Julie & Brian’s country farm wedding with horses

Posted by
 | Photography by Jessica Cockburn Photography
20130608_J&B_slideshow101

The Offbeat Bride: Julie, Nurse

Her offbeat partner: Brian, Mechanic

Date and location of wedding: Abydos Farms, Picton, Ontario and Cedar Rail Farm, Belleville, Ontario — June 8, 2013

Our offbeat wedding at a glance: The ceremony was at a friend's farm where I have worked since I was a young girl. It was my dream to have my wedding there. One of my favorite parts was the ceremony entrance. The wedding party entered on horseback! My mom and two bridesmaids entered on a John Deere gator, my maid of honor/sister, flower girl, my dad, and I entered on horseback.

wed 21

wed 20

JulieandBrian-122 - Copy

wed 49

327A2517

Once the ceremony was over, we kicked up our heels at another farm nearby. It was in an indoor arena with a dirt floor. We had family-style BBQ with ice cream sandwiches, cake, and homemade goodies for dessert. At 10:00 p.m. we had pizza delivered! Our band was great, and at one point had every girl at the wedding on the stage/hay wagon singing “Mustang Sally.”

327A2525

327A2569

Tell us about the ceremony:
Since the horses were going to be present during the ceremony I thought it would be cool to incorporate them somehow. Just before Brian and I signed the registry, the “horsemaids” did a choreographed “musical ride” to the song “Marry You” by Bruno Mars.

Here are some clips from the ceremony and the horse dance:

327A2593

20130608_J&B_slideshow048

327A2416

Our biggest challenge:
At times it was difficult to stick to our vision. I think because it was a little different, others weren't sure it would work. I had to do a lot of convincing and clarifying of ideas.

The other biggest challenge was the weather. It rained for three days prior to the wedding, which really worried us. The day before the wedding, there were actually ducks swimming in the area where we were going to have people park! Luckily, it was overcast but did not rain on the day. We ended up getting a tent (just in case) and used chairs instead of hay bales for people to sit on.

327A3054

327A2858

My favorite moment:
Even though Brian was pretty emotional during the ceremony, I was able to keep my cool for most of the day. However, I had two moments where I lost it. The two moments were our first dance and our wedding slideshow. Brian picked our first dance song which was “Hey Pretty Girl” by Kip Moore. He sang every word to me and I lost it. A close friend created a beautiful slideshow of Brian and I through the ages. I also lost it at this point. I am emotional now writing about it!

JulieandBrian-32

My funniest moment:
When I was on my horse in a big dress, I got my dad to help me off. Rather than getting off normally, I kinda fell off the horse and let my dad catch me (you can see it in the ceremony video above)!

327A3019

One of my favorite funny moments was when my friend brought out her horse head masks. We had so much fun dancing around with them.

20130608_J&B_slideshow119

wed 50

slide show

Care to share a few vendor/shopping links?

Enough talk — show me the wedding inspo!

Meet our fave wedding vendors

Comments on Julie & Brian’s country farm wedding with horses

  1. Finally! A ranch wedding that doesn’t feel trendy and fake! I love that she was bold enough to let the bottom of her dress get muddy. Looks like a great time 🙂

  2. This wedding is TO DIE for! I love it! I have been a part of the horse world for ages, and would have loved to have a wedding like this! FANTASTIC

  3. Oh your beautiful Kleinfield’s dress, it’s getting all muddy! I think it’s totally awesome that you are totally okay with that, but I just needed to take a neat-freak moment and shed a tear for it 😉

  4. What a cool wedding! I have photographed plenty of barn / farm-style weddings, but this one was whole-hog!

Comments are closed.