Dairy at Waddesdon | Leanne & Nick
Reportage wedding photography at The Dairy at Waddesdon
It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Waddesdon, near Aylesbury. The last time was on assignment for The Times newspaper. I think it was a story about the restoration of the gardens at the French chateau-like manor house, built by the Rothschilds. But that was some time ago… (see the end of this blog post)
But Leanne & Nicks’ wedding was at the Old Dairy, on the estate at Waddesdon. Now a wedding venue.
Most of my wedding bookings come from google searches, for reportage wedding photography and from word of mouth. Leanne found me via her best friend, (and bridesmaid), Emily – a very good photographer herself. I photographed her sisters’ London weddings in 2012 and 2017
Leanne said , in her first enquiry, that she had been watching my instagram page for some time. She also liked ‘the docu style..(we) hate the staged style of wedding photos. I would much rather enjoy the day and only have a small amount taken with a few couples snaps…” So, coverage begins, with Leanne getting ready with her mum and Emily. The ceremony would be a stone’s throw away, in the courtyard. The weather was warm, a few ‘threatening’ dark clouds but hot when the sun came out. The guests gathered, Nick got ready…Leanne practically dashed across the courtyard…the ceremony began.
Drinks on the terrace followed. Some dodging of the pesky wasps. Some games set out in the courtyard too. Then the wedding meal, in the West Hall. The dancing to follow, was in the Winter Garden – an orangery with a Roman sarcophagus. Even a bit of late evening sunshine appeared, for a few quick couple pics in a field, next to the car park…then over to the band!
Here are a few images from the day…
That old, creased, faded, worse for wear,cutting from The Times newspaper… (shot with a Canon EOS-1N, 17-35mm lens, with Fuji Superia colour print film — it’s that old!) I seem to remember spending ages taking pictures from the attic. In dusty rooms, off limits to the public.
And after Leanne saw the images?
” The photos captured are everything we wanted. Everyone having fun, dancing, joking, drinking and being in the moment with us. There were conversations, faces, reactions, animations of us and our guests we could have missed but instead have been captured brilliantly. Mostly our day was spent laughing and the photos show so well, even the couple shots where we could have been more romantic were lit up by our personalities and laughter
Thank you Martin for being everything we hoped for in a photographer, you made the process simple, pain free and most importantly stress free and have delivered the most beautiful memories we will cherish forever. “