Get inspiration for your winter wedding with this cozy amber colour themed wedding at Owen House Wedding Barns.
Owen House Wedding Barn
After such a challenging time over the last couple of years, it was truly something amazing to look forward to a beautiful Winter Wedding at the incredible Owen House Wedding Barns. I have often seen posts by others about this fabulous place. One that would afford me not only to be able to operate in my usual documentary style, but also a venue that afforded creativity too. My work has been described as “natural” “relaxed” and also “creative” too. As well as telling a story I love nothing more than diving into a wedding and creating images that truly stand the test of time. So with that in mind let’s see how this beautiful Barn venue winter wedding took shape and how it all came together.
The Happy Couple
Kate and Rob, two of life’s incredible people, truly a joy to be around. Not only that, as well as being utterly bonkers, Kate is also one of the warmest, most wonderful people, I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I know she had a vision about her wedding day at Owen House Wedding Barns, so being the nosey photographer I am, I had to ask her all about her wedding day, how she planned it and why. This is what she told me, and the first thing was about little old me.
“YOU Phil –
you were the first thing I booked, before the venue, before Joy! I was procrastinating whilst newly engaged and trying to focus on writing my PhD – I was pouring over other people’s wedding albums and you had done Claire Overton’s wedding (who was a couple of years above me at Uni) and saw you were local to my parents in Shropshire. I read on you website, a testament that you had captured memories that people didn’t even know they had… and I was sold!! “
On that quote Kate mentioned, I often talk about my approach to weddings, and the one overriding concern I always have is that my couples enjoy and not endure their wedding day. It is easy to let the day run away with you. So do take time to spend your day with those you hold dearest and while you do, I will always work quietly away capturing your story as it happens.
The Colour Amber
All through Kate’s wedding ran the colour Amber, it was absolutely everywhere, from the decor to the bridesmaids dresses and into the bouquets, Kate explains why, and how RedFloral Architecture came to be such a big part of her wedding day.
“RedFloral came upon recommendation from Joy (more on Joy later) – she said when you meet Matt (from RedFloral) you’ll understand!
We met him at Tatton Park Wedding Show and he won over my Mum and the rest is history. If I’m honest, if I was to look at their Instagram it wouldn’t be my sort of thing – but that’s just a reflection of their clients brief!!
The colour palette was always going to be amber/gold which is the colour of my Amber Sapphire engagement ring that Rob designed! Apparently I had a yellow/Amber dress that I had left hanging up against our wardrobes and he took inspiration!
Since then the colour Amber has followed us everywhere we look . “
Kate’s beautiful engagement ring, and that dress? Well here’s the beautiful Kate wearing the beautiful ring with said dress.
Red Floral Architecture
I have seen these guys many times and they never fail to WOW. However, I was still taken aback at how amazing the floral display at Owen House Wedding Barns really was. Before I share some images I took, here’s what Kate had to say about these guys.
“At Tatton Park, redfloral had a hexagonal vertical arrangement with some gorgeous colours… and I remember saying.. I want that but on its side and suspended!!! Let me find pics as to where I’m at in the story so far…“
“We then had a sit down meeting with Matt at the wedding venue nearly 3 years later and he had kept his scribbles on an A4 piece of paper from when we first met! I said I now preferred some dried elements and absolutely love poppy seed heads (cos they are like little maracas!) and keep the tone rustic (to fit with the barn) with bursts of colour and wintery (but not Holly & ivy vibes, I suggested bunny tails which look like snow). He then ran with it and all the power and trust was in the teams hand!
I also dropped off cuttings from the bridesmaids dress’ which he used to wrap the ends of the bouquets “
Amazing, right? Here are some images of Matt’s work I took at Kate and Rob’s special day at Owen House Wedding barn. Truly something rather special I am sure you will agree.
