This week’s Real Wedding is delicately rustic, pretty and full of pastel florals and sprigs of gypsophila. Set on a beautifully sunny July day at Pimhill Barn in the fields of rural Shropshire, Nikki and Ben focused their plans around their extraordinary venue. They chose handmade signage and cut log decor to complement the 16th Century vaulted ceilings of the barn.

Nikki and Ben decided upon Amy Taylor Imaging Photography to capture the best day of their lives, a photographer from our eco wedding directory whose photographs we always enjoy. You can see other weddings from photographer Amy that we’ve featured here.

Bride Nikki caught up with us to give us the inside knowledge on the couple’s planning and ideas for their rustic Pimhill Barn wedding…

Personal and rustic wedding plans

From the very beginning of their wedding planning, Nikki and Ben knew they would have a rustic feel to their day.

“We got a lot of inspiration from Pinterest and online searching but we soon realised there was a risk that it could end up being more of someone else’s wedding or we could have too many ideas that don’t flow together. To make sure it was personal to us we chose to put pen to paper and make note of everything we wanted, such as table plan and decor, and think of ways to design and make it our own.”

I just love that the beautiful natural colouring of the oak beams play such an integral part of the ‘colour scheme’ of the wedding. So natural and understated, it is complemented by wooden signs and bark covered wooden elements, like this adorable heart-etched postbox.

Rustic Pimhill Barn Wedding

Pimhill Barn can be found just outside Shrewsbury and Nikki and Ben fell in love with it as soon as they saw it. They knew it was ‘the one’ immediately.

“We instantly knew when we visited the barn that this was our dream wedding venue; it gave us both goosebumps. It was everything we wanted. We didn’t want to decorate it to much as we didn’t want to hide the barn’s natural beauty and personality.”

The beauty of such a venue is that the building is spectacular in itself so they weren’t decorating a blank canvas; the vaulted ceilings, immense double doors and timeworn wooden structure are a stunning backdrop for such a day as theirs.

A moment to breathe calmed nerves

The morning of your wedding day looms with excitement and anticipation like no other. Nikki felt calm until the last minute:

“I was pretty calm in the morning but then time flew by and next thing I knew we had less than an hour to get me, the bridesmaids and flower girls ready. This, mixed with my nerves, began to stress me out. I’m thankful to our photographer Amy as she took me away from everything and calmed me down.”

Backless lace wedding dress

With the venue chosen and the decor decided upon, Nikki turned her attention to her wedding dress.

“I knew what kind of dream wedding dress I had in mind. I wanted something different, not traditional and I wanted to choose a dress that no one expected me to wear. It had to be lace and have a long trail at the back.

I chose an Ellis Bridal and I knew this was the one from the moment I saw it. I didn’t wear any accessories in terms of a veil or jewellery because I wanted the dress to be the focal point. The guests complimented on my dress and how different they thought it was.”

Pastel bridesmaid’s dresses

“I had three bridesmaids: my sister Louise and two twin sister-in-laws, Megan and Zoe. I wanted soft pastel colours for my bridesmaids, something that linked in with the floral decorations.”

Just picked pastel bridal bouquet

Nikki wanted a ‘just picked’ theme for her wedding flowers and she loved the end result on the day.

“My bouquet was very special to me. As soon as Heather brought the flowers in to me I had tears in my eyes. I loved it so much that I’m having my bouquet preserved.”

Groomsmen in steel blue suits with tweed waistcoasts

“Ben had two best men, jack and Chris. He also had one Usher his younger brother Nathan. They all wore a steel blue suit but Ben had grey and blue tweed waistcoat and tie as accents to help him stand out. Ben wanted a subtle wild buttonhole that linked in with my flowers and the wedding setting.”

A relaxed ceremony in front of the barn doors

“We decided we loved the barn so much we had the ceremony there too and it took place in front of the main rustic wooden doors that had been dressed with long white drapes and finished with flowers, by Tamar and Amy from Sweetpea and Ivy.

