A 1930’s Elizabeth Avey Vintage Wedding Dress for a Seaside Wedding in Scarborough…

Good morning good people of wedding blog loving land! I have a week packed full of inspiration, gorgeous imagery, discussion posts and more.

The first serving of lovely comes to you from the North East {my home land!}, Scarborough to be exact, where Vikki & Matt, who tied the knot on 1 July 2011 with a beautiful seaside wedding at the Spa Sun Court in Scarborough.  Scarborough! I love that part of the world! It’s but a stones throw from my little spiritual gettaway, Whitby, where the boy and I tied our own nuptials on 20 March 2009.

This gorgeous images of a quite beautifully styled, and very personal wedding day, were taken by London based creative wedding and portrait Photographer, Shell de Mar.  Shell is available for wedding bookings all over the UK and for overseas destination weddings too.  Do go take a peek at her website, it is so much fun 😉

“I wore an original 1930s wedding gown in pale silver liquid satin with diamante details, bought from the very lovely Elizabeth Avey.

The dress felt like it had been made for me – it fit me like a glove despite being over 80 years old, and had everything I was looking for in my wedding gown: Jenny Packham style old Hollywood glamour, unusual detailing and lots of provenance.  I loved the idea it had been worn before on someone else’s special day.  Being pale silver, I also liked it’s unusual colour, which I think was more flattering on me than plain white or cream….” 

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2011, Shell de Mar

Vintage Scarborough Seaside Wedding

Vintage Scarborough Seaside Wedding

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I pretty much knew from that very first try-on it was ‘the one’, despite being only the third gown I tried on (and in the first shop I’d been to).  People always say you know when it feels right and I could immediately visualise wearing it on the day. 

The skirt was 7 meters wide at the bottom so the drape of the fabric moved beautifully too, and made me feel like Ginger Rogers … if only the same could be said of my dancing!”

Vintage Scarborough Seaside Wedding

Vintage Scarborough Seaside Wedding

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Vintage Scarborough Seaside Wedding


“I couldn’t get any Rachel Simpson shoes to fit so in the end lucked out with silver satin and diamante peep toes from Dune in their sale.

My florist was Laura Laycock from Seamer, Scarborough, who created a beautiful hand-tied sheath bouquet for me.  I wanted an old fashioned bouquet which could be ‘worn’ on the arm.  It contained simple white calla lilys contrasted with peacock feathers and teal eucalyptus, which helped pick out the colour of the flower girl dresses.  The mums wore white freesia and diamante corsages, with a single calla lily and peacock feather forming the groomsmen’s buttonholes.  The bridesmaid’s fragrant posies were made of white freesias, lilys and foliage.  The flower girls wore delightful delicate wristlets with a single calla lily and peacock feather, tied to their middle finger and wrist with matching teal ribbon. Instead of flower baskets we decided to give the girls metal vintage-style seaside buckets, which we filled ourselves with rose petals….”

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“As the dress fit so tightly around the waist finding the right underwear was difficult.  In the end I opted for a fabulous peach glamour corselette from What Katie Did, which gave me a smooth line without the bulk of boning.  It also felt suitably glam and a more preferable option to Spanx!  The girls at London Designer Alterations took the straps off the corselette and replaced them with smaller clear ones, which meant they didn’t show underneath…”

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“I was lucky enough to have a bespoke piece made by a friend, Jessica Broas, who is an immensely talented and creative milliner.  I always wanted to use beautiful peacock feathers in my hair as they picked out the teal colour of the flower girls’ dresses, and the touch of diamante connected nicely to the sparkle of my dress and the rest of my vintage jewellery.  Jess even put crystals on the white feathers so the whole thing shimmered in the sunshine….”

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“Matt’s mum did my hair – a simple side bun with Marcel wave at the front (very handy having a mother-in-law who was a hairdresser in the 1960s!).  It made the whole thing feel a lot more personal and special and I really appreciated the generosity of the gesture.  I did my own make-up and was surprisingly calm about it on the day!

All of my jewellery was vintage – the 1950s diamante necklace was from Vintage Kitty – Jennifer was incredibly helpful and let me try on a few options at home so I could find exactly the right one to go with the dress.  The earrings and chrome/diamante bracelet were both original Art Deco finds and the vintage marcasite watch belonged to my gran who couldn’t be at the wedding…”

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The Bridesmaids wore the Coast ‘Starburst’ maxi dress in silver-grey, with beading around the decolletage….

