Stylish Eclectic & Fun Seaside Wedding

First things first. This wedding has bucket loads of style, smiles for miles and a lot of love all round. It’s a cracker.

Gemma and Ryan decided to get married on the 4th October 2015 at East Quay Whitstable in Kent. It’s a really unusual setting, with rustic reception space and a spot beside the sea. They kept the décor simple as the venue speaks for itself, but they included doily place mats, an epic naked cake and a post card guest book. Sweet.

Gemma found her dress at the same boutique I did (bride twins) and she looked amazing in her lace gown. While the bridesmaids wore stunning embellished Virgos Lounge dresses; I am still looking for an excuse to buy a frock from there. Enjoy.

Livvy Hukins, thank you so much today for sharing these awesome images.

THE PROPOSAL | Ryan had told my family he was going to propose to me when we went to Copenhagen in April but after receiving their blessing in February he couldn’t wait that long. So the 2.5 hour drive back from Norwich he didn’t speak to me, got a speeding ticket from a policeman hiding in a bush and then proposed when we got home when I was plugging in the electric toothbrush in the bathroom.

THE VISION | We wanted all of our family and friends to walk into our wedding and just know instantly that it was our day. We knew we wanted to be married in Whitstable as it one of our favourite places to be together, it was also the place where Ryan met my parents for the first time. We imagined a relaxed, fun and romantic day surrounded by all of our favourite people.

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We were engaged on 15th February and had our venue booked by 27th February, Ryan had already found his suit and we found our florist, DJ, videographer and photographer all at the East Quay wedding fare so we were really lucky. I was so worried that nobody would share the same vision as us but with it being within the venue I clicked with Helen our florist and Livvy our photographer as they were perfect for our wedding.

All other planning was done with the help of my mum, and by making things at home and many hours spent on Pinterest. Our daughter Freija was only 3 months old when Ryan had proposed and I didn’t want to spend a lot of time being distracted by wedding planning so everything seemed to fall into place.

THE VENUE | East Quay Whitstable.

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Clifford Burr in Ware Hertfordshire, My dress was literally taken apart and put back together again with bits taken off all within three Saturdays. They were amazing and my dress was unbelievable, I also got my matching veil from them but spent the night before the wedding picking off all of the diamontes with tweezers. The veil over my face was a last minute decision as I was feeling very Dolce & Gabbanna that morning.

My Ted Baker shoes were very unlike me and I knew I wouldn’t wear them for long. I had a powder blue bag as a present from my friend Felicity, a fabulous Agent Provocateur garter from my friend Hannah but the most important accessories was my hair by Robert Mitchell and my make up by Lydia Rae who were so incredible and made me look part Priscilla Presley part Bridgette Bardot and a little bit of me, which was the look I dreamt of!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Crombie double breasted suit, Marks & Spencer shirt and tie and G.H Bass & Co shoes.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | My eldest cousin Carly did a really special reading for us and the music was what we spent the most time obsessing over. We had a huge playlist for our poor DJ and the specific timings for my Romeo and Juliet entrance was quite particular too but it bought everyone to tears so my plan worked! Because I was late the DJ said he had run out music so when we were signing the book Phil Collins came on, we still haven’t got over that. I hate Phil Collins.

The highlight song of our whole wedding was Gary Glitter rock n roll part 2, and Samuel The Best man serenading us Elvis’s An American Trilogy.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | Freija Lorelei our daughter, Pearl my god daughter, Rosie my sister, Katie and Laura my cousins. The most beautiful bridal party I’ve ever seen! The baby bridesmaids dresses were from Monsoon and the three stunners wore Virgos Lounge dresses. Katie was 6 months pregnant and I don’t think anyone even noticed! They are the most special girls in my life and they made my day that little bit more glamorous and definitely emotional having them by my side. Livvy’s photos of us are the most incredible photos I’ve ever seen, she captured how happy and hyperactive we were that day but also how much we love each other.

THE FLOWERS | My perfect bouquets and venue décor was all down to Helen from BluBelle Creative, she listened to everything that we wanted and I felt like she was an old friend when I met her. She matched the colours to the girls dresses perfectly and even painstakingly threaded my granddads photo into our bouquets too which was the one thing I couldn’t not have with me.

THE CAKE | Whats Up Cupcake Whistable.

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | I was drawn to Livvy’s stall at the wedding fare instantly, she was so approachable and lovely. We fell in love with her books, how she presented her work and I knew she was the photographer for us. We booked her on the spot and we spent many months emailing and she must have received 100 images from me from pinterest and she listened to everything we wanted. She was amazing on the wedding day, was really creative and we didn’t feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. We were blown away when we got our photos back , the colours and the mood she captured was more than we could have imagined.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We didn’t want to overdo it with the décor as the venue was what we wanted in its entirety. But with the guestbook etc we didn’t want anything ‘weddingy’ so we had a shop theme. The table plan was put on a magazine rack and the guestbook was old postcards on a spinning shop card holder. The guests favours were individually chosen vintage matchboxes that we made ourselves, the place mats were paper doilies that I wrote on and the children all had cups with vintage toys, puzzles and sweets in.

THE HONEYMOON | Cyprus for one week where we drank Pina Coladas and watched an amazing Elvis tribute act.

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | Gemma – Being driven in the 1960’s Mercedes with my dad and going past a pub garden full of old men, Freija clapping and shouting through the ceremony, seeing Ryan at the end of the aisle and nothing else! The speeches and the reaction to the pizza delivery!

Ryan – Gemma walking down the aisle with her veil over her face with Romeo and Juliet playing, Pizza delivery after they got lost so I ended up driving back in the car with them, when everyone went mental when Gary Glitter came on and the weather was amazing for a Sunday in October.

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Do everything for yourselves, don’t try to please other people. It is a day about you both.

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photographer | Livvy Hukins Photography

Venue | East Quay Whitstable

Flowers | BluBelle Creative Flowers

Film | BBV Productions

Make Up | Lydia Rae Make up

Hair | Robert Mitchell Hairdressing

DJ | Future Sounds DJ

Dress | Clifford Burr Bridal Wear

Cake | Whats up Cupcake

Bridesmaid Dresses | Virgos Lounge

Just magic!

Thanks so much to Gemma and Ryan for sharing there wonderful wedding story today xo Lou