A Colourful and Fun Bournemouth Beach Hut Wedding

This afternoon’s wedding feels really appropriate to share today, given some of the comments on weight and body image that have been left in response to the post we shared this morning. Beautiful bride Natalie, a Community Fundraiser for the Marie Curie Cancer Care Charity married her beau Rob, the Director of an Engineering company, on 7 June this year at Bournemouth Beach Hut, followed by evening celebrations at Harry’s Bar.

Natalie’s experience of finding a wedding dress turned from something she was dreading into something she thoroughly enjoyed, thanks to the services provided by the wonderful Jo over at The Couture Company.  As a result, Nat was able to look and feel fabulous on her gloriously sunny seaside wedding day.

“One of the reasons I think we felt drawn to getting married on the beach was because Rob and I met at the seaside, so styling the wedding around the beach was an easy decision.  We wanted it to feel very fun, colourful and chilled out. We wanted it to have lots of personal touches and lots for our guests to do.”

Photography Copyright (c) 2014, Mia Photography

“We chose Bournemouth Beach Hut because again, we wanted something a bit different. We came across the beach hut after seeing the venue in a magazine, we fell in love with it instantly and we knew it would be right for us. It felt laid back, fun and quirky, just like us.

We were given help and support by Melanie at Bournemouth Beach Weddings, she was great offering advice leading up to the day, and on the day she was amazing! The whole day ran smoothly, so well organised, and we felt so looked after.  She and her team at Beach Weddings Bournemouth were incredible!”

“Being plus size I was a little worried about the wedding dress part: I had read lots of articles online about the difficulties people faced.  I started to panic a little and was wary about stepping into a wedding dress shop. Then I found Jo at The Couture Company and her awesome dresses, I knew that I wanted a short dress for on the beach and I had to have sleeves as I don’t like my arms out and really didn’t want to wear a jacket or bolero.”

“I told Jo what I had imagined the dress to look like and she sketched the perfect dress. I had chosen my bridesmaids dresses and they were a beautiful tiffany blue colour and I wanted that in my dress too. Jo suggested having it across the bust – it was a bit daring for me but I trusted her and it definitely worked. I loved everything about it, the fit was perfect for me and it was so different. I had so many compliments and it felt so special to know I had been involved in designing it.  

Jo and her team really do create the most beautiful dresses. It was such a wonderful experience; I knew that I was going to love my dress.  If you have an idea in your head of what your wedding dress would look like then I would highly recommend you book an appointment with Jo and her team at The Couture Company straight away, it was the best decision I made.”

“Our wedding invites were made by Suzy at The Leaf Press. We didn’t want to send the standard invites, I had an idea to do message in a bottles. We purchased lots of bottles, some sand and shells. We then contacted Suzy and told her our idea. She designed beautiful invites rolled up to go inside and tags and stickers to go on the bottles. They were really cute pastel colours with beach huts on. Suzy went above and beyond for us and we would highly recommend her.

The table plan I made myself, it’s hard to explain, but I purchased a beach hut shaped bathroom mirror which had a compartment around it, with the word beach across the top. It had eight spaces, around the mirror which was in the middle so we just made up the table plans from card and slotted them in there. It looked really good in the end.”

“We had an idea for something a bit different; instead of having a kiss after we were declared married we wanted to do a selfie. We ran this pass our registrar, who was brilliant and she had no problems with it and was more than happy to help us pull it off. I am a bit obsessed with selfies and Facebook, so it was perfect for us and it meant we could upload the first picture before any of the guests. Our photographer Mia captured this too which is brilliant.”

“Rob and I have known each other since around the age of eleven – I am from Birmingham originally and Rob is from Bristol. Both our parents had caravans at Burnham On Sea, Somerset we met during a game of tag in the park. We became close friends then at 17 Rob asked me out, I said no at first as didn’t know how it could work being so far away, but I changed my mind and thought we could give it ago. After years of travelling up and down the M5, I decided it was time to make the move to Bristol.

After 13 years of waiting, and lots of pestering, Rob finally got round to asking me to marry him. He actually did a good job – we were in Vegas for my 30th Birthday in 2013 and he popped the question. He had brought the first single I ever bought on CD, and wrote on the back will you marry me. It showed me how well he knows me. The single was Jade ‘Don’t Walk Away.  To top things off he proposed with a beautiful heart shaped diamond ring from Tiffany’s. It was perfect; I wish I hadn’t nagged him so much as he may have done it earlier.”

“We didn’t actually have any real flowers at the wedding; my mum is a very talented flower arranger. I knew that if I ever got married I would want my mum to do my bouquets etc. We had a chat about the work that was involved; we were worried my mum wouldn’t be able to enjoy the lead up to the wedding or the day itself if she had done them. So we came up with the idea to have shell bouquets with artificial flowers as these she could start making straight away. It was a huge job she had to make five bouquets including a fake one that I could throw as the real ones would have probably knocked someone out.

