Bo-ho chic in the East Yorkshire countryside

Village Farm Marquees • Sep 12, 2017

We discover how family-wide creative talents helped give Becky and John Cunningham’s wedding celebration a magical edge

Most brides spend the months leading up to their big day sorting out caterers, invites, cake design, favours and bridesmaids’ dresses.

And they find that stressful enough.

But for Becky Cunningham and hubby John, getting ready involved six months of property renovation to boot.

Because they decided to hold their wedding at Barff House, the idyllic East Yorkshire farm owned by John’s parents, John and Katy, since 2010.

And that meant clearing out, cleaning and reinforcing an ancient barn at the property, to make it a fit venue for their wedding night knees-up.

The couple spent almost every weekend of 2017 staying over at the farm and holiday cottages, grafting alongside John’s parents to get it sorted. And that hard work continued right up to the week before their wedding.

“I know it probably sounds like an awful lot of hard work to most people,” said Becky, a self-employed performing arts teacher.

“But it was actually really lovely the way our preparations brought the whole family together, because we were living and working together on such a big project.”

Becky’s dad Peter and brother Thomas, both photographers, now live in New Zealand and came over to help out too, the week before the wedding. Her mum, who lives in Derbyshire, was involved, too.

“As a result, there was no awkwardness at all by the time the wedding came around, because everyone had got to know each other so well beforehand,” added Becky.

John and Katy took over Barff House, which is just outside the village of Brandesburton, as an old shell of a farmhouse, having decided to retire from their careers. They have spent the years since lovingly renovating it, and transforming old outbuildings on the site into holiday cottages. Its setting is so idyllic, it was the obvious choice as a place for the couple to hold their celebrations.

They had their ceremony at nearby Beverley Registry Office with close family on Wednesday 2 August, followed by a meal for 12. They followed this with a bigger celebration for family and friends the following Saturday, 5 August, at Barff House.

Village Farm Marquees provided a marquee for their sit-down wedding breakfast meal, and then they rounded things off with a knees-up in the adjacent barn that night.

“The barn was a bit of a tip really,” said Becky.

“It was very dirty and full of old machinery and equipment but we worked alongside John’s mum and dad to get rid of all that, knocked a partition wall down and painted the interior.”

A team effort

And many other aspects of the wedding preparations were a real family affair, too.

John’s sister Ellie’s boyfriend, Aaron Morris, is a photographer, too. So, as you can see from the beautiful pictures accompanying this blog, they had their photography well covered.

Ellie is a talented baker in her spare time and made their wedding cake. Her mum Dawn Holmes is an artist, and designed all of their favours, place names, table plan board and large decorative signs for the barn and bar, made from recycled pieces of an old cart shed. She even painted a special watercolour picture of Barff House for their invitations.

Becky’s grandma Arlene worked with John’s mum Katy to make 400 bunting flags, and collectively they decked the barn out with a canape ceiling featuring 200 metres of fairy lights!

“Basically, the whole family came over from the Wednesday before our party and everyone was given their list of jobs to get everything ready,” said Becky, 28.

“They were all amazing. They made a beautiful aisle for us to walk down from the house to the marquee, and my mum and grandma adorned this with a flower arch.”

The Saturday began with all the guests’ chairs out on the gravel in front of the house and marquee. John’s Aunt Susanna conducted a civil ceremony to kick things off, followed by two readings by John’s mum and Becky’s best friend Sam. They marked their union by ‘hand fasting’ with ribbons, as they had already exchanged rings at the registry office, and read out their own, specially-written, vows to one another.

John’s sister Ellie, a trainee teacher, serenaded them with a specially written song, accompanied by her ukulele.

They then had their photographs taken in the beautiful English garden of Barff House, followed by their sit-down wedding breakfast and speeches in the marquee.

Garden games followed, with a knees-up in the barn and more fairy lights in the surrounding woods for people to enjoy walking around.

John, 34, a film maker, proposed to Becky last year, during their four-month round-the-world trip, and so they projected poignant photographs from their travels onto the barn wall. Their music was provided by Manchester’s ‘Twisted Tubes’ New Orleans-style brass band, again inspired by their travel experiences.

“We could never have done it without our family,” continued Becky.

“It probably sounds like a lot of hard work but it was actually really lovely the way it brought everyone together. Our wedding celebration itself was really absolutely amazing, but with all the hard work over, we’re all wondering ‘what shall we do now?’.”

A perfect match

The food they chose was barbecue sharing platters and the overall feel was one of boho country chic. Becky wore her hair down and curly, topped off with a flower coronet, and her two little bridesmaids also wore flower coronets.

They managed to keep to a fairly tight budget, with many of their decorations and entertainments provided by their highly creative family. They even bought their own alcohol in bulk and hired experienced local bar staff to serve it on the day. Their drinks were mainly wine and prosecco, with a wider drinks selection at the evening bar, including cocktails, provided by the Louisianna’s mobile company.

“There wasn’t any part of the wedding that someone in our family hadn’t contributed,” said Becky.

“And that made it really, really special. We’re now enjoying re-living it every single day through our photos.”

Having travelled so extensively last year, the two love birds opted for a chilled week in the Lake District for their honeymoon.

The couple, who live in Greenfield, near Oldham, met on matched.com. “We quickly realised how similar our lives were,” said Becky.

“We were both brought up in the countryside, John in Hebden Bridge and me in Derbyshire. And we’re both from quite arty families. All of this was brilliant for our wedding, of course, because everyone had lots of creative suggestions for making it special!”

Photos courtesy of Becky’s dad and brother, Peter and Thomas, and Aaron (Main image - Aaron, centre and top right collage images - Peter and Thomas, the rest by Aaron).

Aaron has his own photography business, based in Bridlington, East Yorkshire, called Beyond the Frame. Next month, we’ll be featuring an interview with him about getting the most from your event images. So, watch this space for that one.

We loved being involved in this wedding, with all its unique and special features. If you’d like to talk you us about how we can help you make your own event extra-special, get in touch via info@villagefarmmarquees.co.uk , or call us on (01262) 468160.

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