Ooh! Mrs James A laid back beach wedding captured by Anna Pumer Wedding Photography

A laid back beach wedding captured by Anna Pumer Wedding Photography

October 29, 2013 · in Wedding Venues & Reception Ideas · by oohmrsjames · No Comments ·

I’ll start by saying, I love Anna! I’ll always make a beeline for her at wedding fairs and networking events and I’m happy to say this couple loved her too!

Anna had already told me about this wedding the last time I saw her, so I was overjoyed when it landed in my inbox so I could share it with you all.

Claire and Steve wed at The Worthing Dome in Worthing this year and wanted to create a laid back beach wedding vibe all captured by Anna Pumer Photography. I’ll hand you over to Claire who tells us all about their story from proposal to wedding day…

Steve and I met while working overseas as a Holiday Rep and Manager in Benidorm of all places! We’ve been together for about 6 1/2 years and during that time have toured through Benidorm, Salou, Egypt and Majorca before returning to the UK in 2010.

Steve proposed when he organised a surprise trip to Brighton for me after a week of exams while studying for my Masters. After a lovely meal in the Lanes we went for a walk along the beach front, we walked out to the end of the jetty next to Brighton Pier where Steve played Etta James and slow danced with me, I thought he was drunk! It was freezing but such a beautiful moment and then he got down on one knee and proposed to me with a ring he had made himself! It was my dream ring and after we stood in the cold phoning friends and family to tell them the news.

When planning our wedding we decided to go for a relaxed day full of love and laughs. The important thing to us was to have all the people that mattered to us both there to share it with us. We went to a few wedding fairs and got really excited by all the potential things we could include in our wedding such as decoration and entertainment but decided to keep it simple and make sure it was a true family wedding. The day was very understated with a few girly touches to add colour, the look was very vintage with the beach and summer as influences.

We went to visit The Worthing Dome as we had heard it had a sea view and fitted in with our beach theme. As soon as we saw it we knew it was perfect for us! The ornate pillars and ceiling gave the place a really vintage feel, while the simplicity of the layout meant that it was in keeping with our desire to have a laid back day and the huge terrace overlooking the sea gave us our beach element! Steve’s Nan made metres of bunting that matched our colour scheme which we used to decorate the venue, it really suited our style and added a dash of colour to the room. The candelabras were provided by The Dome and made a gorgeous centrepiece, we decided to have candles throughout the day with hurricane lamps and lanterns at our ceremony. The venue was beautiful and the day was perfect. I walked down the aisle to Etta James ‘At Last’ then my cousin George played the guitar, the rings we exchanged were made by Aurum in Worthing using gold from Steve’s Grandparents rings that had been left to him after they passed away.

For our food we wanted a wedding breakfast that everyone could help themselves to so we went for sharing platters of Spanish meats, grilled vegetables and bread to start. At the end of the meal we provided a huge cheese course that could also be shared, the idea was that all our family and friends could mingle and meet easily. Everyone got talking and had a real laugh together which was great!

Our personal touches were the photographs in my bouquet of flowers. I wanted to have small trinkets with photos of all our absent Grandparents hanging from my bouquet and Kath of Katherine Gibbon’s Flowers did an excellent job! We also used shells and pebbles to decorate the venue to reflect our time overseas, we wanted to create an intimate and personal feel to the whole day. We chose Anna Pumer to photograph the day after we met her at Belle’s Vintage Wedding Fair, we had previously come across her website and liked her work, we went to the fair in the hope of meeting her! She made a great first impression which was reinforced when we met at the wedding venue a few weeks later. Anna was really enthusiastic and passionate about our day, in fact, it felt as if we had known her for ages and she was there as a friend! We both felt really comfortable with her and valued her thoughts and opinions. We would definitely recommend Anna, in fact, we already have!

My advice to other couples getting married is not to get carried away with etiquette or other peoples opinions. We had a tight budget so found it really useful to keep communicating what our priorities were to each other. As cheesy as it sounds, be true to yourselves and focus on that, its easy to get carried away with a huge guest list and trinkets you don’t need!

Also, don’t scrimp on photography, its well worth spending extra money on a good photographer as its the photographs that will help you to remember the day forever.