Stourhead Wedding

We love Stourhead, every time we return we always see and experience something new. Siobhan & Graham’s wedding was held this May and the trees had just grown their new leaves. Stourhead is beautiful all the year round and so we always do our very best to capture the essence of the seasons when we visit.  Siobhan & Graham valued our landscape images as much as our documentary photography so it was important for us to produce some beautiful vistas for their story book.

The day started with a clear blue sky as we travelled to The Spread Eagle Inn for Siobhan’s bridal preparations.  She is very creative and had grown her own bouquet that was presented in a watering can.  Together with her bridesmaid they donned Timberland boots that put a whole new twist to day which was fun and informal.

We also met up with Graham (Stourhead’s wedding planner) during the preparations which is always a pleasure (as well as being a really nice guy he is also fab at keeping the day running smoothly).

After an hour or so Liz left me to complete the bridal prep images and met up with Graham (the groom) to follow his trip up to the Temple of Apollo where the ceremony takes place.  Liz is an expert at capturing the little moments and the nervous looks that you miss if you’re the bride!

After a short meeting with the registrars it was time for as to make our way up to the Temple!
If you’re not aware, at Stourhead the Wedding Ceremony takes place in the Temple of Apollo which is a 5 minute walk from The Spread Eagle. It’s a relatively steep path but guests can take the mini bus up if they would prefer not to walk.

After a lovely ceremony we all spilled out of the Temple into the bright sunshine where Graham and his staff were serving Asti, pork pies and other goodies to the newlyweds family and close friends.

Spanning part of the main lake is an iconic and listed stone bridge.  It’s generally closed to the public but if you’re getting married and you ask nicely you can have your photo on the bridge. It makes a wonderful picture but you really do have to have state of the art lenses to capture it well.  We carry pretty much everything so it’s no problem for me to get the images I want and for this wedding I tried a new composition with the Pantheon showing below the arches which I have included below.  After some family images on the bridge, I organised a little game to get some fab captured moments of the couples family before we left them to wander back to the Spread Eagle Inn.

This allowed us an hour or so to enjoy the gardens and create some portraits and captured moments that these guys will treasure forever.  We left Siobhan & Graham after sitting down to their wedding breakfast to cheers and claps for all our hard work which was really kind!

Thank you guys, you two are brilliant!

Venue:  Stourhead Gardens – http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stourhead/hire-this-venue/weddings/