Bridesmaids in black just look so chic. And today's wedding proves that black gowns will work for a summer wedding too. They just make such a great statement against the soft pinks and creams.

Amy opted to decorate the gorgeous Great Barn with oversized balloons - a decision many of her older relatives weren't sure about. They'd clearly never seen any RMW weddings then!! We do love a giant balloon.

Amy's report is full of humour, advice and lovely words so I'll pass you over to her. After you've enjoyed the images from Rosie Anderson of course...

Amy The Bride: We met 11 years ago when we both came to university in Exeter from the South East. We stayed in the South West as James was playing professional rugby for Exeter Chiefs and I was a working as a doctor (training to be a surgeon). We had a fantastically fun time in the South West and after a short courtship (9 years!!) we were to be engaged!! Yippeee!!! Then after a wee small engagement (2 years) we decided to tie the knot.

Our main aim was to have our amazing friends and family in one place, eating good food, drinking lots of good plonk, with good music, with no stress or faff!!!

The Venue

The Great Barn, Higher Ashton was the first and only venue we viewed. It was love at first sight. And inspired 15th century barn conversion which despite its imposing stature remains elegant, intimate, breezy, and relaxed. Pretty much the theme of our wedding. Plus - John Birkin - the owner, has the attention to detail of a fine chocolatier and he ensures that all wishes - big or small - are put into place so seamlessly, without show or fuss. He is the most wonderful asset a bride could wish for!

The Food

Our caterers, The Dartmoor Kitchen were the first and only ones we tried...having tasted the delicious, wholesome, rustic, scrumptious feast that Tom had prepared - there was no need to look anywhere else. James is a real foody - and we really wanted the food to be a big part of our day. A lot of our socialising takes place around sharing meals with our friends and we wanted that side of our lives to extend to our big day. The feast was delivered to each table on rustic wooden platters for everyone to dig in and share in the mmmmmmm! All local Devon produce - and the owner just happens to be our neighbour!

The Ceremony

Very emotional indeed - we had a rough time in the preceding months as James' incurred a severe neck injury which put an untimely end to his 10 year professional rugby career - but thankfully and most importantly he is expected to make a full recovery. In addition to this I found out a couple of months before the wedding that I had been successful in achieving my dream job as a general surgical registrar in North West London - which although I was thrilled about - it meant we were to be leaving our beloved Devon!

We wrote our own vows, which I found very easy to write - less easy to read aloud, and even less easy to say to James in front of all of the people I love. Readings were personal and wonderfully spoken; James' sister, my brother, and our very very very dear friend Sarah Jess (amazing support through everything).

The Flowers

The flowers were one of the most exciting and enjoyable parts of arranging our wedding. It mainly involved - Emma, myself, my Mum (Jan), and lots of cups of tea and cake sitting in the studio at the back of Emma's amazing shop in Totnes laughing a lot - mainly at Emma's obsession with my husband (only a pretend one because of his rugger fame!!), and my poor ability at being a rugby WAG! All the fun aside - Emma is the most incredibly talented florist & artist I have ever come across.

She somehow managed to listen to my incomprehensible and slightly off beat blurb of ideas and turn it into exactly what I had in my imagination - the most beautiful, classy, romantic, English country garden style florals - without introducing any element of 'country fare' - my main concern about having our wedding in a barn in Devon. Emma is absolutely amazing at her job - and very special to have around!!

Chocolate cosmos in the bouquet I would 100% recommend - not just a beautiful bloom - but the smell of chocolate in the midst of gorgeous floral notes is just dreamy!!!

The Photographer

Rosie had a very hard task;

1. I'm awful in front of a camera - absolutely nothing photogenic about me at all!! I am infamous for gurning in photos...and in life in general!

2. The one thing I absolutely hate is when a wedding photographer starts making demands and dictating who can go where with who etc - and really fussing and bossing and posing people...and how boring are those photographs to peruse??? VERY!!!

So we met Rosie, she was a massive breath of fresh air - firstly she likes tea (very important)...in all seriousness - her thoughtful demeanor and attentiveness to our personalities - likes and dislikes etc. made for a great relationship - which I think is really important when choosing a photographer. What I loved about Rosie was her ability to be almost invisible on the day of our wedding while managing to capture the entire feel of the day in the most delectable photographs we could have wished for.

When we were looking through the photographs it re-created the day for us and gave us an insight into what everyone was getting up to! Just perfection - reportage of the day with amazing attention to detail!!! Rosie also shoots film as well as digital - adding another dimension to her wonderfully tasteful pics!

The Dress

Vintage lace, elegant, simple, feminine, romantic, classy, with couture like detail, but remaining subtle...I think that was about all I wanted! I found the dress on my first visit to the boutique - opposite our house in Exeter (handy!) - with my Mum. My veil was from the same boutique.

The Groom

James is the strong silent type but has a really quirky side to him which having met Sam at our tailors Dress 2 Kill in Waterloo we managed to capture in the suit we designed together. Inspired by David Gandy - Grey jacket with black trousers and U shaped black waist coat - the classic part of the suit design - then to tie in with the elegant, classic romance theme - we added a little je ne c'est quoi in the form of a black velvet lapel and velvet trim to the pockets - complimented by a velvet pocket square!!! So exciting - especially when we saw our creation come to life at the fittings!!

Bridesmaids

My beautiful gorgeous Bridesmaids. They needed little dressing up. Natural elegance was what I wanted - but mainly I wanted them to feel gorgeous, classy, and grown up which I feel is lost in some crazy Bridesmaid designs!!

So the classic black maxi from Coast was what we plumped for with simple flowers. The girls hair was a relaxed tousled classic look by V&M Hair, hair flowers by Johnny loves Rosie, and lots of bubbles!!!

My girls were so unbelievably amazing, organising a wonderful hen and all staying with me in the cottage in the gardens of the barn the night before!! Two live in Singapore, one in London, one in Wiltshire, and one in Birmingham - so as you can imagine we hardly all get together - which made it super special!!!!

The Décor

The balloons were from my imagination - honestly trying to explain to friends and family that I wanted huge black and white balloons tied to the tables and in all the group photographs was fairly amusing - I remember trying to explain my vision 'they are like big matte bubbles'! Balloons and elegance don't usually go hand in hand and I got lots of funny looks and polite noises and 'ah...right...that's interesting!' But I loved them...so did James...and so did everyone in the end!! So my little horrors weren't actually too horrible!!

The barn speaks for itself so aside from storm lanterns that created the aisle inside the barn and large church candles in all the nooks and crannies there was not much to do!

The stationery was simple - recycled paper, hand stamped (stamp designed by james and myself through notonthehighstreet.com) - simple grey/black/cream - this theme ran into the place names and table names etc.
Tables names - Roads in which James and I had lived (11 years is along time so we collected many addresses!)

The Music

The Mama Stone house band were our entertainment. They are from Joss Stone's Mum Wendy's music venue/bar/restaurant in Exeter. Wendy even came along to make sure we were having a fantastic time with her band - which we were. Every single guest was on the dance floor immediately after the first dance - the staff at the barn couldn't believe their eyes!!! Angelo is absolutely fantastic front man and I would whole hearted recommend the band without reservation!

We also had The 4Seasons String Quartet - from amazingly graceful classical recitals to The Beatles - they were fantastic!!!