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“The bridal party and guests travelled down to The Spa via Victorian cliff lift, which provided novel transport to the wedding!”

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“As it can get quite chilly in Scarborough I also wore a  grey marabou shrug from Coast, with matching ones for the bridesmaids….” 

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“We decided to hold the wedding at the fabulous Spa Sun Court in Scarborough.  It dates back to the 19th century, and its bandstand with checked courtyard overlooks the sea with stunning views of the South Bay.  Matt and most of his friends were born and raised in the town and it was important to us to marry somewhere that had a special connection.

The Sun Court was also perfect for what we had in mind – whilst we wanted a civil ceremony, we also hoped to retain a sense of ‘event’, and with a red carpet rolled down the middle to act as an aisle and rows of deckchairs either side, it gave proceedings a sense of ceremony whilst keeping things fun and fairly informal.  We also wanted to ensure a family friendly day, and the Sun Court provided somewhere safe for kids to run around outside whilst being safely under their mum and dad’s watchful eyes.  Besides, who doesn’t like to be beside the seaside?!

Our main contact at The Spa was Chris Thompson who was incredibly courteous and helpful, as were the rest of the staff.  As they also cater in-house it made a lot of the planning and prep so much easier…”

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“Matt created special Orders of Service for the ceremony using old comic Seaside Summer Specials for inspiration.  These were placed on the deckchairs using varnished beach pebbles to hold them down, just in case it was windy….”

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“I asked both my dad and brother to walk me down the red carpet & my dad officially ‘gave me away’ at the end.  I walked down the aisle to Bobby Darin’s “Beyond The Sea” as it was both appropriate to the setting and encapsulated how we were feeling.  The ceremony was preceeded by seaside organ music to get the guests in the mood, including covers of David Bowie songs (the bride’s favourite!)…”

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“Matt wanted to wear something in keeping with the seaside setting and so we found a limited edition striped navy blazer from Paul Costelloe.  It was sold as part of a special pop-up shop within John Lewis during London Fashion Week, and the blazer was 1 of only 10 made.  Gap Khakis and a navy blue satin day-cravat from Tie Rack completed his look. 

I gave Matt some silver Murray Ward locket cufflinks as a present on the day.  I had them engraved with his initials in Gil Sans (our favourite font & the one Matt used for our invites).  Inside the lockets were photos of Matt’s maternal grand parents, taken on their own wartime wedding day.  Matt was very close to them and – because they had a long & happy marriage  –  chose to propose to me to me on the bench dedicated to them overlooking Scarborough’s North Bay.  It was therefore very important to me to ensure their memory was incorporated into our own wedding…”

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“We loved the vintage seaside feel of the Spa and together with my love of vintage clothing we thought it would be appropriate to give our wedding a hint of days gone by.  Matt used the Gil Sans font and old Scarborough tourist posters as inspiration for our website and invite design.

We wanted to inject the ceremony itself with some fun and character so decided to have song lyrics read out instead of the more traditional reading, and had everyone sing along together to The Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun” – we knew it would feel magical if we had a beautiful day, or ironic if it was pouring with rain! (Luckily the gods were smiling on us as and we had a beautifully clear and sunny day, showing Scarborough off at her best)…”

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“Gail (one of my oldest and best friends from school) kindly let us borrow her handmade bunting to decorate the venue – she and her friends painstakingly made it by hand for her own wedding last summer.  It really brought the Sun Court to life and looked fantastically festive in the sunshine.   Inside we had more bunting, plus goldfish bowls filled with sand, starfish and candles for the table centrepieces (provided by our florist Laura), which were sat upon round mirrors and adorned with seashells to further the theme. 

We were also given 100 glass tealight holders by my bridesmaid Maggie (a gift from her own wedding) which gave the place a lovely glow in the evening…”

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“Matt came up with the idea of having people ‘post’ vintage postcards to us (instead of using a guestbook) so over the months collected lots of blank Scarborough postcards, dating from 1906 right through to modern times (including the ubiquitous saucy postcard!)  Real people’s written postcards through the ages were left on each table as something to read through and provide a bit of a talking point amongst guests. Most of these were sourced through ebay….”

