A Summer Wedding

We can guarantee a lot of things about your wedding here at Furtho, but sadly, I cannot guarantee the weather – oh I wish I could! Instead I have to be the sensible head, telling couples to make sure they have a plan B for bad weather. But back in July 2018, Becky and Dan got a gorgeous sunny day for their Furtho wedding.

They booked their Saturday date seven months before their wedding day, and then got busy planning.

I was blown away when I saw the barn all set up on the Friday. One of the main things I love about letting out our barn as a blank canvas, is going in to see it set up ready, and seeing the lovely unique touches couples make. On this particular week I remember the chairs being a great feature: they had been hired from a lady who had painted chairs white for her own wedding, in slightly different designs. I also loved the table plan which was all different street names.

On the day, Becky & Dan got married early in the morning at 9am on the gazebo here at Furtho, with only the guests who had stayed on-site the night before. Some of these guests had stayed in the farmhouse Bed & Breakfast, with others in a little bell tent village which had been put up by @ParTees Bell Tent Hire down by the lake.

Then after the legal part of the wedding the bride and bridesmaids came back to the farmhouse to get ready, with the help of Hannah Kenney MUA.

At midday they had a Church Blessing with 125 guests in St Bartholomew’s Church, just a short walk from our wedding barn. Revd Sue Stanley officiated the service, and then afterwards it was back to the wedding barn for the party. Here Becky tells us more about their day.

How and why did you choose your wedding venue?

We narrowed our venue search to Northamptonshire, which is close to my Nan as she is now unfortunately too frail to travel.

Furtho was the first venue we visited, and we both just fell in love with it! I mean what’s not to like? It had absolutely everything we were looking for, and didn’t break the bank! From the moment we turned off the main road and down their long tree lined drive, it felt perfect.

We loved that everything was all in one location, and there is no need for guests to travel from one venue to the another. There are so many details to this venue, but the one that stood out for us was the little Church just across the field from the barn.

Accommodation options were brilliant too. We were able to offer camping and bell tent glamping options to our guests, as well as the B&B rooms in the old Farmhouse, which we gifted to our close family.

As soon as we met our hosts Linda and Robin, we knew we were in safe hands. They made us feel really welcome and special, despite the number of couples they must see. Nothing was too much trouble.

Tell us about your day, and your most treasured memories.

Everybody tells you that the day just flies by and it will be over in a flash; well, not so with our wedding, and in the best possible way. This was mainly due to our day starting so early! Let me explain...

After seeing the Church we knew that was where we wanted to have our ceremony. It is currently only possible to have a wedding blessing in the Church, and that is also limited to a handful of people each year. We were incredibly lucky that we were able to arrange our wedding blessing for midday with all our guests.

Dan and I felt that we wanted to get legally married on the same day, so planned a very early morning ceremony at Furtho. It took place in an idyllic spot under the gazebo, on an island in the middle of their lake. We didn’t want to wear all our full wedding attire as we wanted to treat the wedding blessing in the Church as the main ceremony. I wore the under slip to my dress, while Dan and the best man surprised me by wearing tweed flat caps, braces and a bow ties. This was a total upgrade from our original plan to wear our pyjamas! This part of the day wasn’t massively planned, just a simple service with our very closest. I have to say it was a really lovely thing to do, and totally took the nerves out of the rest of the day, as we were already married! We then went our separate ways with a glass of bubbles in hand to get ready for the blessing, and to celebrate with all our family and friends.

I remember in the run up to the wedding checking the weather every day. We really wanted it just to stay dry, which you can never guarantee in England. We didn’t need to worry, though; it wasn’t just dry, it was a complete scorcher at 35C+ in the day, and a lovely 25C at our morning ceremony. The weather set the tone for a perfect relaxed atmosphere. Our guests were able to sprawl out across the grass and play lawn games that we had made, or chat on benches and vintage deck chairs gathered under the trees for shade. The only people suffering were Dan (my husband) and John (the best man) who had chosen to wear full tweed suits.

Mid-afternoon Emma & Pete, our absolutely amazing photographers, took us off for a short while to take a few pictures. We went up to the top of the corn field and I remember being able to watch all our friends and family celebrating our wedding in the distance. Such a special moment.

