Funky Country Barn Wedding

On Sunday we attended a beautiful wedding in the fantastic countryside near Cheltenham.  The wedding had a couple of lose themes, one was the 1950's which was reflected in the bride and bridesmaids dresses, another was The Beatles which inspired the music, table names and seating plan, and finally the colours of bright buttons and lolly pops in the centre pieces, boutonnière and bouquets.  That sounds like an odd mix but it all hung together really well and made for a stunning display of colour, it reflected their personalities perfectly.  The weather was perfect and views over the fields surrounding the venue were stunning.  You know how much I love being in nature and the countryside so I enjoyed a wonderfully peaceful moment when I had to leave the ceremony and feed Orren, sitting on a bench looking out over rolling hills and bounding spring lambs.  The peace and quiet was bliss and I didn't mind missing the vows when I knew I was satisfying the needs of my precious baby.
Having a baby with us at an event like this was a new experience for us both and had it's new challenges.  Not only did I miss the vows, but also the speeches!  Generally he was quiet and slept through the meal which was good, but I was so tired by 8.00 that we left at 8.30 to come home.
So anyway here are some photos from the big day:

Love the 1950s style dress,

Fabulous and eco friendly alternative to flowers, a button bouquet,

Fantastic shoes from Irregular Choice,

Managed to snap this sneaky pic of one of the bridesmaids, how fab is her dress? perfect 1950s retro.  Two of the bridesmaids had dresses like this, the other two had the kind that stick out.  In the background is a game we played called "Aunt Sally" which involved lobbing a wooden club at a dolls head...don't ask (it's a Cornish thing apparently)!

The beautiful venue; converted barns complete with old beams and beautiful exposed brickwork,

View while breastfeeding Orren,

Floral bunting which was strung up throughout the venue, after the ceremony the registry became the evening reception room and a appliquéd "just married" banner was added,

Button heart decorations which were dotted around the venue, on door handles and nails in the beams,

Loved this original idea for a seating plan, at the top were The Beatles album covers, each cover represented a table with a corresponding cover, underneath each cover image were photos of the people sat at that table,

Fun centre pieces, a bucket filled with sand the decorated with buttons and lolly pops,

Love the colours,

Orren's favour and place names with buttons,

A really original choice for the dinner, rather than silver service or a help yourself buffet each table had a "chef" who received an apron with their name on it, and carved up the meat for everyone on their table,

Cup cake wedding cake,  very tasty raspberry and lemon cupcakes with jam/curd in the middle, yummy!

A gorgeous leaping lamb, spring is here!

All in all a great but tiring day, I am now enjoying eating my lolly pop favour! Have you been to any weddings recently?  What were they like?

The most revolting looking soup ever

So today we went for a lovely walk in some woods near us, the weather was glorious, so warm and bright, there was not a cloud in the sky, I always find walking in the woods like healing, I feel totally refreshed and revived after getting fresh air and sun on my skin.

Along the way we gathered lots of sweet chestnuts from their spikey jackets, it was bliss shuffling through the autumn leaves picking up and admiring the shiny smooth skins of the chestnuts in the glorious sun, some had fine silken hairs on them, like these:

When we got home I chopped some onions, garlic, celery and squash, added a stock cube and water, then boiled up the sweet chestnuts.  After cooling the chestnuts I spent about 45 minuted peeling the flaming things and I now have a very sore thumb.  The result was this absolutely disgusting looking soup, my husband names it spooky soup because it looks like something you might serve on Halloween!

Yes folks, your eyes are not deceiving you, you do not need to adjust your screens, that is in fact grey soup!

It was tasty though!