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“We decided to give each guest a bespoke stick of Scarborough rock as a place setting, and Matt painstakingly made and replaced the labels in the same design as the logo he created for our website.  The favours were either chrome scallop-shell shaped bottle stoppers or 4 seashell tealight candles to continue the seaside theme.  There were colouring pencils, balloons and ice-cream-cone shaped bottles of blowing bubbles for the kids, plus a joke kit for the mini usher, Matt’s nephew Harry.  We also provided plastic buckets & spades for the kids to bring along to our beachhut barbecue the following day.  The two flower girls were also given pink disposable cameras, with a special mission of capturing images of the day…”

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“Matt’s mum & dad painstakingly created a special posting box for us, designed as a mini Scarborough beach-hut.  It looked just like the one we hired for our BBQ the following day and they even added touches like miniature deckchairs, a mini barbecue and even mini saucy postcards for good measure!”

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“All the catering was provided by The Spa (run by Scarborough Council) who were absolutely brilliant.  From mini scone canapes to fish & chips with homemade tartare sauce & mushy peas, knickerbocker glories & candyfloss, the food was really memorable and of beautiful quality.  All of our friends raved about it and the kids loved their special mini portions.  Head Chef Paul Broadhead created vegetarian ‘fish’ and chips with battered halloumi cheese for me, so no-one was left out.  I couldn’t rate them more highly….”

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“We wanted a fun seaside themed wedding cake and Sandra was full of ideas and very receptive to our reference images.  She created 3 tiers of graduated blue, with fruitcake at the bottom, chocolate cake in the middle and carrot cake with cream-cheese frosting on the top tier.  She made pearlised sugar paste seashells and seahorses from special moulds with freehand ‘coral’ created by piping.  Finally she added the finishing touch – some white icing seagull ‘poo’ to go with our seagull cake topper!  That’s a bit of a Scarborough injoke, as it’s an increasing problem in the town…”

….hehehe!

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The Sun Court provided a beautiful setting for the first dance so we decided to learn a simple cha-cha-cha to make the most of the space.  We chose “Happy” sung by Keith Richards (from the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Main Street”) as our first dance – it’s such a wonderfully positive and happy song that couldn’t fail to put a smile on your face.  My dress was made for dancing and so we didn’t care that it was all a bit rough, ready and badly rehearsed!”

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Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“I’d say try and get ahead as much as you can (ie. don’t leave it to the last minute), try to inject something personal into the day and don’t sweat the big stuff – something’s bound to go a bit awry on the day itself so try and roll with the punches.  Don’t lose sight that your friends and family will be happy enough to just share your big day with you, so don’t worry about trying to impress them.  Finally take some time out for just you and your husband to take in the moment, as it goes by so quickly…”

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I absolutely adore this beautiful seaside wedding. We need more of them on Love My Dress!

Huge thanks to Shell de Mar for sharing these beautiful images today too…

“The extremely talented Shella from Shell de Mar Photography captured our big day.   As soon as I first saw her images I knew she was the person we wanted to use.  Shella has the knack of capturing people’s personality in very natural but beautifully framed images, and has such an amazing way with light. 

She is very discreet on the day itself and puts you very much at ease.  We did our engagement shoot with Shella early one Sunday morning on Brighton beach and pier, in keeping with the seaside theme…”

Click here for more 1930’s, seaside weddings and vintage wedding insipiration on Love My Dress.

Any of you Love My Dress readers planning a seaside wedding?

 

Credits

Photographer – Shell de Mar
Venue – Spa Sun Court in Scarborough
Brides dress – Elizabeth Avey + Coast shrug
Brides shoes – Dune
Brides accessories – Headpiece, Jessica Broas: 07957 108 778 + Vintage Kitty + family heirloom
Bridesmaids – Coast ‘Starburst’ maxi dress + Coast   =-silver maribu shrug
Flowers – Laura Laycock – c/o [email protected]
Cake – Sandra Moore – mailto:[email protected]
Favours – Shell Design Bottle Stop + Seashell Tealight Candles
Groom – Paul Costelloe + John Lewis + Tie Rack + Murray Ward locket cufflink

 

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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