The terms creative and personal don’t even begin to describe the qualities of the Texas beach wedding of couple Cashen and Justin! They focused on including meaningful gestures in everything from their location to their ceremony rituals to their driftwood and wooden flower decor, and the amazing results are plain to see in these images by Joseph West Photography. Enjoy!

The Couple: Cashen and Justin

The Wedding: 10.8.11 – Cinnamon Shore Port Aransas, Texas

What were the top three priorities for you in planning your wedding? We wanted to get married on a beach in Texas, with memorable details with special meaning, and the perfect photographer to capture the day.

What wedding traditions or cultural traditions did you incorporated into your wedding and what did they mean to you? Our wedding was more about incorporating meaningful and purposeful aspects, rather than following traditions. Instead of real flowers, we opted for natural elements. My parents live on Lake Travis in Austin and all the centerpieces were pieces of driftwood found at the lake. My Mom also used wood flowers and shells she had collected through-out her life as decorations on the centerpieces. One piece included buttons from my grandmother who passed away long before I was born. Another one at the head table was a 7 long piece that was decorated with shells collected from our trip to Costa Rica where Justin had proposed to me! The Bible held by Pastor Bendett was the one Justins father used when he married people years ago. He passed away when Justin was only 12, so it was a very special piece of the ceremony.

For our unity sand ceremony we used sand collected over the years from various beaches we visited while we were dating/engaged. We made it even more special by writing each other a love scroll to be read at a future time. I could go on and on. Our main focus was making sure we included elements that were special to us, and not just using a decoration or doing something because it was the popular thing to do.

What was your biggest wedding planning success? The decorations were certainly a success. But if we had to say only one thing, it wasnt something we planned. A rainbow appeared at the end of the ceremony, right as we were walking up the aisle. The winds were blowing, the waves were crashing and rolling up on our guests. We didnt even put up the aisle markers we made because of the weather. Yet the rainbow made it all perfect and really brought home what the day was all about… the two of us and our new life together!

What was the most important thing that you learned through the wedding planning process and what would you tell other brides-to-be? My Mom and I really put a lot of pressure on ourselves when we decided to not only plan and orchestrate everything, but also take on many do-it-yourself projects. In hindsight, I would have absolutely had a day-of or weekend-of wedding coordinator to help us bring our vision to life. We let our creativity run wild and didnt keep in mind the KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid!) which made for a pretty hectic wedding day, especially for my Mom and her many helpful friends! But it all worked out in the end!

The Wedding Team:

Photographer: Joseph West Photography
Ceremony & Reception Venue: Cinnamon Shore
Rehearsal Dinner: Fins Grill and Icehouse
Officiant: Pastor David Bendett
Invitation Designer: Paper Doll Press
Florist: Mother of the bride
Wedding Cake: Cake – Bundy’s, Cake toppers – Republic of Cute on Etsy.com
Wedding Dress: Wtoo-Watters
Groom and Groomsmen Apparel: Pants – Perry Ellis
Hair and Make-up: Megan Martinez
DJ: Stephen Trevino
Transportation: Cars and Carts
Favors: Donation bracelets for Alzheimers and ALS
Rentals: B&T Rents
Rings: Israel Diamonds

Cashen and Justin, we loved hearing about your very special and heartfelt wedding! Best wishes to you!

Readers, get inspired by more personal wedding stories in our Real Weddings library!