A Spring Wedding at Owen House Wedding Barn
There’s a photograph from Billy and Dominique’s wedding where Dom’s veil is flying out behind her. Just out of shot is her grandma, who threw it and then jumped out of the way in time for me to take the photograph. She nominated herself for the job. I feel that’s worth making clear before anybody gets the impression that my approach to wedding portraits involves asking people’s grandmas how quickly they can move sideways.
Billy and Dom got married at Owen House Wedding Barn in Cheshire in May. It was a lovely, understated day. One of my favourite photographs is simply the two of them walking hand in hand down the lane, Dom with her dress lifted just clear of her feet and Billy carrying her bouquet. The flowers look particularly good against his pale suit. I’m all for a groom getting a turn with the bouquet, especially when it suits him that well.
Getting ready at Owen House
I love the black-and-white photograph of Dom’s dress hanging up that morning. You see the shape of it first, then the line of buttons down the back and the lace that carries on into the train. In the photograph of Dom holding her bouquet, it’s the colour of the flowers that catches my eye. There are the soft pinks and creams, and then a properly punchy bit of coral. I’m glad there’s a photograph of Billy holding them too. Between them they’ve given me both outfit options to consider.
Two smaller portraits I’d keep are an earring going in and a tie being straightened. You see Dom’s face in profile as a hand reaches up beside it. In Billy’s photograph, he’s looking down while somebody adjusts his tie. They’re the kind of pictures that get more personal with time. Billy and Dom will know whose hands those are.
There’s also a little girl in a white dress holding her flowers out at arm’s length, looking considerably more interested in what’s going on in front of her. I like her approach. The flowers are in the photograph, which I suspect was the main requirement. Nobody specified where.
A veil with a little family assistance
Dom’s grandma came with us when we went out for the couple portraits. To get a veil to hang in the air behind someone, you’ve got a very small window between letting go of it and gravity taking an interest. Grandma understood both parts of the assignment, including the fairly crucial bit where she got herself out of the frame. Frankly, I’ve worked with people who do this for a living who’ve left an elbow in.
What I love about that photograph is that Billy and Dom get two things from it. They have the portrait itself, with the veil exactly where we wanted it, and they know whose idea it was to be standing just beyond the edge of it. I hope in years to come somebody tells Dom how beautifully the wind caught her veil and she gets to say, “That was my grandma.”
Evening portraits under the disco ball
Owen House has a couple of features you might struggle to guess from a photograph of a quiet Cheshire lane. One is that it sits under the flight path for Manchester Airport, quite close to the runway. The other is that tucked away at the venue is a room with a giant disco ball and a smoke machine. I know which of those is of more interest to the average plane enthusiast. I also know which one I can be trusted to lose all track of time with.
After the soft daylight outside, it was lovely to have a completely different setting for Billy and Dom’s evening portraits. A little smoke catches the light from the disco ball beautifully. The difficulty is that I enjoy the smoke machine, so the person responsible for deciding what constitutes “a little” is also the person least qualified to make that decision.
Billy and Dom, thank you for having me along. I loved photographing the two of you, from that quiet walk on the lane to the evening under the disco ball. And please pass my thanks on to your grandma. It takes a certain generosity to make a photograph that good and then very deliberately remove yourself from it.
If you’re planning a wedding at Owen House Wedding Barn, I’d love to hear what you’ve got in mind. Send me your date and tell me which photographs you’re already picturing.
