Love in the time of Corona….

The fam…

IN April 2021 Carrie and Sam brought love back to The Barns, East Yorkshire. What we thought would be a chink of light in dark times turned out to be a blinding beacon of hope and happiness!! After months of quiet, this fabulous little wedding party of six managed to fill our venue with love, laughter and fun. It was a joyful reminder of what weddings are really about….

So, what is it like to plan a wedding during a global pandemic? Gorgeous bride Carrie tells us in her own words….

Stunning bride, Carrie, in her Enzoani Dress from Harrogate Wedding Lounge

Carrie: “When the pandemic hit in March 2020 we really didn’t consider the impact it might have on our big day planned for September. Just like most people we thought the whole thing would be over and done with in a couple of months! Oh how wrong we were! The hardest thing of all was the fact COVID had taken away our ability to look forward to our wedding day because we just didnt know if it would go ahead. After waiting and hoping you get to a point where you would rather move the date and have more certainty (or so we thought). So around June time after lots of conversations with Kate & Ed who were fantastic in offering us lots of alternative dates and options we decided to move our date to April 2021. I can’t put into words how amazing Kate & Ed were. The fact The Barns is family run meant we always had Kate or Ed to talk to directly and we could tell they genuinely cared about our big day. The most challenging time was after making the decision to move the date, we had to contact all our suppliers ASAP to book them for the new date. Thankfully, they were all available… phew!

6 months down the line and it’s like deja Vu… back to the unknown, back to the uncertainty, we couldn’t believe it was happening again. By this point, our view had changed, we just wanted to be husband and wife. We didn’t care so much about the big party. After more conversations with Kate & Ed we came to the most amazing solution- as long as it was allowed, we would marry at The Barns in April and then book a later date for the big party. So once again we had to rebook/alter all our suppliers for our two dates, luckily they were all so understanding and reasonable we were able to do this pretty easily.

The day was a dream come true, the weather was perfect, we had our 4 guests and we were finally married. I think the photos say it all, it couldn’t have been better and we honestly feel it was a blessing in disguise. Having only extremely close family there meant the day was extra special and super intimate. All this is of course helped by the fact we know we get to enjoy this beautiful venue again for our big party in 2023. Looking back on the last year is quite emotional, COVID took away a lot but it definitely didn’t take away love. We genuinely feel so lucky to have had all our amazing suppliers, thank you to every single one.”

At last!

THE VENUE: The Barns, East Yorkshire: “We knew we wanted a relaxed, ‘barn’ kind of wedding and after viewing about five venues, The Barns, East Yorkshire was next our list. Well….sometimes you just get an amazing feeling and we certainly got that when first arriving. Kate and Ed were so friendly and helpful and the venue was exactly what we had been looking for. The layout, the rustic barns, the beautiful gardens, the large field for camping, the centre walkway between the two barns and the general feel and flow felt perfect for a wedding… we could immediately picture our day here. Not only all that, but the flexibility to truly make your day your own is what really sold it to us. We didn’t want a sit down formal meal and the ability to choose our own caterers (with help from Kate and Ed) was exactly what we hoped for. Choosing The Barns turned out to be the best decision we had ever made.”

The girls…

THE DRESS: Enzoani from The Harrogate Wedding lounge – “It certainly helps when the wedding dress shop is as beautiful as the Harrogate wedding lounge! I thought I’d found 2 dresses elsewhere which I couldn’t decide between. But when I tried on the Enzoani ‘Margot 2018’ I couldn’t fault it so the decision was made!”

MAKE UP: Megan Bulmer – “I’ll be honest, I’m not a big make up wearer, so finding and choosing a makeup artist for the biggest day of my life was a little daunting. I decided to ask friends for recommendations and after 3 different friends recommended Megan, plus a quick stalk of her Instagram I knew she was the one!

HAIR: Me and my bridesmaid 🙂 “If you’d have told me I’d be doing my own hair for my wedding I think I would have cried. We practised lots prior to the wedding and I was really happy with the results…. good job because I think my bridesmaid lost sleep over it!”

They do!!

PHOTOS: Anna Beth Photography– “This was a big one for me, I personally felt this was one of the most important suppliers… photos last forever so you want them to be good right!? I remembered an old school friend had beautiful photographs of her wedding so asked who her supplier was. It was Anna Beth photography. I loved her Instagram but wanted to keep looking just incase… but I just kept going back to her. I loved her style and couldn’t find anyone anywhere close to her quality.”

VIDEOGRAPHER: For All The Days– “We love videography and even make short video of our holidays, so I knew I had to have a videographer capturing the day. It took a bit of searching to find For All the Days but after watching some of their videos on their website we loved their vibe and the way they captured the day.”

FLOWERS: Buddy Marvelous – “Ok so I was adamant I did not want to spend a fortune on flowers… because… they die! Another recommendation from a friend led me to Julie Dickinson. She has a pure passion for flowers and was SO reasonably priced it was an immediate yes from me. She was happy to meet up to discuss what I wanted, so we chatted over a coffee and the rest is history!”

The boys…

SUITS: Moss Bros– “We knew we wanted blue/light blue suits and Moss Bros had a good range, with easy access to their shops nationwide for groomsmen to try on for size.”

BRIDESMAID DRESES: ASOS – “Not an easy task choosing bridesmaid dresses to suit different shapes sizes complexions (and I only had 4 bridesmaids!)! ASOS offered petite/tall in the same dresses which definitely helped in choosing a dress. The stylish but simplistic dresses suited everyone so that was a win!”

FOOD:Blakefields Catering – “Recommended by Kate and Ed we were really intrigued by James and Nicole’s alternative catering. We had a tasting evening where they cooked samples of their menu (best evening ever!) and we were blown away not only by the taste of the food but the presentation, so vibrant and colourful! They were a relatively new business when we booked them but we could tell they had a passion for catering and were so helpful and flexible when choosing our menu. Another great find!”

CAKE: Mother-in-law! – “She absolutely smashed this, it was the most amazing cake we have ever had!!!!”

STYLING: Me! – “With a venue as beautiful as The Barns, you can really get away with very minimal styling if you want to! A few gin bottles with flowers and jars with candles and I was happy.”