Alanna & Jack’s Spring Wedding at Browsholme Hall & The Tithe Barn
If you’re making a list of photographs you’d like on your wedding day, I’d recommend whatever system Alanna and Jack used to get a chocolate Labrador included in their couple portraits. His name is Joey. If you’ve come here for the Ribble Valley scenery and the beautiful barn, those are both here too. I just thought you ought to know about Joey early on.
Alanna and Jack married in April at Browsholme Hall and The Tithe Barn, on one of those Lancashire spring days that looks suspiciously like summer. Blue skies, sunshine across the grounds and lovely light coming into the barn. I’m a recommended photographer at Browsholme, so I’m happy to advise on timings, portraits and where the light falls. I’d like it on record that the weather was entirely their own doing.
Getting married in The Tithe Barn
I love the light in The Tithe Barn. Those big windows and doors let in enough daylight to photograph people’s faces beautifully, and you still get all the warmth of the barn around them. It’s particularly lovely for a ceremony like Alanna and Jack’s, with their family and friends gathered in close.
While Alanna and Jack were getting married, Joey was lying in the aisle with his chin on the floor, keeping an eye on proceedings through the gap between them. I like to think he was delighted for them and simply saw no reason why that required him to get up.
I always think the walk back up the aisle must be slightly overwhelming. You’ve just got married, everyone you love is looking straight at you and now you’re expected to walk in a reasonably straight line. From my end, though, it’s wonderful. There’s the photograph of the two of you together, and all down either side there are people whose faces you’ll want to go back and look at properly.
Then come the hugs and drinks, which is a part of the day I like to give couples time to enjoy. You’ve invited all these people because you’d quite like to see them. It would be a bit much if the woman you hired to photograph the wedding immediately marched you off on a comprehensive tour of Lancashire.
A wander around the grounds of Browsholme Hall, with Joey
For Alanna and Jack’s portraits, a little wander around the grounds was plenty. I know Browsholme well enough to have somewhere in mind once I’ve seen what the light is doing, so they could spend a few minutes together in that April sunshine and get back to their guests. We had time for photographs of just the two of them and for a few with Joey, which feels like the correct number of Labrador family portraits.
Joey’s patience with the family photographs eventually ran out. I had everyone together under the blossom when he decided he’d quite like a fuss and came straight towards me, tail wagging, still in his waistcoat. I love Alanna’s face in this one. I’d got everyone lined up beautifully and the best photograph was the one where the Labrador walked off. Fair enough. He also picked the person least likely to send him back.
Alanna and Jack, thank you for having me at Browsholme. It was a bloody lovely way to spend an April day. I hope you’ve found a favourite of just the two of you as well, if only so Joey doesn’t get ideas about whose wedding it was.
If you’re planning a wedding at Browsholme Hall and The Tithe Barn, I’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to. Send me your date, tell me a little about the two of you and, if you’ve already started that photography list, I’d quite like to see it.
