Upton Barn and walled Gardens Weddings with Emily and Ben
What an absolutely Amazing wedding day this was with Emily, Ben, family and friends in the most idilic location down in Devon. Now, I don’t normally travel too far out of Wiltshire or just bounce into an adjoining county so Devon was a first for me. This was a referral from Jen and I had met Emily before but the convincing factor was to see if Ben liked my style as he is not a fan of having his photo taken. And as most of my work is capturing the day just as it happens with limited interaction less for the groups, a small brief before confetti and some chilled moments with the couple, then I was a good fit for Ben.
I think we need to start at the pre shoot, that dreaded time when couples have to have their photo taken, most don’t like it, in fact for some people just the idea of a professional photo shoot makes them feel sick. But it’s just about being relaxed around me and the camera, after that, it’s easy, I give a bit of direction and advice about the day, but it never ceases to amaze me the difference from the first 15 mins of a pre shoot to the end are a big transformation. This then helps on the day so everyone knows what to expect!
So back to the day, I met up with Emily and the lovely Bridesmaids getting ready in the Paddock room at Upton Barn, this huge room is filled with light and just so stylish. It was also lovely to see Jane again too. Emily’s stylists from Fox Hairdressing have been doing her hair for years so they travelled even further than me but they did an amazing job with everyone and as they were there all day as guests, they even did a re style later on in the day too!!
From there we jumped into the outdoor ceremony which all went well with a couple of readings and then straight into the confetti line, after some re distribution of the confetti to make sure everyone had some and not just those with 2 massive handfuls. Once the ceremony was complete, it was canapés, electric clay pigeon shooting (The competition was fierce!!!) and then some groups. The evil sun was out so we had to find some nice shade for the groups and this is where I found out how good they all were at the 5 second challenge!!!! Some brilliant fun photos that are a bit different from the formals.
After the groups it was time to go in for the meal but not until Emily and Ben had been shown the room for the first time (Apparently this is a thing) and their expressions of delight were just super to capture!!!
Whilst the meal was being served I had a chat to a couple of the waiters and unbeknown to everyone else less for Jane and a few others they were in fact singing waiters, a few others knew what was happening so I set my self on a chair with a shot of exactly where the waiter would fall. Que the falling waiter and I have never seen so many people rush in to help someone falling over, even one who knew about it rushed in to help, unfortunately obscuring my shot from my view point. I have never seen an entire wedding party get so involved which was brilliant! napkin waving, massive conga and lots of singing!!! So much fun and laughter everywhere!
Speeches complete and then a chance to grab a few more photos of the wedding party, when the girls picked up Ben I couldn’t help but encourage the boys to jump in and see how high Ben could go and Ben was just a superstar, brilliant core strength doing lag raises whilst being lifted very high!!!
It was then time for cake cutting, som impromptu pretend cake eating by Jane and then the dancing with everyone getting up and having a damned good dance. We then snuck away for some sun set photos, which we had done a recce for earlier and were even joined by some race horses which made it a perfect end to the evening.
This really was an amazing family wedding, so much hard work had gone into the planning and preparations by so many, especially Emily and Jane. Emily and Ben thank you so much for choosing me and adopting me for the day, it really was just so super.
This is a very small selection from the final wedding collection of around 1000 images, and these are just some of my faves, mainly people doing people things.
https://www.uptonbarn.com
Salisbury weddings
