Two best friends, two weddings. This time the roles were reversed with Clare as chief bridesmaid to Leanne for her gorgeous wedding to the lovely Simon. The ceremony was at St Marys in the grounds of Buxted Park but we traveled to the utterly incredible High Rocks near Tunbridge Wells for the reception. This is one crazy place but very inspiring for a shoot. It is a bit like a little piece of Australia in the middle of the English countryside with a steam train running past every now and then. As Clare had been up there a couple of months before for a wedding, she already knew that there was no way a bride could get up to the top in bridal shoes so Leanne had sourced some very cute pink wellies which became a feature of the photos but didn’t affect how elegant she looked in her wedding dress.
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Posts Tagged ‘buxted park’
A Tale of Two Weddings, Part 2 …..
Thursday, May 27th, 2010
Vintage Wedding Photography / New Queensberry Album
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
Click on the link below for a new Queensberry sample album from Nicola & Daniel’s stunning Buxted Park Wedding, let me know what you think. (You need Quicktime)
Its 10 x 7 inches so will have a small and precious feel to it. I also wanted it to have a retro look to accommodate the Vintage Wedding Photography.
Nicola&DanielFV
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Sussex Wedding / Nicola & Daniel’s Buxted Park Wedding
Thursday, April 1st, 2010On Tuesday (I Know!) Amy and I headed to the glorious Buxted Park in Sussex for the wedding of Nicola and Daniel. Nicola owns Florian Flowers, so we knew this would be an inspirational wedding and as we discussed it on the way, I came up with the idea that we would treat it as if we had never shot at Buxted before. I wanted to see it fresh and discover some new bits and places to shoot. The suites are huge so even with lots of people coming and going, there was still space to do some detail shots and I loved her “I DO” shoes. The ceremony was one of the most emotional we have ever seen as there were quite a few tears from Daniel and his twin brother. Their film, shot by the lovely Jo at Padgham Productions is going to be outstanding.
There was some rain but I had brought our floral umbrellas and was keen to do lots of interior shots anyway. Recently, I have been obsessing about shooting into the light and I knew we could get some strong shots into the windows and doorways. Of course, the flowers were utterly gorgeous, girlie with a vintage edge and it was great to see the first peonies of the season. Everything had a laid back elegance to it, with a classic vintage wedding twist. Throughout the drinks, Adam Chandler sang songs from the Rat Pack and sounded amazing. As we left, the sun finally came out but I don’t think a little bit of rain bothered anyone at the wedding or affected how strong their photography is.
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Sussex Weddings / Weddings at Buxted Park
Friday, April 3rd, 2009This week I have been working with the boys at Pollen to produce a book for weddings at Buxted Park, showing how the different rooms look when set up. So I have been going up to weddings there this week to photograph the tables and the rooms. It is incredible to see the difference in how couples set their themes and how important those finishing touches can be. The chair covers really lift the place and add a lot of light into the room. They can also be personalised with sashes in your colour theme, with labels for guests names or flowers such as Clare’s little herb posies on the back of her chairs in September. Pollen have expanded their hire business to include vintage candelabras, birdcages, even floral jugs and teapots! Dex is so full of ideas and enthusiasm that it is quite inspiring.
The book should be complete in the next couple of weeks and will be shown to couples thinking of getting married at Buxted Park. They had an evening this week just for last minute bookings so that seems to be a big trend this year. Click on the link below to see the current version of the book, especially if you are thinking of getting married at Buxted this year. If you cannot open the book, try downloading www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
Sussex Wedding / Lisa & Peter’s Wedding at Buxted Park
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009Lisa and Peter were the second couple that I met who had changed their plans for a tropical beach wedding and opted for the winter chic surroundings of Buxted Park in Sussex. Clare started coverage at the couple’s house nearby where the groom was getting ready with the groomsmen before they drove to the hotel in a Land Rover decorated with ribbons. During our pre wedding meeting, it became clear that some outside shots were important to Lisa despite the late ceremony so she made sure that she and the flowergirls were all ready in plenty of time to go out for some posed shots. We had to lock the groom in the bar to make sure that he didn’t catch sight of the bride but I think he was not complaining. The late afternoon light was gorgeous and we got some beautiful shots of Lisa making use of the steps to show off the train on her dress.
The theme was black and white so Lisa added a little black shrug to complete her outfit and the Orangery looked very dramatic, especially as it was dark outside. For some of the wedding photography, we set up some lights in the Coat of Arms room so we could take some portraits using the columns which looked very classic and elegant. Our coverage finished with some shots of Peter and Lisa cutting their white chocolate cake from Choccywoccydoodah in Brighton.
Winter Weddings
Thursday, December 18th, 2008As we are coming to the end of 2008, it is time to look back on a very busy year. This was my 18th year of being a photographer and the 8th that I have been a wedding photographer in Sussex. This was one of my busiest years and I am very glad to have Clare as second photographer and now our two newbies, Susanna and Julie. We all had a lot of fun (and a fair few cocktails!) this week at The Ginger Pig in Hove for our Christmas do. We are looking forward to doing a two day shoot for the Gingerman restaurants and January which will include shooting the food, yummy!
This is our busiest winter for weddings and I am thinking that couples are getting a lot better value at this time of year, although it can be a challenge with the weather and the lack of light. We have still got one more wedding to do at the Pavilion before Christmas and have just taken a booking for a civil partnership on the 30th. We will then be shooting more weddings in January than we have ever done and in February we will be at wedding fairs in Buxted Park and The Royal pavilion.
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Sussex wedding / Zoe & Edwin’s Wedding at Newick Park
Monday, September 15th, 2008Zoe is an editor at Wedding magazine so although I was very flattered that they chose me as their wedding photographer, the pressure was on. However I was expecting this would be a very inspirational wedding and I wasn’t disappointed. The outdoor ceremony that they had planned was impossible due to the rain but as the house is stunning it didn’t feel any sort of let down. There were lots of pretty little tin birds everywhere and they also adorned a huge indoor tree with guests names on cards informing them of their table. The tables were all named after birds and each guest had a beautiful flower cookie at their setting. There were so many little touches and details that I managed to shoot three rolls of film just on the still-lives before I went up to the bride’s room.
The dress and headpiece was by the very fabulous Brighton designer, Sarah Arnett and made Zoe look like an incredibly chic 1920s starlet. Luckily we had enough gaps in the rain to do some outdoor shots. However I was very glad that I brought my umbrellas as they tied in with the theme thanks to their birds and are quite colourful. The staff at Newick park are very skilled at making you feel at home and it was as if Ed and Zoe were just hosting a glamourous country house party. As they had quite a few guests they had the wedding breakfast in both the dining room and the library. Instead of a top table, there was a table for two set up in each room so the bride and groom started dinner in one room and then moved. I thought this was a very romantic way of solving that problem and none of their guests felt left out.
Hopefully the photos will feature in Wedding magazine soon but meantime I have another real life wedding in the current issue featuring a very colourful wedding at Buxted Park.
