As soon as I opened today’s wedding in my inbox and the first images I saw were of the wedding party surfing, I couldn’t wait to find out more. A relaxed bride, a gorgeous setting and the British weather playing ball made for the perfect beach wedding of dreams…
International communications officer Fran and investment banker Ollie tied the knot on 7th July 2018 at the stunning Portscatho Beach in Cornwall, after a 5th July registry office ceremony at Hackney Town Hall first to make it official.
“We both wanted to get married by the ocean as we were both brought up by the seaside and it meant so much for that to be the setting of our wedding. After a lot of deliberation between home near Broadstairs or even abroad, we eventually settled on Cornwall. We visit Portscatho every year for the anniversary of when we met and it’s so beautiful in that part of the world, we love spending time there.”
Images by Chris Copeland
“I really struggled to find a dress that felt right for me. I didn’t want a traditional wedding dress, though I did visit all the usual London haunts to look at dresses. I even went to a few dress shops in LA whilst on a work trip but didn’t find anything I really fell in love with.”
“It was just by surfing the Internet and social media that I came across the designer Immacle, which is where my eventual dress was from. It was about 7 months until the wedding when I really started to feel pressured and told my mum I was going to fly to Barcelona to see this atelier and try on a few dresses. My mum immediately said she wanted to come with me.”
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“I fell in love with everything about Immacle. The designer, who I met on my second visit there, was super chic, glamorous and has the most incredibly beautiful soul and energy of anyone I’ve ever met. The girls who worked there were just as welcoming and the atelier itself was so personal.”
“I never once felt rushed or was told I only had a certain amount of time to look and try on. The staff couldn’t have been more friendly, accommodating and loving. The atelier itself had an amazing aura and was so beautifully designed, it felt just how I wanted my wedding to be, so there was a nice synergy there already.”“During my first trip to Immacle, I loved one of the dresses but left saying I’d come back as I’m so indecisive. I went back a second time and they had kindly arranged for an appointment for me on their day off. I narrowed it down to two and then Imma, the designer, immediately pointed out one of them and said it was the one.”
“There was a safe option and a bold option and it was the bold option she chose. I trusted her opinion and that was the decision made!”
“I went back one more time after that to try it on with my measurements and then didn’t try it on again until the big day, much to my mums concern. On the day, I slipped it on and it was perfect!”
“More so than I could ever have imagined. I’ve fallen in love with the dress and I’m planning on wearing it again once I’ve had the length cropped to the ankle.”
“My bridesmaids chose their own shoes to suit their style, although as soon as everyone reached the beach, no-one wore shoes for the rest of the night.”
“Their dresses were by Faithfull The Brand as I wanted them all to feel relaxed and comfortable in what they wore. I sent them all photos of the blue dresses and said who I thought should wear which. There was one switch but other than that they were all happy with what I had selected and felt it complimented their individual style.”
“I bought clear quartz crystals in LA on one of my work trips for each of the bridesmaids as a necklace to wear on the day too. It’s for healing and protects against negativity, attunes to your higher self and relieves pain. Other than that, they wore their own jewellery to compliment their dress and style.”
The couple received planning support and help from Rachael Spring, founder of Serve,
“Rachael is the most incredible person and I couldn’t have got through the day, let alone the weekend, without her. She was our rock throughout all the planning and is such a gorgeous soul too.”
“I chose not to wear a veil as the dress felt special enough and also super relaxed. I didn’t need to complicate it and I was so comfortable all day.”
“My shoes were by Gabriela Hearst via Matches. I loved the pop of colour on the gem stone detail at the back, even though I only wore them for 30 minutes tops! I was barefoot for the ceremony and the reception!”
“Other accessories included Albus Lumen x Ryan Storer earrings from Matches. I had so many compliments on them and they had a nice connection to the beach theme and were a slight statement to add to the dress. My mum also loaned me her pearl bracelet as my ‘something borrowed’.”
