Sparklers and Sophia Tolli Tulle for Travel Inspired Tunnels Beach Wedding

Today’s breathtaking Tunnels Beach wedding in Devon just adds even more fuel to my firm belief that October is just a fantastic month to get married. It’s hard to believe that the gorgeous Samantha and Richard tied the knot on October 2nd in the most glorious sunshine, in the UK and outside on the coast! What ever the weather had been though, Tunnels Beaches was always going to be the location for this globetrotting couple as it has a special connection for them. Their love of travel has been weaved throughout the day with gorgeous details and thought. The globe guest book is genius and the dessert table by Kate Burt Cakes is something else!  I just know you are going to love reading about it and looking at these stunning images.

Before I hand over to lovely Samantha to tell us more about the wedding and wedding planning, I just want to take a moment to gush about their photographer Albert Palmer. Albert Palmer Photography is based in the southwest and his photography is basically awesome. The way he captures light (the golden hour shots on the beach are incredible), the way in which he captures moments and frames the shots with beautiful composition, the images are just a bit epic. So enjoy and I’d really love to read your comments at the end of the post;

Richard and I met while working at the same summer camp (Camp Lindenmere in Pennsylvania) in 2012. We got engaged at the beach next to our wedding venue. When I came to England for the first time in 2012 (I am American and Richard is from England) I was searching online for things to do in South West England and came across Tunnels Beaches – I was in awe of the venue and jokingly said if we ever get married we are getting married here (and four years later, we actually did.)! Richard remembered this and arranged his proposal so that our engagement would start and end in the same place.

We both love to travel (we’ve been to 20 countries and 12 states together) and as we’re from different countries, a travel theme was almost inevitable. Other than that, I wanted everything to compliment the natural beauty of the venue – so we went with a blush/nudes palette with gray and navy suits for the men.

We love our venue Tunnels Beaches, its not far from Bristol where we live and is incredibly beautiful. It also promotes a relaxed, fun wedding – exactly the type of day we knew we wanted!

Sam found her perfect dress by designer Sophia Tolli in So Gorgeous Bridal Boutique, along with a flowing Mon Cheri Veil from Mia Grace (USA). She completed the look with pretty shoes from Toms;

With the venue came the idea for my dress. As we were by the sea, I wanted something that moved and flowed. I surprised myself by liking a ball gown style (I mean when else can you wear a giant dress?!) but still did not want something too princess-y. The dress I chose had layers of organza tiers that almost looked like waves themselves and while it was certainly a big dress, it still felt understated and beach appropriate.

My reception dress was from Needle & Thread. (I also wore this to the second reception we had in St. Louis, where I am from).

Samantha chose Louise Alway to style her hair and make up artist Eve Ashby to complete her natural but elegantly glamourous look.

Samantha walked down the aisle at the beach side ceremony with her dad to ‘Home’ by Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros which is a String Quartet version of the track. For their first dance the couple chose ‘Cant Take My Eyes Off You’ by Frankie Valli and The 4 Seasons;

We loved that this song picked up about a minute in – all of our friends and family joined us on the dance floor and it set up the rest of the night perfectly.

Samantha and Richard chose the talent that is Albert Palmer as their photographer for the day;

The venue and Albert were the first two things we booked. I had come across Albert’s website while looking online and immediately knew he was the right photographer for our wedding day. His photos truly tell the story of a wedding day and are the perfect combination of natural/”in the moment” and beautiful.

We hired Gemma Davies of Sincerely Yours as our on the day coordinator. So while we did all the planning ourselves, she was there on the day to make sure things ran smoothly. (I have no website for her as I believe ours was the last wedding Gemma did as she decided on a different career path.)

All three rings are from Tiffany & Co. When we started discussing getting engaged, we went there to try on rings for fun. I fell in love with the very first ring I ever tried on, and that is the ring Richard went back to buy. My wedding ring narrows in the middle to fit next to the engagement ring and Richard’s is a flat, platinum band.

The bridesmaids each chose their own dress add shoes with beautiful peach pastel shades. The flower girls dresses were from Brides by Victoria in Salisbury and the page boys wore adorable 3 piece linen blend waistcoat outfits from Marks and Spencer.
Richard wore a smart suit by Hugo Boss with a Tag Heuer watch, Clarks shoes, and superhero cufflinks. The best man and groomsmen, each chose their own grey suit and the couple gave them each a set of superhero cufflinks.

The couple chose florist Pumpkin and Pye;

As the bridesmaids and groomsmen had different colored dresses/suits, we used all gypsophilia for their boutonnieres and bouquets to tie everything together. My bouquet was made using shades from the bridesmaids dresses, and the flower girl bouquet, centerpieces, and grooms and best mans boutonnieres were made using flowers from my bouquet. Natasha also provided a box of mixed flower heads for Kate to use to decorate the cake.

I totally adore the cakes! The dessert table looks amazing and is the creation of the talented Kate Burt Cakes;

Sitting down with Kate was an incredible experience. As we spoke about our ideas, she drew out a plan for an incredible dessert table. We had three main cakes, a handful of smaller cakes, and meringues that all fit in with the blush/nudes palette and our travel theme – she actually water colored a world map on one of the tiers and included a line connecting the US and UK.

The cakes also tasted incredible! We had an orange blossom cake with elderflower buttercream and a carrot cake with lemon buttercream.

I loved the idea of a new scent for the day so I layered Jo Malone body cream in Orange Blossom with their Peony and Blush Suede Cologne. The combination was fruity, floral, and feminine, perfect for a wedding on the coast! 

All of the couples beautiful invitations were from the Wedding Paper Divas, with a complimentary World Map Table Plan from The Wedding of My Dreams on Not On The High Street.  Each table was labeled as a country and marked by a Polaroid style photos which they printed fromPhotobox. The programmes were from Simple and Stunning that the couple sourced on Etsy. For their guest Sam and Rich created an absolutely epic wedding website using Square Space.

All the catering is provided in house at the Tunnels, the BBQ was incredible! They also provided all the lighting and sound in house. We used spotify for our ceremony music, with a family friend providing music for the afternoon. In the evening we booked The Zoots for the entertainment.

We didn’t need wedding transport on the day as we stayed in the Bath House, which you can rent through Tunnels Beaches and is just outside of the venue.  

We went to Athens and Santorini, Greece for our honeymoon. We only had a week available for a honeymoon so we knew we wanted to go somewhere fairly close.

It is hard to pick only one favourite moment. Getting ready with everyone made the morning really special for both of us, getting out onto the beach in the sunshine and taking photos, how much everyone got into dancing all night, and running through the tunnel with sparklers.

We are both so happy with how it went, we wouldn’t change anything. My advice to other couples would be to be as present in each moment as you can on the day. Everyone says it goes by fast and it really, truly does. Relax and enjoy your day!

I cannot say how much I absolutely love Samantha and Richard’s wedding day, thank you so much to the happy couple for sharing it with us today. A really big thank you to Albert Palmer Photography too for these utterly amazing photographs, such an incredible talent.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about their day as I much as I have and please do leave a comment below. Are any of you October wedding day couples or maybe getting married by the sea?