Beautiful Botanical Barn Wedding With Outdoor Ceremony

What a delightful wedding we have to show you today! I’m so excited to share WWW readers Jessica and Jack’s fun and family orientated botanical wedding which took place at Godwick Hall in Norfolk on 22nd June 2019. Our pair really just wanted to make sure that everyone had a lovely day and the dance floor was full all night but their nuptials really are a beauty too.

Think big bold greenery and an absolutely gorgeous outdoor ceremony with an amazing naked tipi backdrop. here are also lots of beautiful florals and lovely personal touches, you’re going to love it!

Thanks ever so much to Heather Jackson Photography who was Jessica and Jack’s chosen photographer and documented their day just brilliantly. Thanks for sharing these stunning images with us today Heather.

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The Proposal

We were on holiday in Lanzarote, somewhere we had been for several years running and had created some fab memories, and Jack thought it would be a nice idea to go for a picnic on a really small, quiet beach. We went to the shop and picked up all our snacks for the picnic and headed off… typically it then started raining! Jack was adamant we were going for a picnic, so off we went, luckily the rain lasted all of a few minutes.

Once we sat down Jack pulled out a piece of paper and started reading a list of things he loved about me. He then asked me to stand up (by this point I knew what was happening and pleaded with him not to make me stand up!) but he was having none of it! We then celebrated the rest of the evening on the beach and in the sea drinking wine & cans of Budweiser!

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The Vision

So I scrolled through Pinterest & Instagram looking at wedding ideas and quickly came to realise there’s SO much to think about and I needed to narrow it down and get a plan in place.

From my Pinterest boards and the screenshots I took from Instagram I decided I loved the clean, botanical look so I created a mood board with all the images and ideas I loved and chose the colours that I thought complimented the vibe and feel. However, our main vision and aim of the day was to make sure everyone enjoyed themselves but more importantly the dance floor would be full come the evening… we just wanted everyone dancing and having a good time.

The Planning Process

So I sat down to ‘plan a wedding’ and had no idea where to start! I was completely out of my depth. I feel like I am an organised person, but I learned a lot about myself whilst planning a wedding… I like to leave things till the last minute ☺.

It turned out the planning process wasn’t as bad as I initially thought, we had a fab meeting with Penny from The Little Lending Co. Penny talked through the Pinterest boards I had created and helped me think about areas in Godwick I wouldn’t have otherwise thought about. All of our suppliers were a great help so planning wasn’t stressful at all. I just left pretty much everything until the last few weeks before the wedding, I think I gave my mum and mother-in-law a heart attack every time I saw them!

The Venue

Godwick was the first venue we looked at, we then looked at a few more just to make sure, but we always knew Godwick was the one we were going to go ahead with. We loved the barn and how it had so much character but we could be so creative with the space and make it ‘ours’, but the hall we hired with it made it.

Having Godwick hall meant we could have all of our family and the wedding party with us the whole weekend, which meant we could celebrate and make the most of the whole weekend.

Your Outfits & Accessories

I always knew I didn’t want a big, over the top wedding dress (much to my mums dismay!)… But I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted! I went to see Cheryl at Posh Frocks and Wedding Belles and decided I was going to get my wedding dress made. I tried on loads of different dresses and pulled out all the bits I loved from each dress and made mine!

Shoes – I went for a pair of Jimmy Choo’s – I wanted something a little different, something a little more statement. As soon as I saw them – I knew they were the ones!

Veil – As my dress was a little more low key I decided I wanted to go big on the veil. I tried on this one from IecACCESSOIRES and instantly fell in love, I love the lace detailing along the edges.

Beauty

I had no idea how I wanted my hair, I just knew I wanted something a little different and boho. I always knew I didn’t want too much make up, I don’t wear much on a daily basis. Godwick and Heather, our photographer recommended Gemma Holiday, as soon as I went on her instagram page I knew she’d be perfect and would create the boho/different style I was after. Gemma was able to recommend Hayley, our make up artist. She was great and really understood I still wanted to look like me, just a better version with not too much make up.

Groomsmen

Groom, groomsmen & dads – all the suits were from Moss Bros. Jack had been looking at several different suits, all navy, as that was what went with our colour scheme, but as soon as he saw the suit from Moss Bros he felt it went really well with the theme of the wedding and the country vibe from Godwick. He wanted all of the boys to be in a three-piece suits so this was perfect. 

