WWW readers Claire and Paul threw out the rule book and focused on having a ruddy good time at their wedding in September.

They wanted a nautical colourful pirate wedding. They had playful touches and details, such as the bucket and spade sweetie table and temporary tattoo favours. They also had piñatas instead of a first dance and a party atmosphere in the evening.

Claire looked so gorgeous in her Romantica tea length dress and yellow shoes with tattoo style shoe clips. Her maids donned blue Coast dresses and Paul found his blue suit in Paul Smith. Amazing.

Thanks so much to Marianne Chua for sharing her fantastic images with us today.

Paul proposed on Christmas Day 2008. We were sat on the living room floor in our PJs. He presented me with a large, heavy box. I tore off the paper- two bottles of champagne! I was so chuffed with the booze (BOOZE! A recurring theme in our relationship) that I didn't even notice the ring box nestled between them. I fished it out and opened it to find a solitaire ring. I said "That looks like an engagement ring". "Yep" he replied. There was an awkward silence. "Well?" he said. I replied "Do it properly then!", so he got the ring out, popped the question and that was it. The champers was duly quaffed by midday and we had to eat cheese all day because I was too drunk to cook Christmas dinner. Well, I burnt a duck.

We opted for a civil ceremony as we didn't want to be making super-cringey declarations of love; we wanted to get the legals over with nice and swiftly so we could get on with the party and the rest of our lives together! Our main priorities were music, decent food and a solid amount of free booze. The whole nautical theme was born from a combination of our basic colour scheme (very scientifically picked by each selecting our favourite colour) and the fact that we met in Portsmouth, and we've both lived near the sea our whole lives and have Navy connections. Plus, I like pirates. They didn't factor quite as much in the final plan as I would have liked, thanks to much veto-ing on Paul's part, but the whole nautical thing was a good way of focusing our decision making; something we're both hopeless at to be honest. If we liked it, but it didn't fit with the theme; out it went! I became a bit of a theme-Nazi towards the end, but it did really help to focus and narrow down ideas and- more critically- expense! I would recommend it to other brides to be who find it hard to make decisions or who are on a limited budget. It's amazing what creative ideas you can come up with on a budget, when you have a 'brief' in mind.

Budget... Our budget was approximately £7000. I think we came in a bit under.

Sarah at Rosie's was great. She put up with endless email queries and the occasional bursts of paranoia from me, but she stayed cool and professional throughout. They did a fantastic job and were very tolerant of our (too loud) band. We were originally going to have a BBQ Brochette buffet, but we found we had a little more money in the budget than planned, so ended up having a 3 course sit down meal. This worked out better as- because the reception venue was so small- it may have been a bit tight with people going up and down to get food! We had baked camembert in filo pastry to start, free-range chicken breast in parma ham with mushroom risotto for the main course, and pecan pie and ice cream for dessert. In the evening we had hot canapés, which were EPIC. At one point I was on the dance floor by myself, wondering where everyone had gone. They were lurking in the kitchen eating the canapés as they literally came off the pass! We were worried we'd ordered too much food for the evening (canapés for 75, with 60 guests, 50 of whom had already eaten)...we didn't need to worry! Virtually the whole lot got snaffled and any that weren't eaten got taken home in doggy bags / boxes, although I did regret taking a container of chorizo things back to the hotel the next morning, when I woke up with a hangover... We also had a tonne of free wine on the tables. I wanted to make sure that everyone was suitably fed and watered as we are all big eaters and drinkers.

Finding the Dress... From the off, I was DREADING wedding dress shopping. I am such a screaming tomboy and I hate clothes shopping at the best of times. I had visions in my head of a lovely, vintage, plain Grecian style gown. I worked up the courage to make my first appointment and took the plunge with my friend, Rachel. It quickly became apparent that the sleek, Grecian thing wasn't going to do it for me. I was initially freaked out because now I had NO idea what kind of dress I wanted but- actually- this realisation was quite liberating because I put my faith in the shop staff to find me something which would suit me better. It was the best decision I made. I didn't try on a huge number of dresses to be honest. Due to my aforementioned loathing, I wanted to keep the dress shopping to a minimum. I visited three shops in total and tried on about 24 dresses in total. Getting in and out of wedding dresses is quite physically demanding. It should be an Olympic sport!

I bought my dress from Anya Bridal Couture in Droxford. The whole experience was a revelation. The shop itself is beautiful, set in a converted barn in the middle of the countryside. The ladies there were incredible, so professional and knowledgeable and the dresses were all beautiful. Because it looks very 'posh' from the outside, I was worried that the dresses would be out of my price-range, but they have something there for every budget. My dress was £750. From start to finish it was a thoroughly lovely experience and they used an in-house seamstress so even that part of the process was stress-free! My dress was from the Romantica range; the rather exotically monikered 'Bali' (ironic considering I thought I would be wearing it on a drizzly shingle beach)... It was a tea length dress, although they are becoming more and more popular these days and far less unusual or unique. I swore from the start that I didn't want a tea-length dress, or lace, or sparkles. I ended up with the sparkliest, laciest tea-length dress in the shop. You never can tell! If there's one thing I hate more than dress shopping, it's shoe shopping (*hands back membership of womanhood*) Plus my selection was limited somewhat by having size 9 feet. I was quite lazy on this front and ordered my shoes from Anya Bridal too; they were Pink by Paradox 'Sherbert', but I knew from the start that I wanted them to be bright yellow...when the lady from Anya Bridal called to say they'd come in, she said "they are...VERY bright!". I loved them. Shame they were ruined by my traipsing all over the shingle and running into the sea. Hint to other brides: spray your coloured shoes with waterproof sealant!

