A few weekends back I met these cool kids, Sarah & Stuart for the pre-wedding practice shoot!
We met up at their lovely wedding venue, Crow Hill in Marsden
I’ve never shot there before, so it’s always good to meet at new venues before the big day to help me get my bearings.
It’s a beautiful spot, nestled on the edge of the National Trust’s Marsden Moor Estate, in the heart of Yorkshire’s rolling hills.  It’s also one of those ace Country Houses that let a wedding couple and their guests exclusively take over from the Friday through to the Sunday, for a full weekend’s celebrations!
Once we’d caught up and chatted through the day’s logistics, we set about exploring the grounds for fun places to use on Sarah & Stu’s big day.
I loved this old mossy gateway and giant tree.
Right from the get go, I knew photographing these two would be easy.
I remember going round to Sarah & Stu’s place when I met them and their house was full of fun, creative details and vintage props.
I’d suggested she bring a few along to the shoot and we got a great variety of pics
I’ve actually known these guys for a long time indeed! Â Being creative individuals of impeccable taste, they own some of my prints!
I met these guys when I used to sell my travel and Urban City photography as art in the Corn Exchange in Leeds (check out my backstory and selection of the prints I used to sell on my ‘There and back again – A photographer’s tale’ post here).
Sarah & Stu have been together a whopping 12 years and have a lovely 6 year-old son.  They’d always said that they’d wait till he was old enough to enjoy the wedding before they got married and now that time has come!
Love indeed!
It was great fun exploring the grounds of Crow Hill. Â I’m forever exploring round the back of places to find interesting backgrounds to snuggle and smooch against! Â 
This log store was behind the back of the bins!
Love this one!
Sarah’s into her vintagey stylings, so to some of the images I added a vintage processing, to look like they’ve been bleached by the sun!
Another fun heart prop!
A perfect little frame
In the middle of the gardens was this massive tree, which looks a bit like a giant squid reaching out it’s tentacles
You don’t have to have props to get to the heart though!
On the steps outside Crow Hill was another nice spot for a cuddle.
A final spot we found was in a field of tall buttercups
I like this one, looking all serious.
This one’s cool too.
(I love the 50 f1.2 lens!)
Doing the buttercup test!
(Apparently Stu likes butter)
Another prop from Saz’s collection was this cute little sign.
The Beatles new what they were on about.
Sarah’s actually a shoe designer, and she brought along a pair of mint Alexander McQueen heels to show me!
She’ll be wearing them on the wedding day, so it seemed wrong not to do a few snaps (while not walking them in too much!)
Aww! Â What a lovely couple.
They have some seriously fun ideas indeed up their sleeves and I can’t wait to join in their big day celebrations in August!