Yesterday I joined Sarah & Graham to photograph their sunny wedding at Holdsworth House near Halifax in Yorkshire.

Not only do Tracey & the gang there look after us snappers ridiculously well, but Holdsworth House is a fantastic place to photograph a wedding.  The ancient low-beamed ceilings, creaky floorboards and farytale topiary garden out back (with maze & all!) adds real charm.

Plus, when the sun’s out and guests are enjoying a glass of Kir Royale & tasty canapes in 20 degrees, it makes for a wonderful atmosphere.

When I joined the girls, they were waiting for the bridal suite to become ready, but squashed in a small room excitement was in the air!

A short while later, the girls had settled into the suite and it was all systems go on the hair & makeup!

I love this one of our bride, the lovely Sarah, free of the rollers & proudly sporting an excellent badge indeed.

Their light and summery flora looked stunning!  I believe that all the flowers & the wedding breakfast decorations were done by an Aunt!

I love this one of bridesmaid Haley freaking out a bit as she set celebratory bubbles free!

The dress and the shoes are always fun to frame up.

I liked this lucky snap of Sarah checking out her hair!

Meanwhile, Clare was over at Graham’s parents house, which as it happens was a home I’d visited for Graham’s sister Angie’s wedding 2 years ago!  Although Clare was with the chaps, it was funny seeing the house again and that whole memory unpacking in my mind!

Anyhoos, it looks like mum put on a lovely spread for team Wheatcroft

And I love this shot of Clare’s of Graham & bezzy man Stuart grooming.

Clare also caught these cracking details…

In the thick of wedding season Clare’s skills really come together as a 2nd shooter, and I couldn’t have done the above better m’sen!

It was great seeing former clients, Angie & Chris again for a catch up.  It was a good two years ago now, but check out their wedding blog here.  On the left is Angie & brother Graham being snapped by Chris, and on the right we have a happy new little addition to their family!

I remember bumping into Angie & Chris in IKEA by chance when Angie was about to drop, so it was cool to meet the little chap!

I like this sequence of Sarah being put in her dress by her maids, as mum watches on proudly.

I love this one too.

Although it doesn’t really appear so, I use flash so much in my preparations photography, bouncing light off light colour ceilings and walls, and I love how you can balance natural light with flash to get images like this…

And this!  What a bunch of foxes!

Stunning flora & colours eh?

It’s always good to try and be ready for Dad’s first look at his beautiful daughter, ready to walk down the aisle.

Again, I love the proud chief looking on!

For the shutterbugs out there, again, I hid a flash above the stairs to pop as Sarah came down.  Subtle, but gives an otherwise dull scene a bit of a pop!

Sarah wasn’t sure if she’d dare look at Graham down the aisle, for fear of crying, but it looks like she did to me!

Most unusually, Daddy Wheaty sang the most beautiful song for his daughter.

A little detail as Graham slipped the ring onto Sarah’s finger.

And one of Clare’s from the back of the kiss.

I like this catch walking down as man & wife, with everyone clambering for a snap & a girl leaning round for a nosey!

Stepping out into the 20 degree sunshine to be wished congratulations by their near & dear, it couldn’t have been more perfect.

I love scattering everyone out for a casual groupshot of all guests, while the string quartet played in the background.

Afterwards, instead of messy confetti, we did a spot of “bubblefetti”!  Check out the intro image on the video at the top. 

After a spot of mingling, I stole our lovely newlyweds off for a quick spin of portraits.The rings!

Later Graham mentioned how much help it was to have done the pre-wed to get used to being photographed, and it really did make things smoother, faster & more fun on the day!

Another way to keep the flow of the afternoon and to stop everyone feeling like they spent their entire reception in lines, I generally restrict the number of groupshots I let couples do,  But as they had 2hrs to mingle, Sarah & Graham asked if I could do a few extra casual groups:

Here we have the stags!

The hens!

And their dear-pals!

I love to try and mix people up so they don’t end up just being dull lines of bods!

Check out Aunties amazing wedding breakfast details!

Their cupcakes were absolutely divine!  You could smell the lemony fun from across the room!

Speeches were great craic, and I like this moment of dad & mum embarrassing their dear daughter!

I love to try and use not only a collection of images, but each image themselves, to tell a story,

Cheers!

Sarah & Graham are actually avid Salsa dancers (which is where they met!), so their first dance was a fantastic bit of ballroom action!

During the evening, we ran our photobooth behind the DJ.  Basically, it’s a fun extra service we offer at weddings, where we set up a curtain & a studio flash for guests to mess about in front of and get images like these:

It’s always good fun, whether props are involved or not!

Here are a few shots of the evening partying, of Dad dancing with his daughter, a bit of a wheaty family scrum, some partying, and even a bit of a wedding snog going down in the thick of the dancefloor!

Sarah & Graham’s day was such a wonderful & chilled out celebration of their love & fun, and it was so great to dive in and hang out with the Wheatcroft family massive again after two years!  Here’s to a Sarah & Graham having a long and happy life together!

B

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