Chloe and Ben had one of those properly relaxed winter weddings at Curradine Barns.
Ben was definitely the quieter of the two. Chloe had enough personality for both of them.
She also has a brilliant tell when she’s really happy. Her face basically turns into a full-on scream.
She can’t control it.
Once you notice it in the photographs, you start seeing it everywhere. Coming out of the ceremony, during the speeches, on the dance floor. It makes photographing somebody considerably easier when absolutely none of their reactions need encouraging.
Add Christmas, a warm barn, a very cold December afternoon and a dance floor that properly got going later on, and there was plenty to work with.
Everything happened at Curradine, which makes the start of the day pretty straightforward.
Chloe got ready upstairs with everyone around her while Ben had a much quieter build-up downstairs.
That difference between them comes through quite nicely in the photographs.
There was plenty happening around Chloe, then one of the quieter moments came once she was dressed and her dad saw her properly for the first time.
From there, everyone headed down to the Granary Barn for the ceremony.
Curradine works particularly well in winter because you don’t need it to pretend to be a summer venue.
The Granary Barn is warm, dark and full of brick, which feels completely different once the daylight outside starts disappearing.
Chloe and Ben kept the ceremony relaxed, with plenty of laughing between the two of them before everything became official.
And then came the confetti.
Indoors.
Which in December is considerably more sensible than making everyone stand outside freezing while somebody attempts to throw damp bits of paper at you.
Chloe’s happy face made another appearance and they went straight back into everyone waiting to congratulate them.
Winter portraits work slightly differently.
You can’t take a bride outside in December and decide you’re going for a leisurely hour-long wander around the grounds.
She’ll be absolutely freezing.
So with Chloe and Ben, we grabbed photographs when the opportunity was there.
A few minutes outside, back inside to warm up, then another short set later when the light changed.
That’s why there are two separate runs of portraits from the day.
It wasn’t about constantly dragging them away from their guests. It was about using the winter light when we had it without leaving Chloe standing outside turning blue.
Curradine gives you plenty to work with without going very far anyway, so a few minutes around the gardens was enough.
Inside, the wedding breakfast had little references to places Chloe and Ben had travelled together.
Their tables were named after destinations they’d visited, which is where details like Jamaica came from.
It’s a nice way of making a room feel personal without covering every available surface in wedding decorations.
Then came the speeches.
I couldn’t tell you exactly what was said now.
Chloe’s face can.
There are a couple of reactions in this gallery where whatever was being said clearly landed, and they’re some of my favourite photographs from the reception.
That’s normally what I’m watching during speeches anyway.
Obviously I’ll photograph whoever is talking, but once you’ve got that, the interesting stuff is happening around them.
Someone trying not to cry. Someone absolutely losing it. Chloe doing the screaming-happy face again.
That’s the actual story of a speech.
Once the lights came down, Curradine changed completely.
The warm brick ceremony space from earlier became a dance floor full of coloured light, and this was one of those evenings where there was plenty happening once everyone got moving.
Chloe in particular wasn’t difficult to find.
The first dance rolled into everyone joining them, then later we disappeared outside briefly for a couple of night photographs beneath the festoon lights.
Again, it was December.
Nobody needed twenty minutes standing in the cold.
A couple of minutes was plenty.
The sparklers were something Chloe and Ben had planned for the evening, and they work particularly well at winter weddings because it’s actually dark early enough to use them without waiting until half the guests have gone home.
So that’s where we finished it.
Sparklers outside Curradine, everyone gathered around them, and Chloe looking exactly as delighted about the whole thing as she had all day.
