Jo and Ade's wedding at The Tithe Barn in Lenham

When we first met Jo and her family at the beginning of last year, she'd already "tested us out" by ordering Christmas arrangements before booking her consultation....what a good idea, and very organised!  Jo brought with her to the consultation a list of words and phrases rather than a mood board.....they included sumptuous textures, Victorian opulence, burlesque, pagan celebrations, natural hedgerows....When getting to know Jo further, these seemingly opposite styles all make sense.  Whilst Jo loves Burlesque style and chose the most amazing dress and pair of shoes for her wedding day, she wanted to fill the barn with natural flowers and dress it as it was traditionally intended.....as a meeting / gathering place for friends and family.  Jo and Ade were incorporating a number of traditions into their wedding with the Rose Ceremony, binding the hands and jumping the broom and it is lovely to see these traditions featuring today.

As a result of our discussions, we decided to use a more natural set of flowers for the barn (with a few exceptions) and more opulent, decadent and unusual flowers for the bouquets, buttonholes etc.  The Hocus Pocus rose was one Jo had specifically requested and we teamed it with Black Baccara roses, Leucadendron Safari Sunset, Schwarzwalder and Majestic Red calla lilies, Black tie leaves and a touch of ivy for the personal flowers.  We carried the leucadendron and roses through into the barn adding wheat, lavender, ivy, willow, penesetum and corn dollies to the arrangements (provided by http://www.thewelshcraftshop.co.uk/) .

Jo's dress was a gorgeous gown with a black under layer and ivory antique lace over the top.  The back gathered into a bustle style and extended into a pretty train.  Details were included from her Mum's wedding dress and Jo chose a black fur tippet / cape to wear over the top.  Feathers and a few sparkles made up her headdress.  We didn't want to hide any of the detail on the dress, so designed an overarm bouquet of calla lilies and black tie leaves along with natural ostrich feathers and black glittered birch.  We wrapped the stems in black ribbon and overlaid them in ivory lace to reflect the dress.  We finished the bouquet with a brooch to add that final piece of opulence.

For the bridesmaids, wearing burgundy tea length dresses, we again used an overarm style of bouquet, and used just the Schwarzwalder calla lily along with leucadendron safari sunset, some sprigs of black birch and some strands of ivy intertwined.

Buttonholes were mainly roses and black birch, with Ade wearing a Majestic Red Calla Lily to tie in with Jo's bouquet.  For the Mums, we designed wrist corsages to match specific outfits and used vanda orchids, spray roses and freesia where appropriate.

We were lucky enough to be able to dress the barn on the Friday afternoon and joined Jo and all her family in transforming the barn.  Jo had planned every little detail of the wedding, and had some lovely unique ideas such as sticking place names on skeleton leaves in wine glasses.  The raffia bows on the chairs were also a lovely way of dressing the chairs in a style that worked with the remainder of the details.  The barn is large inside and we decided that adding large trailing arrangements to the beams would fill some of the space.  We added a corn dolly to each arrangement, which would have been traditionally made by members of the village community, and which were generally used for luck (as well as fertility symbols....depending upon the design!)  We also decided to add larger corn dollies to the arrangements on the doors of the barn.  These symbolised the heart of the home and we felt were a fitting entrance to the barn, and something Jo and Ade could keep as a memento of their day.

For the thirteen tables, Jo wanted to bring together the Victorian opulence theme with the pagan simplicity and hence we used large lily vases filled with gel crystals and added a slightly wild and woolly top arrangement of willow, leucadendron, roses and ivy and finished them with crystal droplets.  The crystals caught the light beautifully and worked well with the fairy lights hung across the ceiling of the barn.  Whilst the ceremony was taking place and before the tables could be moved into the centre of the barn, we placed three of the arrangements on the stage.

For the top horseshoe shaped table, we provided a long and low arrangement for the centre section and added an additional section to each end (which doubled as an extension for the barn door arrangements).

Finally, we dressed the cake stand and provided a topper for the cakes....the photos won't do it justice as we didn't want to set out the cakes the day before, especially as they had been lovingly made by Jo's Mum.  Again for the stand we used wheat, lavender, penesetum, ivy and corn dollies.

The final touch for us was Bubble, Jo and Ade's gorgeous camper van...I am completely obsessed by them and would love to trade in the van for one.....On the wedding day, there were evidently going to be about 8 camper vans in a cavalcade....good job I wasn't going to be there.....too much excitement all round. 

Jo and Ade will no doubt have had the most perfect day, thanks to Jo's meticulous planning and all the help from their lovely families.  It was so nice to be involved in such a different wedding and to be able to work with a range of ideas....and to work with such a wonderful couple.  We're only sad it's all over for us now, but wish Jo and Ade the happiest life together.