by Events • June 14, 2023 • Wedding Planning Guides
If you’re dreaming of a stunning, picture-perfect farm wedding, you’ll be looking for as many ideas as possible on how to bring that dream to life. You’ll want to gather all the farm wedding tips you can find to help you plan your special day.
And since we’ve been hosting incredible farm weddings for over 20 years, we’ve got a thing or two to share about styles, themes and all the ways you can capture the rustic charm and natural beauty of the countryside.
Our top ten farm wedding tips start with the biggest and most important choice – finding a farm you’ll fall in love with.
Choosing the right farm venue is essential if you want to create that perfect farm wedding.
You’ll want to find somewhere that has all the vibes you’re looking for from a farm, but that can also accommodate all the plans for your wedding.
The perfect venue should be adaptable to the farm wedding style that you and your loved one want. You’ll want to find somewhere with stunning views, gorgeous rolling farmland and plenty of flexibility to put your own touches on your big day. A barn with a blank slate for example, that you can customise any way you like.
Working farms are fantastic places to visit, but hosting a wedding at some locations may be a challenge. You’ll need to think about how you’re going to get all your guests there, where they’re going to sit and eat, and how you’re going to work around all the comings and goings of a busy farmyard. You’ll even need to think about where they’re going to go to the toilet!
To make your farm wedding planning as simple and smooth as possible, you might want to find a venue that can take care of all the logistics early – one that can handle all your seating arrangements and take care of all your lighting, electrics, and heating needs. One that can keep you and your guests comfortable all day long.
One of the biggest benefits of a farm wedding is the space. When you’re not tied to the size of a function room, you can invite hundreds of guests to celebrate your big day.
But don’t forget, you’ll most likely be feeding all those guests! Our top tip is to set your wedding budget before you start on your guest list. That way, you’ll have a clear idea of what you’re willing to spend and will know roughly how many guests you’d like to invite.
Do that, and the rest of your farm wedding planning will fall together in less than 12 months.
When you’ve decided on your dream farm venue, you can start thinking about where to hold your wedding ceremony and share your vows.
The great thing about farm weddings is that there are loads of incredible areas to tie the knot – whether that’s inside a rustic oak barn, or out on the North Lawn surrounded by nature. With the new changes to outdoor wedding law, you can now get married anywhere outside at a licensed wedding venue. So, you’ll be spoiled for choice.
An outdoor wedding on a farm is a match made in heaven until you think about the British weather! There’s no guarantee of clear skies and sparkling sunshine, no matter how hard you wish.
But English farms are used to dealing with all kinds of weather, so don’t think it has to ruin all your plans. You just need to have a clear idea of what you’ll do if the weather isn’t as nice as you hoped.
Hope for the best, with a gorgeous outdoor ceremony, but plan for the worst, with a backup area inside a barn.
The best wedding barns will help you have a warm, dry, and super cosy farm wedding, whatever the weather!
Next up, it’s time to start exploring ideas for how your farm wedding will actually look. And there are lots of different directions you can go with your farm wedding style.
Perhaps you’d like to keep things stripped back and rustic, embracing the beautifully bare elements of the farm and barn?
Or maybe you’d like to bring in more of a vintage farm wedding theme, or a bohemian-inspired style? Or how about country-chic?
With a venue like Heaton House Farm, the choice is yours. You don’t even need to go for a farm style! You could still get married on a farm but have a Caribbean beach theme if you want. It’s your day. Your decision.
Some of the best farm wedding ideas we’ve seen share one thing in common – a love of the natural world. When you’re getting married on a farm, why not make the most of the stunning nature that’s all around you?
You could use hay bales for outdoor seating areas – or a fun-filled obstacle course! You could source local wildflowers to decorate and style your wedding aisle. And you could even collect pinecones, acorns and other natural items that make for some gorgeous, rustic centrepieces.
If you want to keep things local and natural, another great farm wedding tip is to find a caterer who can source local food for your wedding. That way, you can embrace a true farm-to-fork approach.
Embrace the farming traditions of the area and build a wedding breakfast menu that incorporates all the tastes and flavours of the Great British countryside. If you’re lucky, you might even be able to enjoy fresh produce straight from the farm you’re getting married on.
One of the best ways to embrace a farm wedding theme is to sprinkle little touches throughout your day. We’ve already mentioned bringing in natural elements and sourcing local food, but there are plenty of other ideas too.
You could use items from the farm for decorations like milk bottles from a dairy farm to hold table numbers or mason jars filled with candles.
Maybe you could have farming-inspired wedding favours, like wildflower seeds, homemade jam or home-grown chilli chutney?
Or perhaps you could arrange for some farming activities or special visitors as part of your big day, like a ride on a tractor or the chance to meet some lambs?
Last but by no means least, our final farm wedding tip is to make sure you and your photographer have a plan to capture all the wonderful natural beauty of your farm wedding.
Think about where you’d like to get some amazing group shots and romantic couple photos in advance because the day itself will be a whirlwind. You’ll want to capture those rolling hills and sweeping farmland vistas every way you can – and perhaps get some shots with some of the local wildlife!
You might even want to plan a golden hour cocktail hour outside on the patio – one of our favourite farm wedding ideas, so your photographer can make the most of that stunning light.
Request our brochure for more ideas and inspiration for what a farm wedding at Heaton House Farm could look like.
And when you’re ready, come down and see us, meet with a wedding coordinator, and start planning your dream farm wedding.
