Fun, Foodie & Gorgeous DIY Barn Wedding

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 8

If you’ve been a long time reader of Bridal Musings, you’ll know that real weddings like this one, are right up my street.

A cool laid-back couple, DIY decor, an atmospheric barn setting, good food, great music, one massive party and beautiful photography that captures it all.

Lindsay & Raman are a New York couple who tied the knot in the countryside, just across the Massachusetts border at Stonover Farm.

They painstakingly created an intimate, personalised and smile-filled celebration for their 200-strong guest list, with the help of their friends, family, and extended circle.

The wonderful Keetch Miller Photography documented all the fun (make sure you visit the gallery too see all the stunning portraits!), and I just know you guys are going to get so many ideas from this gorgeous couple and their remarkable DIY bash…

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 21

The Proposal Story

On our first trip to the beach, Lindsay made Raman a bracelet out of a thread from their beach towel.

Almost seven years later, using the same thread, Raman tied a loop (the size of a ring) on one end and tied the other end to a diamond ring.

With an entire NYC pier to themselves, Raman dropped to his knee and held out the thread ring. When Lindsay said yes, Raman slipped the thread ring onto her finger and opened his hand leaving the diamond ring dangling from Lindsay’s hand on the thread.

Our Wedding

Our wedding in three words? One helluva party.

We both love hosting events and we wanted, first and foremost, to ensure that we threw a great party in a place that everyone could feel comfortable kicking back and having a great time.

To us that meant a couple of things: Location, food, and music.

Our advice for other couples is to make it your own. For us it was about creating a fun atmosphere for all of the people that we love.

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 16

The Location

We wanted a place that would we could call home for the entire weekend – and the week before so that we could do all of the decorating/lighting/set-up/coordination ourselves.

We ruled out all locations that had any sort of curfew, it was Raman’s nightmare to have someone rushing us out of the party…

We weren’t interested in hiring someone to do the work, so wanted to find a venue that would allow us to do as much as we could so that the event really felt like a reflection of both of us.

We wanted a place that was laid back, comfortable, beautiful, and large enough to host the 200 guests who were attending.

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 7

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 43

The Music

The groom’s childhood friend (Seamus Maynard) played solo acoustic Beatles songs for each portion of the ceremony.

Seamus was then joined by a bass player and keyboard player for the outdoor cocktail hour.

The groom’s father is a long time jazz bassist. He called in a few favors and pulled together a world class band for dinner and the reception.

Teddy Katz, a friend of the best man and professional DJ took over after the band shut it down.

The first dance was ‘Love and Happiness’ by Al Green.

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 41

The Photography

Keetch Miller and the groom went to high school together and a mutual friend put them back in touch for the wedding.

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 9

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 31

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 27

The Flowers & Decor

The bride wanted local, seasonal, flowers. She found an organic flower farm to do just that.

Sol Flower Farm put together arrangements more beautiful than we could have imagined.

The vine sphere centerpiece made by the groom, groom’s brother and his father. Mostly everything else you see at the wedding was DIY from the bride and groom and our family and friends.

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 28

Gorgeous Barn Wedding by Keetch Miller Photography 29

The Food

Everyone’s a foodie these days but food really, truly, was the most important piece of the wedding to us.

We served almost 500 meals over the four days that we were at the venue with food ranging from homemade salads, to Greek food delivered hot from Astoria Queens, to home smoked whitefish salad and salmon, to the main event – a dinner cooked out of an entirely wood fired, out door, mobile “kitchen” .

We are blessed with talented and generous family and friends and it was a miraculous joint effort pulling everything together.