Fresh & Relaxed Summer Beach Wedding

Uncomplicated, relaxed, British summer by the sea was the vision, and let me tell you this lovely pair nailed it.

WWW readers Lucy and Tim were married on Thursday 6^th August 2015 at Titchwell Manor in Norfolk. They had a beautiful outdoor wedding ceremony followed by portraits on the beach and later moved on to Thornham Deli.

The whole day was simple yet meaningful with their loved ones at the forefront of their decision making. Lucy chose a stunning embellished gown from Phase Eight, there were pops of coral in the lush blooms and a statement geometric cake creation.

Thanks so much to Katherine Ashdown Photography for sharing these dreamy shots today.

THE PROPOSAL | Tim proposed while we were on a charity driving challenge from Canterbury, England to Bratislava, Slovakia. After a morning swimming in Lake Garda, Italy with friends, Tim ran off for 5 minutes before returning with the perfect ring! He proposed on a jetty over the lake.

THE VISION | Uncomplicated, relaxed, British summer (near the sea).

THE PLANNING PROCESS | We moved to Germany in August 2014 and wanted to get the big things sorted before then. We visited a couple of venues before finding Titchwell Manor and Thornham Deli, we were really lucky as both owners were very flexible, we only had a few meetings and then managed to sort everything else out by email!

Once we moved it became quite difficult to get married in England so we had a small wedding ceremony with our parents, my sister and two friends in Germany in November. We kept everything as planned for our “English wedding” but had a blessing instead.

We always wanted something very relaxed, informal, near the beach as it is somewhere special for us. Even the planning was very relaxed! We also asked our lovely friends for a few favours to make the day more personal.

THE VENUE | Titchwell Manor, Norfolk – this is where we had our outdoor blessing, food and speeches in the garden. We then moved to Thornam Deli for some more food (and our cake table)!

THE DRESS & ACCESSORIES | Hermione Dress – Phase Eight, Shoes – Dune.

My greek crown was from Avigail Adam who was really friendly, it was also really comfortable and I had no problem wearing it all day.

FINDING THE DRESS | I found my dress by chance while spending a weekend in Winchester with my family. I walked in to the Winchester Phase Eight store and saw the dress on a model. It was the first dress I tried on and loved it straight away, even though I never thought I would buy a dress with sequins and beads! It was so comfortable and easy to move in, which was ideal for our wedding photos on the beach. I went to the London store a few weeks later for a fitting!

GROOM’S ATTIRE | Tim’s suit was from Austin Reed and the boys hired their suits from Moss Bros.

THE READINGS & MUSIC | Our friend Ash played a few songs on his guitar during our outdoor ceremony and our friend Zoe read a shortened version of Love by Roy Croft.

BEAUTIFUL BRIDESMAIDS | My sister was our only bridesmaid. Now we live in different countries we don’t get to spend much time with each other so it was really nice spending the days leading up to the wedding and the morning of the wedding with her. Sophie’s dress was from Oasis.

THE FLOWERS | We wanted something bright, summery and not too structured.

THE CAKE | Our cake was made by Megan at Rose and Glory. The bottom tier was Raspberry and White Chocolate and the top tier was Mango. We left the pudding table choices completely up to the team at Thornham Deli and were really pleased with how it looked and tasted!

YOUR PHOTOGRAPHER | We both instantly loved Katherine’s style and how natural and relaxed her photos looked. When we met Katherine we knew we didn’t want anybody else to take our photos. She is extremely passionate about her work and such a happy, friendly person. Neither of us particularly like having our photo taken but she made us feel so relaxed. We agreed from the start that photography was something worth spending a little more money on to get right, and we’re so pleased with the amazing results.

THE DETAILS & DÉCOR | We won a competition by the Little Lending Company to have a few of their props at our wedding. The flowers were all in little glasses and we dotted them around both venues. Other than that we had very little décor.

We borrowed a polaroid camera for guests to take pictures of themselves and stick their photo with a message in our guest book. It is something really nice to look back on.

THE HONEYMOON | We decided to spend the week after the wedding catching up with all of our friends and family back in England, we are hoping to go on a “postponed” honeymoon soon!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS | The speeches were a great part of the day, we all gathered in the garden and it was really nice to have everyone together. In between venues we went to the beach with Katherine for our couple shots which was really good fun. For us it was really nice to have everyone together, a lot of our friends and family are spread across the country and some live abroad so it is very rare to see everyone at once!

ADVICE FOR OTHER COUPLES | Don’t stress about the little things, just enjoy your day with family and friends!

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE |

Photography | Katherine Ashdown Photography

Venue | Titchwell Manor

Flowers | The Little Flower Shop

Reception | Thornham Deli

Cake | Rose and Glory Cake Company

Dress | Phase Eight

Headband | Avigail Adam (also on Etsy)

Groom Suit | Austin Reed

Groomsmen Suits | Moss Bros

Ring | Andrew Geoghegan