Dave & Claire’s East Quay Venue Wedding Day

Where did you get married?

Both of us used to visit Whitstable a lot as children so it is a place close to our hearts – we found the East Quay venue online and went to visit. From the moment we stepped into the venue we knew it was where we wanted to get married. There is such a relaxed and rustic feel, and it’s right on the beach – our ceremony was upstairs and the sea was visible out of the window. The staff are what made the day for us, they are so friendly and helpful, and the whole day went so smoothly. We weren’t specifically looking for a ‘beach’ theme at all before finding the venue but we did have ice cream after the ceremony, and fish and chips as our wedding breakfast, so we definitely embraced it.

Which flowers did you choose?

We chose Jane at Graham Greener as our supplier – we met Jane at the East Quay wedding fair and she was so friendly and helpful. We didn’t really have a preference of what flowers we wanted, we just knew we wanted a relaxed and natural feel and lots of gypsophila. Jane took a very short brief from us and gave us exactly what we imagined! We had a pink/light purple colour scheme throughout the venue, and hessian table cloths on the tables with tea lights. We also had a flower arrangement hanging above our ceremony which looked amazing. Her team also provided the lighting both inside and outside the venue which looked great in the evening.

Which style was the brides dress?

I didn’t have much of an idea of what I wanted for my wedding dress, I tried on basically every style! Having very nearly chosen a big puffy princess dress, I ended up choosing a simple V-neck dress with sequins and beads at the top, and no trail. I wore sandals with it, as we spent a lot of time outside on the beach.

How did you have your hair/make up and why?

The morning of the wedding, I had my hair done at Robert Mitchell hairdressers in Whitstable – he blow dried my hair into curls and half-tied it back. I then put gypsophila in my hair which tied in with our flower scheme, and continued our relaxed theme! I don’t normally wear much make-up day to day, so I decided that I wouldn’t on my wedding day either, I wanted to look like myself in the pictures. My sister and maid of honour is really good at make-up so she took on the task of doing mine that day, which was a godsend in the morning as she helped keep me calm and knew exactly what I wanted. She was also very handy for top-ups throughout the day!

Which colour did the groomsmen/ bridesmaids wear?

I only had one bridesmaid, my sister – so I let her choose what colour she wanted to wear. She went for a light pink which went well with my dress and also tied in with the colour scheme of the flowers on the day. The grooms suit was a burgundy colour which thanks to the bridesmaids careful planning went very well with the wedding dress. The groomsmen wore charcoal suits with floral ties matching the groom.

How did you feel that the day went as a whole?

We couldn’t have asked for a better day, as the cliché goes it was definitely the best day of our lives. We would recommend the venue to anyone (a few of our guests commented that they would also love to get married there). The same goes for every single one of our suppliers. We will always be grateful for how hard our suppliers worked. on the day and leading up to it, to ensure we had an stress-free and amazing wedding. The best part of the day was having all of our closest friends and family in one place for a big celebration, we didn’t want it to end. We were also very lucky with the weather, it was a beautiful sunny day and we had an amazing sun set in the evening which cleared our dance floor for a while.