She put so much time and energy into them and they were amazing! It meant so much to me to have them made by her, the colours and textures were a perfect match to my dress and now I have something I can treasure forever.  She also made the buttonholes, they were artificial blue poppies again something in memory of Rob’s mum, but they fitted with the theme really well. Thank you mum.”

“I chose a pair of beautiful Rachel Simpson shoes called Lulu Azure; they were gorgeous blue leather. They were so comfortable on the day; I think they really complimented my dress. It’s a bonus I can wear them again.”

“I was really happy with my hair and my bridesmaids hair – stylist Laura MacKenzie was lovely to have around in the morning she was very calming and so organised. It was a last minute decision to book her and I am so pleased I did.

My make-up Artist Tara was excellent, she knew the look I wanted and made it happen. She also did my mum and bridesmaids make up and they all looked beautiful. Would recommend both Laura and Tara, they also work really well together.”

“I didn’t have a veil as the The Couture Company also designed a beautiful belt and head piece for me with gorgeous sequin starfish, shells and an extra special Poppy. Rob’s mum has sadly passed away and her favourite flower was a Poppy, so it was great to be able to personalise the dress by having a lovely blue Poppy on my belt in memory of her.”

“Rob wanted something casual; we looked into hiring but it wasn’t what he wanted and was over what he wanted to pay. We ended up taking a trip to Matalan and picking up a waistcoat and trousers which was perfect for our laid back British beach wedding.

Rob’s shirt was a bit of a compromise as he really wanted to wear a Hawaiian shirt but I wouldn’t let him. We ended up finding the perfect shirt in Marks & Spencer’s which nearly cost the same as the suit. It was a little bit loud but tamer than his usual shirts. Rob also customised his shoes, with “help me” stickers, which are usually worn on the sole of the shoe but he insisted on having them on the top to my surprise on the day.” 

“My bridesmaids dresses were the biggest bargain of the wedding, I got them from a Monsoon Discount store in Street, Somerset they were £25 each and just what I wanted. I actually bravely picked them without my bridesmaids and luckily they all loved them.

I loved my bridesmaids shoes, if I didn’t have such wide feet I probably would have worn them myself. They were by Irregular choice, and were cream with beautiful blue sparrows that matched their dresses.

My very creative mum made my bridesmaids hair slides and hairbands out of shells and sequins. They were awesome!” 

“My mum brought me a beautiful blue Pandora necklace and Thomas Sabo pearl bracelet which had a cute starfish charm to match the wedding theme. I also wore a pair of pearl earring which belonged to Rob’s mum Rita.”

“My dad gave me away, he walked a little fast but it was ok.  I walked down to Christina Perry “A thousand years” it’s a beautiful song but the words mean a lot as I felt I had waited a thousand years for him to propose!”

“We really wanted to personalise our ceremony, so we jumped at the opportunity to personalise our own promises. This was really special, I am so pleased we did it and I have to say Rob’s keeping to his a bit more than I am to mine. We just wrote things that related to us and meant something to us.”

“One of my closest old school friends Laura Whelan and Rob’s Sister Cath and his niece Katie and nephew Joe wrote a poem about us. I have attached these as a separate file. We chose the first reading as it was funny and we felt summed up Rob and I perfectly. The other was written for us and was so personal it meant a lot to us.”

“I had to get my ring designed because of the unusual heart shaped engagement ring, so I headed back home to Birmingham to get it made at the jewellery quarter. It’s V shaped and my engagement ring fits perfectly with it. I love the fact it’s bespoke and unusual. Rob actually purchased his ring from amazon for about £7 but after meeting the registrar and finding out he didn’t have to have one we didn’t end up using it. He doesn’t wear jewellery and works in engineering so he wouldn’t have worn one anyway. Maybe one day I can convince him to get a ring tattoo on.”

“We were so lucky to have Mia Hooper capture our wedding, she was awesome! Fun, friendly and she just got us! By the end of the day we felt we knew her and she knew us like we had been friends for years. She is so talented, the photos reflect the day perfectly we have received loads of compliments from our guests and people who have seen them. We would recommend her a million times over, one of the best investments we made.”

“Our caterers were a company called ‘Fish Face’, who are also used by Bournemouth Beach Weddings. They did all the catering, we felt there was only one meal we could have on the beach on the day of our wedding and that was fish and chips with minty mushy peas. It was delicious! Unfortunately I couldn’t finish it all due to the corset I had to wear but my hubby got to finish it off for me. And the deserts were yummy too.

When you’re at the seaside you have to have ice cream or else it wouldn’t be the same, so we had an ice cream bike there too.”

“Due to us living in Bristol, we chose to use a company to help with the décor of the venue and went for Coastal Creatives. We wanted a fun seaside feel, with lots of colour and personality. For the ceremony, we had rose petals scattered along the aisle and the pew ends were beautiful starfish with raffia and colourful ribbons. Bournemouth Beach Hut itself has a beautiful driftwood archway which we got married underneath.

