Jack and Lara's Wedding in Clovelly, Devon

Following our rustic wedding theme, Clovelly as a location in itself ticked all the boxes while having its own very particular charm: no cars, cobble stone, rough sea, cliffs, wild flowers, Landover shuttle and let’s not forget the donkeys…

With the help of Emma, Clovelly’s wedding coordinator, we were glad to have used different venues of the village throughout the weekend. On Friday we had a get together in the Red Lion pub with life music from our band while the reception and the dinner took place in the terraced garden of Clovelly Court, just around the corner from the church.

Our theme was handmade rustic with a vintage touch.

We put a lot of thoughts into personalised details which started with our handmade way finding signs and finished with stamped tags.

Our Hatch Marquee created a cosy atmosphere in itself with the clear span bell end, fairy lights, beige carpet, ivory cloths and lime washed chairs.

Additionally, I hired a random selection of vintage furniture and props which I set up and decorated with lace table cloth, blankets and cushion ordered online on the spot without having a certain plan in mind.

Our florist Claire from the Wilde Bunch was a major help, adding her decorative touch everywhere as I gave her the complete free rein! She brought a van full of rustic bits and pieces which worked perfectly with our theme. Her wild flowers were the most amazing thing and way beyond any expectations. I discussed all my Pinterest research with her in advance and added last minute requests like the flower backdrop behind the wedding cake.

Our decoration was rounded up with personalised creative ideas mainly coming from Jack. Throughout the year we worked on individual sheets for our 100 guests with some information on how we met them and what they mean to us.

These sheets we displayed on hessian boards in the bar area for all our guests to read, laugh and have a chat.

Our handmade table plan was based on our love for travelling. We named each table after a country we have visited or lived in. In addition to self-made flag poles for each table, we worked on country sheets which had pictures of us + some interesting/funny facts about the country. Each table also had a country specific musical instrument, such as the cowbell for Switzerland, which people had to use if they wanted to give a toast with our branded shot glasses which were our wedding favours at the same time. For more toasts Jack was in charge of the wheel of fortune, built by his father Glyn.

As the special couple for that night we ordered 2 poison chalices for us to toast with and for our table place names we collected and painted pebbles from Clovelly’s harbour. For a bit of a rustic festival style we had the village donkeys during the reception for children entertainment as well as Welly Tossing, a Strong Man game and a Popcorn machine.

Claire is the best florist I know. She has a great personality and her Doberman “Boots” comes everywhere she goes. She turns your dreams and wishes into reality. Tailored to whatever budget you want to spent + great eye for decoration as well.

I was inspired by wild flowers on Pinterest so I did not want to have anything neatly tied together. All flowers were looser, vintage tones arranged in a wild flowery way. Lots of different greens and whites with the odd colour touches of different rose tones. We had big milk churns at the church, crates of flowers, pedestals, a flower backdrop behind the cake as well as random flowers in glasses and vases scattered around.

I was in love with our flowers from the moment they arrive. Even my bouquet had a delicate bit of green hanging down.

We wanted our cake to be personal so Janet, Jack’s mum, made it. Janet is the only one of both of our families who can bake so there were certainly no fights about it! For Janet it was a great honour. The personalised cake toppers she got made in Shrewsbury as well, then brought it all down to Devon.

We had the cool and fresh guys from Shack Revolution to take care of everything drink related rather than the catering handing out drinks.

During the 2 hour reception H&A were serving canapés, later on the starter (shrimp, coriander & chili salad), main (Devon beef & roasted vegetables) and dessert (brownie, citron tarte, fruit skewers) were served on slate sharing plates. Our catering team also put up a hangover brunch on Sunday in the cleaned up marquee. They were absolutely brilliant and flexible while keeping a smile on their faces at all times.

Our Shack Revolution Bar guys where the bomb. From their festival cocktail bar they were serving UK cocktails with a twist (dark & stormy, Gin Fizz, Mojitos). Later on they opened their 6m bar inside the marquee which was stocked with all sorts of alcohol including Stella on the tap which is a rarity in North Devon, as we found out…

Barney knows how to capture precious moments of life without you even noticing it.

Each individual picture brings back the feelings and atmosphere on that particular time of the day!

There is so much energy and movement in his photos which makes them very natural rather than posed. Besides capturing the weather characteristics and the surroundings, skies and landscapes in a unique way, Barney really brings out the connection between the couple. He basically allows you to re-live every special moment once again

There are few best parts of our day. I loved having all my friends and family around and weddings have the power to gather them all. During our ceremony my mum Ursula together with my bridesmaids played a personalised version of “All you need is love”. My mum was on the organ, the girls were singing while my sister Mira-Maj and bridesmaid Anna Hantke were playing the flute. This to us was a total surprise for us! All you hear in the video of the performance is me screaming of laughter! In the church! And then we left with the donkeys who were waiting outside for us. We basically led the crowd to the reception…

To top up the personation my mum together with my sister and my maid of honour Laura Sachse worked on a wedding newspaper for which most of our guests contributed articles about. The title: “Royal Wedding: Merkel and Queen celebrate. Union of German princess and Welsh heard boy end Anglo/German tensions”

Another favourite part was our first dance: Jack and I chose Love is strong + Under my thumb by Rolling Stones which really kicked off the party. Certainly because of Jack’s Jagger Swagger moves and maybe because of a minor dress malfunction on my side…

While cutting the cake we were still dancing….

Everything came together on that day! The best part though, besides our handmade and personalised items, was the vibe and atmosphere of our guests. Everyone was truly having a good time and that is what we wanted the weekend to be remembered for. A weekend of celebrating love, friends and a bit of Rock’n Roll…..

Try to organise as much as you can in advance so you don’t face any last minute surprises while setting up. Make yourself an excel list with every little thing you need and want to buy. That way you don’t have million things racing around your head. Make sure you have a fully kitted toolbox for the day to fix and glue some final items.

Give yourself more time than you need. Things take longer to prepare than you think. If you don’t have a wedding planner get yourself a few creative helpers (preferably no guests) for the day who can help you setting everything up. Doing it all by yourself is impossible…

On the day however, enjoy every minute of it. Time flies and despite the fact that we started early in the morning, the day and night were gone in an instant. Make sure that you have one person/bridesmaid who is in charge of checking your dress, veil etc. so you don’t have to worry about the details.

Also, don’t let the weather annoy you, sometimes things happen for a reason…