Not long ago, Blackbrook Barns opened its doors for its very first wedding. Now, just 18 months later, we’ve celebrated our 100th.
That’s 100 couples, 100 ceremonies and 100 completely different versions of what a wedding can look like. We’ve seen packed dance floors, emotional speeches, beautiful styling, questionable weather forecasts, incredible food and more than a few moments that definitely weren’t on the original running order.
And somewhere along the way, we’ve learned quite a lot about what makes a really good wedding.
So, in honour of wedding number 100, we thought we’d share some of it.
The best weddings feel like the people getting married
After 100 weddings, this is probably the biggest thing we’ve learned: there really isn’t a formula.
Some of our couples have gone all-out with statement styling and every detail considered. Others have kept things beautifully simple. We’ve hosted different cultures and traditions, intimate ceremonies and big celebrations, relaxed afternoons and parties that have filled every corner of the Barns.
The weddings that really stay with you are the ones where you can see the couple in the choices they’ve made. The music they actually listen to, food they genuinely love and details that mean something to them will always create more personality than doing something simply because it’s what a wedding is “supposed” to have.
Your guests take their cue from you
Couples understandably spend a lot of time thinking about whether their guests are having a good time, but one of the best pieces of wedding planning advice we can give is to enjoy your own day.
If you’re relaxed, your guests relax. If you’re on the dance floor, chances are they’ll follow. If you’re having another cocktail in the Courtyard rather than worrying about whether you’re five minutes behind schedule, nobody else is going to care either.
You’ve invited all of your favourite people to celebrate with you. They already want to have a brilliant time.
The little moments usually become the big ones
There are the obvious moments everyone looks forward to: walking down the aisle, the first kiss, speeches and the first dance. But after watching 100 weddings unfold, some of our favourite moments happen somewhere in between.
It’s seeing someone you haven’t seen for years across the Courtyard. Your friends making you laugh when you’re supposed to be having serious couple portraits. A quiet five minutes together once everyone has gone in for dinner. Your grandparents on the dance floor. The look between two people during a speech that nobody else notices.
You can plan an incredible wedding, but you can’t plan every great moment. Leave a little room for those too.
Good food really does matter
We may be slightly biased, but we’ve got 100 weddings worth of evidence behind this one.
Food is one of the things that brings everyone together during a wedding day. It gets people talking, sets the pace for the celebration and gives your guests something they’ll genuinely remember afterwards.
Whether it’s the wedding breakfast everyone has been waiting for, drinks and canapés in the Courtyard or exactly the right food appearing later when the dance floor is in full swing, it’s worth giving some thought to what you actually want to eat rather than simply choosing what feels traditionally “wedding”.
The weather matters much less than you think
We know. You’re still going to check the forecast approximately 47 times during wedding week.
But we’ve now seen weddings in glorious sunshine, grey skies, rain and pretty much everything the British weather can produce, and we can confidently say that weather has never decided whether a wedding was brilliant.
Having a wedding venue that works beautifully whatever is happening outside takes away a lot of that pressure. If the sun shines, make the most of it. If it rains, head inside, pour the drinks and carry on.
Some of the best photographs and parties have happened on days that definitely didn’t have a perfect forecast.
You really don’t have to do everything
One hundred weddings have also shown us just how differently couples choose to spend their day.
Not bothered about cutting a cake? Don’t. Hate the idea of a first dance? Skip it. Want speeches somewhere unexpected, dessert before dinner or to disappear for twenty minutes together while everybody else carries on having a lovely time? It’s your wedding.
Traditions can be wonderful when they mean something to you. They aren’t a checklist you have to complete.
Sometimes taking something away gives the parts you really care about more room to shine.
And finally, it goes very, very quickly
This is the one every married couple tells you, and unfortunately they’re right.
You can spend months, sometimes years, planning a wedding and then suddenly you’re standing in the middle of a packed dance floor wondering how it’s already the evening.
So take it in. Look around during dinner. Spend time with the people you’ve invited. Sneak away together for five minutes. Have the drink. Eat the food. Get on the dance floor.
The details matter, but experiencing the day you’ve worked so hard to create matters more.
Here’s to the next 100
Reaching our 100th wedding at Blackbrook Barns feels incredibly special, particularly just 18 months after welcoming our first couple through the doors.
Every one of those weddings has brought something different to the Barns, and being trusted with such an important day never becomes ordinary.
To our first 100 couples: thank you for choosing Blackbrook, for making the place your own and for giving us 100 very good reasons to love what we do.
And to everyone still planning theirs, we can’t wait to see what you do with it.