“Ollie and I met at a mutual friends 30th birthday in London. There were only 8 of us at an intimate dinner and I’d never met any of them before. The usual questions were asked like where we’re from and it turned out that both mine and Ollie’s parents lived a mile apart from each other and could see each others houses where they lived.”
“We also had a lot of mutual friends in common but for numerous reasons, our paths had never crossed before now. We then found out that we had gone to the same primary school and there’s a spooky photo that we found 2 years into our relationship that confirmed it!”
“For my 30th birthday, Ollie threw me an incredible party with all my friends in Hackney and as my present, he surprised me with a trip to Lake Como with my parents. Unbeknownst to me, he had arranged a fun day out on our own private boat whilst we were there and after spending all day jumping in the water, he had then booked us a table at a stunning restaurant in the hills of Tremezzina, which is where he proposed.”
“For the wedding, I wasn’t particularly inspired by any one thing. I obviously had a Pinterest board I’d constantly update with pictures I found but the main thing for us was that it felt relaxed and simple, with a clean aesthetic. Nothing too fussy or grand, just fun. The key for us was making sure our friends and family had the best time and that there was good food, lots of music and plenty of free drinks!”
“We’re both Christians but don’t really practise anymore so we got officially married at Hackney Town Hall and then had a humanist ceremony on the beach in Cornwall with all our friends.”
“My hero, my dad, accompanied me down the aisle. He means the world to me and I’ve always looked up to him, so it meant so much to me. We had a guy we heard singing in one of the local pubs to sing us down the aisle. He sung This Must Be The Place by Talking Heads acoustically. I love that song and it was so magical.”
“Ollie wore a dark blue Paul Smith shorts suit with very subtle flowers laden throughout, and a clean white shirt. He also wore his dads cufflinks and pin hole as sadly, he wasn’t able to join us on the wedding day and Ollie wanted to include him in some way.”
“The best men wore the same suits as the groomsmen but also had jackets on and the groomsmen just wore the waistcoats.”
“My uncle conducted the ceremony and did a phenomenal job! There was true structure to the day and his words were so kind and thoughtful – it was perfect in my eyes! Ollie and I wrote our own vows. They highlighted each of our personalities and came from the heart (even if they did include a bit of humour in them!).”
“We chose two people who we truly wanted to be part of the ceremony and asked them to do a reading for us and to choose their own. My gorgeous cousin went first and read the beautiful poem Duet by Selina Jobbins. Our dearest friend, who was pregnant at the time, read Charles Darwins pros and cons of marriage, which had the whole audience laughing!”
“My wedding ring was very simple and easy to decide on. Both my engagement ring and wedding ring were my grandma’s who passed away when I was 7 years old, but I loved her with all my heart as I did my grandad who passed two years prior to the wedding.”
“It was a tradition my dad begun when he proposed to my mum and had little money to buy a ring, so my great grandma offered her ring to my dad to propose to her with and I wanted to continue the legacy!”
“Ollie’s ring was reasonable in price. We got it from an antique dealers stall in London and had it cleaned prior to the wedding day.”
“We wanted to ensure that the day was full of music so we thought about all the points where we could have live music. We had Ryan, the local musician play acoustic songs on the beach for our guests whilst they waited, and our friend Emily Estelle sang Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds during the ceremony.”
“Once we got back to the reception tent, we had Daisy Clarke, another local Cornish talent, sing a mixture of covers and original acoustic songs. Our main act was our super talented friend from Kent who is in a band called Killing Giants. They travelled 6 hours to join us and perform for the evening reception. Everyone was on the dance floor from the get go to the end!”
“The florist who did the aisle flowers, table settings and bridal party flowers was a very dear friends mum who enjoys floristy in her spare time, and she is utterly brilliant at it!”
“They were perfect. We chose simple greens with a touch of white and blush pink hues, all wild and ethically sourced from her own or her close friends garden. They were so dreamy! I had a bouquet of dusty pink roses and eucalyptus leaves. I wish I could have kept them!”
