Some days when a wedding lands in your inbox, you get a tingle of excitement and just can’t wait to get it live so that you guys can swoon along with us – Hove based Sam and Tom’s quirky big day is definitely one of those weddings, it evokes ideas, inspiration and best of all – our day our way, attitude. We love.
Tying the knot at the Duke of York’s Picturehouse, whilst showing a video they’d made together, this creative couple and their lucky guests then partied the November night away at Brighton’s Proud Cabaret.
Want to see more? We don’t blame you. Here’s beautiful bride Sam to tell us all:
Tom proposed in our favourite city, Paris, on the Pont Des Arts Bridge, at midnight on my 29th birthday with the Eiffel Tower sparkling in the background. Cheesy for some, absolutely perfect for me!
We chose to get married in Sussex because it’s where we met, fell in love and have set up our home.
It was very important to us to let our wedding day represent the type of people we are and what we like doing so the venue choice was easy: we simply chose the places we liked going the most! The rest was done via the internet from sites such as Love Sussex Weddings. I found other people’s weddings really helpful and certainly borrowed ideas from them.
Hen and Stag Do Debauchery
I went to Berlin for my hen do, I had always wanted to go and thought that a weekend away with a small group of close friends would be awesome and it was. If you want history by day and debauchery by night, Berlin is the place for you.
The Stag’s went to Marseille, where a group of eight kayaked and camped along the Huveaune River enroute to a large industrial electronica festival.
Our theme was definitely ‘a little bit of us’, we wanted to mix all the stuff we like into one day. We really didn’t care if things didn’t go together, it was just meant to be a reflection of the everyday with just a hint of something special.
On Film
We shot a vast amount of footage throughout the year leading up to the wedding, edited it into a film and played it after the ceremony on the big screen whilst everyone ate popcorn. Besides the vows, it was my favourite part of the day as we managed to capture nearly everyone at the wedding on film and no one knew about it beforehand.
I think most of our wedding day was non-traditional!
We got married at the pictures, didn’t have a top table and had scantily clad men and women serve the wedding breakfast.
I suppose the biggest non-traditional aspect was the fact that we didn’t tell anyone where we were getting married. The wedding party and most guests stayed at the Hilton on the seafront the night before (and night of) the wedding. We asked them to gather at the hotel at 1pm where we whisked them away on an old bus to the venues. We did, however keep a few things semi traditional like our first dance (outro by M83) and cutting the cake.
DIY Bride
We made video invites and sent them out via email. We love making films and it cost no money, it just took us a bit of time to edit, but that was fun and people’s reactions were great. We also did our own seating plans, and the general bits for the tables (in fact my Grandma came down from Suffolk a few days early and helped out which was great). I also made the button holes from feathers, leaves and a Christmas decoration, and my brooch bouquet I made by following various videos on YouTube!
My tips for other Sussex brides-to-be are…
Don’t mention you’re buying or hiring for a wedding, people will try to charge you more! Also don’t worry when you accidently upset someone by not inviting them or their friend/relative – you can’t invite everyone and statistics dictate that someone is bound to get annoyed. 
My favourite thing about wedding planning was…
Knowing that we knew at least two people who were going to have the best day of their lives!
My least favourite part of wedding planning was…
Pretty much everything else. We love organising and planning events but unfortunately the wedding became all-encompassing and sometimes for the wrong reasons. We certainly didn’t want it to be like that. The outcome was as perfect as we could imagine and worth the effort but there were times we wished we hadn’t put down the deposit and could have run away to the rainforest and got married by a witch doctor! 
If we could do it all again we would…?
We would do it exactly the same to be honest! If we had all the money in the world then perhaps we could have paid for a few extra touches but in general we wanted our wedding to reflect the lives we lead. For us, getting married somewhere we’d never been or that we had no connection to just wasn’t an option.
Team wedding:
Photography: Teri Vincent Photography | Ceremony: Duke of York’s Picturehouse | Reception: Proud Cabaret
Dress: White Leaf Boutique | Accessories: Etsy & White Leaf Boutique | Groom: Victor Valentine
Flowers: The Flower Stand | Entertainment: The Swing Ninjas & Swinging in Heels
Toastmaster: Toastmaster 1066 | Transport: The Big Lemon Bus Company
See – we told you it was exciting, didn’t we! We’re just so glad to be able to share this stunner of a wedding with you – a big thanks to Teri Vincent for sending these fab pics over to us and to Sam for sharing her sensational autumn-inspired wedding with us. We loved it all!
The quirky cinema ceremony, complimented by a personal video encompassing the entire wedding party and followed by a party at Proud, suited this creative couple down to the ground. You get the feeling that the hard work, months of planning and putting plans into action was all well worth it, looking at the beams on their (and their guests) faces. We’re so glad you didn’t elope to the rainforest and get married by a witch doctor, and looking at this wonderful wedding, we’re pretty sure you are too… although it would have made an awesome story too!
