Set in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside, Eden Barn was the picture-perfect venue for Hayley and Matt’s stunning wedding back in June.
Pinning their hopes on that unpredictable British sunshine, they struck it lucky, with one of the longest days of the year delivering the dreamiest of backdrops to their nuptials.
An intimate blank canvas with pretty rustic charm by the spades – the barn was a textbook fit for the couple’s wholly romantic, minimalistic look. Think fairy lights, candles, white rose petals lining the aisle, and gorgeous foliage and blooms dotted around the venue. And for an understated and thoroughly modern palette – grey, silver and white hues completed the look.
The couple did things a little differently too, something we always like to hear at BUN HQ! For entertainment, guests were treated to laser clay pigeon shooting and not one, but two, luscious signature drinks: Raspberry Daiquiris and Long Island Iced Teas. It’s time to find out all the finer details, so here’s Hayley to appease our curiosity!
With images by Emma Pilkington Fine Art Wedding Photography
Proposal
Hayley says
: We got engaged on 11th December 2017, during a weekend in London before Christmas. On the day he proposed, Matt planned the whole day around things I love. We went to an art deco style restaurant for breakfast, followed by ice-skating at the Natural History Museum and then to watch a show in the West End. Later that evening, we went for dinner and afterwards Matt proposed next to a huge Christmas tree in Covent Garden. Of course, I said yes and then we went for champagne at The Savoy! Everything was perfect.Setting
We got married on 22nd June 2019. We wanted a summer wedding and so decided on June as we hoped this would give us plenty of sunshine and a long summer’s day. I had also been repeatedly seeing the number 22 for over a year beforehand, so saw this as a sign, I’m a little superstitious, and in the end, the 22nd was the only day for weeks where it didn’t rain!
We spent a long time looking for the perfect wedding venue. We wanted something with character, but not too old fashioned and as soon as we walked into Eden Barn in Kirkby Stephen, we knew it was the venue for us.
The barn was a perfect blank canvas, the stone walls and floors gave it a rustic feel, but it still looked very modern and elegant. We knew the fairy lights cascading down the wall would be an amazing backdrop for our ceremony and top table, and the views of the Yorkshire Dales in the distance were beautiful. The owners of the barn, Cliff, Carolyn and Andrea were amazing from start to finish, too. They were so helpful, and nothing was too much trouble for them.
Theme
We wanted everything to be really romantic and pretty but still quite minimalist. The cascading lights in the barn looked like something from a fairytale, so we wanted to play on that and added lots of fairy lights and candles all around the venue.
Our stationery and decorations were all quite minimal; the barn was so pretty we felt we didn’t need to fill it with too much and so we decided to just add the flowers, lights and candles.
Our colour scheme was shades of grey and silver with white. As already mentioned, we wanted to keep everything quite minimalistic and the white flowers and grey bridesmaid dresses looked so elegant. We then added silver details like the place names and frames on the table to add a slight luxurious feel.
Dress
I chose an elegant mermaid style dress by La Sposa (titled Haliza) made from crepe and tulle. It had a bateau neckline and was backless, with gorgeous beadwork around the shoulders and back. I bought the dress from Melissa Marie Bridal in Wigan.
It was the first dress I tried on and as soon as I saw myself in the mirror, I fell in love with it. The gown made me feel so tall and elegant, and the train at the back was amazing. I love art deco and the silhouette and beadwork reminded me of this. I tried on other dresses afterwards to make sure I was certain, but nothing compared to how I felt when I tried on that first dress.
Groomsmen
Matt and his groomsmen all wore a black two-piece slim fit suit from Slaters Menswear. This was styled with a light grey Donegal style waistcoat and a bottle green tie.
Bridesmaids
The bridesmaids wore a grey fishtail maxi dress in satin with a bardot neckline from Oasis.
Beauty
Elle Murphy from Luna Salons Ormskirk styled my hair on the day and the lovely Anna Sorbie did my makeup.
Transport
I travelled in my stepdad’s car as we were only around the corner from the venue, and both the ceremony and reception were held in the barn.
Photography
Emma Pilkington Fine Art Wedding Photography captured our day. Emma is an amazing photographer and as soon as we came across her website, we knew she would be perfect. Her photos are so bright and really complement the minimalistic style we like and her eye for detail is amazing. We would definitely recommend Emma to anybody that is looking for a photographer.
Our photos turned out perfectly – we couldn’t have asked for more beautiful images to capture our day and our album is gorgeous. All of our guests commented on how discreet Emma was on the day and what an amazing job she did and the whole way through planning she was so organised and kept in touch whenever we had any questions.
Styling
My bouquet was a beautiful mix of white flowers and silvery green foliage in a loose and relaxed style. I had white roses, hydrangeas and peonies mixed with wildflowers and gorgeous eucalyptus and thistles.
All of the bouquets were created by the amazingly talented Alison and Clare at The Flower Farm in Lancashire. I cried when they turned up at the hotel with the flowers and I saw them for the first time, they were so beautiful and surpassed all of our expectations.
Alison and Clare also supplied the flowers used to decorate the venue. Similar to the bouquets, they used white flowers with lots of foliage and greenery. They decorated the tables with martini vases filled with beautiful flowers in a loose and natural style and the top table had a long arrangement with flowers hanging over the edge of the table. The bar area also had multiple vases with similar flowers and they also provided the flowers for our cake.
