Rustic Wedding with Vintage Elements | Alexandria Catherine Events

The Barn at Bournelyf | West Chester, PA

There's something charming about a historic venue, and at The Barn at Bournelyf, we decided to add a bit of femininity that meshed with the rustic setting.  

When designing this shoot, The Barn at Bournelyf was the focus. As a new venue, we wanted to highlight the fact that it is rustic but that it's more than that because much of it has been either restored or maintained so it has vintage elegance to it.

We started with a color palette that would brighten things up a bit since we were shooting here off-season, so there wasn't as much natural greenery or flora highlighting the space.

Right away, we knew that we wanted to bring in Jessica of Something Borrowed Philly because she has a vintage rental inventory that brings out the historic integrity of the space. 

When you're inside of the Manor House, it's sort of like time traveling (in the best possible way) because you're surrounded by period furniture and we wanted to make sure to work with all of that. In the Dining Room, we set an elegant table with some of Jessica's pieces such as those beautiful Theodore goblets below and combinations of patterned china sitting atop lace runners adorned with lanterns from Flowers by Jena Paige that were bursting with luscious greens and varying shades of pink and ivory. We're all about the details, so we made sure to include gorgeous custom menus from Invitations by Jill (she also put together the gorgeous invitation suite that you'll see later). 

Across the hall in the Parlor, we cleared a spot for the Khloe Settee and Buddy Sweetheart Table which we placed in front of one of the stunning marble fireplaces. It fit right in, and anyone visiting would never have known that those pieces weren't already part of the venue's decor! On the corner of the Sweetheart Table, we placed the Bride's bouquet and allowed it to cascade off of the side (I always recommend this if you're looking for a way to spruce up your Sweetheart Table! You need to put your bouquet down at some point during the night anyway, so you might as well make it a part of your decor). 

Also in the Dining Room, we were able to incorporate a stunning cake from The Master's Baker that had more modern and bolder elements to it, but still used the same color scheme.

On the second floor, photographer Jennifer Baumann of Jennifer Baumann Photography (responsible for all of these fabulous images!) was getting pictures of our Bride, Melanee, as she finished up hair and makeup, courtesy of Daneene Jenson & Associates, and slipped into her ROSA CLARA dress from The Wedding Shoppe. 

Since we were planning around a First Look, we took our Groom, Jarrett, downstairs into the Parlor to make sure to capture some of his details from Sagets Formal Wear.

We chose to place our couple in the Stone Courtyard for their First Look because it provided us with the rustic backdrop but also had an easy spot for our Melanee to walk in and surprise Jarrett. These two had us all in tears during this First Look!

Inside of the Barn Sanctuary, we were able to get some photographs of Melanee and Jarrett alone in the space which really let us show off the space as well. Warwick Jewelers provided this stunning ring set (Valina and Dora designs) which we felt was perfectly vintage-inspired!

Thank you to all of the talented professionals who participated in our shoot, and to Melanee and Jarrett for being such wonderful models on that cold, rainy April day.