I’ve known Scott since school, so this one never felt like a normal booking.
There were quite a few old faces, plenty of catching up and considerably less polite small talk than I normally get at a wedding.
April and Scott held their ceremony outside on the lawn at Davenport House, followed by a drinks reception, speeches, live music and one very quiet photograph of April at the end of the garden.
April spent the morning getting ready upstairs with her bridesmaids.
There was no big rush. Hair and makeup were being finished, people were coming and going, and the morning gradually started feeling more like a wedding.
That is normally how bridal prep works. It begins fairly quietly, then suddenly somebody is dressed, the flowers have arrived and everyone wants to know where the last hour went.
April was calm throughout it. There were plenty of laughs with the bridesmaids, along with those quieter bits when everyone else was busy and she had a few seconds to take it all in.
Scott was getting ready over in the cottage with his groomsmen.
A bit more noise, a few nerves beginning to appear and the usual level of sympathy you would expect from a group of old mates.
Because I knew Scott and several of the people around him, nobody needed time to get used to me. It felt less like groom prep and more like catching up while remembering to occasionally point a camera at it.
Having everything at Davenport House also meant I could move between April and Scott without losing part of either morning to travelling between locations.
The ceremony was out on the lawn and it couldn’t have looked better.
April walked down the steps, across the grass and straight down the aisle. Behind her, Davenport House made the perfect backdrop.
No fuss. Just the building doing what it does best.
Scott held it together, but you could see the moment land when he saw her.
That entrance is one of the reasons an outdoor ceremony works so well here. April was visible from the moment she left the house, which gave me time to photograph her approaching and Scott waiting at the other end.
It was simple, outdoors and exactly how it should be.
After the ceremony, we headed around to the front of the house for the family photographs.
Nobody chooses Davenport House because the steps are useful for group photographs, but I definitely notice these things.
There is enough room to organise everyone properly, and the different levels mean I can see the people standing at the back. It sounds like a small detail until you are trying to fit an entire family into one photograph without lining them up across half the lawn.
Family photographs matter, but they do not need to take over the drinks reception.
We got through the groups April and Scott wanted, then sent everyone back towards the bar.
Just before the wedding breakfast, Davenport House gave us another useful window while the team seated the guests.
I really rate this part of the timeline. The guests are already occupied, the couple are not being pulled away from the drinks reception and we have enough time for portraits without disappearing for an hour.
April and Scott did not need much direction. I gave them enough help to stop them wondering what they were supposed to do, then let them settle into it.
One of my favourite photographs came from above them on the staircase.
There was nothing elaborate about it. I put them where the light worked, went upstairs and photographed them from above. The frame looked right, so I took it instead of spending another ten minutes faffing with something that was already working.
The speeches took place during the wedding breakfast and got the balance right.
There were plenty of laughs, some genuinely heartfelt bits and nobody held the room hostage for forty-five minutes. Always appreciated, particularly by the kitchen.
I spend as much time watching the guests as the person holding the microphone. Once I have photographed the speaker, the rest of the story is normally happening around the tables.
People laughing before the punchline has finished. Parents becoming emotional. April and Scott looking at each other because they both know exactly where a story is heading.
That is where most of the photographs from the speeches came from.
The band took over for the evening and went straight into the first dance.
April and Scott kept it simple. No elaborate routine, just the two of them in the middle of the room while everyone watched.
The band carried straight on afterwards and the dance floor filled quickly. By then, most people had stopped paying any attention to me, which made everything considerably easier.
Later in the evening, I spotted April standing at the far end of the garden.
She had taken her shoes off and was quietly watching the cows grazing in the field below. The band was still playing behind her and the wedding was carrying on at the house.
She had simply stepped away from it for a minute.
April was not posing and I do not think she knew I was taking the photograph. Shouting across the garden and turning it into a portrait would have ruined it, so I took the photograph before she noticed me and carried on.
It remains one of my favourite images from their wedding.
A bride standing barefoot and looking at some cows probably does not sound like the obvious highlight of a Davenport House wedding gallery.
The photograph is not really about the cows, though.
It is about April having thirty seconds where nobody needed anything from her.
No awkward posing. No staged moments. No turning your wedding into a photoshoot.
Most couples I work with want to spend the day with their people, not disappear for hours taking photographs. So I keep things simple. I document what’s happening, step in when you need me, and get you back to your wedding.
Big country house, registry office or somewhere in between, the job stays the same. Honest photographs of the people, atmosphere and moments that made the day yours.
Years from now, I want the photographs to take you straight back to it.