Russell and Abi had a most beautiful, relaxed and timeless Barn Wedding at Redbank in Herefordshire last autumn! A barn wedding was what they thought would suit them the best, at home, in their own county. They soon found Redbank Events with their two wedding venues conveniently located just outside Hereford. The one they fell in love with was the American ranch style decorated barn, on the banks of the beloved river Wye. I also truly love photographing weddings at home in Herefordshire, our county offers the most breathtaking scenery for a wedding in the whole of the UK!
I am going to let Abi share with you more about their day below. Just before that though, here are a few lines written by poet William Wordsworth about our “wandering” river Wye, in the poem “Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey” published in 1798 in the volume “Lyrical Ballads”. How beautifully put!
“How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,
O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro’ the woods,
How often has my spirit turned to thee!”
Dear Abi and Russell, what would be the 3 words to best describe your wedding day?
Relaxed, Beautiful and Perfect!
When planning your wedding, how did you go about choosing a venue that would fit your vision for your wedding?
We knew we wanted a barn wedding as we had seen so many on Pinterest and they looked beautiful. This would also fit the relaxed vibe we wanted for the day! We had been to a wedding fayre already and had seen some ideas but not much seemed to be fitting with what we wanted. I then saw an advert on Facebook for a Wedding Fair at the Redbank near Hereford. It was a fairly new venue at the time but the photos were enough for us to know we definitely needed to go and view it. Once we got there it didn’t take much to convince myself or my husband that this was exactly what we had been looking for: a barn wedding at Redbank in Herefordshire, our home county. It was the first venue we viewed, yet we just knew this was the one for us! Such a beautiful barn in a beautiful riverside setting! Seeing it all set up in a similar way to what we knew we wanted: natural wood, simple flowers and greenery and lots of little lights, it was perfect!
Tell me about your decor & colour theme: where did you get ideas from?
A lot of our inspiration came from Pinterest but also Instagram. We looked at what other people had done and started building from there. For a very simple and natural theme, we decided on sage green and cream as colours, which would suit the natural setting of the barn very much. Simplicity worked well with the flowers, using lots of beautiful greenery! Luckily the barn had lots of lovely bits of decor for us to use and it came with the wonderful Martha (an actual angel!) who put everything together so perfectly!
3 tips for future brides and grooms on bringing your own character into your wedding and making the day unique:
- Don’t compare yourself to others or put pressure on yourself to be like others, just do what you want!
- Do a lot of research, even if it is just on Pinterest! There are so many different ways of doing things now and so many ways to personalise your day!
- Don’t stress! It might lead you to force things, just relax. It will all work out perfectly!
If you were to do it again, is there anything that you would do differently?
There isn’t a thing we would change! The day was perfect!
How important was photography for you among everything else on your wedding planning list?
For us our photos were incredibly important, they are something you have forever to remind you of the most beautiful day!
Do you have any advice for future couples on choosing their photographer?
It’s important to look through a variety of different photographers to get a feel of what it is you are looking for. There are a lot of different styles! Instagram is a godsend for this, you can look through so many different photographers’ work all from the comfort of your own home! We loved Cat’s photos, they had a warmth to them (if that makes sense) and were lovely to look through! It is also important to meet your photographer to make sure you get on and that their way of working is what you want, you will be spending a lot of time with them after all! For us Cat ticked all the boxes and it was wonderful to have her and Rich with us on the day (we hope they feel the same!). Cat also produced us the most beautiful wedding album (designed by Cat and printed and hand-bound in England by Folio Albums). Now we have a perfect way to look back on our day, our beautiful barn wedding at Redbank in Herefordshire!
Venue: Red Bank Barn
Decor / Wedding stylist: The venue and the couple
Catering: The Spitting Pig
DJ/ Band: Ben Hulme
Wedding planner: Martha (Redbank Events)
Dress: Timeless Elegance Bridal Cardiff
Shoes: Dune London
Jewellery: Family jewellery
Make-up: Make up by Jenni Moran
Hair: Sarah-Jane Sheehan – The Hair Room
Bridal car – vintage camper by Love Bus Weddings
Cake: the Bride
Florist: flowers supplied by Deb at Beehive Florist, put together by Bridesmaids
Men’s suits: Symonds of Hereford
Second set of love letters – Dress to impress by Julie
Photographer: Cat Beardsley Photography
