Tag: wedding

Michael & Erin at The Flint Rooms in Norwich

bethdooner

Think back to cooler days and enjoy the ones that will arrive later and enjoy this eccentric but classy wedding from Michael and Erin. They got married during the peak of the autumn season and as an autumn fan it made me so happy. So enjoy these photos whilst we currently melt in the sweltering summer heat.

I’ve known Michael for several years and was honoured to be asked to photograph his wedding, which was gloriously book themed alongside all the quirkiness that come from them and their venue choices. Their main venue for the day was the Flint Rooms in Nottingham, which would have stolen the show, but Erin and Michael just shone throughout the day. They were up for doing photos in front of an audience, as the main photo spots were the venue itself… or the smoker’s corner!

I hope you enjoy these photos, it’s been a while but I intend to post a little more regularly and fill up the backlog of weddings I need to post! This day was truly beautiful and I will forever be obsessed with the dress Erin is wearing.

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Alicia & Chris – Sword Arch & Sword Fighting

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Last year I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of Alicia and Chris, both of whom I knew of through a mutual hobby, but we’d never actually had the pleasure of properly meeting. Now I can say with confidence that there will be a long lasting friendship from photographing their union. I had such excitement when I was first told about the day, celebrating their lives as a blacksmith and a writer… who also do fencing together. It’s like this wedding was created for me, aside from the obvious part of it not being my wedding.

The day started with Alicia getting ready in her family home, in her old bedroom. There is always something incredibly touching when folk are able to reconnect with their younger selves on such a momentous day. After they got married in a local church, they chose to include a handfasting ceremony over their work anvil. Both of these occasions were wonderful and personal, with one of the most accommodating churches I have ever photographed. Of course, the amount of swords present never got old and kept on being such a unique delight during the whole day. There was so much love and enthusiasm from all corners, seen with how enthusiastically people join in with singing and dancing later in the evening.

I am truly honoured to finally share these photos with you, this was an incredible event to be a part of. I had a big grin on my face all day and I hope you will too when going through these photos. This is one of those weddings that reminds me of how much I love being a wedding photographer; and which epitomise the name I gave myself of “Unique Unions”. Enjoy!

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Dani & Isobel at The Missing Sock in Cambridge

bethdooner

I am so delighted to be able to share the results from Dani and Isobel’s wedding back in June. This one has been a long time coming, two years of cancellations, but we were finally able to get together and celebrate properly. I was fortunate to meet them at Tristan and Eli’s wedding last year, and you may recognise a lot of the guests from their wedding – alongside the band Colonel Spanky’s Love Ensemble. With all of that, it felt more like a celebration with friends, and I came from this wedding absolutely grinning.

Dani and Isobel both rocked their whole ensemble, even if at one point Dani accidentally put on Isobel’s shoes. Everyone and this wedding was dressed to impress, from sharp suits to swing dresses, everyone looked uniquely themselves and fit for a wedding. We were blessed with gorgeous weather and were able to have the ceremony and party outside, which fitted the more laid back theme of the wedding perfectly. We never felt rushed and it was wonderful to see all friends reconnect throughout the day.

We are back at an old favourite venue, The Missing Sock, which is as delightfully colourful as ever. The day was full of laughter, height jokes, and good company. There was also exceptionally good food, with their “cake” being a selection of brownies topped with figures of themselves and their cat Mac. I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed attending the wedding (which is “a lot”).

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Zak and Heather at Victoria Hotel in Whitby

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After a couple of date changes, I was able to photograph the gloriously beautiful day of Zak and Heather at Victoria Hotel in Whitby. We share a mutual hobby and they were some of the first people I met, so I am truly honoured to be able to share their day with you. Despite us needing to quite literally dodge the rainclouds at time, we were able to enjoy the picturesque surroundings of Robin Hood’s Bay; and the rain cleared up in time for us to have a gorgeous dusty pink sunset, which harbour some of my favourite photos from the set.

