Lyde Court, Herefordshire. Charlotte and James' beautiful day...
Charlotte and James
Lyde Court, Herefordshire.
I don’t know what it is about weddings in Herefordshire but they invariably turn out to be utterly wonderful events to be a part of and Charlotte and James’ June wedding at Lyde Court, Hereford was no different.
Herefordshire is home to three of my favourite venues… Lemore Manor, Dewsall Court and of course Lyde Court. Now, I haven’t been back to Lyde in a while… since Hollie and Chris’ wedding to be specific, but I am pleased report that it is still utterly butterly!
My day started out at Charlottes family home near Ledbury where I met with Charlotte, her three wonderful Bridesmaids, her Mom, their lovely Dog and Kate Kelvin, Charlottes Hair and Make Up Artist (and Make Up Artist to the stars… check her out… she is awesome!). Oh, and I mustn’t forget the blow up Unicorn that keep trying to make a desperate dash for freedom but alas didn’t have the puff to do it…..
And then it was a quick dash over to the small (very small) village of Munsley for the married ceremony.
Now, every now and again the gods of candid wedding photography will decide to shine one me, giving me an image that I just adore… and the following shot is one of those moments. I don’t know why I love it so much…. I just think it is just a quintessentially rural English wedding photograph.
And once married, it was time to make our way over to Lyde Court to start the party.
After a quick welcome toast it was all about the fun. Some great speeches, a very cool band (can you call two musicians a band..? I’m not sure…..) and some lovely evening light (more about that later).
So, as I mentioned earlier I am a big fan of the quality of light we get in the evening. I don’t mean ‘Golden Hour’… that’s a bit of a limiting phrase to me. I just mean that light you get when the sun starts to fall all the way through and past the time it sets (which someone will probably tell me is the very definition of Golden Hour!)
Lyde Court is in my very humble opinion a perfect place to take advantage of that light. The gardens, whilst wonderfully well looked after have a fabulously wild nature to them which I love and consequently if I can I would always choose to shoot a few portraits here later in the day given half a chance…. as Charlotte, James Kindly did….
I had been looking forward to shooting this wedding from the very moment that C&J asked me to be a part of their day and am really proud of the images we produced. I felt totally at ease in their company from the very minute we met and throughout the whole process of planning and shooting the day. I can’t thank them enough for being so easy to work for… for letting me just get on with it… and for being generally ace.
I also want to give a big thanks to Charlottes Mom for welcoming me into her home, to the awesome Bridesmaids and Groomsmen for all their help and to Lyde Court for kicking some serious butt.
What a day!
Images © John Colson