Naomi and Ollie got married on Naomi’s family farm in the Peak District. I’d photographed a wedding the day before in Northampton so I was a little bit knackered to start with. Naomi had kindly said I could stay the night in a caravan on the property. I arrived there in the dark at about midnight, after a quick visit to the neighbouring farm as I’d got a little lost… In the morning I had the amazing experience of opening the curtains to one of the most beautiful British scenes, rolling hills, sheep and brilliant sunshine. It was glorious and set me up for the day perfectly.
The couple were getting ready in separate cottages a few miles away and I had a nice morning flitting between the two cottages taking photographs of them and getting to know their friends and family a little. The church was about a half-hour drive away so I left a bit before the wedding party in order to get there in time. As I’d never been there before I’d plugged the postcode into my satnav and set off. It turns out that two churches around the corner from each other both shared the same postcode so I had a terrifying time getting later and later for the wedding going round and round a one way system. I ended up being directed to the church by the vicar via Ollie’s phone and immediately calmed and reassured by him that everything was OK. Since then though I have been a lot more careful with postcodes and looking at everything on street view and leaving a lot more time than I had done previously. Lesson learnt!
The ceremony was beautiful and I had quite a lot of scope to wander around and up to a little balcony and round the back as well. We then all headed back to the farm where they had set up a massive marquee. Ollie and Naomi and myself wandered down to the river to find some nice spots to take pictures. As Naomi had grown up here we were able to go to some of her favourite places, even the spot where Ollie had proposed. She even tried to get out onto a log over the river with her train nearly dipping into the water. It was nice for the pair of them to have some time to themselves… or at least nearly by themselves, before they went a joined their 200 guests.
The food and speeches were lovely and the setting was just stunning, they had quite a few small children there, who definitely made the most of having the freedom to run around in the fields. There was a big swing hanging from a massive tree and hay bales dotted around for people to sit around and enjoy the day. In the evening they had a ceilidh, which I think is a great idea for a wedding. Your’re talked through the steps of the dances but knowing exactly what you’re doing isn’t entirely necessary, the fun is in the fact that its all a bit of a mess of limbs and spinning and going under the wrong arms at the right times. It’s great fun and gets everyone involved. It’s quite fun to photograph as well, even if you do run the risk of getting trapped in a circle or trampled on.
I was totally knackered by the end of my second wedding in two days but I’d had such a good time, and was really looking forward to going through the thousands of photographs I’d taken. I got a lovely message from Naomi after they received their images.
“The photos are seriously amazing- we love them- don’t doubt it! Thank you for taking the most beautiful photos of our wedding!! We are so pleased and cannot stop looking through them. Don’t know how we are going to pick favourites. Thank you for even going beyond the role of photographer and taxi-ing some drunk people home at the end of the night!!! Thank you so so so much!” (Naomi)
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Wedding Venue // Ashbourne Methodist Church
