Jen & Joel - The Old Barn - Ian Fry Photography - North Devon Wedding Photography

Handmade Dream Wedding

You might be the kind of person who likes to make and do. You love crafting, designing, cutting, snipping, sticking, moulding and seeing something through to fruition. You might be planning your own DIY wedding, in which case read on below to see more of Jen and Joel's hand-crafted dream wedding at The Old Barn.

Jen and Joel first met in Weymouth, working for an activity centre, and then moved back to North Devon to get to know each other even more before taking the plunge to get married. It was in January 2022 when I first met this lovely couple starting to plan their wedding at the North Devon Wedding Network Wedding Fair at Tawstock Court. These events are key to finding quality suppliers who work well together at weddings throughout North Devon. You might be tempted to go to big national wedding fairs but you are unlikely to find suppliers who know the local venues so well and it's likely those suppliers at the national fairs would have a lot of travelling to do (£££).

What made Jen and Joel's wedding so special? I'd like to think it's because they are both lovely people, they made decisions together (so they were both involved), made the place their own, and did things the way they wanted. Sometimes you are given a timetable by a hotel or venue, and this can sometimes constrain creativity or the way you'd like to do things. They made the day about them, celebrating their love with friends and family. The ceremony was full of love, with beautiful readings and personalised vows and the rest of the day flowed from then onwards, with so many smiles and happy memories. A highlight for many weddings at The Old Barn is that you can use the dodgems at the end of the day next door in The Milky Way - a fun way for guests to let their hair down and go a little crazy.

I asked them a few questions to see what they thought about their day.

What did you love about your day?

It is hard to write exactly what we loved but the whole day was the best it could have been. It was perfect and we couldn't have dreamed of anything more. Being surrounded by our families and spending time together made the day feel amazing. Having Ian there made sure all the small details we missed at the time were captured so we will always remember how special we and others found our days. We DIY'd a lot, and spent many hours making all the little decorations and details which made our day just us, with tiny clay Mushrooms hidden around and a whole sweetie cart, you could tell it was our wedding!

What was the hardest part of the day?

Keeping to the timings! It was all planned out, what time we would begin the ceremony, when we would eat and dance, and even reveal our surprise but as soon as the ceremony started the timings went out the window, but we never felt rushed and the just flowed from one thing to another. All I would say is if the guests don't know the timings exactly, then they don't care!

Do you have any advice for couples planning their wedding?

Your ideas of the wedding will change, whether it be little things, like changing ribbon to hessian on your light jars or whether the whole theme started as white and elegant then changed to rustic and woodland (like ours did) then it is okay! It is your wedding, have it how you want! And if you are the planner, give your partner a few ideas of things you like and let them choose then you will both be happy with the choice and both involved!

Any other things you'd like to add?

Ian, our memories of the day may change each time we speak about it but the photos will live on and bring butterflies to our tummies for the rest of our lives. Thank you