Jon & Claire’s elegant rustic Great Tythe Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography

Published by Claire Gould on

Good morning lovely! I hope you’re surviving this crazy heatwave… and if you have sunshine, yay!!! I’m a very happy wedding blogger today, tucked in my little office by the garden with a quite hot and floppy cat sprawled by my side! And I’m excited because I’ve got the loveliest wedding to share with you! Jon & Claire were married at Tetbury’s Great Tythe Barn last summer, and chose Cotswolds wedding photographer Martin Dabek to capture their day. Check out their light up letters from Burnt Orange: they’re such a gorgeous backdrop for the ceremony and reception and I LOVE them!

Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (13)

Huge thanks to our stunning bride and groom, who told me they were really pleased to have the opportunity to rave about their suppliers especially during such a tough time for the industry. “We really were genuinely thrilled with everyone we worked with and anything we can do to support them is great!” All of these guys get great recommendations, and I’d urge you to check them out and book early for your 2021 / 2022 weddings – as we have two very busy years of weddings ahead of us and suppliers will book up fast!

 

Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (2)

Wedding photographer’s website

https://martindabek.com

Great Tythe Barn wedding photographer Martin Dabek

Martin photographed my (Claire’s) best friend’s wedding 2 years before ours and we were really impressed with how he worked on the day and with the beautiful images he produced. In fact, we loved his style so much we didn’t even consider anyone else!

Were you pleased with your wedding photographer? Do tell… we love a brilliant review!

We were thrilled with Martin. He somehow managed to be everywhere on the day but you never really noticed him! Neither of us were that keen on posing for lots of formal photos but he puts you so at ease it was actually a really pleasurable experience. He’s also so good at capturing those little informal moments that happen throughout the wedding and that’s what really drew us to his work. Now when we look back through our album it’s like a storybook of the day and takes us straight back to those little moments which made it so special.

Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (11)

Videographer details if applicable – and any thoughts for other couples about having a wedding video?

Martin set up a video for our speeches but we didn’t have an official videographer for the rest of the day.

Tell us about your venue – what made this place special for you?

Our venue was The Great Tythe Barn in Tetbury. It was the first venue we visited and we just fell in love with it. On a practical level, we were looking for somewhere which could take the number of guests we wanted and had some on site accommodation for the wedding party, but GTB offered so much more than that. The building has so much character, the grounds are gorgeous and the team running it were fantastic.

Did you love wearing your outfits? How was the dress / suit shopping experience?

My dress was from Lace & Grace Bridal Boutique in Keynsham which is run by a mother & daughter team who are amazing! From my first visit they really put me at ease, I had an idea of what I wanted but they encouraged me to try other styles too and I’m so grateful for that as what I actually ended up with was not what I thought I wanted! As soon as I tried it on I just felt amazing in it and knew it was the one. They carried out all the alterations in house and also made me bespoke veil with lace trim to match my dress.
Jon’s suit was a Ted Baker suit from Moss Bros in Bath. He was probably more set on what he wanted than I was but the staff helped us the get the fit right and located the final sizes he needed from other branches.

Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (8)

Did you hire a florist? Tell us about any floral amazingness

We used Boundless Blooms in Bradford-on-Avon. They were so helpful, I (Claire) had some ideas of colours but they took that and used their expertise to come up with a selection of flowers and foliage which provided beautifully balanced and textured bouquets for me and my bridesmaids. They also supplied buttonholes for the wedding party and matching bunches of loose flowers which we used to create our own centrepieces for the tables.

Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (14)

Did you hire a wedding planner?

We didn’t hire a separate wedding planner as the GTB has a team who carry out this role for you. The whole team were great but Alex was our main point of contact. She guided us through all the planning in the run up and was always on hand to answer questions, but most importantly was a calming influence on the day itself! After all the planning and organisation we had absolute confidence that things were going to run smoothly in Alex’s hands so we could just relax and enjoy ourselves.

As cake lovers here at English Wedding we’d LOVE to know who made your cake, and how delicious it was?

We opted not to have a sweet cake but instead had a savoury cheese ‘cake’ which sourced from Christoph at The Cheese Shop in Bradford on Avon. He talked us through our options on types of cheese, sizes of rounds and amount we would need to feed our hungry guests (as this formed the basis of our evening buffet). He also assembled it beautifully for us, even incorporating pork pies made by a family friend as additional layers.

Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (19)

Tell us about any special personal touches, or creative projects you made yourselves

One of Claire’s closest friends runs a wedding props company called Burnt Orange (https://www.burntorange.co.uk) and she supplied some gorgeous finishing touches for us, most notably her fabulous Lola illuminated love letters to sit on the mezzanine above the barn which looked incredible

Wedding caterers

We really couldn’t recommend our caterers Fine Dine With Us highly enough. They are one of the approved suppliers for GTB but they were such a good fit for us, dealing with them was an absolute pleasure from start to finish and most importantly their food was incredible!

Chair hire

@valleyfurniturehire

Valley Furniture Hire were really lovely to deal with, our budget didn’t stretch to the chairs we really wanted to hire but it turned out they were supplying them for a wedding at GTB the day before ours so they got back in contact to let me know and offer us a deal. The fact that they remembered what I’d originally inquired about and went to the trouble to come back to me about it was really touching. I know it also saved them an unnecessary collection and delivery but they didn’t have to help us out! For me that was the beauty of dealing with smaller businesses, you really felt like you got the personal touch and that they cared about your big day.

Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (15)

Did you personalise your vows or have any wedding readings? What were they?

We didn’t have personalised vows but we chose two readings; That Still & Settled Place by Edward Monkton (read by our friend Alex who first introduced us) and I’ll Be There For You by Louise Cuddon (read by Jon’s sister, Nikki)

What was your first dance song? Why did you choose it?

Our first dance song was ‘What Time Do You Call This?’ by Elbow. They’re a band who have soundtracked our entire relationship (Jon even proposed during an Elbow gig at Westonbirt Arboretum!) but this song has a particularly special place in our hearts, both lyrically and because it was playing as we shared our first kiss.

Favourite wedding suppliers

Photographer – Martin Dabek – https://martindabek.com
Wedding Dress – Lace & Grace Bridal Boutique – https://laceandgracebridal.co.uk
Hair – Hayley Bolton, Bristol
Makeup – Elle Hitchens – https://www.ellehitchens.co.uk – Elle is amazing!! Made me feel the best glowing version of myself possible!
Wedding Props – Burnt Orange – https://www.burntorange.co.uk
Caterers – Fine Dine With Us – https://www.finedinewithus.co.uk – These guys were incredible, the food was amazing (we had so many glowing reviews from guests) but the whole process of dealing with Sarah in the run up to the wedding was great and she personally managed things really closely on the day so it all went perfectly.
Florists – Boundless Blooms – https://www.boundlessblooms.co.uk

Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (1)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (3)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (4)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (5)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (6)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (7)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (9)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (10)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (12)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (16)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (17)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (18)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (20)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (21)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (22)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (23)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (24)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (25)
Jon & Claire's elegant rustic Great The Barn wedding, with Martin Dabek Photography (26)


Claire Gould

Claire spends her days writing - either in beautiful calligraphy or online. She lives on the edge of the English Lake District only minutes away from the beach, where she loves to escape and unwind. Claire's calligraphy can be found at www.byMoonandTide.com. Claire launched the English Wedding Blog in November 2009 - it's been a top 10 UK wedding blog ever since, with a regional focus we hope you LOVE.

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