To ensure Jack was a little different to the groomsmen and the dads he decided to wear a different colour waistcoat, this was from Slater menswear.

Page Boy – I always knew I waned to get Reggie, our Page boy a three-piece suit as close to the groom & groomsmen’s as possible we then come across this one from Marc Darcey I thought I worked PERFECTLY and was probably as close as I was going to get to the other suits.

Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids – Our main aim for the day was for everyone to enjoy themselves so making sure all the bridesmaids were comfortable in what they were wearing was really important to me. I ordered loads of different dresses from a number of stores and we had several ‘try on sessions’ until they all found one they loved and felt comfortable in. We ended up with dresses from Debenhams, Asos and Quiz.

The Readings & Music

Jack and I both share the same taste in music, so that’s lucky! We found Mark Elliot at a wedding fair and instantly fell in love with his voice, it gave me goose bumps! We decided to ask Mark to sing at our wedding; during the ceremony and then with his band in the evening… this was definitely one of the best decisions of the day! Having Mark and the band perform in the evening made mine and Jacks vision a reality – the dance floor was constantly full with everyone having a great time!

Aisle Song – You & I – Tom Walker

Exit Song – Mr Blue Sky – Electric Light Orchestra

First Dance – Sycamore Tree – The Hunna

The Flowers

I could not recommend Swaffham and Fakenham florist enough! We had our initial consultation via email and they were able to give some great recommendations. I sent the mood board I created to them and they created exactly what I envisioned.

We had the flowers on the naked tipi; hired from The Little Lending Co. This gave us a real focal point outside during our ceremony and throughout the drinks and canapés before we sat down. Our centrepieces were quite basic but I feel work absolutely perfect with the barn and our theme. We also dressed the peacock chairs hired by The Little Lending Co and then had a greenery backdrop on the back wall behind the top table. This was quite important to me, as I didn’t want the background to be boring in the speech pictures.

I loved the leaves, all the greenery and the unusual buds. So many people commented on our flowers!

The Details & Décor

We hired some great pieces from Penny at The Little Lending Co. The naked tipi outside really made the outside space and the Peacock chairs made a real statement of the top table. We also hired a J&J to jazz up the dance floor. Having the little touches was really important for us, as from wedding we’ve attended we felt these were what made the wedding!

We had a cookie bar, as we both love cookies and thought our guests would too. We also made hangover kits so our guests could take a little part of our wedding away with them and hopefully it’d help them get through the following morning!

We had fire pits outside in the evening, so made s’more packets with personalised labels for favours. We thought this would be perfect watching the sun set on the hay bale with a blanket toasting s’mores!

Your Photographer

We only went to one wedding fair but this is where we found Heather! As soon as we saw Heather’s images and albums we knew we wanted her to capture our day. Heather’s photos are so fresh, vibrant and timeless!

Heather really helped us plan our timings and gave us great advice for images on our day. I was worried we didn’t plan enough staged shots (mainly to satisfy family), Heather was happy to do whatever we decided but recommended only having a few staged shots & we are SO SO pleased we took her advice. We love all the candid, natural shots of us and our guests – we love looking back at all of our images and seeing everyone enjoy themselves!

The Cake

We were super lucky as my Aunty offered to make our cake. We wanted something that fitted our theme; a semi naked cake with dripping chocolate was perfect! We had a four tier cake with a mixture of chocolate and vanilla sponge… needless to say we were eating cake for days!

The Honeymoon

We had a family moon to Florida! We had a massive family holiday to Florida where we ate a lot and went to all the Disney parks! We loved that all of our family could get excited with us to share our honeymoon.

Memorable Moments

There are sooo many; it’s hard to choose a few. For me I loved huddling with the family at the end of our first dance, I will also never forget the whole dance floor moving aside so we could put a limbo pole in the middle and everyone having a limbo competition! For Jack, he loved having all our closest friends and family in one room and loved partying with everyone in the evening.

Advice For Other Couples

Enjoy every moment! Everyone told us this, but the day really does fly by. Take some time for just you two and don’t get too stressed out about the little things; you’ll make it work! Also, do what you want to do… don’t worry too much about everyone else after all it is YOUR day.

Credit Where Credit Is Due

What a beauty of a day and it looks like everyone had so much fun just like you wanted. Thank you so much for sharing everything with us Jessica and Jack. Rachel