Emma & Tim, Bishop's Stortford wedding photography

Hertfordshire wedding photography, St Barnabas Centre

Despite currently living in a city, Emma is a country bumpkin at heart and wanted something that came across as relaxed and not too formal to suit their personalities. She always wanted a campervan too –  something fun rather than fancy and searched for ages to find Molly the VW!
The wedding venue, St Barnabas centre (great location for wedding photography!) is 5 minutes from where Emma grew up – in fact one can practically see it from her parent’s house and she used to always dream of getting married there when she was younger. Emma loved the fact that the barn was a bit of a blank canvas for you to decorate how you want and there was plenty of space which meant it was perfect for getting people mingling.

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Emma wanted pinks and blues and felt they went well with the soft, natural theme that we were aiming for as these were romantic, dreamy colours. The wooden rustic theme was inspired by Emma’s love for the countryside and her dad was more than happy to help with this as he loves to do a bit of woodwork in his spare time!
“My mum passed away when I was younger and I really wanted to keep her with me during the day but wanted it to be subtle and personal rather than a huge statement. I was given the idea of wrapping a locket around my bouquet with her picture inside, and this was really meaningful to me. I always said that if our wedding day was sunny it would be her beams of happiness and if it was raining it would be her tears of joy – and we had both! J”
 
 
The outfits
 
The dress: A fitted ivory dress with a plunge back and delicate embroidery and a long train by Ronald Joyce. Emma is quite petite so she loved the simple fit, and the back of the dress was really the ‘wow’ factor! The embellishment added a subtle sparkle in the light and made it stand out and was a little bit different to other lace dresses I’d tried on. “I didn’t actually pick it out myself as on the hanger I felt the embroidery/embellishment was a bit too ‘fussy’ and I wanted something quite simple, but the lady and Fleur de Llys picked this out for me to try on and that was it – I had to have it!”
The couple used calla lilies, eucalyptus, sweet avalanche roses and rosemary as they wanted the bouquets to not look to ‘put together’ or perfect, but instead  wanted them to look like they had just been picked and bunched together  The colours added to the soft, romantic theme that they were after.
 
Tim wore a blue suit with a waistcoat and a baby pink tie to match the bridesmaid’s dresses. The button hole was made up of a sweet avalanche rose and eucalyptus.
 
The bridesmaids work baby pink multiway dresses to make sure that they had dresses that suited their style and shapes. She left it up to them how they chose to wear the dresses and was really pleased when they chose 3 different styles as it made their look more personalized.  They didn’t need any accessories, and their hair was also worn in different ways to reflect their own individual styles and look.
 
The reception
 
The reception venue was decorated with many homemade items: wooden logs cut by Emma’s dad, the flowers arranged by her godmother in jars decorated with hessian, lace and wooden heart buttons, hessian and lace bunting, pink and ivory pompoms, and old rustic furniture and suitcases found in Emma’s grandparents cellar! They also found a number of crates from markets and a small stepladder found in the grandparents garage. Emma’s dad also handmade a number of wooden signs, and a trough that we packed full of flowers.  They used baby pictures on the table name cards and luggage tags made out of Kraft paper to write our guests names on. The best find was an old wheelbarrow which they filled with beer to become a ‘beer barrow’! They also handmade the hessian table runners and went quite over the top with our sweet table… Emma’s auntie made 200 cupcakes that were put on sticks coming out of terracotta pots to look like bouquets and we filled a suitcase and jars with lots of retro sweets! They used mason jars for the reception drinks and added chalkboard labels on them for people to add their name too. They also had a photobooth in the evening which was a huge hit and it was so funny to look back at all the photos afterwards!
We wanted it to be fun and for people to feel like they could let their hair down! We didn’t want it to be too formal as I’m the most clumsy person I know and so it wouldn’t suit us if we had something too posh and fancy!
 
 
Special moments
 
“Apart from the ceremony, what was your favorite moment of the day? One moment that sticks in my mind is sitting down for our wedding breakfast and just looking around the room and seeing everyone we loved together in one room – it sounds corny but that really was amazing.”
 
My dad completely surprised me with our ‘father daughter’ dance. He wanted to distract everyone from his terrible dancing, and so created a slideshow of photos of me when I was younger which played to Abba’s ‘slipping through my fingers’ – It was so emotional and was definitely a highlight that I will remember forever!”
 
Emma’s advice to the brides. Enjoy the whole process – don’t stress over the small stuff and the planning is such a big part of the whole experience so make sure you enjoy every second of it. I felt so relaxed the whole day and even when the camper van broke down on the way to the church and a huge spider climbed up the train of my dress during the church service, I could only see the funny side!


Venue: St Barnabas Centre , Thorley
Florist: Margaret Kay
Dress: Esther by Ronald Joyce – bought at Fleur de Llys
Bridesmaids: Multiway dress from Debenhams
Groomswear: Suit with waistcoat bought from Slaters
Caterers: Premier Crew Hospitality

Cake: Made by Auntie Jane