It’s been a while since we took wedding photographs at The Saddleworth Hotel. We mostly shoot weddings in the UK, Derbyshire and Cumbria and as far South West as St Ives. So we were having wedding in Saddleworth on our doorstep. The Saddleworth Hotel has changed a lot and is quite a grand place, the grounds have always been great for photography and now the interior is great too.
Lyndsey and her bridesmaids were getting ready only a few minutes walk away from us. Well on a normal day it would only be a few minutes but it was Whit Friday and if you know anything about Saddleworth you will know that most of the main roads are closed to accommodate the many thousands of people that come to watch the annual brass band competition. (“Brassed Off” with Ewan McGregor and Pete Postlethwaite was filmed in Saddleworth on Whit Friday).
Crowds negotiated, we met Lyndsey and Lisa, the Chief bridesmaid, cooly sipping Champagne. They left us to photograph and film the lovely dress and shoes (complete with lucky coin, that Lyndsey kept in her Kurt Geiger shoes all day) whilst they chatted with the other bridesmaids in the lounge. After we shot the rest of the preparation images it was off to The Saddleworth Hotel to catch Andy the groom and party enjoying the atmosphere in the grounds.
The ceremony was taking place in the pergola outside, it’s really nice to take photographs here as you can walk all the way round and use the sunlight and use the gardens as a background. Lyndsey was walked up the aisle by her brother to the accompaniment of two very good guitarists who we recorded, one of them Jake is in a band to watch out for called The Gramotones . This will make a great background track to the DVD.
After the ceremony we had some time with them. We grabbed a bottle of fizz and had a walk round the grounds, ending up in the woods. For the techie amongst you these shots were taken with a long lens using off camera flash with a warm up gel and shot through a small Lastolite umbrella for backlighting.
After the meal and the speeches, they key gag was hilarious as was the swimming on the glass walkway. The evening guests arrived to witness the first dance, and as it was a local wedding it was great to see some familiar faces.
Andy and Lyndsey are now off to Thailand and various other far away places, hope you have a fab time, your wedding was great!