Beauty in the barn at Laura and Ashley’s rustic chic wedding

Not long into planning their rustic chic wedding, Laura and Ashley fell in love with the idea of a barn venue.

“The rustic romantic feel with lots of flowers and colour felt relaxed and just what we wanted,” Laura, 26, explains.

“We picked a Friday in October and an autumnal colour palette of wine red, peach, cream, green and gold.”

Laura and Ashley, 28, settled on Hendall Manor Barns in East Sussex for the celebrations on October 20, 2017.

The high school sweethearts were surrounded by 40 friends and family for the ceremony, with 100 guests enjoying the evening celebrations at the same venue.

“Having a wedding in autumn meant that we could focus on warming comfort food and could use fairy lights to their full advantage as the evenings were drawing it at the perfect time to show them off for our reception,” Laura says.

“As huge foodies, we focused on warming comfort food… and as neither of us are big fans of cake but are huge fans of donuts, we just had to pick a Krispy Kreme donut tower instead!”

Laura says she embraced the chance to get creative for the rustic chic wedding.

“Being so girlie, I loved picking out fancy detail pieces for the day that I really felt helped make it our own – the gold ornate placemats, calligraphy signage and giant balloons were my favourites along with the fairy light wall (courtesy of Southern Events),” she says.

“Overall, I just wish we could do it all again.”

Photos courtesy of Charlotte Rawles Photography.

“Amazingly I found my dream dress on the first go,” Laura says. She opted for a figure-hugging lace. “I wanted to make sure that my bridesmaids were just as happy. Everyone agreed on deep red multi-way dresses and I loved how they could use them to show off their individual style,” the bride says.

“We were high school sweethearts and after eight years together, Ash surprised me with a trip to Paris for my 24th birthday,” Laura says of the proposal. “He’d booked a wonderful hotel and woke me up early on the sunny morning of my birthday with my favourite flowers and a ring!”

Ashley and his groomsmen were stylish in suits from Next.

“Our Polaroid guestbook proved to be hilarious as the prosecco flowed into the night and it meant that everyone could take a couple of extras home with them too,” Laura says.