Just incredible work, and when the speeches happened they afforded an equally incredible backdrop too. It’s worth noting that in December light will always be a challenge so like Kate, if you are planning a winter wedding, it is worth considering the ambient light available and the best use of that light. As a photographer who likes to use light and shade, this is just my bread and butter. I don’t use flash if I can help it, as it kills ambience and atmosphere. Not only that, the continuous flashing of speed-lights can be very off putting too.
Joy
Weddings should be filled with Joy and most, thankfully, are, however this is a different kind of Joy. Again I will allow Kate to explain.
“Once I had yourself & the venue booked I became stuck – I had a vision but didn’t know where to begin! I looked at wedding planning services on Instagram. I came across Joy and she offered part-planning services so I got in contact and she offered a face to face visit at our home when she came over her & Rob bonded over being from near Sheffield and her professionalism won over Mumma McKenzie! With my suggestions and her connections
It was the perfect combination. She “got me” and understood the assignment of luxury (as per her handle), tradition & fun!! It was all about the guest experience for me – I’m happy if they’re happy
We soon moved to full planning services and when she mentioned about collecting RSVPs by post, myself and Rob were very keen to hand that over and do not regret this!
It was pure bliss “
Joy was truly a lovely person to meet and work alongside, during the day Kate’s dress had encountered a minor catastrophe. Nothing major, but Joy was on hand to lend not only her skills as a calming presence, but also showed she was rather nifty with a needle and thread too.
Here she is adding her own special brand of ‘Joy’ to Kate and Rob’s wedding day.
Adding Some Mood Music
The celebration of this gorgeous couples wedding couldn’t really have gone as well as it did without something rather magical to add to the soundscape. To that end Kate had a chat with Joy and they came to one amazing plan. This plan was to have a “flash mob” at the end of the ceremony, not only that it was to be a flash mob with added horns.
Back to Kate.
“New York Brass Band were on our radar from a very long time. I have Joy to thank for sorting out my vision of “sod the small talk over canapés” and “query flash mob?”
And it all came full circle last weekend when we saw them again twice at Glastonbury!! “
I cannot express enough how much atmosphere these guys gave to Kate and Rob’s day, the images truly do speak for themselves. Working with them at Owen House Wedding Barns was truly one of the highlights of the winter wedding season.
Ice Ice Baby
Final touches come in many forms but Kate wanted a true statement piece and her vision was suddenly realised at another event, back to Kate.
“The ice Luge vision was a replica of one we had a dental school ball… we loved them at Uni.. think I can find some photos...”
There you have it, the vision of one beautiful bride and her handsome groom. All kicked off from an Amber coloured dress that led to an amber coloured engagement ring, amber coloured bridesmaids dresses and a Barn venue so beautiful decorated by RedFloral Architecture in shades of amber and gold.
A stunningly beautiful day spent with the most amazing people as we all celebrated what seemed like a lifetime of disappointments. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief and we partied.
What a day!
Wedding Suppliers
Roll call of honour:
Venue – Owen House Wedding Barn @owenhouseweddingbarn
Catering – Barretts Event Caterers @barretts_event_caterers
Celebrant – Dave Armstrong
Day Entertainment – The New York Brass Band @newyorkbrassband
Evening Entertainment – Agent Smith @agentsmithband
Hair and Makeup – Jenn Edwards @jennedwardsandco
Cake – Cheese Hamlet @thecheesehamlet
Flowers – Red Floral – Mat @redfloral
Lighting & Sound – Lumiate @lumiateevents
Photo-Booth – Old School Booth -Ben @oldschoolbooth
Ice Luge – Glacial Art @glacial_1
Personalised Sign – Love Lights the Way – Stacey @lovelightstw
Planning – Unique Weddings & Events – Joy @uniqueweddingsandevents
Suits – Whitfield and Ward @whitfieldandward
Wedding dress – @ellisbridals
Bridesmaid Dresses – BHLDN Weddings @bhldn
Flower girl dresses – Wed2B @wed2b
Stationery – Amy @gorgeousinvites
Chargers, Cutlery & Glassware – Whitehouse Crockery @whitehouse_crockery
