Bethany and Jack's Cliff Top Party Wedding in Wales by Nic Ford Weddings

I hope you are all good after Valentines day yesterday, I have to say I ate A LOT last night and drank a fair bit too, so today is off to a bit of a slow start! However, I have the most adorable wedding to share with you straight from beautiful Pembrokeshire in Wales. Bethany and Jack’s wedding has a great energy to it, the cliff top location gives us terrific views, huge gusts of wind and the most dramatic backdrop. The whole day looks like so much fun, from the gorgeous ceremony full of laughter to the wedding breakfast and reception full of fun and energy. Nic Ford Weddings was there to capture the day for us in all it’s glory.

For us, it was perfect. Surrounded by our family and friends with great food, great music, relaxed and informal ceremony and a rave until the early hours!

Bethany and Jack were married on 7th August 2021 at Musselwick Farm in Pembrokeshire. ‘We have always been drawn to the sea, and the Pembrokeshire coastline holds lots of family memories for both of us. Family of our close friends own the farm just down the coast from Musselwick and they introduced us to Nick and Sue. When we arrived at the farm, it was a done deal. To say the farm and accommodation was incredible would be a huge understatement. We met Nick and Sue and immediately felt at home. The 6 cottages meant we could have our entire wedding party onsite with us for the weekend. You only have to look at the views to see why we chose the field we did, looking down onto Musselwick sands and out to St Davids head. Over the course of planning the wedding Sue and Nick supported us in every step. They have become like family and Musselwick will always feel like an extension of home for us and our family. We had 150 guests and it took 12 – 15 months to plan.’

How they met
We met while both at Cardiff university – 7 years

The proposal
It took place back in Cardiff, I had arranged for her close friends to be there, below the balcony of St Davids hotel, luckily, she didn’t see them before I had chance to ask her! Classis Welsh cloudy day but it all worked perfectly!

How did you allocate your budget?
Set a goal total spend and prioritised in order of importance – Venue & Location, Music, Food were the top! Everything else we managed on a lower budget and did a lot of the work ourselves.

Where did you splurge and where did you save?
Splurge – Band, location and venue / Save – Alcohol, flowers, all décor hand made, and we both chose to keep the budget low on our clothing!

How did you choose your photographer?
We have known Nic for some time and she is very close with our friends in Pembrokeshire. She knows the area so well, and her style was exactly what we wanted. She was epic!

The dress
Dress – Wed2Be, Shoes – Dune, Accessories – Lilly & Roo

The suit and bridesmaids
Suits were a combo of Next/River Island – Bridesmaids – Victoria Lou Bridal

Theme or colour scheme
Teapots, blue and white. (to explain the teapots – when we bought our house, we had last min moving in gifts from our friends, cat shaped teapot was one of them. Beth has since then used this for making intensely strong cocktails at parties… for which she has a reputation, and hence people keep buying her new ones!)

Flowers
White roses, white carnations, white callalillies, white gypsophilia, eryngium thistles (sea holly), blue corn flowers, eucalyptus

Decoration
Natural, woods and rustic furniture with clean white room

Food
Canapes (mini burgers, tacos, arancini, pork belly), BBQ sharing boards (Brisket, Pulled pork, Chicken thighs, various salads and fries), Brownies and Pizza in the evening

Wedding cake
Semi naked, 2 tier sponge with fresh berries

Entertainment
Band in the evening and a DJ set into the night

Who supplied the stationery?
We made everything ourselves – Menus, Table Plan, Invites Signs etc

Where are you going on your honeymoon?
Singapore, phillipines, bali – when covid decides it ok!

Personal touches
We made most things ourselves. The wedding ‘arch’ (triangle) was made by Jack, his dad and Grandfater. We made all the décor, signs, bouquets, lighting, table plan, menus, invites, table settings, individual named pebbles… the list goes on!

Special moments
To be honest – all of it! We wrote our own vows, which was a great way to start the day as we didn’t really want too formal a ceremony. We had a teapot race…this was a race between one of beths maid of honours and her other maid of honours boyfriend (long running rivalry) to drink an entire teapot of cocktail! Took a lot of people by surprise but everyone loved it! To end with a sunset over the sea just about summed up the day, couldn’t have been any better!

Advice for other couples
Don’t let nerves ruin the day, try and slow down where you can it goes really fast, try to talk to every table when they are all sat down and get photos or every table when they’re sat down. Most importantly don’t over think it, but make sure you give focus to what is important and don’t sweat the details – don’t try to please others and remember its your wedding, you cant please everyone! Remember to eat!

Biggest surprise
The weather! It was touch and go in the morning and we had made the decision to extend the marquee with a clear section for the ceremony. But then it all changed after dinner and we had an incredible sunset!