Michelle and Ashley married on a Thursday at Darrington church before celebrating at Rogerthorpe Manor. We've noticed that we are getting quite a lot of bookings for Yorkshire wedding photography on weekdays and we know that our friends at Rogerthorpe Manor offer some fantastic deals on all inclusive wedding photography packages. If you're looking for a lovely wedding venue, the best in customer service, friendly and approachable staff and delicious food, this venue is well worth a look.
We started the day at Michelle's parents' beautiful house which has a fabulous garden overlooked by a terrace. A perfect place for some bridal portraits, we thought, and so did Michelle's dad. Michelle was in her stunning dress a few minutes before we had to depart for church which meant that we could take some portraits of her. This was great and something we like to do but it doesn't often happen as things usually run late. It's a big bonus when everything comes together like this and Michelle looked amazing!
We arrived at Darrington church, had a chat with the vicar, Adrian, and then walked back to the gate to photograph Ashley with his attendants. Adrian is the vicar at several churches in the area and we know from experience that he has strict rules regarding photography during the marriage ceremony - from the back only! Although there are two of us and we always love to be able to capture beautiful moments from the front of the church and scene setting shots from the back, we always comply with the vicar's wishes and photographs from the back are better than none at all so this is where we stayed during Michelle and Ashley's ceremony.
The weather has kept us on our toes a lot during this "summer" and it did the same for part of the day, threatening rain which, thankfully, failed to materialise, allowing for a few family group photographs at the church door, followed by confetti at the gate and all the remaining important photographs outside at Rogerthorpe Manor before we went inside to document the details, the cake and the Cawthorne Suite in its Cadbury purple colour scheme all set up for the wedding breakfast.
Whilst the wedding party were enjoying dinner, we had ours in the Jacobean pub - the steak pie is delicious and one of the big bonuses of being wedding photographers at Rogerthorpe Manor.
When Michelle and Ashley re-appeared, we borrowed them for a few minutes more to get some lovely images of the two of them outside the hotel. This can be difficult earlier in the day because, of course, guests are mingling and there is a lot to cover in the time we have. We really enjoy this relaxed time spent with the couple - in fact, it's our favourite time on a wedding day and allows us to get creative.
We left Mr and Mrs Maeer with their guests and captured some informal pictures before Michelle and Ashley were called to the floor for their first dance and a balloon drop. We know that Michelle's sister, Louise, recommended us as she had been a bridesmaid for Laura, whose wedding to Steve we photographed a few years ago. She told Michelle that Laura and Steve's wedding photographs were the best she'd ever seen and we were very flattered. We're delighted that Louise did this for us and our sincere thanks go to her for the recommendation and to Michelle and Ashley for asking us to capture their big day.
