Vintage Wedding by the Seaside with Gorgeous Homemade Touches

What can you expect when a florist gets married? Well some utterly beautiful blooms for starters.

Adam and Jo's pretty vintage wedding was a celebration of their shared passions and hobbies. Their loves of crafts, food, wine, music, travel and flowers all made a cameo in a day that was casual, intimate, and quintessentially ‘them'.

Captured candidly by Miss Gen Photography, this wedding was sweet, simple and stylish with a civil ceremony, a pub reception, and a romantic photo session against the backdrop of the British seaside town of Portsmouth.

Jo is no average bride. Not only did she create the flowers herself, but she carved her own path in the style stakes, with a dreamy vintage style dress from Dig for Victory.

While Adam was dapper in a sharp navy suit, cool specs, and a matching bout and pocket square to Jo's pretty peaches and cream ensemble.

With homemade cakes from Adam's mum and her friends at the WI, whimsical bunting made by Jo, lots of retro features and food and wine that reflected the couples' favourite countries and cuisines, for anyone planning a relaxed wedding, loaded with personal touches, prepare to be inspired…

Wedding Day Snapshot

Our Wedding in Three Words

Personal, relaxed & homemade

The Flowers

As I am a florist, it was a dream to be able to make whatever I wanted! The style I love, is a natural look- no glitz or exotic flowers. I also believe flowers should have a fragrance, so I chose scented roses and flowers where possible, and lots of herbs.

I used a scented peach rose called Evelyn, Freesias, Scabious and Scabious seed heads, Craspedia, Tanacetum, white spray roses, Nigella and Astrantia.

For the tables at the reception, we chose to keep them simple and have tin cans spray painted white with a simple ribbon decoration. Most had a mixture of flowers and I planted different succulents in the rest. These also ended up being perfect gifts for our guests to take home!

I had some extra flowers left over, so made some bouquets to go in a selection of jugs and vases I had at home for the bar, buffet table, cake table and window sills.

The Dresses

I always knew I didn’t want to wear a traditional white wedding dress, but I didn’t think I’d end up with a coral dress!

I wanted a vintage dress to start with, but couldn’t find one I liked, then found Dig for Victory that make 50’s style prom dresses. I chose to have pleats in the skirt to make it a bit different and also suggested the lace overlay and cap sleeves.

I wanted Adam to have pocket square made from my dress fabric, so the owner of Dig for Victory kindly gave me an extra piece, so I got to work and made it for Adam.

I wanted my bridesmaids to feel comfortable and also to have a dress they could wear again if they wanted to. We found the pretty summer dresses in House of Fraser and they worked perfectly with the colours Adam and I had chosen.

The Ceremony & Music

It was a simple registry office ceremony, that was short, sweet and just what we wanted.

I walked in to ‘Sea of Love’ by Cat Power and we both walked out to Northern Soul classic, ‘Do I Love you (Indeed I Do)’ byFrank Wilson. It was such a happy moment we could have danced down the aisle!

We decided not to have a first dance and we compiled a playlist for the reception and disco – combining our love of 90’ indie disco music, northern soul and a few cheesy disco classics for good measure!

The Photography

After a string of photographers telling us they were already booked, we were suggested to get in touch with Miss Gen. We were so glad we did. From the first time we met, to have some trial photos, she understood what we liked.

Her photographs are truly beautiful. Natural and and unobtrusive. She captured special moments that no one else saw.

Favourite Moment

We were told by many different people to make sure we took 10 minutes of just ‘us time’ throughout the day, and I’m so glad we listened.

Adam had arranged to have a little bottle of Champagne and two glasses in the boot of the car, so we decided to walk back to the reception (instead of being driven) have a glass of bubbles and chill out before the big entrance!

It was a lovely thought and a moment we won’t forget.

The Colours

We didn’t want a theme, so we just chose a few colours to work with for decorations. We chose a coral/ peachy colour, mint green, navy blue and a pale grey.

The Decor & Details

I always knew I would make a lot of the decorations myself, and as I am a bit of a textile/ fabric hoarder, I knew I could make lots of bunting with what I already had.

We didn’t want fancy tablecloths or chair covers, so kept it simple and fuss free with table runners that I made from a plain fabric.

Instead of table numbers, we chose to have images of things that represented us as a couple and individually. And for our favours we decided on scratchcards combining them with the place names. It was fun to hear little cheers around the room when people won!

We also had postcards and pens so guests could write us a message or give us advice for married life. It was lovely to be able to read these the next day and some were really funny!

The Refreshments

We chose to have a buffet, so our guests could choose what they wanted and we decided to introduce a few mediterranean dishes, because we both love Greek and Spanish food.

The Still and West were really accommodating and pretty much let us chose our own menu. The view from the reception overlooked the sea, so we created a seating plan so everyone has a sea view!

We chose to serve New Zealand red and white wines, as we have a fond connection with NZ and also decided on a Prosecco for greeting drinks and toasts.

We didn’t serve a dessert, we decided to serve cake. And lots of it! Adam’s mum, Linda, is a member of the Lovedean WI, so we asked if they would each make a different cake for the table. It was an absolute success! All of our guests loved being able to choose what they wanted!

Linda, made our wedding cake – a scrumptious chocolate and Guiness cake and Naomi, my sister, made our brilliant cake topper for us.

Advice for Other Couples

Pinterest is the obvious one but so, so useful for ideas. Don’t go with everything you see on there, otherwise it can get a bit overwhelming!

As for advice, we would say, make sure you have nights where you don’t mention wedding planning. Go out for drinks and dinner and remember why you’re getting married.