Yesterday I joined Sarah & Stuart to photograph their special day!

The destination was the beautiful Crow Hill in Marsden, nestled deep in the picturesque Colne Valley at the foot of the Pennines

It’s the first time we’ve photographed a wedding here and we had a brilliant time at Sarah & Stuart’s family-friendly, vintage themed wedding.

Not only was the entire day at Crow Hill, but all the family & wedding party people got ready there too.  As today proved, logistics like these so often create a far more relaxed wedding day atmosphere, without having to move people around.  So while Clare hung out with Stuart & the lads, I joined Sarah & the bridesmaids (as well as a bridesman) for their side of the preparations in the Bridal Suite.

Here’s Sarah’s one-off champagne coloured vintage wedding dress hanging with a beautiful bridesmaid’s dress.Here’s the lovely bride-to-be Sarah!And here’s her long-standing pal Carl, taking duties as ‘Bridesman’!

Here’s Alex having a few curls put inMeanwhile, just slightly down the hill, the chaps were getting themselves togetherAnd here’s Stuart – the man of the hour!

The boy of the hour was their son Matthew!

Sarah & Stuart told me that they’d been together for 12 years, and after having Matthew, decided to wait until he was old enough to enjoy the wedding before getting married.  I think that’s great, and Matthew seemed to have a ball (though those cream jeans sported some impressive grass stains by the end of the day!)Cheers!A quick shot of the ringsAnd a quick teamshot of the waistcoated chaps

I like the fact that, being a summer wedding (especially one lucky enough to have summer weather!) the men didn’t wear jackets.Meanwhile, Sarah was being helped into her dressAnd a beautiful gown it was tooSarah’s actually a shoe designer, and her wedding shoes were a pair of fun Alexander McQueen 4.5″ heels!
Sarah designed her own necklace to go with the outfit…

…which had this brilliant piece hanging from the back!

Sarah’s super creative, and put together so many wonderful touches through the day.

Once Sarah was good to party, we had a bit of time to kill so we did a few portraits on the chais longue in the bay window!

Love this one!A few final checksThe flowers arrived, studded with buttonsTeam bride!
Guests gathered outside before the ceremony…

…which was one of Crow Hill’s grand living rooms!When I went back upstairs with Sarah’s Dad, the wedding party were having a boogie (I believe to ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ by Cydi Lauper)!Here comes the bride!The groom’s family on the front row
Down the aisleThe service was a lovely affair, with a few accidental comedic mis-deliveries!One of Clare’s from the back. Matthew took ring bearing dutiesThe kissAnd down the aisle as man & wifeCones of confetti were ready to playWoo hoo!A quick shot of everyone

Then time for mingles in the sunshine!

I heard Stu talking to a pal about how the reality of Champagne & Canapes is that most people don’t particularly like Champagne (but will happily drink it) and Canapes are a bit poncey for what they are, so instead Sarah & Stu decided upon beers for the chaps, Pimms for the ladies & Ice cream for the kids (actual and grown-up)!Sounds like a plan to me!NomIndeedWe used their croquet lawn for the family shots, so got the mallets involved!

A quick wedding party shot

The girls…

…and (quite probably my favourite shot of the day!) the gents!

Exploring the grounds around Crow Hill on the pre-wedding shoot (check out the blog post here), we discovered the woodshed out the back and did a bunch of cool photos there.  On the morning of the wedding Stu told me he’d brought an axe specially to do a guys shot there!  The spade & fork were just lying around!

Win.
After the wedding party shots we took a little turn around some of the pre-wed spots for a few happy couple portraits.The colours of this mossy roofed shed made for perfect background♥

I loved this area, with the mossy blue gray walls, made all the better with these two in it.Aww

Everything looks good in black & white!A little ring detail

At the end of the shoot we managed to collar Matthew (who was otherwise busy bezzing around the grounds with his mates) for a quick family picThen I let Sarah & Stu get back to the reception…

…because I knew that these guys had done something pretty special with the marquee for their wedding breakfast!Sarah is super creative and has incredible flair for design (I remember being in awe of the coolness of all the details round their house when I went round to meet them).  On the wedding morning Sarah had said that the wedding breakfast was basically her head, on display in a room!The vintage details were mind blowing!Details were everywhere, with buttons, mismatched vintage crockery, old photos of her and Stu, all nestled around Lynn at Stems Design  beautiful flora!  Teacup candles and teapot vases, it looked insaneThe top table!

She’d even brought along a whole bunch of awesome lamshades and bird cages to hang from the ceiling!The guestbook table had a wicked lampshade and trunk, shoe stretchers and (best of all) moustaches on sticks!

If you ask me, it’s not a proper wedding if you’ve not got moustaches on sticks

Announcing the new Mr & Mrs!Speeches were fired off before dinner…

…which was the most gourmet BBQ I’ve ever seen!

Top bombing to the catering team at Crow Hill for the amazing food.  It’s simply the best wedding food we’ve eaten in a while!

After dinner, the light was so beautiful it seemed rude not to get the happy couple out for  a few golden hour portraits

Glorious

So serious!

Probably a consequence of the swarm of midges eating us alive!But it was great that these two braved the biters for the extra stash of beautiful snaps.Love this one.  The evening light is just magical.Another little ring detailAnd one final big smooch before heading back for some evening partying!Man alive – check out the cake table!Cutting the cake soon spiralled out of control!First dance!Aww – even after 12 years together, these guys are so lovely and tender together.Then the party really started!

And we left them to it, to enjoy the rest of the celebrations!

So here’s to the lovely Sarah & Stuart!  May you guys have a long and lovely life together, and here’s to a fab safari honeymoon in Kenya!

x

Barnaby & Clare

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