Someone, somewhere said that the weddings you shoot at the beginning of your wedding photography career define the the type of client you end up shooting for the rest of your career. Well, Mark Tattersall must have shot some pretty cool, gorgeous, creative brides at the very start of his wedding photography career, because, each time I feature a wedding of his, they are flippin' drop dead gorgeous! See here, here, here and here for example!
The bride in these gorgeous images is Lucy - she runs design company called Lucy Says I Do. Lucy married her beau Paul on 25th August this year with a ceremony at Oakham Castle, followed by a glorious garden party wedding in Paul's parents garden, and these photographs so exquisitely capture the joy, colour, celebration and love that was so evidently in abundance on their beautiful wedding day. This wedding fills my heart to it's very brim.
"The inspiration for our wedding was pretty simple really, it was
the celebration of love, life, family and friends. Having already been
together for ten years, we are very lucky that our families and friends
get on really well together, so the wedding was about celebrating the
time spent with those that help make you the person you want to be..."
Love My Dress Wedding Blog - Photography Copyright (c) 2012, Mark Tattersall
"Paul’s parents were kind enough to let us use their garden for our
reception, in Whissendine, Rutland. We hired a traditional style
marquee, and his parents were also kind enough to give us free reign
over what happened to their garden in the year leading up to the
wedding. This included fencing off some of their field, to let it grow
out into a wild meadow! It was lovely that we got to celebrate such an
important occasion at the home Paul has grown up in since he was little.
The setting of the garden is beautiful, surrounded by huge trees, with a
view of the village windmill."
"I love flowers and wanted them to feature heavily throughout the
day. In terms of the cut flowers, I didn’t want anything too structured,
I wanted blousy but delicate, punctuated with intricate details and
touches of wildness. I had planned on doing all the flowers myself but
after a reality check from my mum I realised that I just didn’t have
enough time if I wanted to be able to enjoy the day. We ordered all our
cut flowers through Pollen
in Oakham and Liz the owner was really helpful with my unusual
requests.
Liz made all the bouquets and buttonholes and my bridesmaids
and I arranged all the other cut flowers ourselves. Some of my
favourite elements of the bouquets and table flowers were the
blackberries and Astrantia."
"I always knew I wanted to wear flowers in my hair, and have
lots of braids. I have such a lot of hair that it was a good way of
containing it, whilst still looking pretty! I commissioned a floral
headpiece from Pollen in Oakham and chose flowers similar to those in my bouquet.
My sister did my make-up, after a disastrous make-up trial at one
of the big brands! My bridesmaids, my mum and I had our hair done at Crème in Oakham. They were fantastic!"
"I booked a number of wedding dress appointments when I first started looking for my dress, but once I visited Jane Bourvis's
incredible atelier, I knew I had found what I was looking for. Jane is
an extremely talented Artist, and a really lovely lady, and her atelier
is not your average dress shop. It is a treasure trove of beautiful
delicate pieces: hanging Edwardian lace, Victorian wax flower head
pieces, antique ballerina tutus, it is amazing.
After lingering over one
very beautiful piece of oyster Edwardian lace that was not quite a
dress yet, Jane pinned the lace to my shape and I fell in love with it. I
hadn’t planned on wearing a veil, but when Jane showed me one of her
delicate lace veils, the details and intricacy won me over. Over the
next few months I went back to see Jane and she made a number of
adjustments and additions, until it was perfect."
"My sister (one of my lovely bridesmaids) and I designed
the bridesmaids’ dresses together. We wanted the dresses to be
feminine, summery, and I wanted the girls to feel really special wearing
them. We designed a shape to suit everyone, chose special fabric to fit
the shape and style of the dress, then we drew the print, opting for a
wild English country garden feel to match the venue. We then got the
fabric printed and with the help of some fabulous tailors, had the
dresses made.
The ladies at Finiks are two of the loveliest people I’ve
ever met and they are incredible talented tailors. I was thrilled with
the results - completely original and so very personal. We even used the
print from the bridesmaids’ dresses on the wedding stationery, paper
flags and signs."
"I run a design company called ‘Lucy Says I Do’
that specialises in customised paper goods and design, so I had a lot
of fun designing bits and pieces for our wedding. Paul and I designed
our invitations together and I loved how they turned out. Full of
personal elements, they were like a little story of us.
With help from
our wonderful family and friends we made all of the wedding paper goods;
save the dates, invites, confetti bags, menus, signs, paper flags,
tissue garlands, table numbers, guest note cards, table plan, cake
flags, napkins, labels and thank you cards."
"The two bridesmaids with long hair, had updo’s with little flowers
and berries (spray roses, astrantia, blackberries and wax flowers)
pinned into their hair. The flowers were put together by Liz from Pollen. The two bridesmaids with shorter do’s wore little gold botanical clips that I found on Etsy."
"We found a lovely fitted blue suit in Reiss that Paul and the ushers wore. The suits were tailored to fit and looked really smart."
"So that our guests got to appreciate the flowers as well as get a
bit creative, we set up a ‘make your own buttonhole table’ outside our
ceremony, with fresh flowers, foliage, ribbons and pins. It was great to
see what everyone came up with, people really played with the idea,
wearing them in their hair, and on their wrists, and it was lovely that
everyone got to appreciate the flowers."
"As our guests arrived at the reception they were offered
prosecco or elderflower cordial (which Paul had made earlier in the
year). I wanted people to have a bit of fun with the prosecco so we made
what became known as the ‘pimp your prosecco table’, we had Chambord
and St Germain that could be added to prosecco, as well as peach juice,
blackberries, fresh mint and rosemary. This was a big hit!
We sourced all of our own alcohol and even had a cheeky tribute
to my roots with an award winning white wine from New Hall Wines, an
Essex vineyard. It was so good that our guests kept coming up to us and
saying they couldn’t believe it was from Essex! Paul and I also
collected sloes from his parent’s garden, the autumn before the wedding,
and we made loads of sloe vodka."
"We both love cake, and the idea of choosing just one was too hard!
We also loved the idea of getting our guests involved in our wedding, so
we asked our guests to bring a speciality cake of theirs. We had some
amazing cakes!
We set up a table in the marquee with lots of cake stands
donated by guests, and some we made from old candlesticks and plates,
as well as special wooden ones that were made by my granddad especially
for the wedding, they were really beautiful! The cakes went down a
storm with our guests, and there was nothing but crumbs left by the end
of the evening!"
"As soon as I saw the images from Charlie of the Natural Wedding Company’s wedding, I knew Mark Tattersall
was who I wanted to take our wedding photographs. I loved the way he
captured colours, expressions and the light, and I thought his photos
really encapsulated the essence of the English countryside, which was a
big part of our wedding. Mark was fantastic, he is such a lovely man,
friendly, gentle and unassuming, and I am so happy with our photographs!
Paul and I are both big nature lovers and having seen some
stunning outdoor wedding photography, I was inspired to make the most of
the glorious natural surroundings and get some portrait shots that
captured our personalities. Paul and I drove around the area a few days
before the wedding and found a couple of our favourite spots, which we
then visited with Mark Tattersall after the ceremony. I love the photos
that Mark took during this time, they are some of my favourite from the
day. I will admit that we had to hide in the car for 10 minutes before
getting these pictures as it poured with rain, but it was lovely to have
some quiet time with Paul!"
