Hi everyone! Hannah here. I’m so excited to be sharing this post with all of you today, because today we are celebrating the first anniversary of The Barn at Bunker Hill, as well as my first wedding anniversary (since they are one in the same).
A little back-story on how all this all came to be. I had always thought a barn wedding would be amazing, and luckily enough there was already a Barn at my mom and dad’s house. It had a lot of character, but I never thought in a million years that I would be able to have my own wedding there someday. When I got engaged to my high school sweetheart in August 2014, the Barn looked like this:
As you can tell, the foundation was crumbling, there were no windows, and the back lean-to was nothing more than a dirt floor. We knew pulling off a wedding in the space would take a lot of imagination, but luckily for us we had a team full of creative people. By November of 2014, we had officially decided to move forward with a Barn renovation, and started work on the project right before Thanksgiving.
Over the next seven months, we worked to transform the space into something completely new, while still maintaining some of our favorite parts of the Barn (more on the renovation process later). They say a renovation isn’t ever really “done” until it needs to be, which definitely rang true for this project. We were working on small details of the space right up until the night before my wedding, all in an effort to make it look like the dream we had for the space from the beginning. The final product resulted in the perfect day (in the bride’s humble opinion). Here’s a peak at some of the details from our big day!
Before the renovation, there was no opening in the loft area, so we created one! It really opens the space up and is the perfect spot for photos like this one. Also doubles as a fun place to do the bouquet/garter toss!
My mom worked really hard to collect over 300 vintage china plates for our wedding, which we now will rent out to future Bunker Hill Brides!
There was a lot of talk of painting the barn a traditional “barn red,” but in the end we loved the mis-matched barn boards that we ended up with. Many of them are from the original barn, but we also borrowed some from a torn-down corn crib.
Twine, burlap and vintage plates… what more could you want for a barn wedding?
I wanted to keep the decor simple since the Barn has so many detailed features, so I went with hydrangeas and baby’s breath for all the centerpieces and bridal party flowers.
We put a lot of thought into the small details of the Barn, like the railing.
Did you know the Barn is located on a working farm? That means that every summer there will be corn surrounding the space.
We chose to do our first look inside the barn where we also held the ceremony, and added some details to the doorway to give the backdrop a little something extra.
We also added lace throughout the Barn to add some feminine touches to the space.
One of my favorite parts of the space is the upstairs balcony, which ended up being the perfect place for my talented friends to sing during our ceremony.
Did I mention the beautiful Iowa sunsets we have? 🙂
These stairs turned out to be a great spot for a reception entrance.
This head table, which was handmade by my groom and father-in-law, was just the right size for our party and fit perfectly in this space. It’s also included in every Barn rental!
Our favorite way to see the barn…filled with happy people.
I truly can’t believe it’s been a whole year! My own Barn wedding was everything I hoped it would be, and I’m so happy that now we can share the space with new brides. We are already booking up quickly for 2017, which is far beyond what we could have imagined for our first year. We are humbled and so excited for all that is to come. Happy 1st anniversary, Barn at Bunker Hill!
