Eleanor and Alex's rustic Cooling Castle Barn wedding

 
Ok, I know I have so many weddings from last year and this year to blog, but I fell in love with the colours of Eleanor and Alex's wedding (any opportunity to showcase seasonal flowers).  Eleanor and Alex wanted a very rustic, natural and seasonal wedding...think Robin Hood...and chose plums and burnt oranges as their colours.  This was further enhanced with the addition of red to match Eleanor's shoes.  I mentioned the colour scheme to several people who didn't look impressed, but changed their minds as soon as they saw it.  One future bride who was struggling to find the right mix of colours for her big day was even reduced to tears when I sent her some photos.

So, to the flowers (ranunculus, anenomes, hellebores, tulips, calla lilies, anigozanthus, syringa, veronica, hypericum and lots of fresh greens in the form of ivy, guelder rose, panicum fountain). We then added pussy willow and willow to bring in a touch of brown, although we had to be careful not to use too much as it would have blended in with all the wood in the barns in Cooling Castle Barn.

Eleanor's bouquet was a spriggy textured, but not too wild bouquet tied with raffia and including most of the flowers and colours.  Her bridesmaids' followed suit but with smaller bouquets and less orange.  I LOVED them all, so fingers crossed you all do too.

And then came the buttonholes which were a first for me...I can honestly say I have never tried to attach Batman, a Stormtrooper, Bob the Builder et al to buttonholes before.  Alex chose the lego pieces specially for his groom's party and left the rest to us, so textured buttonholes were designed and my only dilemma was how to attach Batman with his moveable cape!

For the wedding ceremony, we used one of our large rustic hearts at the centre of the dais, dressed with gorgeous flowers to match the wedding.  We then added two tall vases of flowers with trailing ivy to frame Eleanor and Alex taking their vows.  The ceremony room was completed by a natural hollowed out piece of wood dressed with an organically styled arrangement of the flowers which we think worked perfectly on the celebrant table.

For the main barn, we wrapped the beams with faux blossom garlands and fairy lights, then added four tall vases with full and natural arrangements and trailing ivy to the corner tables to frame the room.  We added tealights in votives and pinecones at the bottom to tie in with the other tables.

The remaining guest tables all had rustic woodblocks added with a random selection of jars, pots and containers (many made by ourselves) and filled with selections of the flowers used elsewhere.  We finished the tables with pinecones, votives with tealights and some bun moss.

The circular top table was dressed with a hollowed out wood piece at the centre front to fill the gap between the chairs and to allow guests to see the happy couple.  We then added lots of rustic pots and vases to a stacked arrangement of wood blocks. We also added a wood wrapped vase to take Eleanor's bouquet during the meal. 

Finally, we provided a terracotta pot arrangement to be placed on the gift table filled with lots of lovely flowers to match the wedding...I reluctantly left this at Cooling as I have a perfect place for it at home!!!

Not that we're obsessed with cake (much!), but when the wedding cake is the fabulous Hummingbird Bakery Cakes, we have to include a picture.  Placed on large log stands, finished with great picks and with added flowers and pinecones by us, it was almost irresistible.

We personally loved this wedding and it got a lot of love from staff and other wedding couples alike when we were setting up, so I hope it shows how well a more unusual colour scheme can work.

Faye and Tom's gorgeous Robin Hood inspired wedding at Cooling Castle Barn

 As soon as we met Faye and Tom, we knew we were going to love their wedding.  We provided the flowers for Faye's Best Friend and one of her bridesmaids, Sarah back in 2009 and were so pleased to be working with Faye and Tom for their special day.  They knew they wanted a soft, shabby chic look to their wedding and wanted a strong woodland feel to go with their Robin Hood theme.  Each of the tables was to be named after a character in Robin Hood, and hence we knew woodblocks and soft, romantic flowers were required.

Faye looked gorgeous...no other words really.  Her dress, make-up, hair etc were perfect and we made her a "Maid Marion" inspired circlet for her hair, which was a surprise right until the end from Tom.  We think she looked amazing in it (as she's on honeymoon at the moment, we've stolen some facebook photos to show you..hope she won't mind).  For her bouquet we used a palette of pinks from strong to pale and dusky and we used roses, tulips, ranunculus, anemone, muscari, eryngium thistle, guelder rose and trachellium with thlaspi and rosemary.  We wrapped the stems in lace offcuts from Faye's dress and I think it looked lovely (biased I know, but it was so nice to see the range of colours at this time of year, particularly with the dreary days we've been experiencing).

We used similar flowers in a slightly different range of colours for the three bridesmaids, which looked lovely against their dusky pink dresses.  We used slightly narrower pieces of the bridal lace fabric to wrap the stems.  Again, thanks to facebook photos, we can show you how lovely they looked here.

Tom and the boys looked very handsome indeed (and a little bit nervous) when we saw them in the morning and they loved the range of buttonholes we'd provided.  For Tom, we used the Quicksand rose with muscari, astrantia, eryngium and viburnum tinus with rosemary.  For the Best Man and Ushers, we substituted the Quicksand rose for Purple Power and for the Dads we used the Amnesia rose instead.  For the other male members of the grooms' party, we used ranunculus instead of the roses.  Mums, Nans and Kerry had lapel corsages designed to match their outfits but using the wedding flowers.  We also provided a Thank-You bouquet for Auntie, who had made the cake for Faye and Tom.

For the Fathom Barn for the ceremony, we hung a rustic heart on the wall above the dais dressed with flowers to match the wedding.  We then used our vintage suitcases and dress mannequin, all fully dressed with flowers and lace to frame the entrance to the dais.  It really looked pretty and set the scene for the whole wedding beautifully.  We added wooden vases, curls of wood etc onto the celebrant table along with a wire vase provided by the bride's Mum.  With the newly laid floor and carpet, it really was a room set for a very special ceremony and couple.

Moving into the Tithe Barn, Faye and Tom opted to have all circular tables for their wedding reception.  The top table was situated at the side of the barn and they kept the numbers to six so that the front of the table was free for all to see the speeches etc.  We dressed the table with a tall cream candelabra with a full, soft and flowing arrangement on top. We then added a garland, woodblocks, hurricane lamps, flowers and scattered wood circles on the table to finish it.

Faye and Tom had bought some single and double hurricane lamps a little while ago and we decided to use them on half the tables, whilst using tall candelabra on the others to give more height and impact.  For each of the "lower" tables, we filled the base of each candleholder with flowers and added a candle.  We then stood them on woodblocks and added additional woodblocks, loose flowers, small arrangements and scattered crystals around them.  Very unique and different.  We then used the cream candelabras for the other tables with additional wood circles, scattered flowers and crystals at the base.  The lovely nameplates were made by Tom and looked so effective. 

Additional detailing was provided by Your Beautiful Day in the form of chair covers, double sashes, lace tablecloths, brooches and napkins and looked lovely.  The cake was a surprise design for the bride and groom and provided by Auntie.  We provided the rustic cake stand to ensure it all matched with the rest of the wedding.  We then dressed the beams with rustic blossom garlands and lights to finish off the look.

You may gather from the above, that we loved this wedding.  Faye and Tom were so fabulous to work with and once we'd agreed an overall looks and colour scheme, they left us to it with flowers choices etc.  It meant we could add in some seasonal extras for them and get the look they wanted.  We know they had an amazing day as we've already had a lovely call from Faye's Mum to thank us...made my day!  And on the wedding day itself, Faye and Tom presented me with a birthday gift and card which was so lovely it left me speechless...as if they didn't have enough to think about. Thanks so very much to them, not just for the gift, but for letting us be part of their amazing day!