Puck’s Farm Wedding

No matter how many times we look over this Puck’s Farm wedding, we can’t escape the feeling we’re in the ultimate barn party dream. Holly and Kristjan’s wedding took a spectacular farm setting, jazzed it up with some whimsical touches and plenty of inspiring decor, and added in a few sweet farm animals as a bonus. Thank you to Sara Wilde Photography and My Luscious Backyard for working your magic here!

From the bride, Holly: When we first started to plan our wedding, we didn’t know that we wanted to have a kooky wedding on a real, functioning farm, but we knew what we did not want. We did not want something stuffy, impersonal, or overly formal. That just wasn’t us. Once we settled on Puck’s Farm as our venue, we really took our cues from the farm, and designed our wedding around it. We made our guests’ enjoyment our top priority. Since Kristjan is a professional musician, we have many talented musician friends who took the stage throughout the night. There was a different live musical act throughout each stage of the wedding, including the pre-ceremony, ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, and dance party. In some ways it felt more like a musical festival, than a wedding!

Flower recipe: Our florist, Sarah, created the bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages with flowers that are grown seasonally and locally in her own backyard. Since we didn’t have a specific colour scheme in mind (“colourful” was our only criteria), she had free reign over the design, and they turned out beautifully. She also provided a loose mix of flowers, which my sister-in-law incorporated into our centrepieces. The rest of the flowers were picked from my mom’s garden.

We tried to keep everything casual, colourful, whimsical, and fun. The suggested dress code for our wedding was “Barnyard Chic”. It was fun to see how our guests interpreted this – there were a lot of really awesome outfits! Our main themes were a mish-mash of “Camping” “Farm Animals” “Music” and “Booze”. We used farm animals as our table numbers, which were placed in whiskey bottles from Kristjan’s prized collection. Our dinner menu was good old fashioned BBQ, and we gave out s’mores kits as our favours (to be roasted at the late night bonfire). Many of our guests camped out in the field over night. Everything about this wedding was DIY, from the centrepieces, decorations, favours, and desserts, to the planning, organizing, and execution. Luckily, we had a tremendous amount of help from our family and friends. Without them, we would not have been able to pull it off.

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Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? Don’t be afraid to go against the grain and break tradition. We only included the elements of a traditional wedding that were meaningful to us, and scrapped the rest of the formalities. This made our wedding day feel more personal. It was a true representation of what we are all about as a couple. Also, if you are having a DIY wedding, do not be afraid to ask for help! And do not underestimate the amount of time it will take to execute your ideas. You will almost certainly need someone (or an entire crew) available to help with set up on the morning of your wedding, so you and the groom can focus on getting dolled up. You’ll find most people will be happy to help in whichever way they can.

Wedding Music:
Almost all of the music at our wedding was performed live by our talented friends. In addition to their original music and some great covers, Kristjan created the musical arrangements for all of the ceremonial songs.
Processional: “Old Dirt Hill,” Dave Matthews Band – performed by string trio and acoustic guitar*
Bride’s Processional: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” Harold Arlen” – performed by string trio and ukelele*
Signing of the Registry: “Same Love,” Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – performed by string trio*
Recessional: “Wouldn’t it Be Nice,” The Beach Boys – performed by string trio and saxophone*
First Dance: “To Build A Home,” Cinematic Orchestra – performed by string trio, piano and vocals*
*(arrangement by Groom)

From the photographer, Sara Wilde Photography: Kristjan and Holly had been exhaustedly searching for the right venue, without much luck. They knew that they wanted something casual, outdoors, and fun, and it had to fit within their limited budget. They came across Puck’s Farm and it fit EVERY aspect of what they were looking for and for the theme they wanted: Barnyard Chic. Everyone (friends and family alike) came together to make their wedding dreams a reality – late night sewing of the pendants, floral arranging, to friends putting on non-stop live music for the entire night. The guests even got to stay overnight, pitching tents in the field and having an amazing bonfire (with s’more favours!) to end the celebration. I’d like to think the best part of the whole day, was when the farm lost power, and the band that was playing for that time (Saturday Night Jive) kept playing without missing a single beat, the guests held up their glowing cell phones and partied on!

Wedding Location: Schomberg, Ontario, Canada / Photographer: Sara Wilde Photography / Florist: My Luscious Backyard and bride’s sister-in-law Kate / Venue: Puck’s Farm / Wedding Dress: Nicole Miller / Wedding Shoes: Miss L-Fire / Groom’s Bow Tie and Suspenders: bespoke by Antonacci Tailors / Caterer: BBQ Gourmet / Bartenders: Shaken or Stirred Bar Services / Wedding Cupcakes: Dlish Cupcakes and Bunners / Other Desserts: Homemade by friends and family / Musicians: Pre-ceremony: Dave McArthur and Mason Stoner; Ceremony: Rob Carli, Bridget Hunt, Amy Canzoneri, Marie Gelinas, Dave McArthur; Cocktails: Bridget Hunt, Amy Canzoneri, Marie Gelinas, Donavon LeNabat; Dinner/Reception: Bridget Hunt, Amy Canzoneri, Marie Gelinas, Joel Visentin, Francois Mulder, KETCH HARBOUR WOLVES (Jonathan Tyrrell, Scott Winter, Liam Brown, Brian Urbanik), DAVE MCARTHUR (Dave McArthur, Shafton Thomas, Josh Patrick), SATURDAY NIGHT JIVE (AJ Singh, Luca Caracciolo, Dusty Emer, Paul Theriault, Donavon LeNabat, Genevieve Marchesseau, Julie Title, Carson Freeman) / DJ: Johnny Beatz / Sound Equipment: PSI Sound / Party Rentals: Pat’s Party Rentals / Wedding Invitations: The bride