James and Rebecca’s Cornwall Beach Wedding, with a BBQ, Fish & Chips and the Coolest Page Boy EVER!

Morning all and welcome along to another week! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend? I had a fabulous time at the Olympics the whole day was amazing and such a fabulous experience! haven’t we done amazingly well this weekend with the medals, so proud of all of our fantastic spots men and women they really have done Great Britain proud!

Onto todays wedding and it’s a right cracker to get the week started! It features an amazing Cornish beach wedding at the bottom of a 300ft cliff, the bride and bridal party arriving by boat, some amazing DIY details and the coolest page boy ever! who happened to be the couples son, who not only makes his own speech but is a pretty amazing dancer! what a dude! Thanks to Keith Riley for the submission.

It’s the wedding of Rebecca and James who were married on 14th April-2012 ‘It was a rather unusual wedding which was spread over a whole weekend. It began on the Saturday with a ceremony at the bottom of a 300ft cliff on Withnoe Beach, Whitsand Bay, Cornwall. Followed by fun and games and an evening reception on the beach in a marquee. Sunday concluded our weekend with an intimate ceremony in Saltash Baptist Church which is our usual place of worship.’  The had 90 guests in the day and another 40 for the evening.

‘A truly unique and spiritual ceremony, with the sand beneath our feet and the waves crashing behind us. A day which saw all our dreams and plans finally come together.’

How they met
We were introduced by a mutual friend at a party as “James this is Becky…she’s part of the God Squad too” – because we were both Christians.

The proposal
On Boxing Day 2010 all the family were over and James organised for my two best friends to come over as a surprise too. They were all in on it! We planned to all go out for a walk on the beach together (the beach we got married on) but everyone else went ahead. When we set off we stopped at the top of the cliff and looked down and they’d written “Becky will you marry me?” in the sand. It was a complete surprise and James got down on one knee. We then ran down to meet everyone and had champagne on the beach.

The wedding planning
We first began planning a year before, but because of the extremely complex location – on a beach at the bottom of a 300ft cliff, plans were very slow to start. It was touch and go as to whether it would ever happen, with marquee companies refusing and guests

The Venue
Whitsand Bay is our home and we could not see ourselves marrying anywhere other than this beautiful idyllic location. The beach and the church are at the centre of our hearts and as Christians it was important for us to keep the religious elements in our beach ceremony.
complaining they wouldn’t be able to get down there. Things really kicked into gear about 6 months before.

How did you choose your photographer?
We were not planning on having professional photographers originally but at the last minute we decided it would be a weight off our friends/family who were going to do it. So we scoured the internet for local photographers with experience of beach shots and came across Keith and Neda. They were very friendly from the start and were very excited about doing our wedding. We liked it that they were passionate about getting natural shots as well as the usual posed ones.

The Dress
I just could not find “The Dress” or anything remotely like what I had in mind, so after trawling around hundreds of dress shops I opted for a local dressmaker who was able to design and make it how I wanted it. My flip flops were from Accessorize – we painted the flowers on them yellow to match our colour scheme. My pearl starfish necklace from Blue Wing was left for me to open on the morning of the wedding by James.

The suit and bridesmaids
James’ white linen suit was bought from Moss, our little boys’ white suit was bought from ebay and the groomsmens’ suits were bought from Matalan. We decided it worked out cheaper to buy suits rather than hire them.
The bridesmaids and flower girls dresses’ were also made by our local dressmaker.

Theme
Our theme was obviously the beach and so in line with this our colour scheme was yellow for the sand (Rebecca’s favourite colour) and turquoise for the sea.

Food
As it was an early ceremony, we had a BBQ for lunch and fish and chips for the evening reception meal. We used our fabulous beach cake

Entertainment
There was volleyball, buckets & spades, bubble machine, trips out in a boat and we played a big game of rounder’s. In the evening we had a DJ and fireworks.

Flowers
I had a trailing bouquet of white phalaenopsis orchids as these are my favourite flowers and James and our little boy had the same as buttonholes. My bridesmaids had a mix of the orchids and yellow gerbera’s, which the groomsmen and pageboys also had as buttonholes.

Decoration
We had shells, pebbles, turquoise and yellow chiffon and ivy.

Personal touches
My sister-in-law, our mum’s and I spent hours making things. We made the table plan to stick onto our surf board, using photographs of the local beaches for each table. We made all of our invitations, order of services, scrolls with a timetable for the day and card box. We did the sweetie buffet ourselves by buying all the sweets, jars, scoops and tongs and made a sign which said “Pick your FAVOURite sweets”, as these were our guests’ wedding favours. We also made the bar and bought all the alcohol to sell. The arch which we got married under was made by my brother and bridesmaids out of bamboo canes and chiffon.

Special moments
For me it was arriving in the boat and seeing everyone on the beach and knowing that all of our hard work had paid off and our dream wedding was really happening! We really enjoyed our couple photoshoot as this was time for us to get away from the hustle and bustle and have a little time alone. I really loved the speeches and was blown away by my brother’s speech which managed to make everyone feel every emotion from laughter to sadness.

Advice
SLEEP!! Make sure you are organised…we spent the last week before the wedding staying up every night until at least 3am doing things, so by the day of the wedding we were all exhausted.

Biggest surprise
James and our little boy had planned a surprise song from the Lion King. As we were both taking on James’ surname it was a remake of “I just can’t wait to be king”but instead it was “I just can’t wait to be Crumpy”! It really showed the complete and utter love they both have for one another as father and son.

Supplier shot Outs

• Photographer: Keith & Neda Riley www.keithriley.co.uk
• Hairdresser: Elite Hair and Beauty – Debbie McDonald www.elite-hairandbeauty.co.uk
• Videographer: Roger Underwood www.rogerunderwood.co.uk
• Guest Accommodation & Help with transporting wedding equipment: Jim Shekhdar http://eddystonecafe.com/

For more information on Keith & Neda’s work go to
www.keithriley.co.uk
www.keithriley.co.uk/blog
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01637 852852 / 07877 602169

We are husband and wife team based in Cornwall, the south west of the UK, but normally travel throughout the UK and abroad.  We are fun, relaxed and passionate about capturing both significant and sincere moments in a wedding in beautifully artistic photos. We are lucky to both do together what we love so much and have lots of fun on the way. Keith & Neda x

♥  You can see more Real Weddings on the Boho Blog HERE  ♥