Garden Marquee Wedding at Upper Helmsley Hall: Annie + Freddie

Last Saturday I joined Annie + Freddie for their fabulous garden marquee wedding photos at Upper Helmsley Hall, in the Yorkshire Wolds, not far from York.

This handsome Georgian/Victorian family manor once belonged to Annie’s Grandparents, and made the perfect backdrop for relaxed morning preparations. Inside I was greeted by an enormous Bengal Tiger (stuffed), shot by grandpa saving a villager from an attack in India in bygone times! After greeting a fleet of lovely pooches, including their own dachshund ‘Peanut’, I headed upstairs to find Annie and no less than 8 beautiful bridesmaids, all having a tonne of fun.

My wingman Ben, meanwhile, headed over to Sand Hutton to join Freddie and an equally formidable squad of groomsmen, donning sharp mustard ascot waistcoats and tails. A few champagnes later they heading over to the unusually shaped St Botolph’s Church in nearby Bossall, set against the beautiful Yorkshire hills.

A close family friend hand-made Annie’s gorgeous gown, and helping her into set both mum and the bridesmaids off, as they charged into see it for the first time!

A beautiful ceremony, honouring Annie’s dearly missed dad Jamie, was packed with lovely readings and song (including a stunning sisterly singing of Eva Cassidy’s ‘Songbird’ while registers were signed!).

As they processed down the aisle, they stopped halfway to honour Freddie’s Jewish heritage by stamping on a glass in a velvet bag to exclamations of ‘mazel tov’, before heading out to meet their beloved pooch Peanut! A hail of confetti later and we were heading back to the Hall in their 1929 Vauxhall 20/60 for a quick round of pics. Guests joined them for a rose garden reception, with quick photos, fizz and canapés.

Their frankly brilliant MC pal carolled the crowd toward their pole marquee on the lawn overlooking the lake, for eloquent, emotional speeches and a delicious meal. As the sun softened, we even squeezed in another round of golden hour pics, before they cut the cake (handmade by sis, and cut with the family sword!). The bouquet was tossed, they kicked off the evening with a fab first dance to Elvis’ ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’, then The 29 Fingers band kept the crowd bouncing with high energy jinks, storming round the dance-floor in fancy dress, getting guests to sing!

A perfect day all round, in God’s own glorious Yorkshire! A lovely place with lovely people and we had an absolute blast capturing the story!

But enough chat already! Grab y’sen a nice mug o’Yorkshire tea and hit play on the slideshow below (or scroll below that in your own time) to enjoy Annie + Freddie’s wedding highlights!

I’ll be uploading their full set of images to their client area in just a few weeks, so if you’d like to be notified when all their images go live, register to be notified at: https://barnabyaldrick.pic-time.com/-AnnieFreddie/register

(NB: I’ll only use your email address to notify you about their gallery)