Martin+Helen // Mersea Island Orchard Wedding

Mersea Island Orchard Wedding Photographer

Martin and Helen got married on Martin’s aunts orchard on Mersea Island in Essex. I was so excited at the prospect of being their wedding photographer at an entirely outdoors Mersea Island wedding! The light would be amazing and I wouldn’t have to whip out the flashguns until way into the evening. However as well as my excitement I was also filled with trepidation… The British summer isn’t something that anyone can rely on… The only thing you can rely on is that it’ll be inconsistent and unpredictable, and sure enough it rained torrentially for the whole week leading up to this lovely wedding. I’d given up looking at the weather forecast, as I had no control over it. So when I turned up at the lovely little house Helen was getting ready at I had no idea we were going to be treated to some truly beautiful weather.

I’d had a lovely drive over to Mersea Island in the morning. Having given myself an extra two hours on top of the two hours the satnav said it would take me, I got there in time to have a little explore of the island and a wander on the beach. It was a good thing I did leave early as an hour or so later that was a car crash on the only road on the island which the wedding officiate and several of Martin and Helens guests managed to get stuck behind. Luckily the wedding wasn’t too delayed and the bride wasn’t too stressed out.

I had a lovely morning photographing Helen getting ready with her mum and sister and her sister’s lovely little kid. I never know much about any of the details before the day, so watching them all come together is always fun. Helen had picked a really unusual dress, it was dark blue and with a dark green rim around the bottom. It suited her figure really well and went amazingly with her sister’s bright orange dress and her nieces bright red one. Even her mum’s dark black dress was really unusual, with its flower details; they all had quite a Mexican feel to the styles and intensity of the colours. We then drove over to the orchard and I got in place to capture Helen walking through the trees with her dad, the sun was shining and bringing out all the lovely colours in their day. Since I’d left her she’d been given a bouquet of bright orange and red flowers from the aunt’s garden and placed an incredible flower in her hair that brought together all the colours perfectly.

It was a beautiful ceremony, they’d both written their own vows and Helen had everyone in tears. At one point, when Martin could have really done with being given a hankie, a paper streamer hanging from one of the trees blew into his eyes and he was able to use it to wipe away the tears. It was really funny timing and made a great photograph. At the end of the ceremony they walked through their guests and had actual rice thrown at them, a tradition I hadn’t seen for a while, it looked like it hurt.

There was then a mass movement of chairs from the ceremony over to the marquee, as all the guests got involved in helping out. The wedding party went off to take some photographs in Martins aunt’s garden. It was a beautiful garden and you could tell she was a bit of an expert on flowers and garden design, we got some lovely pictures of them getting a bit lost in the wilderness.

The rest of the day was spent all over the lovely grounds, with the sun lighting everything with a really nice glow. It was nice and relaxed; they had badminton going on, a piñata for the kids and hay bales for everyone to sit on. For their wedding breakfast they got a curry delivered from their favourite take away back in Leyton, It was a bit late after getting stuck in the traffic that followed the earlier crash, but it was worth the wait! People were going back for thirds; it was amazing, and a really lovely idea as it’s a meal they’ve probably shared quite a bit as a couple. They also served apple juice for the toasts,  made from the apples they’d picked together from the orchard the summer before. I thought it was a really nice touch, and made a nice change from the usual fizz, especially considering people usually have a beer or a glass of wine by that point, a soft drink was probably quite welcome.

I could tell Martin was very into his music; they had a band for the ceremony, and during the day and a jazz band in the evening. He’d rigged up all the stage and lighting and smoke machine and because the music was so good I stayed a lot later than I would have usually done. I also used a lot of the available light to get some really cool pictures of silhouettes and amazing colours bouncing off the marquee’s roof, it’s one of my favourite couple shots so far. I hope you like the selection I’ve put together.