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MARRAM
Black and white, a veil caught by the wind

Marguerite & Jo

It rained sideways from eleven until four

There had been a plan for that since March. They found out about it the following week.

6 min read

Where
Crag Path, Aldeburgh
Venue
The Net Shed and Crag Path
When
4 October 2025
Guests
90
Style
Coastal, Modern

They wanted to get married on the shingle, in October, on the most exposed stretch of the Suffolk coast. We said yes and then went away and built two weddings.

Two weddings, one budget

The outdoor version was the ceremony on the shingle at two, drinks on the sea wall, dinner in the Net Shed.

The indoor version was the ceremony in the Net Shed itself, at the far end, with the doors open to the weather. Same room, same flowers, same food, different ninety minutes.

The cost of holding both was about eleven hundred pounds — the extra chairs, an extra hour of two staff, and a marquee sidewall we didn’t use.

The bow of a wooden boat on flat water, hills beyond

The call

We made it at eight in the morning. The forecast had been converging for three days and by Friday night there was no version of it that involved standing on shingle.

Nobody was told there had been a change, because nobody outside the suppliers had been told there was a decision to make. The invitations said the Net Shed. They always had.

Nobody was told there had been a change. The invitations said the Net Shed. They always had.

What the weather gave them

The doors stayed open through the ceremony with the rain going past horizontally about four feet beyond them. It was the loudest, strangest, best ceremony we have run.

By six it had cleared entirely and about thirty people walked down to the water in dinner jackets and bare feet. That is not something you can plan.

A couple on a shingle beach, veil taken by the wind, flat grey sea behind

The hard part

Designing something you hope not to use

The temptation with a wet-weather plan is to make it a downgrade — the same wedding, indoors, slightly sad. We built the indoor version first and treated the beach as the upgrade, which inverted the whole problem. The Net Shed ceremony was designed properly: the far wall lit, ninety chairs angled toward the open doors, flowers placed for that sightline. When we made the call at eight in the morning, we weren’t falling back on anything.

Design decisions

  • Indoor version designed first; the shingle treated as the upgrade
  • Doors open throughout, whatever the weather
  • Ninety chairs angled to the open doors, not to the wall
  • Sea-worn timber, salt-bleached linen, nothing bright
  • £1,100 to hold both versions to the morning of

The running order

  1. Weather call — Net Shed confirmed
  2. Suppliers briefed on version B
  3. Guests arrive, hot drinks on arrival
  4. Ceremony, doors open
  5. Drinks, inside
  6. Dinner
  7. Speeches
  8. Weather cleared; about thirty people to the water
  9. Band
  10. Carriages

The day

The bow of a wooden boat on flat water, hills beyond
A couple on a shingle beach, veil taken by the wind, flat grey sea behind
The bow of a wooden boat on flat water
Glasses raised across a table, warm light behind them
A valley at dusk with the light nearly gone
Clear shallow water meeting white sand at the end of the day
Someone holding a bouquet in warm backlight
A wedding party outside in confetti, everyone mid-laugh

Credits

Planning and design
Marram
Venue
The Net Shed, Aldeburgh
Photography
Wren & Fold
Flowers
Saltmarsh Botanics
Catering
Bowline Kitchen
Band
The Fen Six

Sample content. Supplier names are invented for demonstration.

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