Oh I do love to be beside the seaside. There’s something so invigorating about the fresh air, the salt water, and the sounds of lapping waves and seagulls soaring overhead. This couple I’m about to share with you, lovely readers, chose stunning seaside locations for their nuptials, so get set for loads of nautical inspiration as you meet Ashley (Ash) and Laura (or Mr and Mrs Bell – an ironic surname which will soon become apparent!).
Architect Ashley and his beautiful bride Laura, a marketing coordinator, tied the knot on 31st July 2015. Pennsylvania Castle was chosen as the setting for their ceremony for its picturesque location and incredible views on the Isle of Portland. The couple’s reception was held at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, with a pretty harbour backdrop, as a tribute to their hometown of Weymouth and the groom’s love of sailing. Let’s begin this tale with a video by their second photographer and videographer friend, Justin Glynn of Harbour Media, which highlights the beauty of their venues on a sparkling summer’s day.
“Our colour scheme and décor was very much set by the dress and the venues as they both overlooked the sea – so we chose blues, yellows and whites. We went for a ‘coastal’ and ‘‘nautical’ theme, as Ash does a lot of sailing and we are both from Weymouth, so it was important to us to portray that throughout the day.”
Photography by Alexandria Hall Wedding Photography
The couple also knew a wonderful florist, Fiona Penny at Sunflowers, who was the natural choice to prepare their stunning floral arrangements.
“Fiona has such a fantastic way of piecing flowers together, to create gorgeous displays. I chose daisies, thistles, love in the mist, gypsophila, craspedia and cornflowers for my bouquet; with our bridesmaids having a bouquet of daises and our flower girls having a wrist corsage of my flowers. I have dried my bouquet myself and I look at it every morning when I wake up!”
“Our families have always known each other, but we met six years ago through a mutual friend and after 4 years together we got engaged in Bruges, Belgium. We had an 18-month engagement before we got married.”
The elegant bride polished off her vintage look with a short two-tier veil, also from Butterfly Brides, ivory peep-toe heels from Pink Paradox London (and glittery pumps from Zara for trekking about, very wise!), the prettiest shooting-star hair comb with jewels from Highland Angel, a spray of ‘Daisy Dream’ by Marc Jacobs, and stunning pearl jewellery.
“My jewellery was a present from Ash for our wedding day – a beautiful pearl necklace and earing set from Jersey Pearl, bought via Allum & Sidaway. We had visited Jersey a few years back and it meant something special to me as my grandmother is from Jersey.”
I am completely in love with Laura’s divine dress, which she discovered before she was even engaged! The pale blue works so well with the lemon-coloured petticoat underneath.
“I had found my dress by LouLou before I was actually engaged. As it was blue with a lemon petticoat, I didn’t actually consider it as a wedding dress until I consulted Ash about it (yes, he saw it prior to the wedding!) and he said I could consider it as a wedding dress. I wanted something vintage inspired, but something I could potentially wear again. My aim was to find a dress that had movement, didn’t sweep the floor (for fear of the hem getting ruined) and a dress that wasn’t heavy to wear.”
“I ordered it six months after we got engaged from Butterfly Brides and didn’t even try on another dress. It was so perfect, laced with tiny pearls and silver embroidery that I didn’t want to take it off. I’ve decided to have it shortened to the knee so I can wear it again for future events.”
The ladies’ hair was by Anna Wiles of Blondz Weymouth, with make up by Kristine Rymer, a family friend. The maids wore gorgeous strapless gowns from Coast in buttermilk, paired with peep-toe heels from Pink Paradox London and gold shell necklaces from Estella Bartlett. And the sweet little flower girls wore white dresses with silver embroidery from BHS.
Laura’s dad walked her down the aisle to an extra special and heartfelt song, sung by a duo, also known to the couple. It does help with sorting suppliers when you know them already.
