This is my story, my way.

All pictures here are either taken by me, or our utterly fantastic wedding photographer @beckyharleyphotography.

The cake(s)

My family is blessed with a host of great bakers. I remember each of my childhood birthdays being marked with a cake that was baked and decorated by my parents.

My mum was the master of the crumb. Any flavours or sponge type seemed to be within her capabilities so the possibilities were endless and always delicious.

My dad was the decorator with an attention to detail second to none. He would help advise on how the structure of the cake needed to help the design, for some more ambitious designs he would vouch for a denser crumb.

Outside of the immediate relations I am blessed with a sister in-law and mother in-law whose cake talents are similarly incredible. How lucky!

While my own cake delights have never come quite up to par with the rest, I’m a project manager at heart at quickly set them all diligently to work.

Our wedding cake was a Gin and Tonic drizzle cake with a lime and tonic drizzle. It was simply iced with fondant and that clever SIL I mentioned handmade a wreath of mistletoe leaves to adorn the top. Boozy, delicious perfection.

While we wanted a cake to cut, it was also really important to us that guests could help themselves throughout the evening. So, we hired in a Cupcake Ferris Wheel (as you do) from A Special Event and filled it with more cocktail inspired bakes.

The greenery

Our venue Milling Barn already had the stripped back, natural barn look that we loved so I didnt want to add too much to distract from the barns beautiful rustic features.

The beams in the ceremony room were already adorned with fairy lights, greenery and willow so the main addition there was a huge ball of mistletoe hanging from the ceiling over the aisle. Apart from that, the walls were added to a little using hearts made from tree bark and covered in red berries which I found in a Christmas decorations sale the year before we tied the knot.

In the main barn I wanted to tie into the greenery from the ceremony room so I attacked the ivy growing along the fences in my parents garden and weaved it along the edge of the balcony banistair and down the stair rail.

I also bought some willow wreathes from Hobbycraft and these were similarly adorned with ivy and hung around the barn.

Because one lot of mistletoe isnt enough for a winter wedding, I had another lot (this time a branch rather than ball) which we hung from one of the main beams right above the dancefloor.

If you’re not encouraging everyone to feel the love on your own wedding day what’s the point?

The tablescape

The food was really important to us, and we really wanted this part of the day to be about our guests sharing and enjoying it all together. We served sharing platters of food as our wedding breakfast so I really didnt want too much tablespace taken up with decorations.

I wanted to tie in our tableplan with the tablescape in a really fun way, and after a short pinterest search I found my winner - Gin!

In the ceremony room, lined up along the bar our guests could see their names on little wooden tags around the necks of some of our favourite bottles of gin. A corresponding bottle of the same gin was then used for each table centrepiece. These were filled with ivy, rosemary, dried and sprayed gold poppy heads, allium heads and teazels.

Quick bit of maths - we had seven tables in total so, yes, fourteen glorious bottles of gin were consumed in the year leading up to the wedding to make this a reality. I’d like to thank the friends and family who raised a glass with me during this time - your efforts were not wasted!

The little wooden tags around the gin bottles on the seating plan were also used as each individual place setting. I found them in Tesco on sale for 5p each, bought a ton then sanded them down, painted them navy blue and added gold ribbon to tie in with the colour scheme.

The stationery

Confession time: When I saw the prices for wedding stationery I felt a bit queasy.

There’s also something about holding your wedding on the last Saturday before Christmas that really makes you want to get it into guests diaries before they fill up!

I bought a load of craft paper luggage tags and tiny envelopes, a stamp and a gold inkpad from Hobbycraft and got Save the Dates into the post as soon as I could.

Incidently this turned out to be a great decision as one of my bridesmaids rang me the day hers arrived to let me know that she had just been about to book a flight to Thailand for that day and had booked her flight for the day after instead.

So, save the dates successfully posted I got to work on the invitations. The realist in me knew this would be a huge challenge, so I wanted to give myself a decent amount of time to give it a go myself first. Then, if I wasnt happy with the result I would still have time and budget to get a professional in! Armed only with Word, Photoshop and sheer determination I got to work.

Having got my wording sorted and chosen fonts (don’t underestimate this step), I was ready to get printing.

I really wanted the invitations to be navy blue. I had a foiler, also from Hobbycraft), to bring some gold sparkle to shine out from the blue card. Several printing attempts on various types of navy card later it was evident that it just wasnt going to happen.

I ended up using plain white card and of course I used the foil for added sparkle. At least I made use of the lovely navy blue envelopes!

I don’t have any pictures of our actual invitations, but a wonderful friend had Bespoke by Beth recreate one using pyrography as a wedding gift which we have nicely displayed at home instead.

Other DIY decor

With most of the bigger DIY elements covered, there are just a couple of smaller details left to add in here.

Dried flowerhead arrangements: Throughout the barn I filled old flaggons (found in my parents attic) with more dried and sprayed poppy, allium and teazel heads. The worked really well as a pop of colour and texture dotted around.

Cards box: We had a gift list set up so I just wanted a small area for guests to leave cards. I bought a cardboard post-box shaped like a barn (Hobbycraft), and used navy paint and a bit of applique paper to bring it to life.

Lanterns and candles: Being a barn we weren’t allowed real flames but I wanted to ensure that cosy atmosphere that candlelight creates to last all through the day and well into the evening. I bought the lanterns from TKMaxx and the LED candles worked perfectly in them. They started lining the aisle (along with a scattering of felt hearts) but as the evening drew in they were repositioned on tables around the dancefloor and bar so that guests resting their dancing feet could enjoy their soft glow. I still have these adorning various shelves and corners of the house.

Guest activities: With a December wedding, I didn’t want our guests to feel like they were waiting around indoors at any point for too long (especially while rooms were converted for changes in activity). In the summer it’s so easy for guests to mill about happily in the sunshine, cold beverage in hand. We didn’t want a guesbook that people could sign, but then realistically would have sat on a shelf not being looked at again. So we asked guests to suggest date night ideas for us using glass jars filled with lollypop sticks. To date it has been wonderful to revisit the pot every time we need a bit of inspiration!

Read all about it

Our aforementioned photographer Becky Harley has her own blog about our day which you can read here:

Our wedding was also featured on The English Wedding Blog, you can read that one here:

I wanted as much of my DIY’s to be sustainable post-wedding. While the greenery ended up on the compost heap and the gin bottles finally made it into the recycling, many of the decor items still have use in my home, and in the homes of friends and family.

The willow wreathes for example, once stripped of their greenery, were distributed to friends and family and now adorn front doors in their seasonal arrangements.

I hope this has been a helpful little insight into how my mind works and how I pulled everything together for my own special day!

Issy x

NB: What would I have done differently in hindsight?

It’s a fair question and one I’ve actually pondered often. The honest answer is one single thing: Linen. I would have added a linen runner to each table to amp up the textures, cosiness and warmth. But that’s it, if I had to do it all again that would be the only change.