Luxury, flower filled barn wedding at Happy Valley in Norfolk

Flower filled barn wedding at Happy Valley

Be ready for some serious inspiration with today’s floral-inspired beautiful barn wedding. Hosted at MMU favourite Happy Valley, the magical woodland barn and glamping destination in Norfolk.

I spent a long weekend last year with my family staying in their onsite treehouse, so I can personally confirm that Happy Valley is truly magical! It’s 100% a venue you can truly make your own and that’s just what this gorgeous couple did.

Hannah and Peter based all their supplier choices on personal connections or long-standing admiration from the choice of venue to the catering, photographer to stationery. They found their dream team and trusted them with every detail, totally nailing a luxuriously rustic and authentic wedding day. Over to the couple to tell us more and…

Hannah + Peter…

How did you meet and get engaged?

We met at Wilderness Festival in Oxford through some mutual friends we were both camping with – both from Norfolk but had never crossed paths before! We got engaged on the day we got the keys to our new house.

Was there an overall theme to your day?

No real theme per se, but there was definitely a floral theme! Seasonal, flower heavy, big and blousy renaissance style blooms.

How would you describe your day?

Pure bliss and magical! We were surrounded by all of our incredible family and friends – it sounds so cliché but we truly felt wrapped in love, a feeling never experienced before and it was simply glorious!

How long were you planning it for, and what was the best bit?

Realistically we spent about 9 months planning. We have two favourites, both working with the florists (JamJar Flowers) on bringing our ideas to life at Katy and Scott’s beautiful venue Happy Valley, and working with our amazing friend and caterer, Eliza on our delicious menu.

How was your day unique to you?

We were very fortunate to be able to add a personal touch to pretty much all aspects of the day, which created such an intimate feel.

Tell us more about your suppliers and why you picked them:

Wedding / Reception Venue:

Wedding venue – St James the Great Church, Castle Acre. This beautiful, large medieval church is in the village we bought our first house together, so it felt the right place for us to get married as it’s our home.

Reception venue – Happy Valley, Norfolk. Peter has known Katy and her family at Happy Valley for over 30 years, and we’d both seen Katy and Scott’s passion and energy they’ve invested in building and expanding the magical venue that is Happy Valley. So it was a no-brainer for us we’d hold it here – it’s a bonus that it’s only 10 minutes away from our church and home, and provided a truly enchanting setting for our reception!

Wedding Photographer:

Tori Hancock. Again, Tori is a dear friend of ours who specializes in natural light wedding/events photography. A no-brainer for us as her work is awesome and we love her! We were thrilled to bits with our photos.

Wedding Catering:

Eliza Rooney (caterer) – Peter went to school with Eliza’s husband. We’d been to many events that Eliza had catered for – all had outstanding food. We went on a delightful food journey with Eliza to reach our final menu, and people still mention how delicious the menu was.

Wedding Flowers:

JamJar Flowers – I adore their work and had done for quite some time. They work with seasonal blooms and create incredible installations. I knew they would create some jaw-dropping displays and they really did, the flowers just blew us all away.

Videographer:

Ben Waugh – Recommended by some friends of ours, we loved Ben’s work on another friend’s wedding video and what a recommendation he was! We adore our wedding video and so pleased we decided to go ahead with one.

Wedding outfits:

Recommended by some friends, my wedding dress was hand-made by award-winning dress designer, Katrine Mogensen, who also lives in Norfolk. The whole journey of making the dress with Katrine was so special; her bridal studio was a real calming safe haven during the planning process. The dress is just stunning, there’s so much beautiful and intricate detailing (particularly the neckline, back and sleeves, and our initials embroidered in blue in the lining!). When I collected my dress before the wedding, Katrine also gave me the original drawings she’d made of the dress, as well as a top she’d made me out of leftover lace. She is an extremely talented and lovely lady! I purchased the lace separately from Joel and Son Fabrics in London.

Peter wore a morning suit; his yellow waistcoat is from Favourbrook. The trousers from Charles Tyrwhitt, and silk tie from Liberty’s.

Wedding decor:

Aside from the flowers, the rest of the décor was a real combination of lots of people helping us bring our vision to life! Our family and friends, Katy and Scott – everyone pooled in. We dotted hay bales around outside, hired in some more big plants from a local nursery, bought some candles, more festoon lighting and lanterns, borrowed some shepherds hooks and jars for flowers and a little canopy for the band to play on during the champagne reception. And lots more!

Wedding Stationery:

Peter’s mum very kindly painted the backgrounds for our save the dates, wedding invitations, menus, table plan and name cards. They’re so beautiful.

Bridal Hair & MUA:

Hair: The amazing Deb Dominic at Hairsmiths, Norwich. A total legend and ray of sunshine to get ready with on your wedding morning!

MUA: The equally amazing Haylie Clarke (Snr Lead Artist at Charlotte Tillbury) – I used to go to school with the lovely Haylie. She brought so much laughter to the getting ready part of our day!

Music & Entertainment:

Ed Raison and his bands – We are fortunate enough to have some incredibly talented friends! A very close pal Ed and his band provided jazz (in the church and during our champagne reception) and 80s music for the evening. Like Eliza, Ed and his bands have played at many of our friends weddings, they’re all extremely talented musicians and guaranteed to get everyone on the dance floor.

What are your favourite details of the day?

There’s no one particular detail we’d highlight as honestly the whole day and setting at Happy Valley was so special. But if we HAD to pick! We loved Ed and the band playing “My Funny Valentine” as we signed the registers in the church. We loved the speeches outside near the lake at Happy Valley. We loved our homemade sloe gin and all the flowers!

What was your budget?

Around £30k.

Do you have any advice for couples currently planning their wedding, for either the planning or the lead-up?

Plan bits in little chunks, and ask if your family and friends can help with some of the planning. Good organisation delivers quality results. Also try to stay relaxed about it all! Nobody will notice if something is missing or not quite right ☺ Also…if you have dogs and they’re not coming to the wedding, make sure you find suitable kennels you’d be happy to leave your pooch in so you can relax!