A Lovely Handmade and Humanist Wedding by The Sea

Morning lovelies, How are you this lovely short working week? (Apologies if you are one of those hard working people who is in on weekends and bank holidays as well).  Earlier this weekend Annabel asked me if I was able to take on an extra wedding feature and I’m so glad I was able to say yes, as its a really lovely one, photographed by one of my personal favourite photographers, Anna Urban.

Meet Katie and Tom, who married on the beach at North Berwick, Scotland on the 29th October 2016, followed by a reception at Aberlady Village Hall.  The couple met while travelling in Thailand and got engaged four years later while walking their dog in the rain.

“We like to think we rebelled from the normal planning of a wedding.  We were very excited but equally felt that it was only one day of our lives and didn’t want to get obsessed with the planning or carried away with money.  All we wanted was to get married and have a good old knees up with family and friends.  We made our decisions based on what we liked, not what others might like or if it went with the theme and on what would cause minimal fuss and save us the most money too.”

The two bridesmaids looked lovely in either a pink or purple skirt from ASOS, worn with matching sparkly tops from Oasis.  I really like the look of separates for either bridesmaids or brides- definitely a winner for me.  The ladies wore their own shoes and a flower crown in their hair, to match Katie.

Katie looked beautiful in a tea-length lace dress purchased from Bliss Studio in Edinburgh, who specialise in once-worn and sample gowns.

“They were absolutely fabulous and made for a wonderful, relaxed experience where nothing was too much bother.  The dress fitted perfectly, didn’t require any alterations and I loved the fact the tea length style would be perfect for our outdoor ceremony and of course the ceilidh.  I felt comfortable and relaxed all day.”

On her feet Katie wore a pair of flat sparkly pumps from Next (she tells us she was aiming for a comfort option, but still ended up barefoot by the end of the evening), while in her hair she wore a flower crown provided by florists Tulipa.  For jewellery she wore her lucky elephant bracelet, given to her by her Matron of Honour.

“Carol Ann from Tulipa in North Berwick did our flower crowns, bouquets, button holes and some jars for the table. She was fantastic, I just sent her some images of flowers I liked and let her go with it.”

“We also made some of our own flower arrangements, using shop bought flowers, heather and greenery that my Mum snipped from our garden.” 

“My lovely and very talented friend Alice did our make up, which meant we were lucky enough to be able to treat my bridesmaids to some Bobbi Brown goodies.”

“My bridesmaids helped do my hair and their own.”

Tom looked very smart in chinos, waistcoat and a shirt from Next, worn with brown brogues, a tartan bow tie, blue braces and polka dot socks.  His buttonhole was a thistle and rose combination. The groomsmen wore the same as Tom, but each had a different tartan bow tie and different coloured polka dot socks.

Tom’s nephews on the English side of the family wore the same as Tom and his best men, while Katie’s nephew wore a tiny little kilt (at only eight months) to match the Scottish side.

Katie walked down the sandy aisle with her Dad to ‘Overwhelmed’ by Tim McMorris.  She and Tom chose to have a humanist ceremony, which was led by Karen Dickson of the Humanist Society.

“Karen was absolutely fantastic and was so supportive of our outdoor wedding in October.  She tailored our vows to suit us and even managed to incorporate our dog Winston into them.”

Matron of Honour Nicky read one of my favorite wedding readings (and in fact one my husband and I chose as part of our own wedding ceremony, so I have a special soft spot for it), ‘A Lovely Love Story’ by Edward Monkton.

“It is quite random like us and I just love the last line of the final paragraph…”

Now the Dinosaur and the Lovely Other Dinosaur are old.
Look at them.
Together they stand on the hill telling each other stories and feeling the warmth of the sun on their backs.
And that, my friends, is how it is with love.
Let us all be Dinosaurs and Lovely Other Dinosaurs together.
For the sun is warm.
And the world is a beautiful place.”

“My favourite part of the day was the ceremony, which I never thought I would say as we were actually dreading that bit- the idea of declaring your love for each other with an audience, eeek- but it really was so special and relaxed and lovely and happy.”

“We got our rings while we were living  in Bristol from A & P Jewellery in St Nicholas Market.  Paul was incredibly knowledgeable and an absolute credit to his trade.  The service he provided should only highlight why we should continue to shop local.”

“Our photographer was Anna Urban.  She was absolutely fantastic and we were ecstatic with our photos. We asked for mainly natural shoots of us and our guests and she did a great job of capturing the day in this way. We had a photo of every single one of our guests and sent them out with our thank you cards.”

Katie and Tom also chose to have the day filmed and chose Phil from Solar Weddings for the job.

“Phil was an absolutely top guy, so easy going and friendly and extremely professional.”

“Me and Tom did all our own wedding invites, it involved a lot of finger painting and was not exactly a traditional wedding invite but was fun to do.  Our table plan was homemade with the help of my bridesmaid Hailey.  The theme was Tunnocks Tea Cakes, which also provided an extremely cheap and cheerful wedding favour.”

The wedding breakfast was the work of Millar Catering, who provided an autumn BBQ, all served indoors, which went down a storm with guests.

“We didn’t officially have a cake and didn’t do any cake cutting.  Instead we had a cake and cheese table that doubled up as evening nibbles.  Lots of people chipped in for this bit and we were lucky enough that my friend’s boyfriend was a pastry chef and made the most amazing tiramisu I have ever tasted.”

“My Mum made some amazing table runners with some different patterns we had picked- my particular favourite being the elephants.  We added fairy lights, bunting, hired vintage chairs in mismatched styles and lots of candle and flower jars and the hall was good to go.  We also made some signs with quotes on as I love a motivational quote.”

Evening entertainment came in the form of band and ceilidh callers Northern Star, who kept the dance floor full all night.

“A ceilidh is always entertaining when half of the wedding guests are English!  Northern Star were absolutely amazing- they read the crowd perfectly and people never stopped dancing for long.”

Words of Wedded Wisdom

“People thought we were mad getting married on the beach in October but we totally pulled it off- no rain, no wind, actually quite mild weather.  The moral of the story is do what you want and don’t listen to others!

Surround yourself with those that make you happy and don’t ever lose sight of what your wedding is all about.”

Thank you so much to Katie and Tom for sharing this gorgeous handmade day with us all.  For more work by the wonderful Anna Urban, take a look here, while for some more coastal wedding inspiration, take a look at this link.  Happy reading!

S x