They had their ceremony in the light and spectacular orangey, with stunning views over the bay (and we were safely sheltered from the weather too). They both read out such beautiful vows to each other; and knowing them personally, it had me a little chocked up too. Guests at this wedding also included spectacular birds from North Yorkshire Moors Birds of Prey; and I think we can all agree that when you see Heather and the snowy owl together that they compliment each other perfectly. There was so much care and attention put into the table decorations as well, and I love the blues they have against the whites of the dining room.

There is a wonderfully classic element to their wedding, despite the nerdy and nautical themes dotted throughout. Heather’s dress is one of my all time favourites and Zak looked incredibly dapper in their suit. There was a lot of laughter and joy throughout the day as many people came together to celebrate their union, including old friends of mine. It was a truly wonderful celebration and I am so happy to be able to share the photos with you.

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Julianne and Ben at the Redhouse Barn in Worcestershire

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A magical wedding on a magical date, the 29th of February.
Julianne and Ben have been two of my longest clients, as they asked me right when I’d first started doing wedding photography to shoot their wedding. So it was a personal delight to see their wedding come to life after all these years.

Their wedding was so wonderfully nerdy too, from their incredible outfits to providing dice and models for their guests to play war-games with each other during dinner. Everything was created with such wonderful attention to detail and just helped their personalities shine through the day. Redhouse Barn worked enthusiastically with them to make sure everything looked as fantastic as they’d envisioned.

Julianne and Ben were also huge supports and encouragement during a particularly difficult time in my life, and I am forever grateful to them for that. They’ve very much become friends for life, and I also met some truly wonderful people at their wedding, which is a perfection reflection of them and the people they know.
I hope you enjoy looking through the photos as much as I enjoyed photographing the wedding.

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Randal and Kalyn at We The Curious in Bristol

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I’d agreed to photograph Randal and Kalyn’s wedding before I knew much of the details of it, so when I asked them a couple of weeks later “By the way, do you have a venue so I can look it up and get some references?” and they said “Oh it’s We The Curious in Bristol and our ceremony is in their Planetarium”, well, I had to actually send it to my partner to check I’d read that correctly. And then almost flip my laptop in delight and excitement.

The Planetarium ceremony was everything you expected it to be, utterly awe inspiring and magnificent. A particular highlight for me was “I Am The Doctor” playing just before the ceremony started, and the wonderful pair walking down the aisle to music from one of my favourite movies: Stardust.
They also decided to read their personal vows to each other during the ceremony, and the contents of them resonated with me quite strongly and I found myself getting rather emotional.

Randal and Kalyn were also truly wonderful people. We’d discovered during a visit to the venue beforehand that I actually get mildly dizzy and motion sick during the Planetarium show (mainly because I am standing and moving around) and I could spot Randal checking to make sure I was okay. And Kalyn arranged for a video from Randal’s best man who was stuck overseas so that he would still be able to do a speech.
I hope these two moments from the day give you an idea on who they are and allow you to be as happy for them as their guests were! Enjoy the images!

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Fiona and James at The Missing Sock in Cambridge

bethdooner

My season of photographing weddings was kicked off perfectly by this incredibly special day. It had all traditional parts you expect from a wedding, but with a personalised and quirky addition to all of them. Whenever I think of this wedding I just think of the explosion of colours, flowers, and sunshine that came with it.

We were incredibly lucky with the weather; we had been forecast storms for the whole day… but ended up with only one period of heavy rain during dinner and speeches, which was inside anyway! This meant the lovely James and Fiona were able to have the outdoor ceremony they’d envisioned when they booked the venue. Speaking of, the fantastic venue The Missing Sock did so much to add to the vibe of the day!

One thing that really touched me from the wedding was seeing that they’d invited their guests to wear flower crowns, and that everyone got in on the fun and wore one during the day (some people were even deciding which ones to wear so it could match their outfit). There was such camaraderie from all guests during the day, and you could really feel the love and enjoyment from everyone.
I hope you all enjoy the photos, as I sure loved every minute of photographing it.

