Becky and Albert has a beautiful travel themed wedding, to reflect their love of travel, and it works perfectly with their reception decor. I so love Becky’s wedding day look, she looks bohemian beautiful :-) Get ready to be inspired peeps hehe…

Thanks so much to the amazing Hertfordshire based wedding photographer, Steve Shipman Photography for sharing his work today, here is what he had to say about the day;

“Becky and Albert live and work in Hastings, and their wedding ceremony was in the ancient town centre church of St Clements, with the reception at Bodiam Castle.

As usual, I met Becky and Albert in Hastings for their pre-wedding shoot, and as we walked through the town Albert gave me a potted history of the area, in between saying hello to just about everybody! We reprised the walk on their wedding day, and took family group photos in the town centre, before going onto the beach, the fun fair, and the Old Town where there are the fishermen’s huts and boats. So although I cover weddings mostly in a documentary style, I love to create a contrast in my pictures, and with Becky and Albert looking immaculate in their wedding outfits, it made great photos with fishing boats, grungy tractors, and colourful vibrant fairground rides in the background.

Their marquee reception was at Bodiam Castle, and it looked spectacular in the afternoon sunlight. Becky and Albert had a travel theme for their tables, with maps and globes and books to illustrate their love of travelling. After the drinks, we went over to the castle, and after the family groups shots, we went up into the castle to create some wonderful portraits of the two of them, using the ancient stonework and doorways to frame the couple.

It is always a privilege to photograph a wedding, and when a couple like Becky and Albert are as keen as we are to create a unique record of the day, the photography becomes a fabulous collaboration between us all.”

Names…. Albert & Becky

Wedding Date…. 30th July 2011

The Proposal….  Valentine’s day, on the sofa before heading out for dinner.  Albert presented me with a gift… a pair of practical gloves for the cold weather.  However, when I tried them on I found something in the 3rd finger of the left hand glove… a ring!  It may have just been from Claire’s accessories but it did the job to start with!  It was soon replaced by a bespoke white gold and topaz engagement ring from Harriet Kelsall Jewellery. We worked with Harriet and one of her designers, Kerrie, to design a stunning twist style engagement ring. When the time came to decide on the wedding ring we went back to Harriet and Kerrie for Becky’s wedding ring, designed and made so that the two rings fitted together. Kerrie also designed Albert’s wedding ring. We cannot recommend them highly enough as they gave us great service and are just lovely people.

The Vision for the day…. A relaxed day for family and friends to come together to help us celebrate.

The Planning process….  Two and half years in the planning… a team effort from both of us.  As we are both teachers we needed to find out the school holiday dates before we could choose the date – we kept a close eye on the website so we could find out when they were – we were sat in a hotel room in Shanghai when we set the date!  Travelling is a big part of our lives and led to the theme of our wedding.

The Venue…  Church wedding at St Clements Church in the Old Town of Hastings where we live, followed by a marquee reception in the grounds of Bodiam Castle.

The Dress + Accessories…..  The dress was silk chiffon and came from Ocean Bride in Hove which is the designers own shop. The shoes came from Schul. The earrings (all 3 pairs), necklace and bracelet came from Harriet Kelsall Jewellery, the same place that the engagement ring came from. The flowers in my hair came from Chez Bec. The headpiece was made for me from the straps of the dress which I decided not to wear.

Finding the dress…. I spent a half term holiday searching for the dress with my mother.  We travelled all over the south east including London so as to try as many designers as possible as I had no idea what style (or even colour) I was after.  A friend had recommended Ocean Bride as her daughter had just found her dress there.  As it’s the designer’s own shop it felt like a very personalized service, where she could see the whole vision of the outfit.

Groom’s attire…  Traditional morning suit from Moss Bros with pale blue waist coat and cravat to match the bridesmaids.  The ushers wore ties.

The Readings + Music…. My father and I entered the church to Pachelbel’s Cannon arranged for trumpet and church organ.  We had two readings at the church, the first was written for us by a very good friend and was entitled Love.  The second reading was 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. We had three hymns during the service, the first was Make Me a Channel of Your Peace which was my old school hymn.  The second hymn was Lord of the Dance during which the church organ was accompanied by friends of ours on violins, flute and a squeeze box which gave it a lovely folk feel.  Finally we had Jerusalem which sounded fantastic with over 300 in church singing. During the signing of the register one of the bridesmaids sang Come Away with Me and Songbird. We left the church to Clark’s Trumpet Voluntary for  trumpet and church organ. Our first dance at the reception was ‘It Must be Love’ by Madness.

Beautiful bridesmaids….. We had a total of 5 bridesmaids and 3 flower girls!  All of their dresses came from BHS and followed the same blue theme.

The Flowers…  We used our local florist La Colina  to supply all the flowers for the whole day including the church. My bouquet was the cascading style made up of white roses and smaller white and blue flowers. The groom, ushers and fathers wore white roses as button holes. The bridesmaids and flower girls had poses made from hydrangeas’, either white or blue to compliment their dresses. We also had white hydrangeas decorating the end of the pews.

The Cake… The cake was traditional fruit cake which was made by Albert’s mother and décorated by a friend of ours.

Your Photographer….  The wonderful Steve Shipman.  We met Steve at a National Wedding Fair and fell in love with his style.  We are both fans of photography and this was one of the most important decisions for us to make.  Steve came down to Hastings a couple of months before the wedding for a pre-wedding shoot.  This gave us the opportunity to get to know him better before the big day.

On the day Steve was joined by his associate Daina.  This gave us a lot of flexibility in capturing different aspects of the day.

The Details + Decor….  Travel was the theme for the day as it had played so much a part of our lives together.  The first clue for this was the invitations which was based on the British Passport and were sent in airmail envelopes.

At the reception the vintage travel theme was continued.  All the tables were named after places we had visited together and the seating planned was based around a map of the world.  The centre piece for each table was a globe stood on top of a pile of vintage books. We had an old suitcase for guests to leave their cards in and the guest book was a travel journal.  The favors were bought by us in the Souk in Marrakesh earlier in the year, following much haggling!

The Honeymoon….  We spent 10 days in Hawaii visiting Honalulu and Maui.  It was hard to choose a location where we could relax (not our usual style) which neither of us had been to before.

Memorable moments…  Leaving the church with a constant stream of guests pouring out after us to wish us well. Greeting our evening guests in Bodiam Castle with a glass of champagne.

Advice for other couples… Enjoy the planning, don’t see it as a chore. Think carefully about what is most important to you at the start. For us it was to have as many friends there as possible. Don’t lose sight of this in all the detail.

Credit where credit’s due…

Photographer – Steve Shipman

Rings – Harriet Kelsall Jewelery

Marquee and Catering – Super Event

Dress - Ocean Brides

Accessories – Harriet Kelsall Jewellery ( Purple Label Collection), Chez Bec

Florist – La Colina

Cars – Rye Classic

Bridesmaids dresses – BHS

Grooms Attire – Moss Bros

Thanks so much to Becky and Albert for sharing their gorgeous wedding day with us today…. are you having a travel themed wedding…. which elements of their wedding have inspired you? xoxo

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