An Elegant Modern Wedding in Salcombe, Devon

Zoe and Luke tied the knot on 26th May at Cliffhouse in Salcombe, a much-loved Devon town with special meaning for the couple.

With panoramic sea views, charming architecture and relaxed coastal energy, the venue offered the perfect setting for a modern black-tie celebration rooted in family, friendship and understated style.

The couple kept things simple and elegant, opting for a clean palette of whites and neutrals that complemented the light-filled interiors and natural surroundings. A Vera Wang gown, black-tie dress code, beautiful spring florals by Caroline Hodges and long trestle tables filled with thoughtful details set the tone for this gorgeous day that was photographed with love by Clare Kinchin.

My Dad walked me down the aisle, he actually walked me through Salcombe arm in arm to the venue to and in the pictures captured by Clare, he looks so proud. These are some of my favourite moments that Clare captured, alongside my mum and bridesmaids. 

We chose ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ by Elvis for the aisle walk – a song really special to Luke and his family – and now for me too. Our violinist Richard Toomer played this on his violin and there wasn’t a dry eye in the room – it was beautiful and memorable. 

We used the standard vows as we were a little nervous for this part of our day but they were so still special and their were a few mistakes but they actually made the ceremony more memorable and funny. 

Luke’s sister Hannah, delivered the most incredible reading of ‘Paths and Journeys’, from Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy. She did an incredible job and Luke held her hand throughout. It was such a memorable and special part of our day. 

Richard played ‘Celebration’ by Kool & the Gang as we left our ceremony to set the tone for the party. I’ve we hoped for the rest of our day!

Our photographer, Clare Kinchin, was just incredible. When I found her Instagram page and browsed her incredible work, I knew she was the perfect person to capture natural happy moments throughout our day. Not only this, but I loved that Clare offered a pre-wedding shoot to get used being in front of the camera, something Luke and I weren’t looking forward to. 

We met Clare on a very wet and windy day for our pre-wedding shoot at Bigbury beach. Despite the weather Clare was warm, calming and made the experience fun which was pretty impressive given the weather conditions. She took away all of our nerves, having fun in front of the camera and almost forgetting that she was there at times. 

The day itself, our photographs speak for themselves. Clare captured moments and details perfectly. We are so grateful for our incredible wedding pictures. On the day, Clare helped with getting ready and generally ran round and helped us. So many of guests commented how lovely, fun and professional she was. 

We were so incredibly lucky that Clare’s daughter, Mia, was studying photography at university and asked us if she could join us on the day to create a video for us to help towards her studies. Mia captured moments of our day beautifully and we get to keep this to accompany our wonderful photos. She’s going to go on to have a great career based on her amazing work on our day, so early in her career! 

Luke and I met at work when Luke was transferred to the office I worked in (from another office which was closing). We got to know each other whilst working in the office and work drinks and eventually became incredibly good friends. 

In 2019 when Luke moved to my home City (Birmingham) our friendship became ‘more than just friends’. But it gave us the loveliest basis for our relationship, from best friends to now, husband and wife. 

Luke and I had attended the same university in Nottingham, he studied Criminology and I, Psychology with Criminology.  He also worked in our student club bar of which I was a regular attendee but our paths never crossed until we met at work years later! 

We got engaged in New York in December 2022, our dream trip. Luke proposed in a private ‘chalet’ overlooking the Rockefeller Ice Rink and infamous Christmas tree. It was the perfect proposal and the most amazing trip, NYC will always be a super special place for us both and we can’t wait to return. 

We went straight into wedding planning in January 2023 and booked our big day for 16 months later, May 2024. We booked a cottage  for Luke’s Mum and my parents to visit Salcombe for a crisp winter weekend in January to visit Cliffhouse and a couple of other local venues but we always knew Cliffhouse was the venue for us and couldn’t wait to show them the venue and incredible estuary views even on a January day. We had such a lovely, memorable  weekend with our families to kick off the wedding celebrations. 

Luke wore a Gieves & Hawkes tuxedo. I bought Luke a watch as a wedding gift on the morning of our wedding and left it in his hotel room with a note to say ‘don’t be late’.

I am a neutrals girl through and through, as the Cliffhouse is such a beautiful old building, we did not want to distract from it’s beauty and of course, the incredible view.  Our incredible florist, Caroline Hodges, created the most beautiful florals for our wedding. We wanted these to be our main decorative pieces.

