The Old Rectory Wedding in Devon

We head to The Old Rectory in Devon for the wedding of Toby and Kate who had their special day captured by Barney Walters.

About you both?

Kate is a secondary Science teacher in Exeter and used to live and work abroad in Bangkok for two years. She’s a keen rock climber and scuba diver, travelling abroad to new destinations when she can. Toby is a Fisheries Biologist and director at Fishtek consulting in Dartington. He can mainly be found by a river or ocean fly fishing or with a camera in his hand. Toby actually took me fishing on my birthday to catch the cod for our wedding breakfast!

Where did you both meet?

We met 8 years ago at the University of Exeter where we were both working as postgraduate students in the Biology laboratories. Our eyes met across a DNA sequencing machine. Similar research projects meant we ended up spending a lot of time together and quickly became inseparable.

Please describe your wedding day and the preparations?

Our aim was for a relaxed and intimate Devon wedding where we could have our ceremony and wedding breakfast in the same location along with accommodation for our family and close friends. The Old Rectory has a barn where we got married and plenty of green space for a marquee – ideal for what we wanted.

With a lot of helping hands from our family and friends we made our wedding cake, the starters, the canapés, the wedding bar, the flower arrangements to name but a few. It was magical and so special to see all the finishing touches and know that our guests had a direct hand in making it so wonderful.

What advice would you give to future couples planning their wedding day?

Make sure to keep a level head, remember why you’re getting married and what you want to be the overall feel for your wedding. I think it was lovely that we had so many personal touches but it did mean we were very busy. Our one essential was an exceptional photographer for our wedding day as those memories are now forever captured. Sadly, his banter is a little lacking, but you can’t have everything…. ;)”