Jo & James’s beautifully rustic Pimhill Barn wedding, with Brightwing Photography

Published by Claire Gould on September 28, 2020September 28, 2020

Welcome to the new week, my lovelies. I hope you’ve had a relaxing weekend and a little sunshine! Today’s (pre-corona!) wedding shows how amazing a little DIY can look. Gorgeous couple – and these two are just stunning! – Jo & James styled their day beautifully with help from “an army of friends and family” – and the personal touches make it so very special. Jo’s dress is fabulous – it’s by Adrianna Papell and she bought it from TDR Bridal in Halesowen (who I’m very proud to say are English Wedding members!) She tells us all about her dress shopping experience a little further down, so do keep scrolling. So many beautiful photos full of ideas here – I hope you love this! Remember you can Pin images by tapping the top left corner 🙂
With love,

Wedding photographer’s website

http://www.brightwingphotography.co.uk/

How did you choose your photographer?

We started by researching local photographers in the area and arranged to meet a few as we really wanted to have face to face discussions before deciding who to go with.
After meeting Sophie at Brightwing Photography we knew she was the one for us! She invited us round for a cup of tea and to have a chat and we instantly clicked and felt like she really understood our style.

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

We knew we had made the right decision in chosing Sophie as she really listened to the photography style we liked. We loved her natural and informal approach and wanted to get away from some of the staged wedding photography poses as this really isn’t for us! On the day she made us laugh and smile and feel completely at ease which we think shows from our photographs. We are over the moon with the photos and feel they reflect the day beautifully.

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

Ollie at Floodgate Films.

We didn’t meet Ollie before the big day but he came as another fab recommendation from our photographer Sophie who we trusted. We thought his work was beautiful and loved his cinematic video style.

On the day Ollie was completely calm, and James really felt like he had an extra usher with him for the day.

We now have full footage of the whole day and also a 4 minute clip to music which is absolutely beautiful. At the beginning of the planning stage we weren’t sure on whether to have a videographer and thought we could spend the money elsewhere, however after talking to a couple of friends we decided to book it. WE ARE SO GLAD WE DID. Advice to other couples- book a videographer. You will not regret it.

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

Pimhill Barn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

We knew we wanted a barn wedding had been to look round other barns but found them all to ‘dressed’. As soon as we saw Pimhill we fell in love with its natural beauty and gorgeous outside space. My bridesmaids and I loved staying in the Courthouse the night before the wedding which is next to the barn and perfect for the bridal preparations in the morning. Ginny and Ian who own Pimhill are wonderful and allow you to be as creative as you want to be with the barn!

Shrewsbury also means a lot to us both as it was where we met and we love it so it meant a lot that we could get married there.

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

I absolutely loved wearing my dress! What bride doesn’t!

I only visited 2 bridal shops with my mum and sister and was willing to try on all shapes and styles but quickly narrowed it down. I found the whole experience really enjoyable and exciting. Luckily my dress fit perfectly and I didn’t have to have any alterations which saved a lot of money. My dress was Adrianna Papell and along with the headpiece were from The Dressing Rooms in Halesowen, West Midlands. It was the second bridal shop I had visited and they were so lovely and helpful. I love 1920’s style so the shape of the dress and beautiful detail was just what I was looking for.

James visited a few suit shops with his best men and to begin with couldn’t find the exact style he was after- we were looking for a tweed finish but we were that with a June wedding this could be too warm!

In the end the waistcoats, jackets and groomsmen pocket squares were from Peter Posh in Tettenhall. James’s tie and pocket square were from Etsy and the other ties were from Marks & Spencer’s. We then asked the groomsmen to wear a white shirt and black chinos of their choice that fit well. We bought all of the shoes online from Shoeaholics.

Our pageboys wore white shirts from River Island, black chino shorts and braces from H&M and black vans we had bought them for their birthday. They looked adorable.

Hair: One of my sister’s best friends Emily from Salon Blue in Bridgnorth did the bridesmaids and mother of the brides hair and helped me with my headpiece which was difficult to secure in my short hair but she did it!

Beauty: We had the lovely Laura and Grace from Studio Beau in Bridgnorth to do our makeup. The wedding day was really hot and we were worried about the make up sliding but it stayed put all day!

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

I made the decision on which florist to have very early on after attending a christmas wreath workshop with my sister and instantly clicking with the lovely Sarah!

I used to work in a flower shop before University so have a big interest in flowers and although I wanted to be quite involved with this part of the wedding, I didn’t want the stress of having to do it all on my own.

I met Sarah at her shop and we talked about lots of foliage with different shades and textures. I wanted the foliage to be just as important as the flowers themselves and Sarah really understood my thinking with this. The twine used on the buttonholes complimented the tweed suit jackets well whilst keeping with the greenery theme.

