Beth and Robert’s spring Devon farm wedding is overflowing with many of my wedding “favourites”. Favourites such as…getting married in May, spring wildflowers, and yurts. Captured by our friend Jennie Hill Photography, this down-to-earth wedding is a real family affair, with a sprinkling of handmade details and pretty touches.

Although the wedding was held at the family farm in Devon, it is dotted with elements that share the couples love of Scotland. As we sit here in March with hints of warmer weather and spring flowers starting to bloom, I’m certain this spring Devon farm wedding is going to get you dreaming of spring.

A spring Devon farm wedding with lots of wildflowers

“We had met in the West country and both our families live in Devon and Dorset respectively, so the South West was a big part of our lives and was full of so many things and people we love. We wanted our wedding day to reflect this and to be as relaxed and down-to-earth as possible, so when we asked Robert’s parents about the possibility of having the reception on the family farm in Devon this just seemed to be the perfect solution to make it the day we wanted.

We chose to have a spring wedding as it is such a beautiful time of year on the farm, with so many wildflowers in the hedges and apple blossom on the trees. We wanted to have wildflowers as they were simple, natural, in keeping with the season and reflected the countryside around us.”

Yurts on the family farm

“It was important to us to make our wedding as personal as possible and to put as much of us into the feel of the wedding as we could. We both have a love of walking and the outdoors, and just wanted the day to be fun and stress free so this was very much a priority when we started to look at planning the day.

We got married on the family farm in Devon. We did look around at other venue options but couldn’t settle on any that were as personal to us as the family farm, and the perfect location with beautiful views, that we could only really imagine it there. It did have the challenge of needing to level out one of the fields in order to accommodate the yurts we had found…but that just added to the adventure.

We visited the yurts in a field near Totnes to get a feel for the space and what we would need to fit in our guests. This really helped for me as I was struggling to get a feel for how the space would be by simply looking at pictures online. Standing inside with the handmade wooden structure and the light coming through the stunning roof we knew that they would give the wow factor to the country wedding we envisaged.”

A delicate lace vintage inspired wedding dress

“We rented accommodation nearby to get ready so I was away from the farm and any last-minute tasks that had needed doing. I felt so relaxed just being with the bridal party getting ready and just couldn’t wait to see Robert.

I found my wedding dress in Scotland, in a village near to where we were living. My mum had come up to visit so we used this as an opportunity to go looking together. I didn’t really know what kind of wedding dress I wanted, but wanted to have something delicate, vintage with lace (which didn’t really fit with the practicalities of a farm wedding but that didn’t matter). I actually fell into the stereotype of getting the first dress I tried on, but did not actually go for it until a while later when my sister visited and I went back to the first shop with the first dress and it just felt perfect.

My veil was a charity shop find and my shoes a high street find (I also got some lace pumps for after the ceremony to help with being on the farm and dancing). Robert got me a tartan shawl to put round my shoulders too, which was really cosy, especially later on in the day – another little Scottish twist to add to our West country wedding.”

A dark blue tweed grooms suit with a nod to Scotland

“Robert wore a dark blue tweed suit tailored from Walker Slater in Edinburgh and found tweed waistcoats from there too for our ushers and for the two dads to wear under their regular suits. This was part of bringing a touch of Scotland to our wedding as it was a big part of our story as a couple also.

Robert’s best friend Jen was also an usher. She picked her own dress and so we got a pashmina to match in with the colours of our day. We had wildflower buttonholes made up by our florist.”

A church ceremony with candles and forage flowers

“We knew we wanted a church wedding, so deciding on the format did not take too long, but we took a bit of time to decide on the hymns, readings, and music to walk in to. It was important to us for it to be a nice balance between traditional and personal. We decorated the local church with candles and foraged flowers.

I was so excited I actually arrived early and the best man had to send me back round the block. I didn’t know how I’d feel and was worried I’d have stage fright, but when it came to walking down the aisle it just felt so right and perfect I was not nervous. I remember just smiling seeing my family and friends as I walked down the aisle and Robert standing there at the end smiling as my veil was lifted back.” 

Ethical wedding rings made on the west coast of Scotland

“Our rings were made up in Scotland by Mahailia Jewellery who we found through a friend. They make ethically sourced jewellery with recycled metals on the west coast of Scotland. We worked with them to create simple hammered silver wedding bands. We even went on a road trip to go and pick them up in person which made them extra special and a personal choice rather than just going to a regular jewellers.”

Pale green bridesmaids dresses and a vintage car

“My two sisters Rebecca and Emily and my sister in law Rachael, as well as my childhood friend Beth were my bridesmaids. They wore pale green dresses from Debenhams and accessorised themselves. I used some of the lace from my dress alterations to tie up their posies which we put together the morning of the wedding from buckets of wildflowers delivered by our flower supplier.”

A love for each other and exploring the outdoors

Robert and Beth met at a friend’s birthday party: “To cut a long story short, we ended up hitting it off and swapping numbers, which was very out of character for both of us. A few days later we met up for a cuppa in town, and ten hours later I made it home as neither of us had really wanted the date to end! We have been inseparable since, we even moved up to Scotland together when Robert was offered work up there. That is where our love for the outdoors and exploring led to us getting engaged on a quiet night on the banks of the beautiful Loch Awe.

