Stephanie and Jason’s wedding
sailing off into the sunset
There are many themes people opt for when planning a wedding if they go for something more than just a colour scheme. They bring all sorts of exciting personal elements to their special day- favourite characters from pop culture, circus performers, ideas from films and many more but if there’s one wedding trend that’s making waves, it’s the nautical wedding theme.
Stephanie and Jason planned to go overboard with this fun and niche theme and came to us with the request for something unusual to really wow their guests as they sailed off into the sunset.
Stage One: The Brief
Stephanie and Jason had a beautiful wedding planned, and aimed to take the saying “tying the knot” literally.
They envisioned a traditional church ceremony followed by a nautical themed reception at a yacht club venue. They told us that they wanted us to create “a memorable and special evening where unexpected surprises would wow their guests from start to finish”. With such an interesting concept we were raring to go and threw ourselves into the project hook, line and sinker.
Stage Two: The Venue & Decor
The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club in Burnham on Crouch was the perfect location for this wedding. This stunning Grade II listed building boasts a long jetty, stunning sunsets across the harbour and a lovely open air drinks terrace.
Stage Three: Arriving In Style
After a lovely ceremony in the 12th century Saint Stephen’s Church, guests made their way over to the yacht club. The first surprise as they enjoyed a glass of bubbly on the venue’s sun deck was to watch the Bride and Groom arrive by boat. They then all made their way down for group photos on the long wooden jetty.
Stage Four: Ice Cream Van
What better way to incorporate Stephanie’s Cornish coast upbringing than having an ice cream van arrive to serve traditional seaside ice cream for everyone.
As the saying goes; “I scream, You scream, We all scream for ice cream” – and it certainly went down a treat with guests helping themselves to a refreshing 99 Flake on the sunny afternoon. After the photos were taken guests headed upstairs and found their seat at the tables.
Stage Five: Interactive Entertainment
Originally Stephanie and Jason had requested a fire show to be performed on the jetty just as the sun began to set, and although it would have looked amazing, unfortunately the venue had a ‘no fire’ policy due to low ceilings and wooden structure jetty. Instead they decided on a balloon modeller and magician between food courses and after the speeches it was time for another big surprise.
Stephanie and Jason had specified that they wanted something really unusual for their wedding, so they booked a sword swallower who opened up the room and ushered the guests towards the dance floor where he took to the stage performing death defying feats. Guests applauded as a brave volunteer removed the final sword from the performer’s throat and with that it was time to cut the cake and for the first dance.
“We had a lovely sword swallower at our wedding supplied by Oddle. He was fantastic!! Super professional and really friendly. You can see from my guests reactions in this photo they loved it!“
– STEPHANIE IONTTON
Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Wedding, Bride
If this wedding story has inspired you to throw caution to the wind and take the plunge with a nautical themed wedding you can enquire about our Balloon Modellers, Table Magicians or our Sword Swallowers over on our Contact page.
Alternatively, if you have your own unique ideas in mind and would like to discuss a custom package created just for you and your theme – drop us a message.