A rustic country wedding – friends, farming and flowers in Gloucestershire
Posted on January 21st, 2018
It’s not every day that one of your best friends gets married so when Luke popped the question to my bestie Lisa it’s fair to say there was some excitement, especially after 9 years together! Both of them are country souls through and through, with Luke having a background in farming and Lisa loving horse riding and gardening so their big day was always going to be a rustic country wedding surrounded by lots of family and friends.
Living on a farm and being a part of the rural community there were going to be a lot of guests so a big marquee on the farm was the natural and perfect reception space, whilst their ceremony took place at a local church just a few miles down the road. They went for a rustic, country style of decor with hessian, bunting and added in a fun cow theme! Lisa’s favourite teal green colour featured in the ties, dresses and in the bunting so to complement the strong green we went with classic whites and lots of greens for the florals.
Lisa’s bouquet was a natural hand-tied style with a mix of summer blooms including dahlia, roses, lisianthus, scabious, ammi and soft grasses and foliages. Her bridesmaids (including yours truly, no pressure then!!) had a smaller version of her bouquet.
The chaps had simple buttonholes of white roses with waxflowers and foliage, while the ladies had corsages of white freesia, spray roses and waxflowers.
There wasn’t a lot of room in the church so we kept it simple inside with four pedestal style arrangements on the windowsills, which were later moved back to the marquee and placed on vintage cider barrels. Outside the church I decorated the wooden porch with a simple garland of greenery and two vintage milk churn arrangements either side.
Back at the farm we went to town on the rustic country wedding theme and dressed up the marquee to wow the guests: my vintage bicycle was parked up outside the entrance and I created a vintage wheelbarrow filled with flowers for the table plan. Rather than just put the wheelbarrow on it’s own, I styled a little focal area with my vintage ladder, wooden crates and vintage bottles and watering cans filled with flowers.
The table flowers included a low garland along the top table, with little white-washed wooden boxes on each guest table – and those brilliant bovine table names!
I also dressed up the dessert station with my foliage LOVE letters, mini milk churns of flowers, vintage bottles and bundles of wheat – and managed to resist those brownies whilst doing the finishing touches (with bridesmaid hair done – afraid I don’t have flowers in my hair for every wedding set up! Maybe I should….
The final floral flourish were three big hanging balls! These add a serious amount of wow-factor to any marquee, and are especially suited to a rustic country wedding. They’re the first thing people see and really create stunning focal point in the big white space of the marquee ceiling.
It was a real honour and pleasure to be a part of Luke and Lisa’s big day, so much fun planning and although lots of work to do all the flowers I was absolutely in my element and loved creating something special for them, particularly as Lisa said ‘you don’t really appreciate how flowers can transform a marquee until you see the before and after’ and being there for the day hearing people comment on my work was so lovely. Thank you to Hannah Buckland Photography who was also a bridesmaid but manage to capture these beautifully images of my work and the happy couple!
You can see more marquee weddings I’ve blogged by clicking here.
Older Posts: Autumn wedding flowers at Elmore Court – Michelle and Robert