“The Hidden Hut catered the wedding breakfast and we were incredibly lucky to have found them. They catered the whole weekend and it couldn’t have been more perfect! The food was all fresh and local produce from Cornwall and was beyond delicious.”
“It was a fairly simple menu, nothing too fancy. We had amazing scallops on hot coals as the canapés, the starters were grilled white peaches or smoked ham hock and the main was a rotisserie chicken and chips or grilled cauliflower. Dessert was meringue and berries or vegan chocolate cake. Just writing it makes me want to it eat it all again!”
“The decor of the wedding was kept simple and clean, which is very much my style anyway. There weren’t many additional decor items brought in, just the florals and gorgeous blush pink napkins that my mum made up from a roll of fabric we’d bought.”
“We also brought 6 old demijohns to write the table plans on and we handpicked pebbles from the beach, on which a calligrapher wrote our guests names on. Other than that it was all quite self sufficient and the amazing Serve Cornwall team help set it all up to how we likes – they were the dream team!”
“We didn’t go down the route of a traditional wedding favour, instead we had little cards created stating that we had donated £5 for each person to cancer research and the Alzheimer’s charity, both of which have closely affected our families and are close to our hearts.”
“Ollie’s aunty is a whizz at making cakes so it was a no brainer to ask her to make the wedding cake. It was a simple vanilla sponge and icing with a pink coconut topping.”
“I wanted something simple but with a fun twist. However, Ollie and I were having too much fun and actually forgot to cut it! We did it the following morning instead in front of family and friends before they left which actually meant we savoured the moment more.”
“Photographer Chris Copeland captured our day like we couldn’t have ever imagined! I was amazed by how much he captured because the guests and myself barely even knew he’d been there, but wow – he really did capture all the love that Ollie and I felt on the day and more.”
“We both loved the candidness of the photos and how they weren’t posed but so relaxed and happy. They’re memories that will last a lifetime. He captured our hearts in a thousand photos, which is just such a beautiful thing that we’ll treasure forever. We can’t thank Chris enough!”
“We didn’t have a videographer as our budget had already gone a little off piste…but we did get three of our friends to bring their Go-pro’s and film different parts of the day, which we will eventually have turned into a film.”
“Ollie chose the first dance song. It was Consideration by Reef, a band he’s loved since the 90’s and we’ve both seen about 10 times live. It’s ‘our song’ so it was Ollie’s choice. It was so lovely but I do feel it was slightly too personal for our audience and a more upbeat song may have been more suited!”
“Having all our friends and family on one place over three days was just the best thing ever. It was so special for us to be able to share a long weekend with everyone, from surfing the day before the wedding, to relaxed welcome drinks at the house, and then the beach wedding. It was all just so amazing!”
Words Of Wedded Wisdom
“Relax and enjoy every moment! I really enjoyed planning the wedding together and coming up with different ideas. It made the weekend more enjoyable as I didn’t let anything get me upset or stressed – although we were incredibly lucky with the English summer!”
“I always said, there isn’t a plan B, we’re doing this and what will be will be…we might just need to provide umbrellas but we’ll still have the most amazing time with everyone!”
Wow – what an incredible wedding day! A big congratulations to the happy couple and to Chris Copeland for capturing the atmosphere so perfectly.
Until next time…
Much love,
Holly x
Credits & Thanks
- Photographer - Chris Copeland
- Venue - Porthcurnick Beach
- Wedding Dress - Immacle,
- Shoes -Gabriela Hearst via Matches
- Accessories - Albus Lumen x Ryan Storer via Matches
- Bridesmaids - Faithfull The Brand
- Groom - Paul Smith
- Catering - The Hidden Hut
- Entertainment - Emily Estelle
- Stationery - Sarah Matthews
Holly Grocott View all Holly's articles
Holly loves nothing more than getting her fill of beautifully styled weddings and couple's individual stories. After living in London for 6 years, she's now moved back North and settled in the leafy suburbs of South Manchester with her husband and much-loved pet pooch. You'll mostly find her reading in a corner, writing or creating a moodboard (or five).
