DALE & MARC'S BARN WEDDING - GAY WEDDING BLOG

This lovely happy barn wedding was shared with us by Sheryl of Oobaloos Photography. Take a look and read what Dale and Marc told us about the planning.

TELL US THE STORY OF HOW YOU MET

To be honest, our relationship started out as simple as messaging through a dating app. It was when we decided to meet up that the nerves really set in. Although they were short lived as we seemed to hit it off from the moment we met. We had a simple day date to get to know each other more face to face, then we decided to meet up later that evening to go out for a meal and watch a movie. From there we have been best friends and enjoyed getting to know each other whilst growing and building a life together.

NOW ABOUT THE BIG DAY! WHAT WAS THE THEME AND INSPIRATION? HOW DID THE DAY LOOK LIKE? DID YOU STYLE IT YOURSELF?

As the venue is a converted barn, we decided to keep with the natural look that it has to offer. We decided that if we kept things simple that we would be able to create an elegant rustic look.
When planning for the big day we realized that our general decor around our home is very natural colours combined with wood furniture. This became the main aspect for choosing a wedding venue and the inspiration towards creating a perfect rustic theme for our big day.

We both decided that the easiest way to achieve this was to create the look ourselves. This way we could add all the little details that we needed to personalize our day to our own tastes.
It seems bizarre to imagine hundreds of small details fitting together to create a look for our wedding but the end result of how stunning the venue transformed, we would not change for the world. To us everything was perfect!

WHAT WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT AND MOST FUN PART FOR YOU?

The most important and discussed topic for the wedding was definitely the vows! Those vows… Do not mess up the vows. We both managed to have a slip up each. This actually made it the most fun part! The exchange of vows, whilst enjoying ourselves with family and friends. Even though there were a few errors, it is nothing that we would want to change. To us we got to finally relax and it set our day up to be as relaxed as it was.

TELL US ABOUT THE CEREMONY AND RECEPTION LOCATIONS. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THE VENUE AND WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT IT?

We always wanted our ceremony and reception locations to be in the same place. We are both not religious people so a church wedding wouldn’t have been right when it came to the sentimental aspect. We did attend a number of open days throughout the county from hotels to manors but we didn’t seem to connect with the venues and was starting to feel at a loss of finding ‘the’ venue that we would instantly fall in love with. It was only when talking to Dale’s brother about how deflating we was feeling with the venue hunting, he then mentioned The Kingscote Barn that he had helped do some architecture work on. So we decided to go down for their next open day.

The instant you turn into the little lane for the venue you can see miles upon miles of fields in what seems to be its own little vale. Then you come across a row of trees with an old stone brick wall edging along them. When you pass through the entrance you are met with a stunning stone barn hidden away from everything. This was the moment we both knew that this was the place we wanted to get married and each visit after we grew more and more in love with the venue.

We originally started the wedding planning knowing that we wanted our bridesmaids to wear each of our favorite colours. So a little bit of Google and a bit more on eBay we found a gorgeous style chiffon dress that would fit each shape and size of the bridesmaids. We then later found the shoes that each side of the bridal party agreed they liked on the website Schuh.

For the groomsmen suits we chose to buy Fellini suits from the company Slater’s. That way we could have suits that were altered to how each person wanted.
The silk knitted ties were from and online company called The Tie Store whilst the pocket squares we found on Trend Him. Finally we purchased the Brogue shoes from Next.

The florist Jacarandas who we chose to do the centrepieces was a lucky pick as one of the women went to school with Dale. This made it an easy choice as we had instant trust with the work that she was going to create for our special day.

The flowers were provided by two separate florists. Jacaranda arranged beautiful centrepieces and a stunning foliage arrangement along the edge of the barns balcony.
The Ivy House created a gorgeous arrangement of bouquets, buttonholes and a top table arrangement. They also helped with providing giant heart frames, bay trees and flowers for the cake and hair decoration.

For the caterers we both decided that we would choose a company called McBaile. During the open days that we attended at the venue we realized that even though we had been completely taken with the menu choices, we also felted like we got along with the team really well. They are so friendly and were really good with working with us to find out how we wanted our day to be run.

Finally we chose an old friends partner to make personally design macaroons as the wedding favors. Kikimakaron was able to create bespoke macarons that fitted to rustic theme we wanted to achieve.

The table plan we created ourselves along with painting the postbox and decorating the vintage step ladder we were able to seek out.

All the other little details we was able to seek out from various shops so we could add the final touches that we wanted to be applied to our wedding venue.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER

We have known the photographer for a couple of years now through a friend. Sheryl of Oobaloos Photography was absolute perfection! She is an alternative wedding photographer whose unique style caught our eye. She is outgoing, accommodating and amazingly professional. She keeps you completely relaxed before and during your big day whilst working non-stop to take pictures that you don’t even realize have been taken. Also you don’t have to wait months for your wedding photos as Sheryl tells you immediately how long the expected wait is and gives you a few teaser photos the day after.

The cake was provided by a close friend. We chose to keep the cake simple and decided to have a multi-tiered naked cake made out of vanilla sponge, raspberry jam and buttercream. The flower decorations for the cake were then provided by The Ivy House to complete the simple and rustic look of the cake.