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DIY Cliff Top Wedding Devon - Beach Theme - Updated

by Lou
(Bigbury on Sea, Devon)

View from our marquee

View from our marquee

We wanted to get married on or near the beach and as we both love Devon and have some family down there so it seemed the obvious choice. We also wanted to do as much of the wedding that we could ourselves as we have some talented friends and family.

After looking for ages for beach options and only finding restuarants and hotels we finally found a marquee company which had several cliff top sites and we loved the first one we saw, Mount Folly Farm, Bigbury on Sea.

As we had an incredible clifftop view I knew that spending a lot on flowers for the marquee was a waste of money and a couple of good displays would be more effective and lots of t-lights.

Flowers - I bought the flowers from our local flower stall in London and took them down with me. We had calla lilies for the bouquets which I did myself, roses for button holes which me and the girls did and my mum put 2 huge vases of flowers together which looked stunning.

Cake - I don't like fruit cake so didn't want to spend lots on it so I went to Asda and brought a plain white 3 tier cake. I then brought some polythene cake dividers from M&S and cut them down to size as they were too big. Between the layers I placed fresh roses and it looked amazing. I then bought 2 cutting bars in chocolate and sponge from M & S (£8 for 22 slices) so our guests had a choice of cake.

Tables - We kept them simple and had a round mirror which I hired, a white lantern which my mum found for £1 and then frosted t-light holders on the edge of the mirror and a few white shells from the beach on the mirror. I also made a booklet on wedding traditions for each table which went down well and as I did it myself I could personalise it and it cost nothing.

Wedding favoursFavours - Traditionally you give 5 sugar almonds to represent different things for your marriage but we decided to give 5 penny sweets from our childhood which I brought online and put them in favour boxes from eBay so they ended up costing 30p each. I then wrote about the tradition of favours and placed it in the bottom of the box. For place names we collected pebbles from the beach and wrote the guests names on them.

Transport - As the wedding was on a farm the farmer collected me in his tractor which he had cleaned and put straw bails on the back which was great fun, different and only £100 and he took us for a spin on the beach first which was fab.

Food - We had a local farm to do a hog roast and salads and then brought canapes from M&S which were filling and reasonable if you get the right ones. For pudding we brought a Gu torte from sainsburys for £3.99 (you can get 10 slices out of this) and put some ice cream and raspberries with it.

Entertainment
Children - We only had a few family there so I made them a party bag each for the speeches with a Lego set in and a model aeroplane to make and a few other goodies, this seemed to work!!

Adults - We had a game called nails which is Austrian and involved a log, nails and a hammer, oh and a shot glass!!! This was great fun as it is a favourite with our friends and lots of other people loved learning to play. It's also the price of a small log!!

Bridesmaids dresses - They choose their own dresses and shoes as I wanted them to have something they were comfortable in.
Ushers - Wore their own suits and we bought them a tie from Debenhams for £5 each which looked great.

My dress - I was very lucky to find the dress which I loved for less than a third of the price so it is worth keep looking around. My friend did my hair for me as I had it waved with some cream flowers in from Hennes.


BridesmaidsPlace Names


Paddling


The bouquetThe hogroast


The tractor



Comments for
DIY Cliff Top Wedding Devon - Beach Theme - Updated

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Sep 15, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		getting married
by: Anonymous

Hi
We actually got married the day before so we just had a religious blessing on the clifftop which was done by a family member who is a vicar. The site is not registered so you can not legally get married there or on the beach but you can do what we did, have a blessing and make that your official day, if we hadnt told anyone they wouldnt have known!
Sep 15, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		how?
by: Anonymous

hi, how did you go about getting married on the beach?
Aug 10, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		no problem
by: Loulou

Hi Sam

No problem, would love to answer any questions, email me on louk8g @ yahoo.co.uk
Aug 10, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		WOW!
by: Sam

Your wedding looked fantastic-exactly what we are looking for! Is there any chance I could ask you for some more details like what time of year it was and company names?
Jul 29, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Contact Details
by: Anonymous

hi

Yeah the marquee was the most expensive part of our wedding without doubt but I think if you shop around you can get cheamper ones.
My email address is louk8g @ yahoo.co.uk and I would be very happy to talk to you about all our planning and costs etc..
Jul 28, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Any advice?!
by: Anonymous

Thats exactly what we are hoping to do! I dont suppose I could contact you for some advice?! Your pics look lovely. We are on quite a tight budget and I'm struggling to work out if our plan is even possible, marquees plus extas seem to cost a fortune. I'm wondering if I'm dreaming! I seem to be going round in circles!
Jul 27, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Ceremony
by: Anonymous

Hi,

I am glad you liked the wedding, we had 2 parts to the wedding, we got married in the registry office at Totnes the day before with just our immediate family and then we had a religous blessing in the marquee.

We used Hatch Marquees for our marquee and they were able to provide a curtain which split the marquee in half so we had the ceremony on the dance floor facing the sea.
Jul 27, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Nice!
by: Anonymous

Hi there, your wedding sounds so lovely and is exactly the type of thing we are looking to do! We are quite near to Bigbury, I was wondering where you had the actually ceromony and if you had any contact details for it?

Thanks
Jul 27, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Thank you
by: Anonymous

Hi

Thank you for your comments, I have sent some photos to Nicola of the day
many thanks

Lou
Jul 26, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		wow
by: Anonymous

we have been looking for absolutely ages for something just like this. Do you have any photos?
Sounds amazing!!
Jul 20, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Lovely wedding!
by: Nicola

Your wedding sounds fabulous! Do you have any more pics to share? You can send them in by emailing: nicola @ cheap-wedding-success.co.uk

Nicola

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