Jo and Graham’s wedding at Ramsdale Park, Nottinghamshire
So just a little before story. Jo and Graham met in a charity shop where she works, which probably isn't the opening line to many great love stories, but judging by the way these two are together, it has clearly worked. They both been married before and when we spoke before their wedding, Jo summed up her approach pretty perfectly: she has done it once already, this time she wanted to have some fun and go all in... which explains the horse-drawn carriage (bear with me).
Getting ready at Bestwood Lodge
The day started at Bestwood Lodge, with Jo getting ready surrounded by family and friends. It's a brilliant building to photograph in with it's dark wood motifs, big rooms, old architectural details and plenty of little pockets of light. Rather than moving things around and manufacturing pictures, we mostly let the morning happen and used the building around it. Jo is properly larger than life so there was lots of banter, lots of laughing and lots of energy.
Once everyone was ready, we made use of that fantastic staircase and balcony for a few portraits before heading off.
Because obviously she needed a horse-drawn carriage
As I mentioned Jo had already done the traditional wedding thing once. This time she wanted a horse drawn carriage. Fair enough...
Her son had one particularly important job that day. He was the one walking her down the aisle and he is naturally quite reserved so I didn't create a photo - I just let it happen. We photographed what actually happened and that's always more important to me than trying to create a moment that wasn't there.
Meanwhile, Ania had gone ahead to Ramsdale Park and found Graham and his best man looking reasonably composed... well, until Jo arrived.
Graham was doing fine... until Jo walked in
Graham definitely became emotional during the ceremony. For somebody with a Royal Marine background, there wasn't much interest in putting on the macho tough guy act once Jo was standing in front of him. That's probably what I enjoyed most about photographing these two as there was absolutely no need to try and create the chemistry between them. They were constantly laughing, touching, looking at each other and generally making our job very easy. Absolute gold for a photographer.
After the ceremony we headed outside for confetti shot and a short couple session around Ramsdale Park.
Wedding photographs around Ramsdale Park
Jo and Graham were great in front of the camera, but after a while I could see their energy starting to drop (this comes with experience I guess). Since we got what we needed, I stopped. There was no reason to keep them away from their wedding just because technically they allowed more time for photographs. I'd rather finish while a couple are still enjoying themselves than squeeze another twenty nearly identical photographs out of them. Then we went back inside and things got much louder.
And then the waiters started singing
Jo's sister had secretly arranged singing waiters and of course nobody had told us either. We discovered what was happening at roughly the same time as everybody else, which meant there was no planned camera position, no discussion about where they were going to perform and no opportunity to prepare. You just react and roll with the punches. Within minutes people were standing up, singing, waving napkins, laughing and getting involved. Jo was absolutely in her element too. These are the parts of weddings I love photographing because people completely forget about the cameras. They're watching each other instead of watching us, and that's usually when the good stuff happens.
One last photograph
During our first meeting Jo mentioned there was one photograph she really wanted. A sunset, artistic photos - as she put it. Most of the day had been fairly overcast with plenty of cloud and occasional sunshine so we weren't sure if we were getting a sunset. Then the light started changing and as soon as we noticed it, we grabbed the bride and groom and headed outside. We found the angle, worked with what we had and made the photograph. Let me just say that Jo was gobsmacked when she saw it. And I think this is exactly where that photograph belongs. At the end. The last photograph in their wedding album and the end of the story of their day.
Their wedding film
Jo and Graham booked us for full-day photography and a short film highlight, so while the album tells the story through still photographs, their highlight film brings back the movement, voices and atmosphere of the day. So I thought I would give you a little glimpse of what you can expect from me, working as a videographer.
Planning a wedding at Ramsdale Park?
Ramsdale Park gave us plenty to work with without needing to disappear with Jo and Graham for ages. There are indoor spaces for the ceremony and reception, plenty of greenery outside and enough variety nearby to create very different photographs in a relatively short amount of time. And because it's a golf course, occasionally a golfer wanders into precisely the bit of background you didn't want them in. But you just wait ten seconds - problem solved.
Not a bad day really.