Real Weddings at The Granary Barns
Dan & Katy
05.06.22
If we could put money on the amount of times couples have said to us ‘I just don’t want it to rain on our wedding day’ we would be a very rich team. Have you not heard of the old wives' tale why its good luck for rain on your wedding day? The knot in "tying the knot" becomes wet and is harder to break, thus making the marriage stronger.
Well, lucky or unlucky however you want to see it. The rain did full on 5th June 2022 for our lovely couple Dan & Katy but this didn’t stop them having the best day ever!! Don’t take my word for it read below and hear it for yourself from Dan & Katy themselves…
THE DRESS
When I started dress shopping I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, but loved the idea of something that had a vintage feel. But after visiting three wedding dress shops I started to worry that I might not find ‘the one’. Shortly after visiting the last shop, I was scrolling through Instagram when I came across the brand ‘Needle and Thread’. One dress in particular caught my eye. It was tulle, decorated entirely in sequins and had floaty sleeves with frill details.
I went ahead and ordered the dress as it was reasonably priced and could easily be returned if I didn’t like it. However, I was blown away when I opened the box. It was even more beautiful in real life! The quality and detail was incredible. Trying the dress on, I knew was ‘the one’, there was something so ethereal and magical about it. It ticked all my boxes and made me feel like a special version of myself.
I knew that I wanted to wear a veil and that it would have to be bespoke due to the colouring of my dress. After searching online I came across ‘Sash and Veil’ and booked in to visit Heather at her studio. We decided on a super sheer, ballet length veil that would be dyed to match my dress. Whilst at the studio, I noticed that Heather specialised in hand embroidery and I fell in love with the idea. So my veil is embellished with a hand embroidery of our names. It was a really special little detail that complimented my dress perfectly.
SUITED + BOOTED
Dan and I both love the colour green, so initially Dan wanted a green check suit. Unfortunately it turned out to be quite difficult to find! We found one shop that stocked a green suit that he liked the look of, but it was a thick tweed material that would have been too warm for our summer wedding. So we shopped around a lot and eventually landed on a tailored fit navy check suit from ‘Moss Bros’. We paired it with a rose coloured tie and brown leather brogues. Both of our dads also wore the same suit but our usher and my step dad chose their own.
THE VENUE + DECORATION
We decided on a two year engagement so had plenty of time for all of the wedding planning, and believe me there was a lot of planning! We knew that we wanted to get married locally so started by researching into the nearby venues. The Granary Estates ended up being the only venue that we actually viewed, it just felt right straight away. It had so many charming features and we were really able to envisage our day there. We absolutely loved the intimacy of the flint barn and the granary barn really gave us that ‘wow’ feeling we were hoping for.
We very loosely set a theme of vintage glam so we tried to carry this through into the decor. We incorporated antiqued gold accessories and had stationary and signage created in a timeless calligraphy. In the flint barn we added foliage and fairy lights to the beams and in the granary barn we kept it simple by just adding white drapes to the beams. We also hired a jazz band to play during the drinks reception which helped set the tone for the day.
For the table arrangements I spent a lot of time looking on Instagram for inspiration. We ended up outsourcing the long trestle tables and cross back chairs as we felt these better suited our vision for the day. We then dressed the tables in blush pink runners with the matching napkins. Our crockery and cutlery also tied in with our theme. The flowers played a huuuge part in our decor, but more about those in a minute…
FLOWERS
I don’t even know where to begin with the flowers. Our florist, Clare Jones, was absolutely incredible! She really exceeded our expectations and we were completely in awe of all she created for us. All of the flowers were in a continued theme with lots of lovely texture. There were seasonal flowers in pale pink, cream, burnt orange and green, with flowers such as garden roses and daisies.
There were basically little vases filled with beautiful flowers dotted all over the venue. We opted for this more relaxed style rather than the more traditional floral arrangements. The flowers on the tables were particularly stunning, but in all honestly we loved it all. I was so obsessed with my bouquet that we ended up taking it away on our mini-moon with us! But my flower girls bouquet has been hung and dried out for preservation.
CATERING
The food was an important detail of the day for us as we are both massive foodies! Early on in the planning process we realised that we were drawn to the idea of a more relaxed and informal style wedding breakfast. After viewing the list of approved caterers from the Granary Estates, we quickly decided that ‘Hall & Co’ would be the best fit for us. We chose to have a BBQ, because who doesn’t love a BBQ?! We had a tasting session prior to the wedding to help us finalise our food choices. We opted for 3 meat options, a veggie option and a selection of seasonal sides.
For the evening food we had ‘food miniatures’, which were smaller portions of fish and chips, macaroni cheese and a crowd pleasing milkshake and doughnuts. We also had an amazing dessert table created by Jess at ‘One Part Love’. We opted for a 2 tier ruffle cake, brownies, mini cupcakes and shortbread hearts. We were very pleased with how the food turned out and our guests seemed to thoroughly enjoy it too!
THE PROPOSAL STORY/THE RING
Dan and I were high school sweethearts and had been together for almost 10 years by the time the proposal came around. After a big year of becoming homeowners and fully renovating our first home together, Dan proposed on NYE 2020. It was just the two of us in our living room and it was perfect. The ring was bespoke by Ellie Air, a responsible and sustainable independent Jewellers. It’s a beautiful green sapphire surrounded by a halo of diamonds… not your typical engagement ring but I absolutely love it and know it will make a wonderful family heirloom one day!
TAKE MY ADVICE
Despite our best planning and choosing a date in June based on it’s good weather history, we learnt that unfortunately, you can’t control the weather! A few days before the wedding the forecast dramatically changed from 19° and sunny to 13° and torrential rain. I would be lying if I said we weren’t initially freaking out when we saw the change in the forecast! But we soon realised that it didn’t matter. The Granary Estates have a wonderful indoor space that meant all of our guests could easily keep out of the rain and still enjoy the day.
In the end we managed to escape the torrential rain and it turned out to be intermittent showers. So we were able to run outside for photos in the gaps in the weather. Okay so we didn’t get the beautiful sunset photos, our hair got wet and my shoes were covered in mud but we really didn’t care. It was still the most amazing day and besides, rain on your wedding day is good luck right?! So our advice is to choose a venue that has you covered for any bad weather. And if you do get forecasted rain, don’t worry about it, it will still be incredible!
www.luisholden.co.uk
www.hallandcoeventdesign.co.uk / www.cma-event-hire.co.uk
www.needleandthread.com
www.sashandveil.co.uk
www.loefflerrandall.com
www.libertyinlove.co.uk
Flower girl dress- John Lewis
www.moss.co.uk
www.clarejonesfloraldesign.co.uk
Granary In-house DJ - www.cambridgeweddingservices.com
www.onepartlove.co.uk
www.ellyjaynemakeup.co.uk
www.harrybrunt.com
Signage - IG @rachaelc_letters
