A Homespun, Rustic, Seaside Pretty Wedding With Lots of Gypsophila…

In this our final feature for today, Jess and Tim tie the knot in a beautifully relaxed beachside wedding in Whistable.  The couple's nuptials took place on 21 June (Midsummers Day) this year, at The Lobster Shack, in Whitstable, Kent.

These beautiful and inspirational photographs were sent in by the lovely Penny of McKinley Rodgers, whose work I always adore featuring on these pages. Thank you Penny.

Like Jess, I love being and living by the seaside, so I feel a bit of an affinity with these photographs. I also adore the DIY nature of this pretty wedding day, includign Jess's homemade veil and the way the day is peppered with pretty gypsophila, from the ring of flowers in Jess's hair to the bouquet's, button holes and venue decor. Jess tells us about her homespun seaside style day…

"I think our wedding style was mostly inspired by where we live, in
Whitstable. We love living by the sea and so it made sense for us to
find a local venue and have a seaside feel to the day.  We decided to use
local suppliers, and make use of decorative items that we already had
in our home."
 

Love My Dress Wedding Blog – Photography Copyright (c) 2012, McKinley Rodgers

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"The Lobster Shack
is a beachside restaurant/bar that we had visited a few times before
getting engaged. When we started wedding planning and learnt that this
place had a license for weddings we didn’t consider anywhere else for
our day, it was everything that we wanted from a wedding venue –
relaxed, local (5 minutes walk from our house!) and on the beach.

It was
perfect for us and I love that we got married in a local place that we
can easily re-visit and reminisce for years to come."

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"My dress was Minerva by Jenny Packham, purchased from Teokath Canterbury.  The first time I saw it was in a magazine photograph, I
thought it was beautiful, it looked so delicate and timeless but had a
striking one-shoulder detail that made it stand out to me. I tracked
down a nearby stockist to try it on and loved it even more in real life."

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"I felt like I was ready to be a bride when wearing it. I loved the way
it moved and could imagine it blowing in the wind at our beach wedding. I
didn’t get it right away though, because it was much more than I could
justify paying for a dress. In the mean time I tried on lots of other
dresses but none that matched the way I felt in the Minerva.

So you can
imagine how excited and happy I was to find out that
Teokath were having
a sample sale and the Minerva dress was in it!! I rushed in to get it
right away feeling very lucky to get my dream dress!"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"We wanted a simple white look for the flowers so we opted to order lots of gypsophila from an online florist called Triangle Nursery.
We arranged it the night before in to an array of buckets, tins, vases
and old milk bottles that we had collected, and placed them around the
venue alongside some daisies from my Nan’s garden.

We had a local florist called Graham Greener make the bouquets, buttonholes and hair
accessories, which were mostly white gypsophila with the addition of
some yellow blooms for the ladies and some rosemary and a blue sea
thistle for Tim’s buttonhole.
"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"We first met through mutual friends nine years ago when I was 16
and Tim was 18, and got together a couple of years later. Tim popped the
question on a trip to New York last year, and we started excitedly
planning right away!
"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"We hired a little 1950's minibus
to transport myself, bridesmaids and immediate family from my parents’
house to the venue. It was so cute and great fun! Tim and the groomsmen
were able to walk to the venue from our house.
"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"I wore plenty of accessories as I love lots of pretty decorative
things, but all of them were special and meaningful to me. I wore a
beautiful opal necklace, a wedding day gift from Tim, on which I hung a
silver locket belonging to my Nan and which holds a photo of my Granddad
(my something borrowed).

My coral stud earrings had been a gift from my
step-dad, and my Mum made me a lace cuff bracelet and little vintage
lace bag to carry all my wedding day essentials in!
"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"Most of the venue decor was made by
us and our family, or were things that we brought from home such as old
buckets from the garden, deckchairs, and our table plan which developed
around an old print tray and some local art work that we already had.
We tried to tie our wedding décor in with the existing rustic look of
the venue but also to add some pretty personal touches.

We decided to
use mostly white coloured decorations to create a pretty wedding-y look
against the harsh brick and wood backdrop of the venue. We hung white
voile across entrances and my wonderful Mum and Nan made 450 meters of
white bunting! We put it all around the ceremony room, dining room and
outside on the beach. It looked fab!"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"For my veil I purchased some silk tulle material and my Mum cut
it and sewed on the little combs to create the veil shape that I wanted.
  In my hair I wore a flower circlet of gypsophila."

