Steph and Ciaran – Pulling out all the Stops at the Mill Barns, Alveley Wedding Photography

As wedding season is now well and truly over, I’m now at the part of the year where I’m starting to get enquiries from newly engaged couples following Christmas proposals. It’s great to be able to take a bit of a breather after a hectic summer and autumn, to look forward and plan, but also to look back and reflect. So in that spirit I want to share with you a set of pictures I took of Steph and Ciaran’s gorgeous wedding at Mill Barns.

Mill Barns is a gorgeous venue in Shropshire, and it’s one I know really well, as lots of couples from Warwickshire, Birmingham, and beyond choose to get married there. It’s easy to see why – it’s modern, well equipped, and set amongst a beautiful water feature that makes for some cracking pictures.

It was a real pleasure to shoot this wedding – Steph was a bridesmaid at one of the first weddings I ever shot many moons ago, and we carried on bumping into each other as she was a guest at many weddings I worked over the years. Of course, when that happens, I’m always hoping that the person might choose me as their photographer should they ever decide to tie the knot – and luckily Steph did!

Bridal prep for Steph’s own wedding was a bit different to our experience the first time we’d met several years ago. Back then, Steph and the rest of the bridal party had been knocking back the prosecco and sharing some wild stories while they got into their bridesmaid finery together. Fast forward a few years, and most of these same women are now parents of little ones – including Steph, who has two of her own – so while there was a degree of wildness, this time it was more due to the excited, dancing children in attendance than too much sambuca!

Steph had prepared a long time for their wedding and had booked a magician, a singing waiter, a bathtub especially for booze, big L-O-V-E letters – she’d really left no stone unturned in her hunt for brilliant suppliers, and it was wonderful to see how much thought she’d put in to all those finishing touches which made the day really great.

Unusually, Steph and Ciaran were both ready with plenty of time to spare, and so before the wedding ceremony I managed to take a few shots of a very relaxed-looking Kieran sharing some drinks and greeting his guests.

One of my favourite wedding moments to shoot is the moment when the father of the bride sees his daughter in her gown before the ceremony. It can be such a special part of the day and couples always ask me to be on hand to capture it – this wedding was no exception. As the time of the wedding crept ever closer, however, it became apparent that one very special person was missing – not the bride, but the bride’s dad! A few frantic phone calls later, and it turned out that he’d got lost on the way to the venue after following some badly signed diversions – he just made it in time though, and managed to sneak in to see Steph before she met the registrars. I’m so glad, because it’s always such a beautiful moment.

There was more emotion during the ceremony, as one of Steph and Ciaran’s daughters made her way through a touching reading supported by her parents. It was definitely a ‘no dry eyes in the house’ kind of moment.

Following the wedding ceremony, Ciaran and Steph were really keen to have a few group photos but wanted to get them done quickly so that they could enjoy their day with their guests. However, it seemed that word had got round about Steph’s sparkly bathtub full of booze, and the wedding guests were so busy getting stuck in that trying to get them involved in group photos was like herding cats…but we all know that’s how I prefer it anyway! It gave me a chance to get some informal shots of everybody relaxing and laughing together after the high emotion of the wedding ceremony.

One of the lovely finishing touches that Steph had arranged for the drinks reception was to have a singer  where the guests were mingling, and her young daughter especially appreciated this, climbing onto the singer’s lap, grabbing the microphone, and belting out a few words of appreciation to her family!

Then, as the bathtub booze supply dwindled, I did manage to capture some group shots of Steph, Kieran, and their families, before everyone headed inside for the wedding breakfast.

Steph and Ciaran had chosen to have a carvery and it’s always a delight to see plenty of merry wedding guests donning the chef’s hat and apron as they attempt to tackle the joint! It’s slightly more alarming when you see the size of the knives being waved around by some very merry people, but as far as I’m aware, no limbs were removed during the serving of the meal – a wedding win.

Steph’s final fantastic finishing touch was a singing waiter during the wedding breakfast– and I’ve rarely seen one go down so well! Everyone got involved in an impromptu wedding singalong – I think the bathtub booze definitely had something to do with it – and it was such a treat to capture this joyful, hands-in-the-air moment of Steph and Ciaran’s special day.

 

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