Our food was a BBQ which was cooked just outside the barn. Each guest came up to the grill to be served and then went back to their seats to eat. The process took a while, but worked perfectly as it happened to be when England were playing Sweden in the World Cup. There was a lot of cheering during the meal, but thankfully the football finished just in time for the speeches to start, with everyone in high spirits after our 2-0 win!!

After the food everyone enjoyed the last bit of sun before the band started playing, and we danced the night away. We both loved absolutely every minute.

The next morning my Dad also laid on a cooked breakfast for all the campers. Such a lovely way to finish everything off.

How did you find all the suppliers you used?

All our main suppliers came from different recommendations; some from Linda and Robin’s list, and others from friends and family’s recommendations. Items like the chairs I just found via Google, as the other suppliers didn’t have what we were looking for. I enjoyed working with all our suppliers. Each one brought their own creative aspect to the day. I actually loved the process and watching everything come together. One of my favourite suppliers, that looked totally amazing in the barn, was our collection of vintage white chairs supplied by 'The Little Chair Lending Company' who loans out the chairs she made for her own wedding.

What was important to you about the set up in the wedding barn?

Furtho gives you the chance to be individual, which is great! I have always been creative and although it was lots of work, I really loved making all our decorations and installing them all ourselves. We arrived at the venue on the Wednesday before our wedding, along with my Mum and Dad and a couple of friends. We then spent the next 3 days hanging up more fairy lights and little folded paper birds than my Dad could believe.

We made pretty much everything, including giant hoops which took over our one-bedroom flat with fairy lights, flowers and the little paper birds. We folded so many white birds! I’m not sure why I decided that would be a good idea, I even got my family making them! Our wedding was definitely a family affair, with my Mum even making our beautiful cake and my Dad making the cake stand!

We had all our flowers supplied by an old friend of my Mum. She made my bouquet and flower crowns for my bridesmaids but then just supplied fresh flowers for us to decorate the venue. The arrival of the flowers was amazing and they smelt incredible. We then all spun into actions spreading the hundreds of flowers all over the barn and in the Church.

Would you changed anything about your wedding day?

In short, no. Of course there are always things that you think you might have done differently if you were to do it again but we’re not planning on doing that!

I see you had T&T Caterers - can you just remind me what type of food you had?

Our food was a BBQ during the day and a grazing table in the evening. We wanted to have our guests seated, so there was an opportunity for speeches, but to have a style of food that felt super relaxed. T&T were brilliant. I loved working with Tracey in the build up to our wedding. She went above and beyond just organising the food. We highly recommend them as they were both relaxed but very professional.

Who did your wedding stationery?

My background is graphic design so naturally I designed all the stationery and order of service etc. My best friend and bridesmaid also created illustrations of the venue that I used within the designs. She also helped me hand paint our wedding signage.

So since your wedding you have been inspired to set up a wedding / event stationery business! Tell me about it.

Our wedding was definitely a collaboration of creatives. I love the outcome when different ideas come together. Since our wedding, I have spoken to lots of couples who have many visions for their special day but don’t know how to bring them to life. I felt inspired to help future couples add a touch of creativity to their day, and bring something different to the wedding market. I have decided to launch a collection of stationery that I have designed using some of my brilliant friend's illustrations. My hope is to keep building these collections, and work with different illustrators to bring a really diverse choice of bespoke stationery to the weddings / event market. Our first collections can be seen on our website www.becreativestudio.co.uk

As Furtho holds such a special place in my heart I have decided to design a collection with some of the venue illustrations drawn for our wedding day. I am currently busy designing this. Follow me on Instagram to be the first to see what I’m working on www.instagram.com/be_creative_studio/ and the launch of the new “Furtho Collection.”

Here at Furtho we are certainly looking forward to seeing where this venture takes Becky and will be sharing her new collections on our social media pages. Below is the list of suppliers who Becky & Dan used.

Suppliers

Bar, drapes & Tables McGee’s UK

Chairs https://www.thelittlechairlendingco.com/

Unfortunately they do not look like they are still hiring chairs but try https://www.lindasvintagehire.co.uk/

Caterers T&T Caterers https://www.tandtcateringmk.co.uk/weddings

Photographer www.emmacasephotography.com

Music

Hair https://www.facebook.com/pg/Hannah.HMUA/about/

Bouncy Castle https://www.facebook.com/murphyscastlehire/

Bell Tent Hire https://www.partpees.co.uk/

Flowers A family friend

Cake Bride’s Mum