The Wedding of Lucy & Iain

An intimate springtime indoor ceremony wedding

The day was a relaxed, family affair with rustic touches & the cutest ring boys

Lucy and Iain had been together for 14 years, and engaged for 7 of those years, before they finally made it down the aisle. Their story, not unlike many modern couples, follows the usual lines of “oh well, you know, we got so busy that life just got away from us.” Four dogs and two children later, they finally decided to go for it, and honestly, we’re so happy they did!

With only 9 months to plan their wedding day, Lucy and Iain pulled out all the stops for their intimate spring wedding here with us at Tower Hill Barns. It was a heart-warming affair with many personalised and thoughtful touches from the help of their good friends and family.

Lucy and Iain were married on the 9th March 2019, with a lovely family-oriented indoor wedding ceremony.

Their quick turnaround from deciding to go for it, to wedding day, is largely thanks to Lucy’s lovely mum–who was so excited they’d finally decided to tie the knot that she sprang into action and helped with everything from finding Lucy’s dream wedding venue, to her dress, and had a hand in everything else in-between.

When it came time to find a venue, Lucy knew she wanted to get married somewhere beautiful. Her dream wedding venue had a country feel (like a rustic barn) with an outdoor garden area that offered open spaces, plenty of flowers and a relaxed vibe. So when her mum sent her a link to our website, she instantly fell in love. Lucy said it was a wedding venue she could only have dreamed of getting married in.

“The moment we drove up the driveway, I just knew this was the place. I was grinning the whole way up the path to the entrance of the barns. The beautiful gardens were stunning, and we were welcomed by such happy staff who hugged me straight away. I just knew this was it… this was the place!”

Lucy: I’d always dreamed of an outdoor wedding in the summertime, but with having recently relocated, and with ongoing renovations on our new family home keeping things on a tight budget, it just wasn’t to be. In the end it didn’t matter because once I saw the charm of the Old Barn, my heart melted and I fell in love with the idea of a spring wedding, when the venue could accommodate a more intimate wedding. The indoor ceremony room was like a romantic fairy-tale had come to life, it was lined with candles and the old stone walls made everything feel very intimate.

We booked then and there without hesitation, and so began our 9-month wedding planning timeline. My mum was brilliant and did such an amazing job in helping us get everything organised. I just texted and fired over my visions and ideas and somehow, she put them all together.

The Suppliers:

With having such an intimate springtime wedding (we had 50 guests to the day and an extra 30 for the evening), we really kept it personal, and in the family when it came to our suppliers. I wanted things to be natural, simple, and with flowers throughout. We carried this all the way through from my hair, to our photos and even the decorations. I’m so thankful to have been able lean on my mum (and her friend) who picked and arranged our flowers, my dad (and his friend) for capturing our special day, my sister for my wedding makeup, and a local hair salon (No Loose Ends) who did my hair.

The Dress:

I knew I wanted something with lace and that had a vintage feel, but I was having a hard time finding the dress I could see in my head. After months of trying on dresses and none of them being “the one”, my mum found my dream wedding dress with just six weeks to go! I guess we’ve always been known to be very last-minute people.

The Bridesmaids:

My sister, her daughter, and Iain’s niece, were my bridesmaids. They wore floaty dresses that had a vintage feel in floral pink colours.

The Boys:

Iain was worried about what he’d wear for the big day as he’s not someone you’d ever see in a suit! He and our two boys, and my nephew, went with a look that I think really worked well with the setting of the barn and looked absolutely amazing, pulling off jeans, boots, and a shirt with a bow tie very well!

The Decorations:

We didn’t do too much in the way of decorating the barns because I felt the natural setting of the barns with the hops really speak for themselves. We went for simple butterfly seating tags, rustic snack boxes for after the ceremony that had Pringles in (they went down a storm and eaten in about 5 minutes flat), rustic bunting, hand-made candle holders wrapped with lace (made by my mum) and photos of all my past and present family’s wedding days hanging up. We did rustic little brown boxes with love hearts that included Haribo rings and a gift inside for our wedding favours. I’d ordered pallets and signs for the order of the day with Rosie’s Pallets, and also the most beautiful blossom tree arches from TMS Events that just completed the room and the ceremony room too.

The Cake:

Iain and I both love the naked cake style, so we went with a lovely sponge from M&S that was covered in fruit. Our guests kept saying it was the best cake they’d had!

Accommodation:

We stayed both the Friday and Saturday night in the Farm House at Tower Hill Barns, and we had such a lovely time with the whole family joining us. The team looked after us so well, taking away all thought of worries and provided everything that we could have possibly needed.

On the Friday evening my youngest son took ill (typical) so I was up most of the night looking after him, and worrying about how he would be on the day. But that morning I was awoken to him jumping up and yelling “morning Mummy”, before running to the kitchen for breakfast, so I needn’t have worried. Phew! With that worry behind me, I began to relax again!

Breakfast was amazing, and then we all went to finish decorating the rooms. But to be honest, we didn’t do much as the staff were just so friendly and helpful and took everything off our hands. We then got ready upstairs together in the large open plan makeup room, enjoying the Prosecco and tea and coffee supplied.

The Ceremony:

It was so special to have our boys’ hand us the rings, and the registrar was really natural (also very funny) so it really put us at ease. We enjoyed drinks at the bar after the ceremony, before sitting down to our wedding breakfast.

The Food:

The food was just superb; we went with a traditional type wedding breakfast menu that was a total crowd pleaser! We served a leek and potato soup with truffle foam and rock chives, lovely Welsh beef with Yorkshire puddings and roasted potatoes, and a scrumptious sticky toffee pudding with heavenly homemade butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream.

The Tower Hill Barns chefs were also really happy to accommodate our guests who were vegetarians, serving a risotto of winter vegetables with wild rocket, vintage balsamic, and crumbled goats’ cheese. We went for lamb and chicken kebabs for our evening food, and my gosh how beautiful it was! The Tower Hill Barns chefs had served them with salad and sauce on flat breads and it was absolutely delicious.

The Evening Do:

We decided to break tradition and created our own playlist instead of going for a DJ. We’d asked each guest to send through three of their favourite songs which made the playlist really personal and fun covering all the genres and eras. It was a nice intimate and relaxed vibe, with our guests using all the spaces in the different rooms to chill out and socialise.

My eldest son sang his favourite song, George Ezra’s “Hold My Girl”, for our first dance which was so special. He did us so proud, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room! I still get teary now just thinking of the four of us up dancing on such a special moment whilst he sang.

The whole day was spectacular, simply stunning, and I loved every moment of it! Every little detail was perfect, and it was everything I wanted and more. We finished off the evening by a sparkler send off by our guests outside and it made for such incredible photos.

As far as wedding venues go, [Tower Hill Barns] is absolutely everything and more. I could not have hoped for a more perfect day thanks to the most amazing team!

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