Sarah and Fran supplied us with buckets of ruscus and white flowers to decorate the inside of the barn with which we did on the Friday afternoon. We collected gin bottles for the flowers which we placed down the middle of the tables dotted through the runners of greenery. We selected flowers of different textures and only had a couple of stems in each bottle to keep them simple. I was over the moon with how it all looked in the end.

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

A family member, and mum to our beautiful flower girls, the lovely Michelle made our wedding cake. I asked her a little while before the wedding as she is so good at making cakes and I think/hope she enjoyed the challenge! We told her we liked the semi naked cakes and decided to have lemon (which she did gluten free for my mum and nan), Victoria sponge and chocolate. She decorated it with sprigs of eucalyptus, and it looked and tasted incredible.

We both love cake and always knew we wanted a cake table instead of a dessert, so we asked lots of family and friends to make cakes and they all looked and tasted amazing.

Our friend Sophie made ‘Fletcher’ cupcakes which looked amazing! We didn’t have our cockapoo Fletch there on the day, so it was a way of remembering him!

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

Most of décor was done ourselves, with help from our army of friends and family. We always knew it would be more of a DIY wedding, not only to try and keep costs down but because I knew I would love doing it.

The weeks before the wedding were spent stamping small brown gift tags with our initial’s using our beautiful stamp from The English Stamp company, and then tying them to mini bottles of Jägermeister for our favours, my friend Sinead doing all of the lovely writing on our blackboards including the Welcome sign using MDF, blackboard paint and an old gold frame and writing up the Order of the day on an old sanded down pallet.

Other decorative pieces include:

• Old wedding photos of our parents and grandparents in frames displayed on some old step ladders which guests loved to look at and laugh at our dad’s moustaches!!
• White laser cut bunting, paper lanterns and fans from Aldi hung around the inside of the barn and as a backdrop to our cake table
• Lanterns & candles from Morrisons & Ebay to decorate outside the barn doors

• Crates from Simply Borrowed Wedding Hire which my dad filled with gorgeous plants to compliment our greenery theme. We then gifted all of the plants we had bought to family on the Sunday before we left
• Pots of lavender for the wooden tables outside the barn
• Lovely green paper lanterns to hang in the trees outside and handmade fabric bunting to hang above the cartshed, made by my very talented friend Sinead.
• A wooden arch made by another talented friend to use as the backdrop when we got married which we decorated with artificial hanging wisteria from Ginger Ray. Was so happy with how effective this looked!

• Cake stands, some bought and some borrowed from Simply Borrowed Wedding hire to display the lovely cakes
• A glitter/ tattoo station next to our photo booth using pots of glitter and temporary tattoos from Amazon. We borrowed a vintage mirror from my parents and set up a table where guests could go and get glittered up! We had some props and two polaroid cameras for guests to use and peg their photos for us to keep
• An LED vintage LOVE sign from an antiques shop
• Three artificial eucalyptus wreaths from Ikea hung on the brick wall in the barn
• Mr & Mrs Smith bunting for behind the top table from Etsy
• An old wicker basket filled with some confetti homemade by friends and some bought and confetti wands from Shropshire Petals for the flower girls and pageboys
• Paper confetti cannons for the first dance from Hobby craft

We had the barn from Friday morning, and we spent the whole day with loads of our family and friends decorating and getting it ready which was hard work but such good fun. I had a vision in my mind of how I wanted it to look and felt all of our hard work and planning really paid off in the end.

We hired festoon lighting for inside the barn which Hipswing supplied and put up for us. We also hired tables, chairs and the Bar from Tipples in Shrewbury. We had trestle tables which we put up and dressed on the Friday with the foliage and flowers from the florist and tealights dotted through.

Food:

Our caterers were the amazing Rustic Roast Kitchen who provided us with gorgeous canapes and a Summer BBQ menu delivered on paddle boards and dishes to the tables for guests to help themselves. This fit with our relaxed theme and was perfect with how hot the weather was in the end. They then had a pizza oven for the evening which was the one thing we both wanted from right at the start. Pizza and cake!! Heather and her team really were brilliant, the food was delicious and they went out of their way to make sure our day was perfect.

Bar:

Tipples bar hire had their rustic looking bar set up inside the barn which fit in so well with the barn and our styling. They provided welcome drinks of Pimms and bottled beer and plenty of prosecco and wine for the tables.

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

Loving You by Paolo Nutini.

Paolo Nutini was the first live concert we went to together so his music is special to us both. We love his music but just knew this one- the lyrics were perfect.

Advice for other couples:

• Start planning as soon as you can- pinterest and wedding blogs will become your life!! Oh and Microsoft Excel!!
• Book your venue and photographer first as they get booked up quickly!
• We weren’t planning on having a videographer but a friend of ours talked us into it. BEST DECISION EVER!!
• Remember the day is about the two of you. Do what you want and try not to be too influenced by anyone else.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help, friends and family are usually so happy to be asked and they were what made our day so perfect!