We were also really keen to have long trestle tables so that we could sit amongst our guests and really enjoy the day with them. She created beautiful mini vases to line the tables. The coral arch – wow! Caroline did the most incredible job – we moved this from our gorgeous ceremony in the library to frame the view to the main doors to our drinks reception so that it was a key piece throughout the various stages of our day. 

Our family helped to set the tables on the Friday before our wedding over Prosecco and this was such a lovely day, laying tables and completely transforming the big open assembly room.

Our furniture hire made a big difference – we used Virginias Vintage Hire to fill the space in the assembly hall. We hired barrels and parasols for the terrace from a local company ‘Devon Bales’. 

Our caterer was Kate Pennell. Kate and her team deserve an extra special mention. Kate is a complete legend, she listened, offered advise and  challenged us based on her wealth of experience when needed. She created a bespoke menu based on our favourite food. She offered lots of advice in the lead up. I couldn’t praised Kate, her team and her food on the day any more highly. 

Our florist was Caroline Hodges – I was just wowed by Caroline’s work and her calm but professional nature when we first spoke over the phone. She really listened and was flexible and helpful offering advice to meet our budget as much as possible and enduring reuse of flowers throughout the day as not to waste any flowers. 

Caroline is so talented!  Her daughter helped out on the wedding morning, delivering flowers to the room which I thought was such a lovely touch, a small, family business. 

Our stationery was designed by Urura Moments – they were just incredible. Even hand delivering our signage before the day to ensure it got to us on time and without any damage. This was great as I also got to meet the designer, Gee – she was so lovely and patient throughout the whole process. Her stationery really finished off our décor perfectly. Gee had such an eye for attention to detail, as do I, so I really appreciated this.

When it came to favours, we wanted to use a local supplier so we purchased small boxes of chocolate truffles from Salcombe Dairy to finish our place setting for each guest. They were so generous and provided us with a box of chocolates ourselves to say ‘congrats!’.

We hired the band The Nashville Heat, who were so good and definitely bought the party. We were so happy with them and their more indie, 70’s and 80’s repertoire – with a Mumford style twist! They also learnt our first dance song too which was so special. 

We took a first dance to ‘My Girl’, by the Temptations.  Our parents were of the Motown era so we both grew up listening to Motown and also love the old classics. Before the wedding, after a few wines we would dance to the song in our kitchen a little tipsy in excitement. We felt this song was perfect and made even more special by the band learning and singing it live for us on the day. 

Enjoy every moment, so many people told me not to worry about the small stuff. Of course, I did anyway and we wanted our guests to have the best day, particularly having travelled so far to be with us. 

No one cared about the minute details I’d spent weeks questioning and worrying over.

The planning was on reflection so much fun – and I’d love to do it all over again!

We came in slightly over our budget with some unexpected costs we hadn’t accounted for, or accounted enough for; furniture hire and on the day help with an almost ‘self service’ venue at Cliffhouse – we wanted to ensure the day ran smoothly. 

If someone asked would we spend it again if it meant we could do it all over again? 1000% yes!

I’d maybe shift timings slightly as our wedding reception over ran meaning the party started a little later. We had gone for a 2pm ceremony start time. But other than that, I’d change literally nothing. 

The night before the wedding, we had planned a beach picnic and drinks with our guests. Sadly we weren’t so lucky with the weather this day, it poured with rain. We quickly converted to a ‘Plan B’, and met at the local pub, not realising it was a huge football day (or at least I hadn’t) so it was not what we’d planned for and incredibly busy. But it was so nice to see everyone arriving in Devon and how excited everyone was to be in Devon for us.

I had bought a pack of Co-op’s finest bratwurst sausages. I’d listened to the ‘Newly Weds’ podcast in the lead up to our big day and wanted to ensure a glorious sunny for our wedding – especially given the horrific weather the night before. Despite resorting to our Plan B, the sausages needed to be buried. In desperation I buried them in the pub’s flower bed! Our guests thinking I had fully lost it by this point – but it was the talking point of our wedding day at the drinks reception – no one could believe the incredible blue skies and sunshine. My madness had done its work!

Only a few miles away there was torrential rain and across the UK that day, so weather wise, we were so incredibly lucky. I also like to think my Grandad played a part in this; looking down on us to make sure I had the most perfect day, he sadly passed a few years ago but we were incredibly close.

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