a bit Bridezilla!  Or my Dad stepping slap bang into the middle of the train of my dress as we arrived at the top of our aisle for our ceremony!

The most amazing moment of all was leaving the house in the rain and as soon as we pulled up at the Farm the sun came out and was blazingly hot all afternoon and evening, Nick later told me that he had made the decision to persist with the outside ceremony despite the weather, and I am so thankful that he did.

Like most couples, we wish we could do it all again but in slow motion so that we could take it all in.

Advice for other couples…   It’s your wedding day, stick to your guns and do exactly what makes you happy.

Credit where credit’s due…

Venue            http://www.whirlowhallfarm.org/
Reception BBQ        http://pjtaste.co.uk/
Barn Lining        http://www.ascotmarquees.co.uk/
Chair Hire        http://www.eventfurniture.com/
Reception Bar        http://www.yorkshirerealale2u.co.uk/
Wedding Dress        http://www.bridalbasement.co.uk/
Wedding Suit/Shirt    http://www.seasonsclothing.co.uk/
Flowers            http://www.countrybaskets.co.uk/
Ice Cream        http://www.ourcowmolly.co.uk/
Photographers        http://phweddings.co.uk/
Wedding Pies        Seans Bakery & Sandwich Shop, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield
Cheese Tower        Silver Hill Dairy, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield

Thanks so much to Rachel and Nick for sharing their beautiful wedding with us today :-) I will be back later for a huge dose of inspiration, stay tuned ;-) xoxo

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Tags: DIY Wedding, Multicolour, Outdoor Wedding, Real Weddings

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