As promised, after a long absence, I have finally chosen my favourite photos from our wedding weekend in May. We can honestly say it was the best day of our lives, we felt a million bucks and the weather only served to make it more special. After a deluge of rain in the weeks before and weeks after we were truly blessed with the best weekend of the summer so far. I have posted more photos here than any other post since, to be honest, it was hard to get it down to 70 – so many great memories, so here goes!

The venue was The Great Tythe Barn in Tetbury, Cotswolds. It suited us down to the ground being rural, rustic but having a rare, high quality set of accommodations on site to suit all needs, a B&B, self catering cottages and a manor house for the bridal party as an optional extra, we couldn’t resist! This photo was taken the night before outside the manor. We were joined by our closest family and friends for home made lasagne, courtesy of my wonderful little sister, Rosie and her partner, Mike.

This is my dress, I was keen to show it in the light in the beautiful master bedroom of the manor with the gorgeous sunny grounds below.

My wonderful and hard-grafting Mother putting the napkin rings on 120 napkins the night before. She had already sewn on 120 buttons which belonged to a collection we made from all of our grandmothers’ collections. A way of acknowledging much missed grandparents on the day. Needless to say Lucy, my niece’s help was crucial!Me and my niece looking deceptively relaxed.

Although I love the printed paper goods I thought these blackboards, handwritten by me and Tim gave the wedding a personal touch.

My hairstyle of choice

Our favours were homemade ingredients. Being a lover of cooking an all things foody I wanted the favours to be something that reflected our passions, I printed a tag for each of four different types of favour saying what they were and each had a recipe on the reverse that the ingredient could be used in. I made, homemade tomato and chilli chutney, roasted sri lankan curry powder, lemon and hub rub and bbq sauce.The Barn itself, set up with our wooden chairs, guest postbox and dining cards, set out on the table. 

Our beautiful flowers courtesy of my cousin’s fiancé Claire Crafer. She accommodated our awkward multi-sized pots brilliantly. We had vintage tea tins and copper pots foraged from antique fairs and local charity shops. The relevance of copper was the Tim proposed with a bespoke copper pot for my engagement ring, since then I’ve been in love with copper!

Our napkin rings in situ, with our very long table runners. We were lucky enough to be able to eat outdoors.My place name card, the wind was up so we put them in the wine glasses.

My lovely husband (to-be at that point) and his best man, Ed (far right) and ‘men of honour’ ushers didn’t seem enough for such amazing friends.

My ex-colleague and very good friend Sam with the beautiful Helly.

The short awl for our guests from their accommodation meant the arrival of guests went without a hitch. My childhood friends hired a large cottage and made a weekend of it.Tim waiting for me.My girls, dresses courtesy of a local seamstress Pauline Fisher. Each different and paired with the girl’s own choice of brightly coloured shoes, beautiful bouquets from Claire and hairstyles courtesy of Leanne my hairdresser from Cardiff.

Nerves appeared halfway down the aisle!

Our self written promises had our guests a bit emotional, I’m told.

Drinks and canapés in the garden of the barn, My mum and bridesmaids looked fantastic. It had an amazingly relaxed (and for me and Tim, relieved) feel.

Our festoon lights.We opted for semi formal shots so we got the snaps we wanted with family and bridal party but we didn’t have achy cheeks from smiling for hours!

Well earned pintsThe favour jar lids matched the bunting and table runners.So pleased with how our tables looked, this is before the flowers too!My new father in law (left) and my lovely real father (right)As an icebreaker and to keep the informal feel, we had designated Chefs on each table. This gave more guests special roles and allowed us to have a nicer sharing setup with the food, rather than the more formal served meal. It went down a treat!
Our master of ceremonies, Tristan, sported a bugle for a bit of added silliness.My bridesmaids consisted of (l-r) my little sister Rosie, my big sister Polly, my sister in law Caroline, my oldest friend Fiona and my best friend in the world, also Fiona.

My old friend, Pete, who married in India recently, told us that it’s traditional there to feed each other part of the cake. No problem there!

Being a musician it seemed only right that Ed made Tim sing parts of the best man speech.My stunning Mum.The lovely Laura, girlfriend of one of our ushers, friend and very helpful helper on the wedding weekend

Couldn’t resist my favourite drink.Our photographer Kim utilised a beautiful sunset

My sister and her daughter under my veil, actually her veil and my ‘something borrowed’

If you like anything on this entry and would like to find out how to do it please just let me know, with such good memories, I can do all of the stationery again!