A Handmade Homegrown Wedding by Steam Train: Sam & Juliet

Sam & Juliet were married at St. Andrews Church in Backwell. Wearing her late grandmother’s engagement ring and an old vintage wedding dress she found in a shop in Como, Italy, Juliet was the epitome of beauty. The trainspotters amongst you will find it hard to miss the steam engine that the couple used as their wedding transport and the DIY lovers out there will think this wedding really is a treat as it is absolutely chocca with lots and lots of handmade details.

Lets find out more from Juliet…

Our ceremony was held at St. Andrews Church in Backwell, which we decorated ourselves using old metal milking jugs full of meadow-style flowers and wicker hearts on the ends of the pews which had been kindly donated to us by a friend. The bouquets and the church flowers were supplied by Chloe at Bare Blooms who put together beautiful meadow-feel arrangements and also advised us and supplied us with seeds for growing our own flowers, which we also gave out as favours to our guests. We moved on to celebrate our reception in a friend’s barn on Backwell bow. We used paper lanterns, ropes of festoon lights and our own home-grown flowers to decorate. We also sourced all of the vessels for the flowers ourselves from local friends and farms.

The whole wedding was full of DIY! We made the cake ourselves, had a friend Jack Baldus play piano during the meal and then had a ceilidh band called Fitty Gomash for the dancing. All the invitations were printed by ourselves, we even borrowed chairs from the local school and collected bunting from local friends. Our wonderful friend Carrie May created a beautiful illustration for our service sheets and favours, and also beautifully drew all of the signage for the day.

My dress was an old vintage wedding dress that I found in a shop in Como, Italy. It was a 1920’s lace tea-dress that was then restored by a seamstress back in the UK. We wanted the bridesmaids to choose their own dresses to make sure they had something they wanted to wear again and felt comfortable in. The only stipulation was that the dresses were navy so the girls went about finding their dresses in various high-street shops. The groom’s suit was a 3 piece made to measure suit in English tweed by Samuel Bryant in Clevedon and our rings were made by our friend Claire at the wonderful Clifton Rocks in Bristol.

Another great addition to our wedding was the the old steam engine that we used to transport our wedding guests, it also had a wooden gypsy caravan on the back that we used for our accommodation. The food was amazing! We had a hog-roast and buffet supplied by Roastbusters and ice-cream supplied by local company Chew Moos.

Pete Cranston was great; he understood and captured the relaxed country barn nature of the wedding. My only piece of advice for anyone else planning a wedding is that, if you want to do everything yourself make sure you take a week of work before the wedding to make sure you have enough time to get everything done!

Super Suppliers – Photographer: Pete Cranston//+6 Festoon lights: Cinnematag// Illustrations: Carrie May// Pianist: Jack Baldus// Band: Fitty Gomash// Flowers: Bare Blooms// Rings: Clifton Rocks// Hog Roast & Buffet: Roastbusters//Ice-cream: Chew Moos//

Can you imagine the guests faces when they realised they would be stepping onto a steam train? I would have been so so excited, what a wonderful surprise. I was also super impressed that Juliet and Sam took all that time and effort to grow their own flowers for their wedding – what a sweet idea!! Added bonus points for the seed packet favours too!

Much Bespoke Love

Emily x