Today I’m thrilled to bring you the story of Chris & Dean’s absolutely gorgeous Yorkshire Barn wedding at The Normans. A LGBTQ wedding full of the most beautiful personal details and beautiful Autumn wedding flowers that truly captured a much-loved phrase here at Campbell’s HQ - ‘Love is Love’.

Image shows the groom and groom sat down and holding hands during a reading at their wedding ceremony — Groom and groom during their wedding ceremony

Our first meeting

Chris and Dean were introduced to me by one of their closest friends, Lucy, who I’d had a really lovely time working with and designing her wedding flowers a couple of years previously. Because the guys live in London, we booked an initial remote wedding consultation and talked through first ideas. I find these early wedding consultations really helpful as they usually set the tone for aesthetics, following which I’ll produce a wedding mood board and colour chart. Because I’d designed at The Norman’s before, I knew immediately where to best place floral installations for their Yorkshire Barn wedding.

The wedding design brief

At our follow-up meeting, we talked in more detail about the wedding design brief. Both Chris and Dean adore Autumn and as their date was set for September, the colour palette was to be natural warm Autumnal tones to include burnt orange, rust, rich brown, burgundy, and dark red. Chris is super creative and so had most of the ideas, which Dean was really happy with. I did, however, suggest the addition of dark aubergine when Dean asked if we could include purple in the design (Chris’ face was a picture and this became a bit of an ‘in’ joke between us!)

In terms of look and feel - the wedding design brief was super simple really - bring the outside in to create a full-on woodland wonderland for their intimate Yorkshire Barn wedding at The Normans.

A close up image of the flowers and foliage used including bright red grasses and green striped gourds — A rich colour palette including the all important aubergine amaranthus!

Autumn wedding flowers

My creative response to Chris & Dean’s brief was to incorporate vibrant Autumn tones with as many British-grown wedding flowers as possible. I also suggested we work with the bounty of seasonal flowers and foliage and include moss, oak leaves, birch twigs, berries, crab apples, seed pods, and huge tree branches. Just perfect for their Yorkshire Barn wedding setting.

The image shows a tree branch decorated with oak leaves, moss, seed pods, grasses and flowers — Autumnal goodies including moss, oak leaves, seed pods and locally grown chrysanthemums and grasses

Designing wedding flowers for a Yorkshire barn wedding

Chris and Dean chose the gorgeous rustic, yet stylish, The Normans, a Yorkshire barn wedding venue just outside York. Anyone familiar with this wedding venue will know that the beautiful heritage barn, with its super tall exposed beam roof and incredible backdrop wall of twinkly lights, is the scene for the ceremony.

I designed Autumn wedding flowers for their LGBTQ wedding by using bunches full of leaves, berries, twigs, and seasonal wedding flowers which were attached to the ends of the chairs to decorate the aisle itself. Chris & Dean had decided to get ready together on the morning of their wedding and walk down the aisle hand-in-hand. So, at the end of the aisle, where they would say their vows, I created a vertical hanging tree branch design, suspended from a beam above them. Did I mention the barn was high?!

All I can say is I feel blessed I’m not worried about heights!

Finally, I created two wild urn designs which were placed on the barrels to frame the ceremony area while vows and readings were happening - perfect wedding flowers for a Yorkshire barn wedding.

Image shows a large tree branch suspended from above, covered with flowers and foliage in front of a twinkly backdrop of fairy lights — The hanging installation at the end of the aisle

Marquee wedding flowers

All the ceremony flowers were re-purposed and re-used in the reception marquee, along with additional marquee wedding flowers for the cake - made by Lucy who I mentioned earlier and introduced us (oh, and check out the topper!).

For the guest table centrepieces, the designs were woodland wreaths decorated with gourds, nuts, berries, conkers, flowers, and foliage. To echo these designs, but to add impact and that all-important wow factor, I created a full, wild, opulent garland design to sit along the whole of the front edge of the top table, filled to bursting with huge bunches of oak leaves, fragrant foliage and, of course, more Autumnal gourds.

Hilarious speeches on the top table decorated with a full, opulent, garland of beech, oak, and gourds

Love is Love

Chris and Dean’s Autumn wedding flowers for their LGBTQ Yorkshire barn wedding will always hold a special place in my heart. They were truly the easiest of people to work with, we simply ‘got’ each other, and the joy of their wedding day is palpable. Like so many of the couples I have the real honour to work with, they’ve become friends and remain loyal followers of Campbell’s, staying in touch through social media.

Feast your eyes on these absolutely gorgeous photographs - I’ve truly run out of superlatives, they’re so heartwarming!

Tx