Rock My Wedding readers Bec and Chris chose a barn venue for their wedding. They originally looked at having a Stately Home venue but unfortunately the ones they went to see were let down by the ropey furnishings. I totally get this... You don't want to be distracted on the biggest day of your life by a dodgy carpet!

Their Rustic celebration was packed with pretty styling touches and some really cute DIY elements and those mint Bridesmaid dresses from Coast look fabulous.

Bec The Bride: I tried on 35 dresses until I found the one. I always knew I wanted Lace and a button back but the style I had no idea about. When trying on dresses they all looked lovely but I never Loved any of them until the only day I went without my mum and I tried on 'the' dress. it was completely different to all other styles I had tried on before but the moment I tried it on I felt instantly special and knew it would go with our venue and style of the wedding perfectly. After buying... Wow did I panic. Was it right? Had I chosen correctly? I went to my first fitting 6 months later and saw it hanging in the dressing room and I fell in love with it all over again. I didn't want to take it off!

The Grooms Fashion

Chris knew that he wanted a navy tailored suit and he heard Reiss offered a tailor service at their bluewater store. It was an easy process from getting measured to choosing every last detail of the suit, even down to the stitching. It took 6 weeks from the initial fitting / consultation to receiving the suit. He didn't show me the suit so it was a surprise on the wedding day and I must say he looked so hansom as I walked down the aisle to him. Chris loves his shoes and knew he wanted munk shoes from the start and his Russell and Bromley shoes were the perfect choice to match his Navy suit.

The Venue

I always wanted a barn wedding but Chris always liked the idea of everyone being able to stay under one roof but as we looked at stately homes the silly things like carpets and curtains turned us off and back on to looking for a Barn wedding. Blake Hall was the third barn we viewed and we loved it the moment we walked in. The barn was stunning and the service we got from Austin on just the first meeting made us know that everything would go smoothly on the day.

Colour Scheme/Decor

We choose mint and peach as our colour scheme purely as we fell in love with the Coast mint dresses our bridesmaids wore and Peach because of our love for David Austin peach roses. After hours, days, weeks and months on pinterest and Rock My Wedding we decided we wanted a rustic themed wedding with logs and upcycled tins with flowers as our centre pieces. We didn't want them to take up too much room on the table to obscure people's views. We collected hundreds of corks and got friends to collect for us not really knowing what we wanted to do with them but using them in the end as people's names settings and for a sign at the Bar. It was special for us that everyone helped contribute to the décor of our day.

Our good friends own a vintage hire company called Little birdies vintage hire and they were amazing, each month suggesting items we could hire to add to our theme. They even made us our bunting and boy was there a lot of bunting. At the time little birdies vintage hire didn't have step ladders for us to hire so we used Vintage style hire to hire 2 sets of ladders that made up our table plan and a few extra suitcases and apple crates to create our entrance to our aisle. Shrinking violets our amazing florists helped set this up on the day as I knew that however they would display this would look fab and they didn't let us down.

Flowers

Shrinking Violets Lorraine and Nicky were the amazing and I would highly recommend them. Everything they touch looks incredible. Lorraine and Nickys style is exactly what we wanted for our rustic/vintage day. My bouquet had everything from David Austin Roses to succulents and the Bridesmaids had a simple hydrangea bouquet with some grey foliage. Another flower I fell in love with was the Billy balls which is when our theme colours changed from mint and peach to mint and peach with a touch of yellow! It's now been over 2 months since we got married and Chris's button hole still looks like it did on the day. Chris didn't want a big flower as his button hole so when we found the billy balls we knew they would make a perfect button hole to commitment the navy suits.

The Bridal Party

The bridesmaids wore mint long dresses from Coast and they had initial gold pendant necklaces from kate Spade. At the meal gave them all a kate spade bangle to go with the necklaces as their gifts. The groomsmen wore navy suits from TM Lewin and ties from Reiss.

Ceremony

We choose our best friend Vic to read a reading at our wedding. Vic searched the internet high and low and in the end decided that she would try and write the reading herself. It was truely special and personalised to the two of us. We didn't read the reading when we sent it off to the registars for approval so on the day it we was blown away.

Love is collecting him from the pub when he was "only staying for one."
Love is eating all of her chocolate so that the temptation is gone.
Love is being adamant that you are right and nevertheless letting him win.
Love is saving her from having to clean the inexplicable juice that leaks from the bin.
Love is being silly together and laughing so much it hurts.
Love is being thoughtful and putting away his shirts.
Love is getting her a cold flannel when she is feeling sick.
Love is building a life together brick by brick.
Love is the ache in your chest when you are apart.
Love is an exciting adventure, a new chapter of which you're about to start.
Love is all of these things and many more, for you to explore as man and wife.
Today... Tomorrow... For the rest of your life.

Entertainment

Our Dj was a friend of Chris's . It was so nice to have a friend as the DJ he arrived early so he could hear the speeches and even picked up the task of videoing them.

Food

The cake was made by the very talented Lucie Waller of Wonderland Bakery. I met lucie at the bluewater wedding fair and we arranged a meeting at her house in Essex. Lucy made up a section of cakes and as soon as I tasted her fruit cake I knew she had to make the cake. Not many people are a fan of fruit cake but lucie makes the best I have ever tasted. We went for top tier fruit, middle tier Carrot and bottom tier sponge. As Lucie was the first person I booked I changed my mind of the style of the cake a few times. Poor lucie was very patient with me and the Cake on the day looked incredible. Lucy can make anything so this was quiet a simple design but everyone commented on how amazing it looked and tasted. Lucie also in shrinking violets so it was nice that they had worked together in the past.

The Photographer

Where do I start! Our Photographer was Laura Babb. We found Laura be googling creative wedding photographers. I am really into my photography and didn't want the usual cheesy snaps. Laura's style blew me and my husband away and after meeting her we didn't book to meet anyone else as we knew she would be great. Lauras service is something you would never imagine from a photographer. Laura sets up groups for all of her clients to chat about wedding issues from where to find a good florist to where to buy wedding underwear. Laura is super helpful and throughout the process it feels like she was helping with the planning of your wedding in addition to being the photographer. We had an engagement shoot included so we headed over to Greenwich. Chris has never liked his photo being taken and Laura put him at ease and after walking away that day he said how happy he was that we had chosen her. It was a really hard process to choose what photos to pick for our album as we love every one. Friends and Family have said our photos are the best they have ever seen and how she really captured the day.

DIY

Myself and Chris spent along time decorating tins, making sweet favours, Signage like our welcome sign for the day and we wouldn't change it for the world although it took along time. Looking back at our photos and comments we had on our day made every bit of the details a special part of our day and made it ours.