Wedding Photography at The Grange, Hewish – Liz and Patrick Sneak Preview

Liz and Patrick – Wedding Photography at St Andrew’s Church, Banwell and The Grange, Hewish

I get to photograph so many beautiful weddings throughout the year. But none are better than the weddings of people who are really special to me. Liz is an old school friend and I couldn’t have been happier to be both a guest and the photographer for her special day. I have so many memories with Liz, we have danced throught the streets of Disneyland Paris, completed a very weird dance therapy qualification together and much of our misspent youth involved evenings in The Sea Palace, Pizza Hut and Sands drinking when we shouldn’t have been. Liz even had quite a lot to do with my husband and I getting together nearly eleven years ago now.

Arriving on the morning of her special day I was greeted by 8 bridesmaids, Liz and her mum and dad Moira and Peter along with her aunt, cousin, a makeup hartist and two hairdressers. Luckily Moira and Peter have a lovely big house so it wasn’t too much of a squeeze! Paddy had sent Liz a message in a bottle filled with sand. Breaking the glass is a good luck tradition in the Netherlands where Patrick is from. It was quite a sight to see Liz with her gorgeous hair and makeup in slippers and a dressing gown, with heavy duty gloves, hammer and bottle wrapped in a towel over a bin in the garden. Once the bridesmaids were in their beautiful gowns in shades of caramel, mint green and palest pink Liz started to get into her stunning Maggie Sottero gown that had been purchased from Rookery Bridal. I headed off just a Moira was finishing getting Liz into her dress so I could get to the curch ready for the guests arrival.

Patrick seemed extremely relaxed on arrival at the church and I captured some photos of his final preparations as guests started to arrive. The bride and groom made the sensible decision of telling guests that the ceremony was at 1. When infact it was at 1.30. A wise move as quite a number of guests toddled in after 1pm anyway. In a village like Banwell where parking for the church is near impossible, it’s likely that this wasn’t for any other reason than the fact they had to park miles away.

Liz arrived bang on 1.30 in a camper van with her Dad. A lovely personal ceremony that involved grass skirts and necklaces of flowers (The couple met in Hawaii) and pre-recorded music rather than hymns they stepped out in the sunshine to a cloud of confetti and a couple of photos with immediate family before we all moved onto The Grange in Hewish.

The Grange run by H-Coo Events The Grange, Hewish is a venue that I haven’t photographed before. Relatively new to the wedding industry, it is an old farm situated just off the A370 with the feeling of being miles from anyhere. A large marquee was the perfect choice for a relaxed wedding that included both unlimited ice-cream and booze. (What could be better…particularly when I was also a guest with a taxi booked to get me home!)

Once we had rounded up the bridal party we popped into an adjacent field that contains a fantastic old barn, that I could quite happily use as a backdrop at every wedding I shoot. We captured most of the shots of the bridal party and shots with parents in the shade of the barn before we rejoined the rest of the guests who were supping pimms in the sunshine.

Liz had put lots of effort into making their big day really unique. Favours were handpainted pegs, photos of the couple were on strings wrapped around trees, painted jars hung from the branches. They had a huge cork that guests could leave messages on. A sweet treat area with cupcakes and candy. Split Screen ice-cream provided unlimited ice-cream throughout the afternoon, served from a VW Beetle. Inflatable intruments were available for guests to play ont her dancefloor and there was a huge baket of flip flops for tired feet. Welcome drinks were served in handled jars with tiny ceramic clogs hung from the rim. And of course there was the free bar, another Dutch tradition that went down well with everyone!

Beautiful food was broken up with speeches from Peter, Patrick and his two bestmen between courses. And was ended with a serenade to the bride and groom by one of the bestmen on the guitar and he was joined by the 140 day guests and the evening guests who were beginning to arrive as the meal ended. A great way to end the daytime celebrations.

We started the evening with some larger group shots and Liz tossed her bouquet into the crowd. I always enjoy a bouquet toss. You can see just quite how much everyone wants it. Love Jo’s technique of leap and knock the girl to the left out of the way. While Alice stands on the sidelines not joining in and Sam is in the background laughing. It looks like she is debating whether she should leap through the crowd or not. As always the bouquet wasn’t caught by any of the eager ladies, but by a child. (Generally it is caught by a man thrown in the air in a rugby style lineout or child, most of the time the women don’t get a look in.)

I photograph a large number of ex churchill school pupils weddings from all different year groups each year, but it’s quite rare to see so many familiar faces in one wedding. Great to see so many of my old couples. Luiza and Grant, Sam and Gary and Ruth and Ash along with huge number of guests who have been bridesmaids, bestmen and ushers at Churchill alumni weddings. It seems a large number of the suppliers are also ex pupils.

  Here is just a teeny tiny percentage of their images and a small sneak preview of their wedding day from Saturday 6th June 2015. Like the Interlace Photography Facebook Page to be updated when the rest of their images are online.

Suppliers from this wedding at Banwell Church and The Grange, Hewish:

Dress – Maggie Sottero – Chesney from Rookery Bridal

Venue – The Grange, Hewish

Flowers – Ivory Flowers (Xanthe Ivory…ex Churchill School)

Hair – Ruby Bisset from Jacaranda Hair  (Run by Liz Parsons…ex Churchill School)

Stationery – Sophie Titchener Design (Sophie Titchener…ex Churchill School)

Cake – Mummy’s Little Cakery

Mens Suits – Deanes of Cheddar

Makeup – Kelly Hooper at The Barn

Bridesmaids Dresses – DIY Dress

Ice-Cream – Split Screen Ice Cream

Photographer – Interlace Photography (Eleanor Cashman…ex Churchill School)

Are you looking for a wedding photographer at The Grange in Hewish? Get in touch to see more of our images from this venue.