Continue reading “Fiona and James at The Missing Sock in Cambridge” →

James and Nikki at The Yoghurt Rooms in Sussex

bethdooner

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James and Nikki are wonderfully thoughtful people. So much of their day (and the whole weekend) was dedicated to making sure everyone attending could have fun alongside them… that of course meant that their wedding included axe throwing, archery, board games, and lock picking (with the prize being booze various). Additionally, their wedding cake was a cheese cake, as in a literal cake of cheese. Whilst I am not cheese eater myself, I saw several eyes light up upon seeing it. And they did in fact build a giant dragon out of wood which they then burned whilst everyone sang ‘Wake Me Up – Avicii’ for the two of them.

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There were such lovely wonderful personal touches at the wedding, such as Nikki’s friends from when she lived in Japan attending the wedding and showing everyone how to make paper cranes.
Instead of exchanging rings and vows, they instead wanted something that they could keep and use after the wedding, and involve James’s young niece and nephew in the celebrations. So they had some goblets made, based on the traditional of exchanging cups in Japanese Weddings, and through the wedding they drank the mead from them that had been ageing specifically for the wedding (although not drank during the ceremony for legal reasons).

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I hope you enjoy looking through the images as much as I enjoyed attending and seeing it all come to life in the stunning Yoghurt Rooms. They were probably the wedding that really first inspired the name ‘Unique Unions’, and hopefully you’ll see why.

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Steph and Kit’s Wedding at Bramdean in Hampshire

bethdooner

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One of my favourite things about this particular day in Bramdean was the amount of affection expressed by everyone at the wedding, it was utterly infectious. It matched Steph and Kit’s warm personalities, as they are two of the kindest and most generous people I have met. I was so happy when they asked me to photograph their day, and they even asked me to make sure I ‘treated myself like a guest’ and to allow myself to enjoy the day too.

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The day itself was an utterly glorious summer’s day, incredibly warm, which suited the tent venue just fine. Also – much to their tastes – it made the whole thing feel like a huge party of friends had come together and collaborated for a summer celebration. Seeing everyone come together to help with the set up and how every performance was from a friend of theirs’ just made the whole day so personal and heartwarming. Speaking of which, everyone was encouraged to come ‘wearing their heart on their sleeves’, which is why you see the range of outfits people are wearing.
Yes, one of the groomsmen IS wearing a full suit of armour. And yes, the groom himself is in a sarong. That just sums up so much, and in the best possible way too.

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The day was gloriously warm and bright, it’s still what comes to mind for me when people mention a ‘summer wedding’ and I feel like it will for a while. Steph walking down into the clearing whilst her bridesmaids sang ‘You are my sunshine’ is going to stay with me for a while, and I am glad I can provide a lasting memory for them too. Enjoy the photos.

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Mike and Reesha at Chester Zoo in Cheshire

bethdooner

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I feel like I told everyone I knew about the wedding at Chester Zoo I was going to be photographing, I was so unbelievably excited! It was going to be a bit of a challenge for me to actually photograph the human guests at this wedding, rather than solely focussing on the animals. The bride and groom even referenced it during their speeches. Mike and Reesha are two of the kindest and quirkiest people I have ever met, and this showed throughout their wedding, including: the table decoration being books and flowers that guests were encouraged take home with them if they wanted, two ceremonies so that everyone invited would be able to witness them married – one with a registrar and the second being a hand fasting ceremony, and genuinely hugging and expressing their thanks to everyone there.

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We couldn’t have asked for better weather on the day, and we were able to get a tour around the zoo for ourselves after closing time. Before then, it was hilarious seeing some of the double-takes from people who had come for a day out at Chester Zoo, only to see a wedding party there as well. Yet there was such joy and fun emanating from everyone at the wedding that it was impossible to not get swept up in the atmosphere.

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The day was utterly beautiful and I am so happy that I was a part of it. Please enjoy the wedding photos.

Continue reading “Mike and Reesha at Chester Zoo in Cheshire” →