Lee and Lowri were the lucky couple who won the free wedding photography contest that I recently hosted with VeVi Photography. Their wedding was held at Ocean Kave in Devon, which proved to be the perfect spot for their family-centric, colourful chaos wedding!
Lowri told me all about the amazing day. “We are still floating, after the incredible day that was our happy ending. We have both gone through a lot of painful times to get to it which made it all the more special. I had gone through a very acrimonious divorce and moved to Devon, to heal by the sea, near where I grew up. Gradually colour and happiness began to return to my life and once I decided to dip my toe in the water of dating I met Lee!”
“As soon as we got engaged we knew we wanted this to be a celebration of all the amazing close friends and family who had supported us both”, she continued. “We also knew we wanted nothing to be impersonal or super traditional. We both wanted to get married by the sea but finding a venue that would let us have our wedding our way seemed impossible. Then I stumbled across Ocean Kave and we booked it the day we saw it even though at this point the reception room wasn’t even built! We loved it because they said we could really personalise the space. They suggested we got married in the kave (yes it’s an actual cave) at twilight, having kicked off the party at 2pm, which sounded great to us. We loved that we got to enjoy the fun we had planned first, and it removed formality.”
Lowri’s amazing red dress was made for her by The Couture Company in Birmingham. “I knew my dress had to be red and I knew the basic shape I wanted, but finding a quirky alternative dress that was still beautiful, enhancing and not too ‘out there’ was not as easy as I assumed it would be”, she explained. “Then I found The Couture Company. I tried to find someone similar more locally but once I’d seen Jo’s dresses no-one else could compare! In the end it was so worth it to me to travel to Birmingham for my fittings. I booked an appointment and all I can say is the whole process was a dream. Jo got what I wanted from the start and was flexible enough to alter the personalisation halfway through when I changed my mind. Jo really made me look just as I imagined I would on my wedding day. She was amazing!”
This was a big wedding, with 70 of the guests being children, so the couple wanted to make sure they had plenty to entertain everyone. “I came across The Prop Factory who were able to bring our dreams into reality! We had unlimited ice cream and popcorn and candy floss stand, as well as a range of vintage games. ”
“We had a lot of small details running through the day too, that many people might not have been aware of, but they were special to us. The words of ‘our song’ were printed on the side of Lee’s buttonhole, our cheese wedding cake sat on welsh slate that we picked up in Snowdonia (I’m Welsh) and was decorated in maple leaves and cherry blossoms because I grew up in Canada and Lee has cherry blossoms on his tattoo. We also had a temporary tattoo booth, complete with Lee & Lowri tattoos! One of the highlights was putting one on my father-in-law who hates tattoos! We also tried to put things to represent what our kids love in the details too. We had Lego mini figures as favours, their favourite sweets on the DIY sweet buffet and even sweet tree centrepieces!”
“One of my favourite parts of the day was the handfasting we did after our legal ceremony, performed by my maid of (dis)honour, Sarah. We used a piece of Welsh Harris tartan. It was honestly the most amazingly special moment.”
“I can only say it was a sublime day from start to finish, shared with all the people who have made our lives special”, the bride concluded. “They were the real inspiration for our wedding, as they have all got us through the bad times while enjoying the good.”