I had some fantastic tattoo-style shoe clips from Janine Basil which matched our nautical theme. It was a great way of stamping my personality on my wedding outfit; I wanted something non- traditional. My hairpiece was a gift from my friend- I tried it on with the dress in the shop and she bought it for me without me knowing, and presented me with it at the till.

The Readings + Music... We wanted a very simple, straightforward ceremony. Neither of us are great romantics, so we didn't want any slushy declarations or flowery guff. This is predominantly why we chose Portsmouth Registry Office. It's a lovely setting and several other members of my family have been married here, so it holds good memories, but the short and informal ceremony style suited our purpose. We didn't have any readings.

We walked down the aisle to "Life's a Happy Song" from the Muppets movie. We agonised for MONTHS over a tune to pick as we're both quite into our music; we were in the pub one day, after a couple of pints, I suggested this and it was sorted! The lyrics are perfect and it's childish and silly, like us.

My brother's band played at the reception. They had formed just 6 months earlier with the sole purpose of playing at our wedding reception, after we were let down by our original band. They did an outstanding job. We were really keen on having a live band as we both enjoy going to gigs and a live band really adds something special to the atmosphere at a wedding. We created our own Spotify playlist for between the band's sets and for later in the evening. We didn't stop dancing all night. Everyone we've spoken to since said that they'd never seen a bride dance so much at a wedding. I literally couldn't stop! I was so exhausted and sweaty by the end of the night, but I'd danced my socks off and had an incredible time.

They also wore accessories from Janine Basil; swallow hairclips to match the nautical / tattoo theme with the accessories. I also bought tiny anchor earrings from Punky Pins for them to wear...until I realised that my youngest sister doesn't actually have pierced ears! Whoops. They also had THE most amazing shoes from Next- high platforms in black and white stripes with floral shoes- they didn't really match the colour scheme or theme, but we all loved them so thought "Why the heck not?!".

The Cake... We wanted our wedding cake to be a real centrepiece and to really reflect our theme. It was three tiers; the bottom tier was airbrushed to look like the sea, and the top two tiers looked like the sand on the beach. It was decorated with shells, beach huts and a bucket and spade. They also made us a custom cake stand from some reclaimed rope from a boatyard. My brief for the cake maker was that I wanted it to look more like a kid's birthday cake than a wedding cake. We had a custom made cake topper; two crabs- one wearing a veil and one in a top hat! The bottom tier was traditional fruit cake. The middle tier was chocolate and Baileys, and the top tier was a lemon sponge. We almost completely forgot to cut the cake at all! My sister had to remind me half way through the reception. I think after that, people just helped themselves.

Our wedding favours were a little seaside themed goody bag containing rock and stick-on tattoos. I also included a pin from the Alzheimer's society on behalf of my nan who couldn't attend the wedding due to suffering from severe dementia. Paul was initially sceptical about the tattoos, but everyone put them on! They even formed little gangs with people who had the same tattoo. It was a great way to get people talking. I made all of the table decorations. The main centrepieces were Kilner jars and candles with sand, shells and seaweed to create a seaside scene. I made napkin rings which looked like life-preserver rings; I used curtain rings and red electrical tape! We also used some pebble candles from John Lewis and yellow vases from Ikea for our fake flowers. Even the yellow napkins were handmade by Paul's Aunty Susan!

I was keen to keep the décor in line with the theme. My favourite decorations were the beachball lanterns from the Hanging Lantern Company and the signal flag bunting from the Cotton Bunting Company.

The Honeymoon... We went to Cayo Levantado in the Dominican Republic. We flew out 4 days after the wedding. We always wanted to go almost immediately afterwards. It was a full on, relaxation fest. We'd always bemoaned beach holidays as boring...but after the excitement and *little* bit of stress of organising the wedding, we wanted a holiday where we didn't have to make ANY decisions about ANYTHING, apart from which cocktail to drink and where to sit on the beach. We went for two weeks, all-inclusive. Neither of us had every been on an all-inclusive holiday before, it was a revelation. I think we're converted! The food and drink was incredible. The beaches were beautiful and the weather was scorching. Definitely a once in a lifetime holiday.

My other big highlights were the band- completely unbeknownst to me- learning 'The Safety Dance' and playing it in the middle of their set. It's my favourite song and I had no idea they were going to play it! It was a kind of punked-up version too, which was awesome. I remember running around in big circles arm in arm with my dad, how I didn't fall over I'll never know. Paul also snuck THE ONLY SONG we've ever danced to together (Paul Anka's swing cover of Van Halen's "Jump") into the mix so we had kind of an impromptu second (first?) dance; people naturally formed a ring around us. My mum was SOBBING. I mean, like, hysterically, to the point where she struggled to breathe. It was proper funny!

Photographer | Marianne Chua

Wedding Dress | Anya Bridal Couture

Reception Venue | Rosie's Vineyard

Cake | Fondantly Yours

Flowers | Ultraviolet Flowers

Band (I've got to plug them, it's my bro!) | The Deadscene Revival

Wedding Rings | Alba Rose and Beaverbrooks

Accessories | Janine Basil

Car | Portsmouth Wedding Taxis

Hair / Makeup | Friends and family!

What a vibrant and fun day.

Thanks so much to Claire and Paul for sharing their brilliant wedding with us today XOXO Lou