Two large milk churns either side of the doors framed the wooden barn doors perfectly. We wanted the ceremony to be relaxed and non-traditional.”

That magical moment

Although she was nervous, everything fell into place the moment Nikki saw Ben waiting for her at the end of the aisle.

“The butterflies I felt were unreal when I was walking up the isle. We had an acoustic musician playing my favourite song ‘Old Pine’ by Ben Howard and I was so happy to see Ben that I wanted to cry but the smile on my face was enormous: I was just too happy to cry. It was the most magical feeling ever seeing Ben looking back at me, knowing that we were going to be married in a matter of minutes.”

Pimm’s and lawn games

“After the ceremony we all went outside to be congratulated by friends and family and the celebrations started. The weather was nice and everyone was playing with the games we put out on the grounds. The atmosphere was amazing.”

Natural rustic barn decor

“We decorated all the jars we used in the barn, keeping them simple using hessian and hand making bows. We also made our table plan using large twigs and twine. There were a number of signs and an order of service we designed and Ben and a family friend then made them out of wood pallets.

The rustic theme played a huge part in every detail for our wedding, especially the flowers. We wanted something natural: thistles, large blooms, lilac roses and pastel colours all complimented the bridesmaids dresses. The flowers helped link the outside fields and grounds into the barn, and the colours were just perfect. I wanted the flowers to look like they had just been picked from the field.“

Light and refreshing summer food and drink

“We wanted to keep our food and drink quite light and refreshing as our wedding was in July. We choose Pimms following the ceremony. Our wedding breakfast was a tapas style starter with a chicken dish as a main and Ben’s favourite a cheesecake to finish.”

Tiered naked wedding cake with wooden log effect icing

“Our wedding cake was just beautiful. We had a four tier naked cake. One tier had a light butter cream icing detailed to look like a wooden log with a heart and our initials. We had raspberry and white chocolate, lemon ,vanilla flavours in our tiers. The cake was decorated with fresh fruit and gypsophila. It was our dream wedding cake and again inspired by our rustic theme.”

Natural wedding photography

“Our photographer was Amy Taylor Imaging Photography. We loved Amy from the moment we met her. She has a great sense of humour and a no nonsense way of working. She was great to work with and we loved her style of photography as it was very natural and unposed.

Amy had the ability to capture all the emotions of the day without being intrusive. We were over the moon with our photos, and can’t thank Amy enough. Our favourite photo was both of us walking out of the barn just after getting married. You can see the natural happiness and emotion on our faces at finally being husband and wife. We both think this sums up our day perfectly.”

High school sweethearts

“We first met when we were in high school and have been a couple since we were 14 years old. Ben proposed to me on the beach in Cyprus whilst on holiday, it was so magical as it was a beautiful night with fireworks in the distance.”

It’s all about you

Nikki’s final words of wisdom make it very clear to always make sure, in the end, the day comes back to being about you as a couple.

“Our advice to other couples is to plan your wedding for yourselves, not other people. Just remember take moments in the day to spend time together, stand back and appreciate your wedding day because it goes so quickly.”

What a really lovely wedding – they made it look so effortless and elegant. Congratulations and thank you very much to Nikki and Ben, and as always a huge thank you to our photographer, Amy Taylor Imaging Photography, for these natural, unobtrusive pictures.

If you’re planning your own wedding, be sure to have a look at the amazing discounts and offers from our wonderful directory suppliers during March for our our birthday celebrations – you’ll find them on our Wedding Offers page.

{ Details }

Photographer: Amy Taylor Imaging Photography (TNWC Recommended Supplier)
Venue: Pimhill Barn 
Brides Dress: Ellis Bridal Dress
Brides Shoes: Jimmy Choo
Brides Accessories: Flower hair piece, Folky Dokey 
Grooms Outfit: Dapper Dan
Flowers: Florrisimo 
Wedding Stationery: The Invite Shack 
Wedding Food: SC Weddings and Events & Tipples Bar
Wedding Cake: TicketyBoo Cakes
Entertainment: Jonny sings at Warble Entertainment
Decoration: Sweetpea and Ivy