Aimee & Joel’s Godwick Great Barn Wedding

A huge honour has been bestowed upon me; telling the story of Aimee & Joel’s wedding at Godwick Great Barn.

So what’s so different about today’s tale? Well, Aimee & Joel are the owners of Godwick, an utterly dreamy rustic wedding venue in Norfolk. As I’ve written this beautiful real love feature I’ve felt so many things – Being able to write about one of the most important decisions and days of someone’s life is pretty special and the fact that I’m doing this for the owner of one of my favourite wedding venues? Well shucks. So not only do we have an actual wedding venue owner tying the knot today, but our notes are from the Groom himself… Joel (a.k.a. James to me and a few others!)

The love that Joel has for his beautiful new wife Aimee is overwhelming and I warn you, I shed a tear or two just writing this. Combined with the stunning imagery by Peach & Jo Photography and the cutest of films by Vintage Videos your little socks will be knocked off.

There’s also a whole host of talent including our fave gal Penny from The Little Lending Co. creating the most magical of settings, Bramble & Berry with heavenly autumnal florals and a beautiful bespoke dress for the Bride.

Ready?

Joel says…

The venue choice was easy… I own Godwick Great Barn and have always dreamt of getting married in my own venue. Not many people get that chance, so I feel very lucky to have met such a beautiful woman and to have had a Godwick wedding. Both Aimee and myself were keen that we would have exactly the same experience as any other couple that get married at Godwick, from using our wedding planner to staying in the bridal suite at Godwick Hall, where we live. OK, so we have a bit more local knowledge, which helps of course!

Aimee’s dress was designed and made by Norfolk dress designer Katrine Mogensen specifically for her. The dress was a mermaid style shape made of silk crepe with a lace top and high lace back. Embellished with 3 different laces and beading, the dress was finished off with delicate little covered buttons. Our initials were sewn in blue on the inside of the dress for our “something  blue”.

Rustic country style was the look we were after with lots of autumnal colours – tweeds and browns and blues for the men and dark reds and blues for the ladies.

Bridesmaid’s dresses were a midnight blue full length dress from ASOS with high necks, plunging back detail and lace capped sleeves to match Aimee’s dress. Aimee’s blue & silver suede shoes were from Anthroplogie.

Big thick shawls from Zara, Monsoon and Betty Barclay were the perfect accessory to keep the girls warm.

Aimee made her own necklace and she used a local make-up artist Paula Daynes, who recommended Fleur Blake for her hair.

The boys all wore navy blue chinos, light blue shirts, with tweed waistcoats from a variety of high street stores with navy textured bow ties, which were all from Top Man. As the Groom, I also wore a tweed jacket from Slaters and the page boy was dressed in blue chinos, white shirt, bow tie and waistcoat from Monsoon. The idea was to create a mismatched rustic look with a strong but relaxed country feel.

We had 15 large rustic trestles built for the wedding as we really wanted a large banquet rather than round tables and linen as this felt more appropriate for a big barn wedding. The tables looked great with a foliage runner, log slices for sharing platters, wine tumblers and tea lights dotted along them. Everyone described it as magical with the fairy lights twinkling above – it really did look and feel that way.

Rosemary and red berries were a theme that ran throughout all our stationery, table place settings and foliage table runners. Our stationery was designed by Wonderful Wonky Weddings. We chose them as they had a really quirky style, and were happy to work with us. We crafted the words for the invites and the order of the day and they turned it into the style we were after. We wanted to write the words as it’s a very personal part of the day, but we also wanted to make it clear that the day would be informal, relaxed but importantly fun, with lots of good food and drinking and celebrating in a big barn!

We had a lot of help from Penny from The Little Lending Company, who was also our Godwick event manager and wedding planner. She has a fantastic eye for detail and is brilliant when it comes to adding those great styling and finishing touches. She wrote all our signs for the Godwick Gin Trap, the DIY photo booth, order of the day and the drinks stations in the Giant Tipi as well, which all helped the look come together.

We chose a local florist called Bramble & Berry. Sarah is great and has worked at Godwick a few times before, so we were really aware of her style. We wanted big hand tied bouquets with lots of berries and autumnal colours and lots of foliage in the barn too. Aimee and the flower girls had rosemary and red berry crowns to match our theme. It’s a great time of year to get married as the colours are so wonderful and striking and we love that dramatic look of big brooding skies. Oh and we got just that! The weather was not that great, although it didn’t rain too much.

The cake was made by Aimee’s mum and was a naked Victoria sponge and looked absolutely amazing decorated with autumn berries and fruits.

We chose local caterers Julie Abbs Catering because we have worked with them several times over the years; we know and trust them and were totally confident that would deliver what we were after. We wanted informal food to compliment the banquet-style trestle tables, so lots of mezze and sharing plates. We had a long drinks reception, so we decided to not skimp on the Canapés and use them as a starter. Burgers were served later for evening guests and as a beer saver as the night went on! The food was amazing and lots of guests said it was the best they have ever had at a wedding. Julie Abbs definitely did us proud.

We chose Peach & Jo Photography because we really loved their style, which is relaxed, quirky and informal with lots of reportage and very few group shots. They had photographed an autumn wedding at Godwick in 2014 and we really liked the photos from that, so we had a good idea of what we were looking for and what they could do at that time of year with the light that would be available.

We also got on really well with them, which helps as they are a big part of your day. We’ve been really pleased with the photos, they really capture our style. It wasn’t an amazing day weather wise, but it didn’t matter as Peach & Jo are really creative and ensured we got everything we wanted.

A last minute decision was to hire a videographer we discovered called Vintage Videos – it was one of the best decisions we made. We absolutely love our video, which was shot in a quirky vintage style, no words but moving images set to music. It really brings our memories of the day to life.

The ceremony was actually amazing.

I don’t think either of us had realised how beautiful that would be and how much that would stay with us. I will never forget watching Aimee walking down the aisle as the Bearded Busker, Alton Wahlberg played and sang Ellie Goulding’s “How Long Will I love you..?”. It took my breath away and I was blubbing like a baby by the time Aimee reached me. It was a truly romantic and beautiful moment.

We missed a lot of the reception as we were having photos taken up at the ruins at Godwick, but we did get to catch the end of it in the Giant Tipi, which was supplied by our great friends Matt & Lisa of Magical Tipis. We wanted a gin reception as well as fizz, so we created the Godwick Gin Trap, an old butcher’s bike laden with different craft gins, tonic, juniper berries, lime and cucumber. It went down pretty well!

The tractor ride was very special, particularly for me to be getting a ride to the ruins, rather than driving the tractor like I have for many Godwick Brides! It was great to have that time alone with Aimee to let everything sink in.

Dancing our socks off at the end of the night was the best part, particularly as we managed to persuade the band, The I Do’s, who are just brilliant and have played quite a few times at Godwick, to do us an encore. So about six of us had a private set of four songs… that was special and a real perk of owning the venue!

From one couple to another…

• I’d say that you need to have a theme and stick to it and ensure that the theme runs through everything.

• Get a video, best thing we didn’t cut back on!

• Be prepared for bad weather and it won’t ruin your day. We had wellies, shawls and big gust-buster golf umbrellas in white and you know what, they all look great in the photos.