An Army Wedding. I arrived at the hotel where I was greeted by two white signal soldiers. They were there for the wedding and were dressed in their sandbag uniforms discussing the best way to tie a tie. I was at the west lakes hotel Egremont, near Whitehaven Cumbria. Sitting at the most north west part of the lake district it has a some fantastic scenery. What used to be a thriving port town but has no longer any shipping works. A lot of people now work at the nuclear plant Sellafield.
I went straight through to the marquee where the reception was taking place to photograph the room, table settings and cake. There was a vintage theme that ran through all of the decorations. With glass jars with lace and ribbon wrapped around them with English flowers in them as the centre pieces. The wedding cake was very simply decorated.
The bride was getting ready upstairs in one of the hotel rooms with a big four poster bed. She had her flower girls and bridesmaids helping her. This gave me the perfect time to get some portraits of the bridal party before we headed to church. I got a lovely photograph of the bridesmaids fastening up the wedding dress and a photo of the bride pinning her fathers button hole on his suit. The wedding car was an old red VW camper van that fit in with the whole vintage decoration.
There was a lot of wedding guests already in the church. The groom was greeting the guests and looked very calm. He was dressed in full uniform with all his awards and medals on show.
The bride arrived and the service was lovely with a lot of personal touches. Their son was the ring barer. We got a really good confetti shot of the happy couple outside the church.
We did the group photos in the grounds of the hotel which look onto the fells. I took the bride and groom away for ten minutes to get some photos of the newly married couple.
I got some great photographs during the speeches during the best mans speech who was also the Grooms brother. He told a lot of funny stories from the grooms childhood.
During the speeches they had organised a magician to entertain the children which I thought was a brilliant idea.
I stayed on as I was booked to photographed the first dance. So in-between the speeches and first dance, I went round photographing the wedding guests enjoying themselves. Photographing them chatting and laughing which always make great photographs. The reportage photographs always help to tell the story of the day and really show the atmosphere.
I photographed some group shots during this time which were less formal and relaxed. It is a great chance to get a photo with a guest you would not typically have with the staged group photographs.
The party got underway and the dance floor was full.
North west wedding photographer
If you are getting married at Westlakes and need a Cumbrian wedding photographer please contact me.