“We asked Til There Was Uke to provide some mellow tunes for our ceremony and during the drinks reception. Stacey has a beautiful singing voice and is the sister of one of my dear friends, Josh. Lucy is amazing on the ukulele and they provided beautiful and calming covers of classics from The Beatles to Bruno Mars.”
“In particular, I had asked for my song to walk down the aisle to be ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’ The Wizard of Oz was my favourite film growing up, so I wanted to incorporate for many reasons. It had also been a song at my grandad’s funeral the year before, so I was quite nervous about how I was going to react when I heard it on the day, but actually it was beautiful and a lovely reminder of him on our special day.”
“Our rings were from Three Kings and H Samuel. I chose a sapphire and diamond intermittent wedding ring to match my engagement ring and Ash chose a tungsten ring to match his Nixon watch he wears daily.”
“Ash found his suit, shirt, shoes and tie on ASOS and on the day he wore the Ray Ban sunglasses I gave him as a present, along with his prized Nixon watch.”
Alexandria Hall Wedding Photography snapped Laura and Ash’s special day, and just so happens to be an associate of the couple.
“The first thing we did was contact our friend Alexandria Hall, who is a commercial photographer and a wedding photographer. Ash went to school with her and I knew her from our extended group of friends. We had looked at photographs from a recent wedding she had photographed and knew she was ‘the one’. It was important to us to have a great relationship with our photographer, as we wanted to look and feel relaxed on the day.”
The newlyweds chose a most appropriate method of transport for a nautical wedding – they arrived at the reception by rowboat! Once ashore, they were also give a special oar salute.
“Continuing with the nautical theme, we travelled by a rowing boat called the ‘Great Ope’, provided by Portland Gig Rowing Club, from Portland Marina round to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy for our reception, which was a great arrival. This turned out to be our favourite part of the day. The water was so flat and it was the hottest day of the year. It was beautiful to have that half an hour to ourselves and for everything to sink in and to live in the moment – and locals who were on their boats were shouting congratulations and honking their horns!”
I adore this sweet touch of a ship bell given to the bride as a gift from her grandmother – and this led to little bells being sourced as favours for their guests.
“My grandmother had given me her father’s ship bell (from the St Helier) as I was to become part of the Bell family, so it tied in with our theme perfectly. Ash’s dad restored it for us and we rang it after our ceremony, which was the first time it had been rung since New Year’s Eve in 1945.
“The decor at the reception was largely nautical in nature, with shells, kissing bells, storm lanterns, monkey’s fists and blue candles on the tables. The backdrop provided stunning scenery, so we felt like we didn’t need to add much more.
For our favours, we had nautical kissing bells with an anchor on top, found from Kate Aspen. The idea behind them is guests are to ring the bell when the bride and groom are present and they have to kiss. As I was becoming a ‘Bell’ it was appropriate and cute for the guests to take home.”
“We chose cheese wheels as our wedding ‘cake’ because Ash doesn’t actually like cake. I think there was one guest who actually thought it was ‘cheesecake’ and got a bit of a surprise when he wacked a massive chunk of brie in his mouth!”
“One of the stand-out moments from our wedding day was during our wedding reception. Mark, Ash’s best man, was due to give his speech and what a speech it was! As a musician, he decided to sing his speech to various songs (Craig David’s ‘Fill Me In’ was my favourite). It was absolutely brilliant and everyone was in awe of the moment.”
Words of Wedded Wisdom
“Follow your heart and don’t compromise on something that you feel is important to you. Ash and I planned everything together and I think that’s so important.”
To finish, we’d love to share this sweet video by Harbour Media…
Many many thanks for allowing us to share your gorgeous wedding Laura and Ash – and keep on enjoying all that sea air the beautiful Weymouth has to offer. Also thank you to Alexandria for capturing such lovely images of the happy couple.
If you can’t get enough of the deep blues and stripes of the nautical look, take a look at this wonderful wedding featuring beautiful decor – enjoy!
Love Jo -x-