Matt and I did other decorations with the help of my sister and her husband the day before. We had chiavari chair sashes tied with hand-made silk ribbon, tall vases with candles and white rose petals lining the aisle, a welcome sign and hand-made seating plan. We decorated the table with silver charger plates, had silver wooden place names and used small silver easel frames for the table numbers, too.
Cake
Our cake was designed and made by Kelly Nattrass at The Little Kendal Cakery and it was stunning. We loved Kelly’s minimalistic style with the sharp edges and tall tiers. We had a three-tier cake with the middle tier slightly taller than the top and bottom. It had distressed silver leaf on the bottom layer, water colour grey on the middle tier and a plain white top tier with real flowers down the front.
Kelly sent us loads of delicious flavours to try and we decided on a tier of Limoncello drizzle and two tiers of classic vanilla. All of our guests said how amazing the cake tasted and it looked so pretty.
Dining
Jen and Luke from Southcott Events Catering provided our food and drinks on the day. We went for a tasting day with them and all of the food we tried tasted amazing – it was difficult to choose our menu.
We had canapes after the ceremony and opted for mini shepherd pies, honey glazed Cumberland sausage, roast beef on bruschetta and goat’s cheese with cherry tomatoes. They were all amazing!
For our wedding breakfast, we had confit duck rillettes to start, roast sirloin beef with fondant potato for our main and sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce for the dessert. Our food was all so good, and Jen did an amazing job of running our day and making sure everything was on schedule.
We served the food with white and red wine, nothing too special just Casillero Del Diablo and then Canti Prosecco for the toast.
Entertainment
We wanted something to entertain our guests and originally considered a photobooth or magician. We visited the barn for a catch up and Cliff mentioned that the wedding the week before had laser clay pigeon shooting and as soon as he said it, we both agreed that would be amazing.
Laser Clays Entertainment were brilliant. We loved that we had something different, that none of our friends or family had seen at a wedding before. They also did engraved medals with our names and wedding date for the top girl and top boy and the two winners loved those.
Special touches
Cliff and Carolyn mentioned a few weeks before our wedding that they had a lot of guests trying to order cocktails at previous weddings and because of the time it takes to make drinks and the large amount of guests waiting to be served they hadn’t been able to do it. We asked them to buy ingredients to make two signature cocktails to serve on our day, so we had Raspberry Daiquiris and Long Island Iced Teas for our guests to enjoy and everybody loved them.
For our guest book we had an instant camera and that went down really well. Our guests loved taking funny photos and signing our guest book and we’ve loved looking back through the book since and laughing at the photos. We ordered our guest book from Martha Brook London and that was gorgeous when it arrived.
We had dried rose petals down the aisle that we ordered from the Rose Petal Shop, and also our wooden place names came from LoveCC. They were perfect!
Thanks to
Our day was so perfect thanks to everyone at Eden Barn. Cliff, Carolyn and Andrea were so helpful all the way through planning and nothing was too much trouble for them, they made everything so easy.
The venue looked incredible on our photos and there were so many gorgeous decorative features that we didn’t need to do too much to make it look special.
The location is great, very secluded and the views are amazing. The staff were so helpful and made sure everything ran smoothly and on time. It took us almost a year to find a venue and all of our guests said it was worth the wait, our day was amazing and the beautiful setting definitely helped.
Best bit
There were so many memorable things about the day – it’s hard to choose just one. The morning preparations of getting ready with my bridesmaids and the excitement of seeing Matt was amazing, but I think my favourite moment was when I stepped into the ceremony room and saw all of our guests smiling at me, some even crying, and Matt stood at the end of the aisle waiting for me. I walked down the aisle to Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey and I cried when the music started and I saw everybody. The emotions really took over and it felt like a dream.
Honeymoon
We went to Bali for our honeymoon and it was amazing. We stayed in a private villa at Uma Sapna with our own pool and it was so nice to relax and spend time together. The honeymoon was a perfect mix of romance and adventure. We tried to fit in as much as we could, from visiting the Lempuyang Temple, swinging in the jungle at Bali Swing, white water rafting and on the final night we woke at 1am to climb a volcano and watch the sunrise. Bali was beautiful and the Balinese people were so friendly and nothing we asked was too much for them. We would definitely recommend a honeymoon in Bali.
Advice
It sounds very cliché but my biggest tip for other Brides Up North is try not to worry or stress too much. We were so worried about people having a good day and everything running smoothly, and in the end, the day was perfect, and everyone had an amazing time. All the worry we had been for nothing. We have both said since that we would love to do the day again without all the worry and enjoy every single minute of it.
We would also say that research definitely helps when booking or ordering anything. We have been to weddings where suppliers have let the bride and groom down a few weeks before or something hasn’t turned up on the day. Read reviews, contact suppliers and if you have doubts at all, look around for someone else. Planning our wedding was so stress-free and it’s because all of our suppliers were so helpful and organised.
Looking at real weddings on Brides Up North was great for inspiration. When planning a wedding it can be a little overwhelming and you have so many ideas, so it’s good to see what other people do and what works well together. It was also great to look at multiple venues all in one place.
