Boho Relaxed & Rustic Whistable Beach Wedding at East Quay

Oh, what a treat it is to share Kimberley and Joshua’s Whistable beach wedding with you. They were hitched at East Quay Venue in Kent on a windy summer’s day. The end result? An absolute corker of a day with boho rustic style and a relaxed atmosphere.

Kimberley and Joshua along with their wedding party looked incredible in their stylish outfits. There were divine yellow flowers, a buttercream show stopper of a cake and seriously lovely beach portraits. Plus WWW wedding supplier faves, Tailored Entertainment provided their fab band Freshman Year!

I can’t thank Nicola Dawson Photography enough for sharing these spectacular images of a very special beach wedding indeed. Enjoy it all.

Whitstable Beach Wedding

The Proposal

We were on holiday in Cornwall last Summer when Joshua proposed by Fistral Beach; the seaside is my favourite place! The setting was beautiful but not too public (which I would have hated!) – perfect!

We were away with my family, so that evening we were able to celebrate together, Joshua knew it would mean a lot to me that my family were around us, and we celebrated with a game of mini golf followed by champagne and cocktails!

The Vision

We had been to a lot of weddings together, and we knew we wanted to do something ‘different’. One thing we definitely didn’t want was anything too formal, we wanted our day to be relaxed and to move a little away from the traditional.

I had a boho/rustic look in mind and we always knew Joshua wouldn’t wear a suit. We considered a festival-style wedding or a trendy pub venue in East London, but ultimately, the seaside setting at East Quay completely stole our hearts from the second we saw it!

Budget

£20,000

The Venue

The East Quay is such a special venue. We had never visited Whitstable before, but I found the venue by Internet search, and it wasn’t too far away from where we live in Essex. I absolutely love the sea and after a seaside proposal, a seaside wedding just made sense. We’d also been to a friend’s beach wedding a few years earlier and were inspired by their gorgeous setting, too.

As soon as we saw the sea view from the ceremony room and the drinks reception space on the beach, we were sold. We reserved the only remaining Saturday in August for the following year there and then.

The Ceremony & Music

The ceremony room at East Quay is so beautiful; we got married with a sea view and it was just perfect. We had a bagpipe player to greet our guests and play during our drinks reception. My Dad is from Scotland and we kept this quiet from friends and family, they all loved the surprise on the day!

In the evening, we had a band who specialised in pop punk/rock covers. This was the highlight of the day for me; they were absolutely incredible and so many of our guests commented on how much they enjoyed it, it was pure nostalgia!

Going to gigs is one of our favourite things to do together and we loved hearing so many of our favourite bands on our wedding day, again, we didn’t want a standard ‘wedding disco’!

Your Outfits

My dress was by Pronovias and I bought it in Bella Sposa Bridal in Upminster. It fitted my ‘boho’ vision perfectly and I loved that the colour was a little different. It was also the most comfortable dress I tried on, I felt amazing in it!

Joshua and the groomsmen wore chinos and jackets from high street shops. We loved the light colours and think they matched the beach setting perfectly. We had pocket squares made (by a very talented friend!) from the bridesmaid dress material to pull all of the looks together.

The bridesmaid dresses were one of my favourite finds for the day, I loved that they were, again, a little different and can’t believe how well all of the outfits came together in the end!

Your Photographer & Filmmaker

Our photographer was the wonderful Nicola Dawson. Such a lovely lady who is clearly so passionate about what she does, one of the best decisions we made, we are completely obsessed with our wedding photos!

We didn’t have a wedding film made, but we did ask one of our bridesmaids to take lots of video content during the day, including filming the speeches, so we have plenty to look back on.

The Styling & Decor

Helen at Blubelle Creative styled the venue and created all of the gorgeous florals. The bridesmaid dresses were the first purchase I made for the wedding so the whole colour scheme stemmed from there really; we went for lots of ‘wild’ greenery and touches of white and yellows.

The flowers were even better than I imagined, I can’t believe how well Helen nailed the brief! The yellows were so bright and happy which reflected the day perfectly. We are lucky enough to have lots of talented people in our lives, so our cake and sign-writing were both done by friends, a friend did mine and my bridesmaids’ hair too, we loved that so many people who we love were involved in the wedding!

The Honeymoon

Booking a bank holiday weekend for the wedding meant that lots of our closest friends and family stayed for an extra night in Whitstable and we continued the celebrations the following day. Then, we spent a few nights together in London.

I’m a teacher so was due back to work the following week, however, we have booked a trip to Santorini for October half term which is just around the corner and we can’t wait!

Memorable Moments

For me, the speeches were the most special part. My dad, Joshua, our best man and man of honour gave four incredible speeches and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. The band playing Rage Against the Machine was a close second!

Advice For Other Couples

Don’t sweat the small stuff – as the wedding got closer I worried that we should have booked a photo booth or a videographer, but we didn’t miss those things at all. We improvised with friends taking videos of the important bits and a DIY polaroid photo booth.

Also don’t spend hours agonising over background music playlists for your reception, save yourself some time and use the ready-made ones on Spotify, nobody notices it!

Do your day the way you want to. We were so close to booking a more traditional wedding band for fear that people wouldn’t enjoy what we really wanted, we are so glad we went ahead and booked the band we really wanted!