I’d been looking forward to Zoe (Zoers) and Michael’s (Lammers) wedding all year.
It was a gloriously sunny day at a very special venue – Woodchester Mansion, one of my favourite places. Zoe and Michael chose Woodchester because they wanted somewhere local that was a bit different – that they could also take over and make their own for the day as many of their friends were coming from further afield. In a secluded National Trust valley, the house was never finished. As a result, there are fireplaces in mid air and floors that were never put in. A charitable trust was set up to save it from ruin and the team are now working hard on restoring it back to the state it was in when construction stopped. It is the kind of place that you want to explore as soon as you see it and so Zoe and Michael gave the guests time to have a look around the mansion before the ceremony – the mansion only had a basic track leading down to it, so guests had to be ferried by minibus down to the mansion.
Zoe’s sisters live in Australia and America and are rarely together, so Zoe’s family hired a gorgeous house in Wooton-Under-Edge for the week. She got ready at Edge Beauty which was just next door with her sister Amy who was head bridesmaid. In the meantime, Michael was at a cottage in Ozleworth with his son and his ushers. You can see from the pictures that they took advantage of the lovely weather to bask in the sun amongst the lavender and butterflies.
The wedding had lots of personal touches with their very own kegs of beer that Michael had brewed especially for the wedding, home-made favours and tables named after their favourite local places. They had been looking forward to the paella for a long time. So much so, that they were quite disappointed when the weather turned out to be so good that everyone was outside enjoying the sun instead of seeing the ‘live theatre’ of the paella being cooked. They couldn’t complain about that too much though as it made the setting so idyllic! And I can testify that the paella was very nommy indeed, equalled by the hogroast that fuelled people dancing into the night.
Michael’s son Joe had a great time and pretty much stole the show with his speech and later on with his dancing too! But by far and away, the thing I totally loved most was that Zoe and Michael are simply a super awesome couple and it was clear how much they loved each other, and it was clear all their friends think they are awesome too. I love that you can see in their photographs just how happy they were to get married – you can see them giggling at each other and then dancing their way into the wedding banquet. In fact, there were plenty of laughs and giggles throughout the day. Thanks for a really fun day!
Most of my coverage for the day is documentary, but as an experienced fashion photographer I also offer my couples the option to get more creative with the posed shots. As this was such a dramatic venue, I went for a variety of bridal portraits – I really wanted to shoot inside the mansion, so we went up into the roof, traversed scaffolding to shoot by the stunning rose window in the chapel, got creative with smoke and lighting in the scullery and still fitted in some natural shots outdoors. What a portrait bonanza! I hope you like them. Special thanks go to Morag who was helping me out that day. Without further ado, here are their photos (and apologies for lack of blogposts recently…lots of weddings will be posted soon!)
If you are interested in documentary wedding photography, drop Marie a line.
