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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Real Cornish Coastal Wedding: Julie & Ben - Part 2

Time for the beautiful reception pictures from this lovely Cornish coastal wedding. Julie and Ben created many of the wedding details themselves, as {like most of us}, they had to keep to a tight wedding budget. Julie DIY'd her wedding stationery, table plan, and her wedding favours, adding the personal touch that makes a wedding stand out from the crowd. I love the hedgerow themed wedding flowers, the simply billowing marquee, and the traditional English deckchairs. Don't miss Julie's fantastic advice for future brides, or Part 1 of this gorgeous wedding! Huge thanks to Alan Law Photography for these beautiful wedding pictures.

We tied the knot on the 30th of June 2012 at an amazing venue in Cornwall called Fentafriddle. We picked this date as it was my Dad’s birthday {who sadly passed away}, and we thought this would be a great way to keep celebrating the date.


We didn’t have a wedding colour theme as such. The bridesmaid dresses were gold and cream, and our bouquets were based around the hedgerow. Daisies featured throughout. We both just wanted it to feel natural and bright.

Choosing our wedding venue wasn’t about location, as we looked all around the UK. Our most important request was that it had to be relaxed and child friendly, and we wanted our close friends and family to be able to stay with us before and after the big day. Wedding days can pass so fast and you just want to cherish the moment for as long as you can. 

When we saw Fentafriddle we both immediately knew it was the venue for us. The view over the sea just takes your breath away.



Because the landscape of the venue was so stunning we hardly had to do any decorating. Flowers required were minimal and I wanted to make the table plan and centre pieces myself for that personal touch.


Each table was named after a place that meant a lot to us, so we had Canterbury as we both attended university there, Kentish Town which is where we first lived together, and the head table was of course Trebarwith Strand where Fentafriddle sits proudly. and will always be in our hearts.


A local florist in Delabole called Bruallen did our wedding flowers. The ladies there are just amazing. Neither of us knew anything about flowers and they immediately understood our requirements. All I knew was that I wanted an antique rose to feature in my bouquet and I wanted the flowers on the table to be loose, natural and bright. Our wedding flowers were just lovely and most of them came from various local Cornish farmers that very morning.


At first we weren’t going to have a wedding cake and planned just going to have a desert that could be cut in front of our guests. Our caterer came up with the idea of a giant pavlova with fresh berries, and not only did it look stunning, but the flavours were immense. 


I really do recommend our caterer. The quality of the food was superb and she was so laid back about the day which rubbed off on us, and the people she employed on the day were great fun. Her name was Fee Turner. But in the end close friends of ours had a cake made for us as a gift, and it was beautiful and was cream and gold. So you could call us greedy as we ended up having two cakes!


Our wedding favours were stones inscribed with paraphrases from the readings included in the ceremony. Quite often we’ll go around someone’s house and the stone will be used as a doorstop or sitting on the side and it always makes me smile. We also placed a small card at each table-place, including a poem by Dr Seus and a brief thank you on the back. The main reason for both was to add a personal touch, but I won't lie, keeping costs down was also a factor. 



In the beginning I really enjoyed planning our wedding. But nearer the time I did start to feel the pressure, and even though I don't regret it now, I did start to regret having to do some of my DIY projects - the table plan and favours!



My advice to brides would be....let others help when they ask, don’t panic if things go wrong on the day. Our generator packed up at around 11pm and when I walked back in the marquee on the verge of feeling emotional and stressed all I could see were lighters in the air and my guests singing Wonderwall {by Oasis}. This turned out to be an amazing way to end the evening. You just have to not let anything ruin your day, and remember it’s probably only a problem to you, and not to your guests.



If you're having a marquee always request to see your order up and in working order long before your wedding. We were unfortunately disappointed with the quality of ours as it wasn't what we had ordered. But again only Ben and I noticed, guests were none the wiser. Don’t place too much emphasis on your wedding shoes if you're wearing a long wedding dress. No-one really notices details like this! Enjoy your day, as it’s one of the only times in your life you are surrounded by everyone you love! I don’t think I stopped smiling from the beginning to the end. 


Our wedding photographer was Alan Law. Both his profile and gallery attracted me to his work as we wanted someone that would be able to take natural photos, which is exactly what he did for us on the day. He also stayed late past the first dance, and fair play to him, as the drink had been flowing all day and at points the dance floor was quite intense. The result was we loved our pictures and we couldn’t have asked for anything more!


More Posts Like This One
Real Summer Countryside Wedding
Real Pretty Marquee Wedding

♥ Want to see seaside weddings ideas? ♥ Or how about more summer wedding ideas? ♥
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Real Cornish Coastal Wedding: Julie & Ben - Part 2 Rating: 4.5 Posted By: Cheking
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