Katie + Ross | Great Yeldham wedding
There are some weddings that go into my calendar that I just cannot wait to photograph, like fast-forward me to that day quick smart please!
From our first correspondence, including a phone call on speakerphone so everyone could join in, I had an excitable feeling about Katie and Ross’ wedding day, and I was not disappointed! Katie and Ross had booked a lovely barn wedding venue, the Great Barn, which is part of The White Hart at Great Yeldham in north Essex. I’d photographed there before (see that wedding HERE) which was an amazing experience, and Katie and Ross had got in touch as they’d seen my photos from that wedding.
Their day was mid-late September, and they’d been fortunate enough to receive the most wonderful weather on the tail-end of a pretty fab summer. It was sunny and warm all day and you’d think we were in July, so that made me very happy!
I photographed Katie and her girls getting ready, and it was a chilled affair with everyone being ready in plenty of time. The flowers were a little delayed due to some major traffic on the M11 but despite a little worry if they’d arrive in time, they did and everyone got their bouquets. As the girls were all ready I headed to deliver the buttonholes to the boys. Ross was incredibly excited but also fairly emotional – I love an emotional groom! – and to compose themselves the boys had been to the bar before guests arrived.
Katie was walked down the aisle by her grandfather, and everyone was feeling fairly teary as Katie approached Ross at the top of the altar, only for Ross (in what I can only imagine was an outburst of nervous energy) said “Hiya!” to Katie as if them meeting there was a complete coincidence! This really made everyone laugh and broke the nervous anticipation which so often accompanies wedding ceremonies.
After some readings and the formalities were completed, everyone headed outside to enjoy drinks and canapés in the sunshine. The venue had been decorated with lots of personal touches, including many photographs of the couple but also cameras were supplied for each guest to take an instant photo and add it to the table plan, which was brilliant.
Once our photos were out of the way, everyone sat down for dinner and then enjoyed some memorable speeches. Katie’s grandfather started the speeches, and this was followed by Ross’ groom’s speech, which was going swimmingly until he seemed unable to follow his notes and rather robotically spoke of his feelings for Katie – cue much hilarity – as he obviously intended to talk a little more freely and not just blurt the bullet points from what was written down. He was suitably embarrassed but was forgiven quickly, and this was eclipsed by his Best Man delivering an even more embarrassing speech about Ross’ many quirks. After the Best Man rounded his speech off with a somewhat risqué joke (kudos, you don’t get that very often these days), the new Mr and Mrs headed outside for a few more snaps before the sun went down.
Once the cake was cut and a few shots were consumed, the dancing commenced, and I was sad to leave the wedding that had lived up to all of my expectations! Scroll below to see a selection of shots from their day. More weddings like this please!