For the reception, we had colourful stripy table cloths and the centre pieces were jars filled with retro sweets, this was a perfect idea for us as my parents owned a newsagent which was well known for its sweets. It was great to see the guests mingling at the tables as they went around the room with their striped sweetie bags filling it up from different tables. They did a great job styling the venue it was just what we wanted, it looked beautiful, stylish and not tacky!”

“We also added some extra bits ourselves, we had some funky glasses which we thought people would take later in the day but I was laughing as I walked down the aisle as I noticed some guests already had them on. We also had ice cream cone shaped bubbles for everyone, rather than confetti. We had postcards instead of a guest book, so people wrote on those and we plan to pop them in a frame. The guests were also given the opportunity to help themselves to a pair of flip flops if they had enough of their heels!”

“We gave our guests shot glasses plus a bottle of merlyn whisky cream liquor by Penderyn. We sourced the glasses from amazon and the whisky direct from the company.”

“The order of service we made ourselves, again something a bit different. We gave out big swirly colourful lollipops to go with our theme. We had a luggage label tied to them with the order of service on. Our place cards were part of the wedding favours; we did shot glasses for people but wrote their names on them. Something they could take away with them but also doubled up as their place name. I say we, I wrote all the names on them whilst rob observed. Coastal Creatives made the table names which were UK seaside resorts and the top table had to be Burnham On Sea.”

“We wanted again something a bit different to the normal wedding video so we hired Wedding Marryokes. They filmed us and our guests miming to B52’s ‘Love Shack.  This was such a fun thing to have and went down a treat. It kept our guests occupied and everyone gave it a good go. We should get the video in a couple of weeks, can’t wait to see it as I’m sure it will bring back loads of memories of our day. The song fitted in so well with the beach theme.”

“We had quite a lot of entertainment in the day and evening, during the day we had a steel drum band. They were brilliant, really got us in the mood we were so lucky with the weather on our wedding day that this was very fitting. In the evening we had a DJ and Photo Booth the DJ Dave was great and played everything we requested. The photo booth was so much fun; we now have a guest book of the photos to keep forever which is brilliant.

We also had a blackjack table on the evening, this was a last minute booking that we made after going to a wedding fair in Bournemouth. As we got engaged in Vegas we couldn’t resist booking it, we had so much fun and so did our guests.”

“We wanted our cake to be about us, Jennie is so creative she thought up an amazing beach design. It was a three tiered cake with the top tier being a sandcastle with a flag of the local social club Rob frequents (this was lemon and white chocolate yummy). The second tier was rainbow cake. And the bottom tier marble cake. It was decorated with lots of seaside themed pieces and myself and Rob buried in sand at the bottom with a crab pinching Rob’s nose.

In between the tiers holding them together, were ice-cream cone supports.  She really had thought of everything. When we cut the second tier cake it was a beautiful rainbow colour with an extra surprise of skittles sweets. It was more than we imagined.”

“Our song is En Vogue’s ‘Don’t Let Go’, but this was a little fast and a bit too long for us to have our first dance to, so we opted for something a bit shorter. We decided to go for ‘Want To Grow Old With You’ from the film The Wedding Singer.  It turned out to be a great choice as it was only 1 minute 24 seconds long which was ideal for us as we were dreading that bit of the wedding. Plus the words were very fitting. “The whole day was incredible, we had so many laughs, a few tears but all in all it was the best day ever.  I think obviously the ceremony was our favourite part, even with me getting my name wrong at the start and Rob having ‘help me’ on his shoes.

It was great having our family and friends with us to share our special day, we even managed to get in a game of beach cricket which rob would probably say was his favourite part of the day. No, I really don’t think we would change any of it.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

“Make sure you make it your own, add the personal touches you want and just be yourself. It’s about you and your partner, so just remember that and make the choices that you would like. If you plan to get married in Bournemouth, we recommend you use everyone we used for a perfect day. “

Oh what a fabulous, fun-filled day. So much joy and happiness! I truly love this wedding and the way the sun cast an essence of magic over the days proceedings, wonderful stuff indeed. Huge congratulations to you both Natalie and Rob, thank you so much for allowing me the pleasure of sharing your day with our readers.

Ladies, you might want to check out the website for designer Jo over at The Couture Company – we are huge fans of Jo’s work and can’t recommend her highly enough.

Have a lovely afternoon everyone,

Love Annabel
Photographer – Mia Photography
Film Producer – Mike D’Rew c/o Wedding Marryokes
Venue – Bournemouth Beach Hut + Harry’s Bar
Brides Dress + headpiece – The Couture Company
Brides’ shoes – Rachel Simpson
Groom’s Attire –  Matalan + Marks & Spence
Bridesmaids – Monsoon + Irregular choice shoes
Flowers – The bride’s Mum
Cake – Jennie Mould (07931 – 455058)
Decor – Coastal Creatives
Rings – Element Bespoke Jewellery
Catering Company – Fish Face
Stationery – The Leaf Press
Hair – Laura MacKenzie
Make Up – Tara Sanger

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