A Wedding at Wonwood Barton
Back in September I had the honour of capturing this beautiful wedding at Wonwood Barton. I was booked for 5 hours coverage for this wedding with the intention of capturing some morning prep photos, ceremony, group photos, just married portraits and then I’d leave before the meal is served (catered by Coast2Coast Events). When I first arrived the Groom was out buying pasties and the bride was just staring to have her make-up applied. Now, I’ve been in the business long enough to know that those first stages of having make-up done (foundation) don’t make for pretty photos. Likewise the first stages of having your wedding hair done aren’t very photogenic (back-combing). So I decided to make myself useful and capture something else instead. It was my first time capturing a wedding at this venue so it was a great opportunity for me to have a look around and capture the beautiful courtyard before it was full of wedding guests. I also photographed the wedding breakfast room (the roundhouse) and a lounge area called The Corner Bar. The venue is stunning, rural and rustic. The indoor spaces aren’t suited to larger weddings but I later found out that they do cater for larger weddings via a marquee on their field, however this wedding had only 30 people in total so the roundhouse was just perfect for what they needed. After I’d finished having a look around, I took the dresses outside to photograph (with help from a bridesmaid).
Popcorn bags: MadeByMikaLtd
I Spy Cards: Made by the Bride on the Canva App and Printed with FreePrints
Cakes: Cakes By Hannah
I was back with the Bride just in time for her lipstick and mascara photos, then I set off to find the Groom who was next door getting ready with his best man. I spent a little time with the Groom, capturing him putting his tie on and helping him with his cuffs before going back to the Bride for photos of her being buttoned into her gorgeous lace dress. It’s always a joy when I can easily move between the two people, capturing morning prep for both. There’s never any need for a second shooter when I can do it all myself and I do prefer to do it myself because I know the full day will be captured in my style and my style is exactly why my clients book me.
Hair & Make up: The Looking Glass Hair & Make Up Studio
The ceremony took place outside, with apple and pear trees all around and a gorgeous view. I believe the couple had the choice to either marry on the grass in front of the wooden structure (I guess you’d call it a gazebo) or inside the gazebo and they chose inside. Either option would have worked for me as I was able to move around the outside of the whole area, capturing the special moment from many different angles. The couple wanted confetti to be thrown as they exited the aisle at the end of the ceremony which was a really lovely idea. It worked well as they had people sat in two’s either side. If you’ve got people sat in a row of six for example, you’ll need to move people around a bit before the confetti throw otherwise the people sat on the outside will just be throwing their confetti at the people on the inside of the aisle and it won’t reach the newly weds. I really do think of everything when planning this stuff!
After about ten minutes of hugs, dabbing happy tears and congratulating the happy couple; we settled into the group photos. On the lead up to every wedding I photograph, I communicate with the couple to find out what group photos they’d like. I help them to plan that part of the day, offering advice about how many group shots we could fit into the timeframe they have and reordering the list in a way that flows nicely. I ask about any mobility issues, location preferences - no stone gets left unturned. I had ten group photos on my list to get through for this wedding but we did have a little bit of extra time afterwards so I was able to take photo requests from guests, which everyone seemed to really appreciate.
The romantic wedding photos and the candid unplanned images are always what people want - but in the eleven years I’ve been photographing weddings, I’ve never met a couple who have turned down having group photos completely. Why? Because as much as we all hate standing and posing, these photos are often the most treasured images from a wedding. Families aren’t often all together in one place and capturing such a rare occurrence is important not just for the newlyweds but for every person in the photo.
I don’t normally upload many group photos online (it’s usually just candids and romantic imagery) but I decided to share a few more from this wedding because I loved being able to use the tree in the foreground. I always deliver a variety of close group portraits and wider group photos which show off a bit more of the surrounding area. As you can see here, they also have some in portrait and some in landscape.
Fortunately, we had enough time for the couple to have a break from posed images before we started on their just married portraits…
The last thing for me to capture before I finished for the day was the ‘just married portraits’. For this, I like at least 20 mins photo time with the happy couple, so we can explore a variety of locations around the venue. These type of photos are always going to be posed to a degree but I have my tricks to make the moments feel natural. We started in the courtyard and at one point the couple were stood by a barrel and I got them talking about the first time they met, it felt really special to hear them reminisce about that pivotal moment in their lives on their wedding day. So although I asked them to stand in that particular place and I had brought up the conversation about when they met, everything else about that moment was natural - their laughter, their smiles.
Next we went back to the field where they had their group photos and we enlisted a bridesmaid to help with some veil throw photos. As you can see here, it didn’t always go to plan. After the veil throw, I used the veil as a kind of tent over the couple and the same bridesmaid helped me with that too (it was a long veil). When you look through the photos here, you’ll see the bridesmaid did a great job of shooing away a fly that was caught in the veil tent we made.
This amazing couple married on their 12th anniversary - what an amazing milestone to reach together. I really connected with them, it was an honour to capture their love on camera and I felt privileged to play small part in their love story. From the 5 hours I spent with them, they received 517 images (which became 1034 with the black and white copies).