A 1950s Inspired Seaside Wedding at the Midland Hotel in Morecambe (featuring Eric Morecambe)

(David Mitchell was a wed­ding guest on a blog fea­ture last year. The Stran­glers’ singer wasn’t in any pho­tos, and Kirstie All­sopp just wrote a book my cal­lig­ra­phy was in. So yeah, I’m stretch­ing the truth here! Oh — did I men­tion Eric More­cambe appears here in statue form? Hehe.)

To be hon­est I’m not into celeb cul­ture — I don’t read mag­a­zines very often and I’m rarely aware of any­thing Kim Kar­dashian does. I don’t think I’m miss­ing any­thing! The glam­orous cou­ples I’d rather read about are the brides and grooms who appear on the Eng­lish Wed­ding Blog — like today’s star cou­ple Char­lotte and Phil. They were mar­ried at Morecambe’s fab­u­lous Mid­land Hotel, an inter­na­tion­ally renowned art deco wed­ding venue. Their sea­side wed­ding has oodles of per­son­al­ity and style — you’re going to love it!

With thanks to Jonathan Bean Pho­tog­ra­phy for the images, and to Phil and Char­lotte for the fan­tas­tic wed­ding report. Hugs to you all! Claire x

Char­lotte and Phil — a gor­geous 1950s inspired sea­side wed­ding in Morecambe

Wed­ding venue:

The Mid­land Hotel More­cambe.

Wed­ding photographer:

The fan­tas­tic Jonathan Bean at Bean­photo.

How would you describe your wed­ding style?

We took a lot of inspi­ra­tion for our wed­ding from the venue and the beau­ti­ful loca­tion. We had a loose British sea­side theme mixed with some 1950’s retro ele­ments. We wanted a relaxed day filled with fun and laughter.

Invi­ta­tions and recep­tion stationery:

Our invi­ta­tions were lov­ingly designed by one of our brides­maids and Phil’s sis­ter Claire, who is very artis­tic and her help through­out plan­ning was invalu­able. They incor­po­rated the red and blue that were used through­out the wed­ding and Art Deco writ­ing used to reflect the style of the hotel.

What did you both wear?

Char­lotte wore a beau­ti­ful fish­tail Justin Alexan­der dress (8596) from But­ter­fly Bridal in Lan­caster. Her shoes were “Lady Dragon Heart” by Vivi­enne West­wood + Melissa Shoes with a metal­lic red heart to match the bridesmaid’s dresses. Acces­sories — Ear­rings were 1930’s style pearl drop ear­rings from Vin­tagestyler. Side tiara from Ivory and Co and bracelet was a last minute buy from local shop Arte­ria.

Phil wore a silk gray suit and ivory cra­vat from Cameron Ross hired from But­ter­fly Bridal and black brogues from Top­man.

A lit­tle about the wed­ding ceremony:

We had our civil cer­e­mony at The Mid­land hotel. The guests arrived to “Save Room” by John Leg­end and “Bride Of Theme” by Eels. Char­lotte walked down the aisle to “I love NYE” by Badly Drawn Boy and we signed the reg­is­trar to “I Love Every Lit­tle Thing About You” by Ste­vie Won­der and an instru­men­tal of “Win­ter Winds” by Mum­ford and Sons. We were both so pleased with the Reg­is­trar, he made the cer­e­mony feel very spe­cial and per­sonal and was great at calm­ing our nerves! We walked out as Hus­band and Wife to “Made Up Lovesong” by the Guillemots.

Which read­ings did you choose?

We decided on one wed­ding read­ing — “A Lovely Love Story” by Edward Monk­ton about two dinosaurs that fall in love despite their dif­fer­ences, which was read beau­ti­fully by one of our Ush­ers, Adam.

Tell us a lit­tle about your wed­ding venue styling and details:

The Mid­land Hotel is a beau­ti­ful 1930’s Art Deco hotel that has recently been restored back to it’s for­mer glory but with a con­tem­po­rary edge. The venue is so fan­tas­tic and did not need much styling, we decided that too many dec­o­ra­tions could detract from the amaz­ing floor to ceil­ing win­dows and the truly stun­ning views across the bay to The Lake District.

Char­lotte and her Brides­maid Claire made most of the dec­o­ra­tions, they made bunting to match the red and blue used through­out the wedding.

We hung hon­ey­comb balls from the ceiling.

The table dec­o­ra­tions were — stripy sweet bags filled with sea­side rock pieces that had var­i­ous say­ings such as ‘just mar­ried’, ‘all you need is love’ and ‘Mr and Mrs’, red heart bub­ble tubes, retro for­tune tellers and jam jars cov­ered in lace used as can­dle holder for the evening reception.

The chil­dren had activ­ity packs to keep them enter­tained dur­ing the wed­ding breakfast.

Wed­ding music and entertainment:

We decided on a DJ and asked all our guests for two song choices — their favorite song and a guilty plea­sure guar­an­teed to get them up danc­ing. There was some very unex­pected and funny guilty plea­sures! We had a sea­side cut-out board made for us by Charlotte’s work col­leagues and plenty of photo-props.

Mem­o­rable wed­ding day moments:

The whole day was fan­tas­tic and it is very hard to pick a few mem­o­rable moments, but…

• The cer­e­mony is prob­a­bly the part of the day that got the least atten­tion dur­ing the plan­ning but it was the most special.
• The real­i­sa­tion that we are now married!
• The amaz­ing food at The Mid­land Hotel.
• Our dog Buster com­ing for some pho­tos in his bow tie.
• Hav­ing pic­tures taken on the beach as the sun was set­ting on a per­fect day.
• The ran­dom­ness of the songs and danc­ing at the evening reception.

Phil’s favorite moments:

• See­ing Char­lotte com­ing down the aisle
• The speeches were very heart­felt and laugh-out-loud funny
• The last two songs of the evening, “One Day Like This” by Elbow, being cir­cled by all our friends and fam­ily and then leav­ing to “Bring me Sun­shine” by More­cambe & Wise.

Charlotte’s favorite moments:

• Wak­ing up in the morn­ing to a cup of tea and Phil’s sis­ter Claire singing “You’re Get­ting Mar­ried in the Morning”.
• Walk­ing down the amaz­ing stair­case at the Mid­land hotel with my Dad.
• Walk­ing down the aisle and see­ing all our fam­ily and friends, then look­ing up and see­ing Phil.
• Hav­ing pic­tures taken at the Eric More­cambe statue.

Wed­ding day advice:

Enjoy every minute of it because it really does go so fast! Don’t stress if things don’t go exactly to plan, no one will realise! Do your own thing, make it what you both want and don’t be swayed by anyone.

Rec­om­mended wed­ding suppliers:

• Pho­tog­ra­pher — Jonathan Bean Pho­tog­ra­phy (www.beanphoto.co.uk)
• Dress and Suits — But­ter­fly Bridal (www.butterfly-bridal.co.uk)
• Cup­cakes — Madam Choco­lat (www.favoursbymadamchocolat.co.uk)
• Venue — Mid­land Hotel (www.englishlakes.co.uk/hotels/lancashire-hotels/the-midland-hotel-morecambe)