Abigail and Matt first met when studying Physics at the University of Leeds 10 years ago. It took 5 years of being friends, which Matthew calls ‘the chase’, and a backpacking expedition around South East Asia for them to become a couple.

On October 6, they married at Barmbyfield Barns, Barmby Moor in a DIY-style wedding. Being lovers of the outdoors, the couple always dreamt of marrying in a barn.

Abigail said: “We wanted a relaxed but traditional wedding. One of our priorities was ensuring that our guests had amazing food throughout the day, and that the dance floor was never empty.”

THE VENUE:

The couple wouldn’t hesitate to recommend their venue. They booked it far enough in advance to have a nice slow build up, which helped with their crafting.

Abigail said: “Paul and Harriet went out of their way to make every detail our of day perfect. I have never seen two people work as hard – and you can tell that they love it.”

They chose the venue after searching for Wedding barns in Yorkshire. Barmbyfield Barns is a blank canvas, which is perfect for DIY brides like Abigail.

She said: “Unlike other venues, we had access from two days before which allowed us to get set up and know what it looked like in advance– this felt very personal and was one less thing to worry about.”

THE OUTFITS:

Abigail wore a Maggie Sottero from The Harrogate Wedding Lounge in Harrogate. She said: “I didn’t have ‘the moment’ that other brides sometimes have. However, looking back now my dress was definitely ‘the one’.

The Harrogate Wedding Lounge was the first shop that I visited, and I quickly returned to buy my dress after I couldn’t find another one that compared. The ladies were so lovely, and the whole fitting experience just added to the build up.”

The groom and men’s suits were from Top Mark Suit Hire in Pontefract and the bridesmaid dresses were from Monsoon.

PHOTOGRAPHY:

The couple describes their photographer, Victoria Baker Weddings, as one of their best wedding decisions.

Abigail said: “We had seen some pictures that Victoria had taken of another wedding at our venue, which is the reason why we had booked it. We wanted very natural and unstaged photographs.

When we met Victoria she instantly felt like a friend, and she made the whole thing very relaxed. She invested so much time in getting to know us as a couple, including a very rainy engagement shoot at the Cow and Calf.

We cannot thank Victoria enough for our photographs – they are even better than what we were hoping for.”

For place names they found a picture of each of the guests and got them printed as personalized polaroids.

They had made a DIY photobooth with their own props, most of which ended up on the dance floor.

The best man, Jonathan Hill, had also stitched Matt up by handing out envelopes containing funny/embarassing photographs of Matt for guests to open during his speech.

EXTRAS:

The couple bought an editable template from Etsy. Abigail said: “It saved us so much money and we were able to use the same design for all our stationery.”

Abigail also made the wedding favours, which were S’mores (the honeymoon was in Canada). They had an hour in between the Breakfast and the Evening guests arriving; so, they got everyone back outside for a firepit and sparklers at dusk.

Matt took the both his and Abigail's Dad to brew the wedding beer a few weeks before the big day. The labels were personalized with ‘Mabby Brew’ and had a picture from their engagement shoot.

Abigail’s advice:

“I found Pinterest and Facebook the most helpful for suppliers and inspiration.  Use a spreadsheet, or two and if you are doing a DIY wedding, plan the clean up as much as the Wedding.”

For more inspiration take a look at our dedicated real weddings section on the website, or get your hands on the glossy pages of our regional magazine here.

Words by Faye Dixon.