As a Yorkshire Wedding Photographer, Rowley Manor seems to be my second home of late! i love shooting weddings at The Manor, it has such an intimate feel, there is only ever one wedding there in one day and the grounds have everything I look for to give my client’s stunning pictures for their albums.
I found myself back at Rowley on Saturday to help Alex and Sarah celebrate their big day. I had met them at a wedding I was photographing 3 years ago and we had sat at the same table and had a good chat whilst enjoying the wedding breakfast. I must have made a good impression as 2 years later, Alex and Sarah contacted me to shoot their wedding!
Alex and Sarah are 2 of the nicest people I have met for a long time – they are generous, kind, funny and very hospitable – so when they hired me I knew I would be involved in something special. Sarah is a ‘reformed archaeologist’ and now teaches primary school and Alex is your typical old entrepreneur – he owns 3 very diverse businesses from a pretzel shop in the station to a company that develops apps for the Iphone! I love tech geeks and Alex is definitely one of the team and has been helping me with my new website recently.
I started my day helping the boys prepare at Alex’s house and I’m proud to say I tied 9 individual cravattes seeing as though the boys had no clue at all! One of the Best Men cut himself shaving and asked Alex if he had any after shave he could use and Alex replied “Why of course my good man, what would you like “Sex Panther or The English Gentleman – both will sting the nostrils” For any readers who love the movie Anchorman, you will recall this line and I almost had an accident I laughed so hard!
After photographing all of the boys and getting them out into the fresh for a group session, I left the ‘News Team’ and drove over to photograph Sarah’s final preparations. Sarah’s Mum was in charge of tying the girls into their frocks and after a shaky start, she nailed the most beautiful corset tying I have ever seen! Sarah is naturally very beautiful and has classic features so was an absolute joy to photograph. I was able to direct her into some very classic looks that I don’t usually get chance to see. Once in her dress, I spent 15 minutes photographing her before heading off to church.
Alex has had a long relationship with St Mary’s Church, Sculcoates Lane in Hull which is classed as High Anglican and is just about as close to the Catholic denomination as Anglican churches get. St Mary’s is a big, airy church with bags of room and as I had attended the wedding rehearsal, I knew all of the best spots for the ceremony. Sarah’s family have been connected to a Methodist church for a long time so instead of arguing about what kind of ceremony they would have – they just freestyled their own with 2 Anglican and 1 Methodist ministers conducting the marriage. It was a very powerful service and I was convinced thunderbolts would come straight through the roof from god when all 3 priests blessed Alex and Sarah’s marriage at the same time!
After a champagne and canapes reception at the church, we headed to Rowley Manor for the wedding breakfast. After battling through a downpour on the way there, Mother Nature decided to play nicely and the weather was just gorgeous for the rest of the day.
A beautiful meal was served followed by 3 very touching speeches. Once the formal part of the day was over, the wedding party went outside to enjoy cricket, rounders and boules in the beautiful early evening sunshine. What a way to do an English wedding!
I’ll be seeing Alex and Sarah very soon to share their story with them and I’m very excited to say the least – I shot over 2600 frames so if I can’t find at least 500 crackers – I’ll be hanging up my camera!
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