Wedding Photographer Wentworth Castle | Shelley and Damian

This year we've photographed weddings at several new venues including being Wentworth Castle wedding photographers for Shelley and Damian.  On the day we met up to recce the venue, it was blazing sunshine and on the wedding day it wasn't!  The forecasters had predicted a pretty dismal day and we were prepared for getting wet. However, when we arrived for Shelley's getting ready photos, the welcome she and her bridesmaids gave us more than made up for the forecast.  

We went to find Damian and his attendants who all looked very smart in their dark blue suits.  We just managed to get the boys' photographs in the bag and get back to Shelley when the drizzle started, meaning this beautiful bride's walk to the ceremony with her proud dad was under an umbrella.  As West Yorkshire wedding photographers, we always have to have a Plan B for when the weather lets us down and we thought that this would be a day when we'd have to resort to it, but sometimes you get lucky!  We were very lucky that the rain had stopped by the time the civil ceremony had ended and it meant that we got outside and quickly completed all the group photos the couple had asked for, with the bonus of some fun shots too.  

There are lots of lovely backdrops for Wentworth Castle wedding photography and Shelley and Damian already had some ideas of their own for where they'd like some of their photographs taking.  We too had a one or two areas we definitely wanted to use for some arty images but as is usually the case, once we'd finished the group photographs, there was only enough time left before the wedding breakfast to use a couple of these locations and we had to postpone the rest until later.  It's quite a hike to get to where we wanted to work so a golf buggy was on standby.     

Maddie, Shelley's beautiful horse, had been invited to the wedding as a surprise for everyone and we were looking forward to meeting her and to photographing her with Shelley, but as the wedding breakfast got underway, the rain started and it absolutely bucketed down.  It was so heavy that we thought it might mean that Maddie didn't come after all and also that Shelley and Damian might abandon their plans to have photographs taken around the castle ruins.  The forecast said that it would rain until 8 pm and then stop.  Great - at least it was going to stop but how much light would we have left to work with after 8 pm on such a dull and overcast day?  Not much!  

Maddie did arrive quite a bit later than planned and it was still drizzling but Shelley was absolutely delighted to see her and we suspect that most people watching felt a bit emotional seeing the two of them together.  Maddie has arthritis and finds it difficult to walk far but she did enjoy a tipple!  She didn't object to Shelley, in her wedding dress, climbing on her back and we were over the moon to have such a fabulous photo opportunity.  We know that Shelley's friends went to a lot of trouble to make Maddie look perfect, braiding her hair and tail three times in the wedding colour scheme before they were happy.  

By now the rain had stopped but it was blowing a gale and we were rapidly losing the daylight.  It was a case of now or never and we decided to go for it.  Damian drove Shelley, the two of us and our gear in the golf buggy up to Wentworth Castle to grab some of the photo opportunities we really wanted to take advantage of.  Despite soggy grass and strong winds, the couple were fantastic and happily worked with us to get some gorgeous images before we lost the light altogether and returned to the evening party.

A huge thank you Mr and Mrs Green for the privilege of being your photographers, for taking the weather in your stride and for being such a pleasure to work with.

If you were a guest, you might like to leave a comment and if you are interested in our services for your wedding, you can see more on our Yorkshire Wedding Photographer website.  You can also find us on Facebook.

All images are the copyright of Alex & Janet Durasow.