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"Tim and I made the six bridesmaids’ dresses. It was quite a
stressful task but something that we enjoyed doing together and we were
really pleased with them on the day, the girls looked beautiful!

The bridesmaids also wore gypsophila in their hair…"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"We had an afternoon tea wedding breakfast provided by the lovely ladies from Rosebud Vintage and fish & chips in the evening delivered by our local chip shop!"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"Our photographers McKinley Rodgers
were absolutely brilliant! I cannot recommend them enough! They made us
feel so at ease when having our photos taken and fitted in to our day
wonderfully. We are just amazed by how beautiful our wedding photographs
are, they are better than we ever imagined! Pen and Cam have really
captured the wonderful happy feel of the day and looking through the
photos is like reliving it all.

Our whole experience with Pen and Cam
was great fun; they are such talented and lovely people that it was a
pleasure to have them at our wedding.
"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding


Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"My shoes were pale pink flat sandals from Carvela."

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"I did my own make-up but had some eyelash extensions put on the day
before, which I loved fluttering all day! I had my hair done by my
local hairdresser, Gemma at Robert Mitchell. She created a romantic down style for me with curls and a few plaits which suited my veil perfectly.
"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"Tim designed our stationary and wedding invitations, he is a very talented graphic designer. We then had the invitations screen-printed at a local printers."

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"Tim looked dapper in a light blue suit, which he had made to measure Suit by Cad and the Dandy. He teamed it with a knitted
ivory tie from Spencer Hart, tan shoes from Bertie, and some vintage
braces we got on eBay
.  I made all the bow ties myself.

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"I walked down the aisle to ‘Northern Sky’ by Nick Drake, a favourite song of ours.

For
our ceremony readings Tim’s brother read an extract from Captain
Corelli's Mandolin and my Mum wrote her own poem for us, which was
really special.
"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"We had our wedding rings made by a local jeweller
who understood exactly what we wanted. Tim’s ring is hammered rose gold
and mine is platinum with a wave design carved in to it, designed to
fit around my vintage engagement ring."

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"We gave personalised ‘Jess & Tim’ sticks of rock as wedding favours to tie in with our seaside venue."

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"For entertainment we had local acoustic singer/guitarist James
Thorn play some of our favourite tunes, followed in the evening by a DJ
who is a friend of the family.
"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

"Our first dance was to ‘Whole Lotta Lovin’ by Fats Domino. – It
just came on shuffle one day when we were at home making wedding stuff
and it made us laugh and both get up and dance around, its such a fun
song we decided it would make a good first dance. Plus it’s nice and
short!
"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

"Enjoy it! Don’t
waste a single moment with worry or stress. Look around and take it all
in, and have the best time with the ones you love.

One of my most favourite parts of the day was dancing with our
friends near the end of the night. We were all in a circle jumping up
and down and shouting along to ‘Sex on Fire’ – Me, my new husband and
our best friends. I remember feeling such overwhelming love and
happiness, like I was the luckiest girl in the world!

I
wouldn’t change a thing about our day, there were a few little hiccups
and not everything ran entirely smoothly but all of those little things
are now part of our memories of the day and made it what it was, and
ultimately it was the best day ever!"

Minerva wedding dress by Jenny Packham, Whitstable wedding

And so we end another working week with another beautiful wedding.

I love my  job!

Jess and Tim, huge congratulations to you both, and thank you for the very kind words you said about Love My Dress in your questionnaire! Thank you too Penny, you're photographs are always such a treat.

What do you love most about these seaside nuptials?

Take a look at more of the same here; seaside weddingsDIY weddings, rustic charm weddings, photo's by McKinley-Rodgers and brides wearing Jenny Packham.

Annabel

Heart

Photographer – McKinley Rodgers
Venue – The Lobster Shack, in Whitstable, Kent
Wedding Dress – Jenny Packham, purchased from Teokath in Canterbury
Wedding Veil – made by the bride and her mum
Bride's shoes – Carvela
Groom – Suit by Cad and the Dandy + Tie by Spencer Hart, Shoes by Bertie + vintage braces via eBay + Bowties handmade by the bride, see Jaunty Jim
Bridesmaids – dresses made by the bride and groom + Mel Shoes 
Flowergirl Dresses – Monsoon 
Florist – Triangle Nursery + Graham Greener 
Favours – personalised sticks of rock
Entertainment – Local guitarist ames
Thorn

Transport –
A hired 1950s minibus

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.

Close
Top