Miriam and Matt’s summer wedding in Cheshire was one of the hottest days of the year, absolutely glorious weather to be outside celebrating the marriage to two very special people who met 14 years ago on a family holiday in Turkey. This wedding was also a bit of a whirlwind for me personally, read on to find out more about that!
The morning began with bridal preparations at the wonderful Titanic Hotel which has some spectacular views overlooking the waterfront. The room was spectacular, some really nice features and plenty of space for everyone, and the sun was streaming through the windows too, which offered some amazing light and shapes within the room for me to film. During the morning Miriam also got some lovely heartfelt gifts from her family which she opened and I captured from a distance; some really emotional and candid moments.
After hair and make up was completed, it was time for Miriam to get into her dress, and what a stunning dress she had (see below), a Hermione de Paula piece with her wedding date and initials embroidered onto the sleeves. If you watched the film above, you’ll have seen just how amazing the dress looks when it catches the light, it just highlighted every detail and was so much fun to film. I know us creatives do bang on about light, probably far too much, but this is a great example of how much of a difference ‘good light’ can make to a scene or a shot.
Miriam’s Hermione de Paula dress.
Miriam had her initials and date embroidered onto the sleeves.
I had captured some lovely content for the bridal prep and was excited to see the church and get set up and meet Matt and his groomsmen party, the only problem was that as of 8am on the morning of the wedding I didn’t have the itinerary for the day, I didn't know where the venue was or the church. Yes, this is crazy, how could I not know this stuff I hear you say!
I was booked at 9pm the evening before the wedding!
Having spent the afternoon talking to Miriam and Matt, discussing their plans, making arrangements and finding out what was important to them with their film and their day, we signed the contract and were ready to go. So with that away I went to iron my shirt and get packed for the following day and cancel the plans I’d made for the weekend.
Luckily my batteries were charged, SD cards clean and ready to be used, lenses cleaned and bags packed as I had an early start on Monday for some other video work. Having everything ready to go incredibly useful, it saved time, ensured I wasn’t rushing and could spend that time with the couple and get to know them a little more so they feel comfortable on the day. They loved their film and so do I so everything worked perfectly! Ever since their wedding, every weekend regardless of whether I have a wedding or not, my kit, my clothes and I am ready to go at short notice!
So there I am sitting in my car, about to head to the church and there is an email from the lovely Charlotte Elise Wedding Planner, she gave me absolutely everything I needed to know and away I went to Liverpool city centre for the ceremony. It’s also worth mentioning here how great Charlotte was all day, cool calm and collected all day which can’t have been easy with me coming on board with less than 24 hours to go!
The ceremony was beautiful, Miriam’s mother walked her down the aisle, Matt was beaming from ear to ear, it was lovely to see the love shared with the couple and their families and friends. Following the ceremony, there were a mini drinks reception on the lawn at the church, then a short ride on a red bus to a boat that would take the wedding guests to the venue in Chester.
Myself and Emilie White Photographer took the couple for a portrait session in Chester, this was something we spoke about the day before, Miriam and Matt wanted a small part of their wedding to resemble the architecture from Denmark where Miriam’s family are from. So we picked a beautiful quiet little street in the centre of Chester that was perfect, so we spent 15 minutes capturing some beautiful candid shots of the two of them. I also love filming couple portraits during ‘golden hour’, this is the period of time between the sun setting and it going dark. The light during golden hour is as the same suggests, full of red and oranges tones and gives a really lovely warm feel to the footage. The light during golden hour is what we film nerds call ‘soft light’, this basically means that it makes you look super beautiful, the light is low and shadows are less pronounced and the edges are smoothed.
Golden hour portraits!
So the guests arrived at the venue by boat, greeted my Miriam and Matt on the jetty and to be honest, it was pretty epic! The receptions drinks soon followed and people mingled and enjoyed the summer sun before heading inside for the wedding breakfast and speeches.
Miriam is Danish, so naturally there were a few Danish wedding customs that formed part of their day, a brudevals (the bridal waltz) must be danced before midnight and the wedding party using scissors to cut the grooms socks, this is considered a really personal touch for Danish weddings.
The evening party followed with the first dance and some traditional Danish dances and music and finally some fireworks to end the night!
Looking back I had an great time filming this wedding, the weather was perfect and the light on the day was incredibly nice to us. Miriam and Matt’s down-to-earth, chilled out, elegant vibe to their day meant capturing them was a dream. There were so many elements to their day as well I think a special mention must go to Charlotte Elise, the wedding planner as well. This wedding was just a rollercoaster from being booked the day before to being taken back by the many moments of unadulterated joy, I felt privileged to have been a small part of it all.