A festival style wedding at Wembury Weddings in Devon!
This wedding ROCKED! Great weather, great music, great people! I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to blog about it (it happened in June 2024 and it’s now February 2025!) But you know how life is, and I often have to wait til the quiet season before I can find time to do these blogs.
So sit back and enjoy, as I take you back to last summer at Wembury Weddings in Devon. It’s a long blog but it’s a good’un!
Kim got ready at a friend’s house, just a stone's throw from the stunning Wembury field. It was the perfect place to start the day—spacious yet cosy. Kim and her bridal party did their own makeup, and I have to say, Kim’s natural look is just perfection—so effortlessly beautiful that you'd hardly guess she had any makeup on at all! Her hair was expertly styled by Arena Creative Hair, who also did an amazing job of fixing those gorgeous flower crowns in place!
I love how the first photo I took of the day is Kim’s mum ironing her jumpsuit, unfortunately I didn’t get to see the jumpsuit on Kim until she arrived at the ceremony as I had to leave a bit before her, to get set up ready for her arrival.
When I arrived at Wembury Weddings I immediately took advantage of the marquee being empty of guests, and I went in to get some photos of the set up and décor. Pretty much everything you see in these photos was DIY and it was also reusable, recyclable and eco friendly.
I’m sure you’ll agree that it looked fantastic! The plants on the table, potted in reused food cans, the bunting made out of old and unwanted materials and check out that free bar!
Marquee by: Cornish Tent Company
With the details of the marquee captured, it was time to turn my attention to the ceremony area which was just in front of the marquee, set against that breath-taking backdrop!
Can we talk about how lucky Kim and Ben were with the weather? 2024 felt to me like the rainiest year I can remember but their day was warm and sunny, with a gentle breeze - utter perfection! I believe that their bad weather plan would have been to have their ceremony inside the marquee with guests seated on their tables - we would have made it work one way or another. But there’s no denying that you take a risk when planning your wedding in a big field with only a marquee for shelter - luckily for Kim and Ben the risk payed off and their day went ahead without any complications.
Kim and Ben did the legal bits beforehand (so they were technically already married) and this allowed them to have a personalised ceremony which was conducted by Ben’s wonderful sister - who remained professional even when the ribbons from the stand were getting caught in her decorative headwear.
Confetti!!
Rather than going straight into group photos, the first band of the day (The Busketeers) kicked off the celebrations whilst the guests helped themselves to the drinks and pasties.
The Busketeers are incredible! And they’re the perfect band for a laid back festival vibe wedding like this! Highly recommend!
After The Busketeers first amazing set, we did those all important group photos. Here’s just a few of my favourites - the very best one is definitely where the groomsmen poke their fingers out of their trouser zips! Got to have a bit of fun and break up that formality one way of another.
After the group photos, I enjoyed spending some time wandering around the guests and capturing some unscripted, real moments on camera. Documentary photography is truly where my heart is! And I was so happy to work with Kim and Ben because they gave me the freedom and opportunity to capture their day authentically. I didn’t have a big long list of group photos and special requests - they trusted me to find the moments and wow, there were so many moments worth photographing! Kim and Ben had loads of outdoor games for people to enjoy and games are one of the best things you can add to your wedding if you love documentary photography. There was so much for the guests to do and enjoy, which meant there was so much for me to capture.
After The Busketeers final set, it was time for all guests to step into the marquee and take their seats ready for speeches and food. Ben and his best man both had amazing speeches - which had guests thoroughly entertained.
Following on from the speeches was some fantastic food and desert.
After fuelling up on some good food, everyone was ready to get back out in the sunshine. There were so many games for people to entertain themselves with:
Space Hoppers
Hula Hoops
Bag Toss
Flying Gliders
Football
Kite Flying
Giant Jenga
Kubb
We took an opportunity to get some photos of just Kim & Ben alone for ten minutes or so before their first dance. I particularly love the photos of Ben sauntering up to the camera, with Kim in hysterics - they were both so comfortable with me and the best photos happen when you can let your guard down and be yourself!
One tricky thing with summer weddings is that the first dance is often happening in the daylight and DJ’s and Bands sometimes struggle to get people inside dancing. But The Instigators certainly had no trouble with getting the party started! What a band - Kim and Ben really did amazingly with choosing their musicians for the day!
As soon as it was dark enough, I switched things up and captured the rest of the party using the shutter drag technique. This method of shooting works really well when you have a lively crowd like these guys! It was such a good party and I’m so glad that Kim and Ben booked me for the full day, so I could stay and capture it all on camera.
The night ended with Ben being caked in the face by one of the Bridesmaids - it was revenge for when he did the same to her at her wedding.
