Sophie and Dale's Back Garden Rustic Farm Wedding in Devon by Lee Maxwell

Today I am taking you to Devon for the super cute wedding of Sophie and Dale. When your parents own a farmhouse with a massive garden it would be rude not to use it for a wedding, and that is just what Sophie and Dale did. In fact Sophie’s parents went about re landscaping their garden for the wedding and the results are amazing. Freshly planted flowers, a hand made arch and a home made bar! So many gorgeous rustic touches that really make this wedding stand out, it’s hard to say which is my favourite. Lee Maxwell was there to capture the day, and what a fantastic day it was, I just love how relaxed everyone is, the outdoor ceremony area and the marquee and hanging centrepiece look stunning.

A memorable day celebrating with our closest family and friends at a venue very close to our hearts where Sophie grew up. Starting with just a field, we were able to put out personal touch on everything and have the day go exactly how we wanted.

Sophie and Dale were married on 15th June 2019 at Rosemont Farm, Devon. ‘After always talking about getting married in Europe (Austria, Switzerland) we decided to make it personal and asked Sophie’s parents if we could get married in the garden of their Devon farmhouse. We had 100 adults guests and 4 Children – no evening guests. It took one year to plan, we got married on the same weekend as we got engaged the year previous.’

How they met
We met 11 years ago on a night out in Exmouth, Devon through mutual friends. Starting as a friendship and then finally making a go of things three years ago, we’ve never looked back.

The proposal
Dale proposed in Montenegro in 2018, with the beautiful backdrop of Perast. With a private chef waiting Dale dropped to one knee and asked Sophie for her hand in marriage

How did you allocate your budget?
With a figure in mind, including the honeymoon, we tried to stick to the budget as much as possible but didn’t mind spending a bit extra if it was worth it

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
We splurged on catering and the marque and saved on the cake (wedding present from Sophie’s friend) and decoration as we used items round the farm for a rustic feel

How did you choose your photographer?
Lee Maxwell our photographer was fantastic, after meeting him and seeing his work from a friends wedding we attended in France the year previous, he really was an easy choice booking him straight away

The dress
The Dress is from WED2B – Sophie went to trial dresses and ended up finding the perfect one straight away. Assessories consisted of real flowers in Sophie’s hair and earrings borrowed from The mother of the bride. Shoes were white block feels, as the wedding day was mainly on grass Sophie didn’t want to spend the day sinking into the ground

The suit and bridesmaids
Going for a rustic theme Dale wore tweed style jackets along with his ushers, best man and father of the bride all from Zebel, Exeter. Added to that were floral bow ties and pocket squares. Bridesmaids wore long dusty pink dresses from Chi Chi London and the flower girls had ivory dresses from H+M

Theme or colour scheme
The colour scheme was a range of dusty pink and Matt gold all to blend in with the greenery for a rustic theme

Flowers
The florist was Sarah Broom who we highly recommend. We wanted a natural look, Ivory white with lots of ferns, and some of the best flowers included peony’s, hydrangea and scented David Austins

Decoration
Sophies dad made the archway where we got married under. Also he made shepherd hooks with jars decorated by Sophie’s mum with flowers from around the garden and fields. Straw bales were used for the ceremony and dotted round the garden as seating areas. Borrowed beer barrels, milk churns and a classic tractor were added to the handmade signs done by friends and the centre piece Sophie designed hanging in the marque.

Food
After the ceremony guests enjoyed a range of warm canapés. Our three course sit down wedding breakfast started with baked Camembert and freshly made bread. The main was Sophie’s favourite pork belly with all the trimmings and finished off the meal with a trio of mini desserts, washed down with tea and coffee. All catering was produced by Devon Catering.
In the evening we hired a local pizza van which guests were able to enjoy four different types of freshly made pizzas, Sophie’s favourite!

Wedding cake
Sophie’s close friend Becky made our wedding cake, a three tiered rustic style sponge cake with gold flakes running down one side. Tasted fantastic!

Entertainment
The main entertainment was our hired band, The Mckeens, a country theme, Mumford and Sons style cover band who played a whole range of songs and plenty of requests from guests. Other entertainment included farm beer pong and forfeit giant jenga.

Who supplied the stationery?
All stationary was purchased through Zazzle online, again staying away from the traditional look our save the dates and invitations were a rustic theme.

Personal touches
Sophie’s parents quite literally dug up the whole garden and re-landscaped it to flatten the area for the marque and planted plenty of flowers to make the garden look more beautiful for the wedding day.
The bar was made by our friend for his own wedding and it was lovely that we could use it again for ours, with a free bar for everyone and bar staff that were friends it wet down very well!
The biggest personal touch was Sophie and her bridesmaids getting ready at her uncles house just down the road from the ceremony. This is where Sophie spent her childhood as it was once her grandparents house. With the nice gardens it made for a great back drop for the memorable photos

Special moments
The ceremony was conducted by a family friend, Antony, a retired vicar. Kindly doing the ceremony for free he made the day fantastic by making us feel at ease, making us laugh, and made everyone attending feel part of the day.
The first dance was a real special moment, after the ceremony, food and speeches it was nice to spend those few minutes together dancing to ‘our’ song Mumford and Sons ‘guiding light’

Advice for other couples
If designing a wedding yourself, get plenty of help from family and friends, just helping with the little things goes along way, Also take a few days off before to set up, you will be surprised how long things take to do!
Use social media platforms for ideas but try and make everything just that little bit personal to you, it’ll mean more when you look back on the day

Biggest surprise
For us, it was the great weather. After two weeks of solid rain and even on the two days setting up before we got pretty soaked. On the day we were very fortunate enough that the sun made an appearance and everyone got to enjoy the whole day and into the evening outside.