A Colourful Outdoor Rustic Wedding at Chaucer Barn, Norfolk

This is the story of Sam & Sam and their colourful wedding day at Chaucer Barn, Norfolk. The Couple married in a rustic summer haze on 14th August, 4 years after they met for their first date and 16 months after Sam proposed!

“We spent all morning fixing some LED lights in our Campervan. As a reward for helping he took me out for a fancy lunch and a walk on Hampstead heath. As we were walking I saw a beautiful tree and suggested we climb it. As we were sat high in the branches Sam produced a ring and proposed. I nearly fell out the tree! He did of course get down on one knee once we were safely back down on the ground…”

So come on folks, come and meet these two lovebirds and see how they styled out Chaucer Barn for their fabulous outdoor wedding day, all beautifully captured by Coco friend, Katherine Ashdown Photography…

Notes from the Bride

Images by Katherine Ashdown Photography.

Sam: I found Chaucer Barn online and immediately liked the idea of being able to stay the night before and after the wedding with friends and family. This gave us the opportunity to set up together and then chill out together the next day. I went to visit the barn with my mum and instantly feel in love with place the gardens are what really sold it for me. We wanted to have our ceremony outside and once we saw the willow arch by the wild meadow I knew then that Chaucer Barn was where I saw our special moment taking place.

My dress was from London Bride Couture and was a Mikaella design. It was a strapless dress and the wonderful Tina at the store did an amazing job of adding the keyhole back and sleeves. I loved the scalloped hem to the dress. I also felt it flattered my shape and had the lace overlay which I know I wanted from the beginning. I had real flowers in my hair supplied by the amazing Bramble & Berry. My necklace and bracelet were bought online at Not on the High Street.

Both Amy {Flamingo Amy} and Emily (Love Moi Makeup} were recommended to me. I went up for a trial with both the ladies the week before the wedding and was blown away with how helpful and accommodating they were. They both did an amazing job at making me feel super special on the day.

Images by Katherine Ashdown Photography.

Sam’s sister was 8 months pregnant at the time and this proved problematic. I wanted the girls to look similar, but be comfortable and happy in what they wore. I didn’t originally what to get the dresses from a bridesmaid shop as I feel the dresses can be too over the top. However with the pregnancy we struggled to find dresses on the high street that both girls could wear. In the end we succumbed and went to Reflections Bridal. Here we found a couple of dresses that the shop were happy to adjust to look similar. Sadie had an Alfred Sung maternity dress and my sister Catherine wore a Dessy design. Both dresses were in Regalia in colour. The girls also had fresh flowers from Bramble & Berry.

I am a zoo keeper and have always loved nature. I wanted the day to be outside as much as possible, which is why Chaucer Barn was so important. I wanted it to be colourful and everyone to feel very relaxed and comfortable. I made the majority of the décor for the wedding. I made giant paper pompoms of lots of different colours and hung these in the banqueting hall. I used hula-hoops covered in ribbon to suspend multi-coloured butterflies and I made lots of different coloured wool pompoms and strung them together with fishing wire and hung these around the building and in the trees.

Images by Katherine Ashdown Photography.

Our photographer was Katherine Ashdown. She was recommended to me by my florist, and after looking through her website I fell in love with her style of photography and her use of nature in her photos. As nature is so important to me and I wanted the great outdoors to feature heavily in our wedding I felt confident that she would be able to capture our day. Katherine fitted in perfectly and made everyone feel at ease. Sam was not looking forward to having his photo taken, but was smiling throughout thanks to her relaxed yet professional attitude.

I wanted the flowers to be lots of different colours and sizes and to be mainly wild flowers. Sarah of Bramble & Berry was fabulous and listening to all of our ideas. She added her flowers to the willow arch, marquee pole, stair banister and gave us buckets of flowers to fill the small glass vases I had been collecting over the months. The bouquets contained a huge array of flowers and herbs and smelt wonderful. The flowers were such and special part of our day.

My Mum made the cake. The bottom was a carrot, the middle a chocolate and top was a fresh fruit cake. Carrot is my favourite, the chocolate was for Sam and the fruit a modern take on the traditional wedding cake. My brother made the cake stand. He carved a traditional love knot on one level, an eternity knot on one and a carving of the tree he designed for our wedding invitations on the other.

Images by Katherine Ashdown Photography.

We used Expresso catering for our afternoon tea, they also supplied all the antique crockery and worked really hard to make sure we had everything just the way we wanted it and surpassed our expectations. They also supplied the salads and pavlovas for during and after the hog roast.

We had a string quartet called Reeverberate and they were happy to learn how to play Bo Dylan’s (covered by Adele) ‘Make you feel my love’ a week before the wedding for me to walk in to and played throughout the afternoon tea. Sadie’s husband Matt sings and plays the guitar and did a long set for us in the afternoon. He did such and wonderful job and really helped set the relaxed mood of the day.

The whole day was so magical and perfect and so picking a favourite moment is hard, but one of the best was straight after our dance. Sam and I took a bottle of champagne and a couple of glasses outside to enjoy our first real drink of the day. The garden was lit up with hundreds of fairy lights and candles. We snuggled up under the stars on one of the hay bale sofas and toasted to being husband and wife.

Images by Katherine Ashdown Photography.

Click here to see all images from this Chaucer Barn wedding…

Venue Chaucer Barn | Photographer Katherine Ashdown Photography | Bridal Dress London Bride Couture | Bridesmaids Dresses Reflections Bridal | Hair Flamingo Amy | Makeup Love Moi Makeup | Florist Bramble & Berry | Catering Expresso | Hog Roast HG Graves | Entertainment Reeverberate

Thank you so much to Sam & sam and of course Katherine for sharing this beautiful wedding, Chaucer Barn looks just awesome! You can see more of this rustic wedding venue on the Coco Directory here.

If you fancy featuring on our Real Love pages then click here for submissions.

Until next time…