Wedding Photography at Woodlands Hotel in Leeds, Yorkshire: Lucy + Barry

Yesterday I joined Lucy & Barry for their summery wedding in Leeds!

They hosted their reception at Woodlands Hotel, a lovely, leafy venue I’ve shot at a whole bunch in my days snapping weddings.

I hope you enjoy this story of a very special day!

I joined Lucy (already in yellow!) at her folk’s place in Calverley while she and the girls had their morning pampering

In the chaos, Lucy forgot to get her fringe trimmed last week, so the hair lady had a pop with the kitchen scissors!

Her beautiful bridesmaids were next…

…while Lucy checked her dress was ok!

Beautiful eh?Lucy had had her wedding shoes dyed yellow! The downside was that they had shrunk about a size in the process, so she wore them with thick socks all morning, in a decidedly 80’s heels & legwarmers type way!

I loved the yellow bridesmaids dresses! Super sunny & so rarely seen at weddings I’ve done. Brilliant.

Fitting the veil

One blushing bride, nearly good to go!

Three little flower girls joined the proceedings later on, and looked splendid in their little dresss.

The splash of yellow in the bridal bouquets looked fabMeanwhile, my partner in crime following the chaps preps on this wedding was the excellent Pete Boyd of PB Photo, as Clare (my usual 2nd shooter) couldn’t make it.

The guys were almost ready when he arrived, as the call of the pub was loud and clear!

Barry: the man of the hour!

Love Pete’s backlit ring shotBest man & dad having a momentPub time!After a few scoops the chaps reservoir dogged their way up to the churchAnd after checking things were ship shape in St Wilfrid’s in Calverley, they welcomed guests

Back at the girls there was a fab ancient Roller in wait while a fellow postie did his rounds (I liked the significance, because Barry’s a postman).And upstairs, Lucy was being laced into her gorgeous gownA few final details

I rather like this composition

Assessing the finished look

And one proud father ready to escort his daughter to her big dayI can’t tell which I prefer out of this one of Lucy coming down the stairs…

or this one with her flowers in the light of the front door?

Your thoughts?

Arriving fashionably late at the church

While I ducked to the front for the arrival of the bride, Pete caught this absolute stunner of the moment before coming into the church!

Defo my fave shot of Pate’s of the day; a wonderfully natural moment of bridesmaids & the driver helping out, while Dad concentrates & Lucy’s eyes connect with the camera, all framed in the backlit, arched doorway. Genius.From the front I like to catch that moment when the bride catches eye contact with the groom.

It’s great when you’ve a relaxed reverend like we had at St. Wilfrid’s, cool & also super funny – pitching the perfect service.

Another cute splash of eye contact, moments later.

One of the bridesmaids delivering her reading

The vows

The rings

The kiss!

The flower girls running riot!

The official signing of the registers

And walking back down the aisle as man & wife!

The weather was a blessing, warm with sunny intervals all day long.

Though we had to patiently wait a minute for the blazing sun to pass behind a cloud to avoid the crowds squinting into this everyone shot

At the gates we did a little bomb of confetti

After a quick mingle…

…the bride and groom hit the road.

These drivers seem to get younger and younger, eh?

At woodlands hotel two glasses of pimms were set in wait!

In my opinion, Woodlands is such a great venue because it has a lovely verander to mingle on if the weather permits, it’s enclosed in loads of woodlands (no really) and has spaces of grass for portraits and…

…for the kids to run off their energy!

As we were running a little behind, we dived straight into the portraits.

I rather like this one.It’s all about the laid-back portraits. Not everyone finds this part easy, and Barry & Lucy weren’t looking forward to their pre-wedding shoot as they don’t really like having their photo taken (I get this a lot!). So as always, I met them to catch up about their plans, then took them on a quick shoot (which they chose to do at Kirkstall Abbey – check out the blog post here). It showed them what I was looking for, as well helped them get used to how it feels to be photographed, and it makes all the difference on the big day – not only making the whole process quicker, so they can get back to mingling with their guests!

It definitely paid off, and we got some lovely portraits.

Before getting the wedding party involved, I snapped a few details of the colour scheme and flora

The girls – looking delightfully summery in the sunshine!

And the chaps looking cool and casual

The full team

And a bit of fun, walking along!

Inside, the wedding breakfast continued the yellow scheming with loads of fun details (who remembers Sylvanian Families!?)Speeches were lots of fun, and a nervous best man certainly found his groove halfway through, with some close to ‘the line’ jokes!