WETHELE MANOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER - NICKY + RICH

Nicky + Rich got married at the awesome Wethele Manor, right smack bang in the middle of the Warwickshire countryside. The wedding was right up our street, it was relaxed, fun + completely based around who Nicky + Rich are… PARTY ANIMALS. With plenty of festival references + quirky details, it was featured on Style Me Pretty earlier this week. You can view the feature here.

Vendor Details:

Dress: “Anna” – Pronuptia
Suit: Formal Affair
Bridesmaids Dresses: “Victoria Jane” by Coast
Rings: “Stone” – Jewellery Quarter
Brides shoes: “Irregular Choice: Mini Magic”
Flowers: Bouquet designed by Steve Betts, Urban Design (thirdrockdesign.co.uk)
Sunflowers: Provided by a family friend and arranged around the farm by brides Mum, Aunties and Bridesmaids (all 300 of them!)
Button Holes: Steve Betts, Urban Design
Cupcakes: DIY by Nicky’s Mum and friend, Annika
Welshcakes: “Fabulous Welshcakes” (www.fabulouswelshcakes.co.uk)
Lawn Games: First Class Leisure (www.firstclassleisure.co.uk)
Bunting: DIY by Grooms Mum + Marilyn
Origami birds: DIY by Groom’s sister
Classic Minis: Provided by two “Mini Clubs” in Leamington called “Mini Massive” (www.minimassive.co.uk) and “Medievil Mini” (www.medievilminis.co.uk)
String Quartet: “Bowjangles” (www.bowjangles.org)
Lanterns: Ikea!
Cake: Tracy Conod at Icing Heaven (0121 357 1430)
Band: “Mr Ben” (www.mrben.com)

Q: How did you both meet?
A bit of a controversial meeting place for some, but we met each other on a dating site on the internet. We found each other, chatted on line for sometime, realised we had loads in common, met face to face, had a lot of laughs and fell in love….

Q: Describe the proposal…
Well, poor Rich had a tough time pinning my Dad down to ask him, but once he did, we went on a road trip around Cornwall. He took me to see a play at the Minack Theatre (the most beautiful open air theatre carved into the rock face overlooking the sea). At midnight on our way home, at midnight, we stopped on Porthcurno Beach to have a glass of wine (out of some plastic wine glasses sat on our picnic mat) and asked me to marry him… it was so romantic!

Q: Did you have any intended theme or colour scheme for the wedding?
Kind of… we wanted a fun, festival theme with sunflowers. Colours were mostly ivory with teal, yellow and some brown, but it was generally quite a colourful day.

Q: What “caught your eye” when choosing Wethele Manor as a reception venue?
The beautiful barns, space and relaxed atmosphere. The owners, Simon and Rebecca were lovely and extremely helpful, supporting all our plans and ideas.
We didn’t particularly want to get married in a church, or hotel, but wanted the ceremony in a cosy room with some atmosphere and history… the converted barn was perfect!

Q: What was the most memorable part of the day?
The ceremony, followed closely by listening to Bowjangles & seeing the cake!

Q: What was your favourite wedding purchase?
I loved my dress, shoes, flowers, the boys’ suits, the cake… everything!

Q: How did you choose your photographers?
We were looking for a photographer with a modern, cool, funky style, who could do more traditional shots as well. We found Chris and Dani on the internet. We loved their style and pictures, met them and booked them straight away!

Also on the day there are always some stressful moments. Dani and Chris were always there, helped us relax and eased any stress right away and that help was invaluable!

Q: Any advice for future Brides + Grooms?
Unless you are very lucky indeed, not everything will go exactly to plan (even the things you’ve spent weeks/months organising). Try to see the bigger picture and don’t worry about the small things, it’s you as a couple that count and try to make sure you have a little time out together too, appreciate being together as a newly married couple and look back on the experiences of the day.

Also, if you do choose to book Dani and Chris, make sure you book their silly space too! Everyone thought it was hilarious! Also, not everyone wants to dance, so it entertained the others all night!

Q: Could you give us a summary of your wedding day in as much detail as possible?

I stayed at Wethele with my Mum and sister, Kirstie after having a pre-wedding meal with all the bridesmaids, Mums sisters, and some of my Aunties.

We had a wonderful breakfast and set off to work. The ceremony wasn’t until late afternoon so everyone worked extremely hard arranging the sunflowers, paper cranes, butterflies, fairy cakes etc. The guests arrived at 2.30 for a tea party which I heard went brilliantly despite some showers!

Meanwhile Rich, his best men and ushers all got picked up in a convoy of old minis to take them to Wethele. Rich didn’t know anything about this as I had arranged it all. Rich and his friends used to all own minis, which they regularly drove around Cardiff in convoy. This was years ago, but Rich has always had a special place in his heart for his late mini, so it was a great surprise for them all. Unfortunately they parked around the back, so many guests and I never got to see them… but as I said, not all goes to plan, and the photos were fab!

My brilliant friend Liz did a great job calming me down and doing my make up, and my Mum who had been ushering the guests into the ceremony room (as the ushers were late) finally came up to do my ribbons on my dress.

Seeing my Dad for the first time when I was in my dress was amazing, we walked though the rain together and down the isle to the Flower Duet played by the string quartet to where my handsome Rich with all my wonderful family and friends were there waiting. The ceremony was very intimate and beautiful. Two of our close friends, Claire and Brendan, read poems (one about paining love, and the other being “Us Two” from Winnie the Pooh!). I remember every minute of it and was my favourite part of the day.
As we walked out of the barn together, the sun shone with everyone blowing bubbles which we had instead of confetti which was awesome, with some yummy nibbles and champagne.

We got all the group shots done just before the heavens opened. We all rushed into the Marquee where Bowjangles performed, the guests mingled and champagne flowed.
The meal was wonderful. Followed by the cutting of the most amazing cake ever. It was heart breaking to cut but I’m glad we did as it was absolutely delicious – each layer was a different flavour; fruit, chocolate mud cake and madeira!

We popped out to have some photos as the sun went down and came back for pudding, and speeches which were absolutely hilarious.

Rich and I took some time out outside under the lanterns and fairy lights whist the band set up to play.

I’ve got to say that our first dance was shocking, however, our friends soon joined us and most never actually left the dance floor apart from to get a few funny pics in the silly space set up in the marquee. Rich wanted a band, and I wanted good music that everyone knew, could dance to and wasn’t too old & cheesey. Mr Ben were excellent, and played tracks from Kings of Leon, Killers, The Jam, Green Day etc etc.

At the end of the night somehow I ended up without the underskirt to my dress, with a big smile, some fairy wings and wellies, attached to the most amazing husband I could ever wish for. It was the end of a perfect day.

If we ever quit being wedding photographers, we’re gonna start a band just so we can call ourselves “The Golden Origami Swans”.

So a few months before the wedding, we met up with Nicky + Rich to have a chat about their wedding plans in more detail. One of their main photo requests was for a shot of the string quartet, which we get asked to do quite frequently but not with as much enthusiasm as they did. We totally understand why a couple get excited about their string quartet (after all, they’re usually the ones setting the mood + atmosphere for the main event), so we didn’t ask any questions. It wasn’t until we rocked up on the day that we understood why the string quartet would be such a good photo opportunity. We HIGHLY recommend “Bowjangles”!