We had a few family photos outside the church, then headed back to the farm where we had a champagne cocktail reception and delicious canapes provided by our caterer. While our guests were mingling we disappeared for a few moments to ourselves just to let the moment sink in.”

A handmade do-it-together wedding

“When we were planning our wedding we were living in Scotland at the time. We did a lot of our fact-finding remotely and found it was often easy to get lost in the vast amount of information that came up for weddings online! We found blogs such as The Natural Wedding Company really helpful to give us ideas and to find suppliers that reflected the kind of wedding we wanted. From the start we wanted to use local, independent suppliers as much as possible.”

We stitched bunting, made mini jam favours from fruit picked in the garden, made cushion covers for the benches in the yurts and made cassis for the Kir Royale welcome drinks from blackcurrants we picked. We just did these gradually in the run up to the wedding, being sure to leave plenty of time especially for the fruit picking and preparation.

We tried to do as much ourselves, but were grateful for help from our creative family also to get all the jobs done. The best man David (also a mechanic) did up our wedding car for us (borrowed from a family friend). Usher Joe did wedding signs and our invites, as well as making origami birds for us, with the help of his girlfriend Kim, with which to decorate the yurts.”

Finding a like-minded wedding photographer

“We found our photographer Jennie Hill through her website, and we loved the feel of her photos and the weddings she had previously captured. She was not a member of family but easily could have been by how easily she fitted into the day and the similarities we found with our love for food, countryside and general laid-back approach.

Neither Robert or I are used to being the centre of attention and not one for posing photos so to feel so comfortable around Jennie was really important and for her to blend so easily into our day really gave us the pictures we wanted. And she went above and beyond, even giving Granny a lift home midway through the evening!

We love the photos on the farm when we just took some time out from the wedding party to walk together and just take in the day and what had just happened – special times.”

Feasting on local food and homemade tipple

“We are both foodies, so choosing the right food for the wedding was an important part for us. For the wedding breakfast we had West country canapes and Kir Royale made with our homemade cassis, with Elderflower cordial as a non-alcoholic option.

For the main meal we had a locally reared hog roast provided by Shaun at Piglet Cottage, with a variety of amazing salads all made from locally sourced ingredients, and a butternut quiche for the veggies. We picked Shaun initially as we were so impressed by his range of veggie options, which often seem like an afterthought.

Puddings were a joint effort from family and friends making all sorts of cakes and puds, Eton mess, brownies and the likes. Later in the evening there was wedding cake and a selection of West country cheeses and biscuits. Aside from the welcome drinks, we had a couple of local ciders and an ale on tap, and wines sourced from a French vineyard by friends of ours.”

A naked tiered Victoria sponge wedding cake

“We wanted something simple and tasty – and something natural and floral/fruity to fit in with the feel we were going for – so a naked three tier Victoria sponge with fresh cream and fruit was the way forward. We found our cake maker through our caterer who had worked with her at another wedding, and she went the extra mile by sending a sample cake in the post to us in Scotland.”

A West country ceilidh

“We were set on having a ceilidh, and after much searching (and consideration of flying a band down from Scotland) we eventually stumbled upon a great local ceildih band who were based in Exmouth. As chance would have it the bandleader actually came from the town where Robert was working in Scotland.

Call it serendipity or just a small world, but they turned out to be a great choice and really set the evening alight as we had wanted. They did exactly what we hoped and got everyone up dancing.”

Swedish fire logs and hay bale seating

“The boys had fun making Swedish fire logs to light in the evening to keep everyone warm too, and brought in hay bales for outside seating.

Because we chose to have so many handmade, personal touches it definitely needs you to be more hands on – we had family and friends all chipping in in the run up to the wedding, sanding benches, making cushions, collecting things and decorating the farm. This was tiring but all part of the excitement of getting ready and making it feel truly personal.”

Making the day you want, with the people you want

“My advice to other couples is just stay true to what you want, try not to get swept up in all the things you could do or could buy – just make sure that it is the day you want with the people you want.

Also, things may go wrong or not quite to plan on the day, but just don’t focus on that, just focus on the day and what it means as at the end of the day no one really will know all the little details.

Finally, don’t try to do it all yourself as family and friends are always happy to help, especially on the day just delegate and make sure you get to enjoy all your planning.”

A big thank you to Beth and Robert for sharing their spring Devon farm wedding with us, and to the lovely Jennie Hill Photography for capturing it so beautifully.

If you particularly love the spring wildflowers in this wedding, check out some of these posts on our blog for more inspiration – cow parsley, bluebells, forget-me-not, and wildflower bouquets.

{ Details }

Photography: Jennie Hill Photography (TNWC Recommended Supplier)
Venue: Family farm
Yurts: Yurts for Life Hire
Brides Dress: Anna Sui from Vintage Bridal Couture
Grooms Suit: Walker Slater
Wedding Rings: Mahailia Jewellery Design (TNWC Recommended Supplier)
Flowers: Clements Farm
Hair & Make-up: Laura Elston
Wedding Food: Piglett Cottage
Wedding Cake: Carole’s Cakes & Vintage China
Entertainment: Dumbo’s Feather
Wedding Stationery: Coleman Sign & Design