Yesterday I photographed the wedding of Amanda & Chris at Halswell House in Goathurst, Somerset. It was obvious that Amanda had put a lot of thought and effort into creating a really elegant wedding day, from her gorgeous Ian Stuart wedding dress to the amazing floral displays and bouquets, the handcrafted table settings and favours, not to mention the fantastic wedding cake.
Before the ceremony I met up with Amanda and her bridesmaids – her friend Rachel, sister Diane and little niece Sydny. Amanda was being pampered and preened by the girls from Buff Urban Day Spa in Taunton and having a beautiful hairpiece fitted. I photographed some of the preparations and details before heading off to find the groom, Chris. He was surprisingly calm about everything and was getting ready by himself. It’s been a bit of a challenging last couple of months prior to the wedding as Chris’ job has given him the fantastic opportunity of working and living in New York, but until they were married Amanda wasn’t able to join him. This means that a lot of the final preparations had to be handled solely by Amanda – which she obviously did a stella job of!
The ceremony took place downstairs at Halswell House, in what is normally the dining room. Amanda made her grand entrance through the double doors to the rear of the room and met Chris in front of the fireplace, which was beautifully decorated with flowers, candles and wooden letters spelling out “I WILL”. The ceremony was quite an emotional one for Amanda and I could see Chris was struggling not to cry too – I love it when couples show emotion! They each took turns to read out the special vows they had written for each other and it was lovely to see that they’d each given a lot of thought to what they wanted to say to the other.
After the ceremony everyone enjoyed drinks and canapes in the house as it was a little bit chilly from the wind for everyone to go outside. That didn’t stop Amanda, Chris & myself from heading out for some couples portraits – although the wind did play havoc with Amanda’s veil! Soon enough it was time for everyone to make their way upstairs for speeches and the wedding breakfast. The speeches were great – with some unexpected photographs that embarrassed the groom courtesy of the two best men, Chris’ brothers Danny and Rob.
If you were a guest at Amanda & Chris’ wedding you can register to see the full picture gallery (after the bride and groom have seen them first of course!) by clicking HERE.
Suppliers: Dress: Ian Stuart from Wedding Days, Cheltenham; Cake: Rachel at Sweet Art World; Florist: G Lily; Hair & Make-up: Buff Urban Day Spa, Taunton.
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