Iscoyd Park | Lucy & David

Iscoyd Park wedding venue

A weekend wedding at Iscoyd Park

Iscoyd Park, Shropshire*….well, although the postcode and google will say, Shropshire, it’s actually a stone’s throw over the border, in Wales. A Grade II-listed Georgian house, set in 750 acres of parkland. The border passes through the estate I’m told. In the same family for 200 years, time had played heavily on the house. The current owners restored and altered the house to become a splendid wedding and weekend away venue. A venue to hold a weekend of celebrations, with a wedding in the middle, with family and friends. Which is just what Lucy and David did.

Party the night before the wedding

The weekend of celebrations started on the Friday evening. Outside the April weather wasn’t too warm or even dry, so first, it was drinks in the library. (a bit of a squeeze) Then an informal hog roast dinner downstairs, before a ceilidh in the Garden room. So let’s start the coverage here, with just a few images from the Friday night…

Iscoyd Park detail
Bride at Iscoyd Park
Evening drinks at Iscoyd Park
Evening drinks reception at Iscoyd Park
Posing for a photo at Iscoyd Park
Ceilidh at Iscoyd Park wedding
Iscoyd Park wedding ceilidh

Reportage wedding photography at Iscoyd Park

So, Saturday, the wedding day. The plan was to hold the humanist ceremony outside, on the lawn. The question was, would the weather play ball? It was warmer than Friday but would it stay dry? The decision was taken to chance it…  The chairs were set out. It proved a good call. In fact, the sun broke through properly, just as Lucy and David were announced as husband and wife. It kept shining for much of the drinks (and cake cutting) in the gardens. It was still shining as everyone made their way into the marquee for food and speeches. In amidst the speeches and food, a “Happy Birthday” singalong for one wedding guest.

The evening moved to the Garden Room again and the dancing. This time with a band and some different moves to the ceilidh the night before. Here are a few images from this Iscoyd Park wedding…

Old painting detail
Setting ouit the ceremony chairs at Iscoyd Park
Bride putting on her wedding dress at Iscoyd Park
Iscoyd Park bride
Groom waits at Iscoyd Park wedding
Ceremony starts at Iscoyd Park wedding
Bride walks with her father to Iscoyd Park wedding ceremony
Iscoyd Park wedding
Wedding vows
Outdoor wedding ceremony at Iscoyd Park
Iscoyd Park wedding kiss
Iscoyd Park wedding photography
Married at Iscoyd Park
Cutting the wedding cake outside at Iscoyd Park
wedding reception at Iscoyd Park
Hug for the bride
Reportage wedding photography at Iscoyd Park
Iscoyd Park wedding
champagne
Bride and groom entrance into dinner
wedding speeches
Groom's speech at Iscoyd Park wedding
Iscoyd Park wedding first dance
Iscoyd Park bride on the dance floor

* Shropshire – ‘land of my ancestors.

I grew up believing my family was from Derbyshire and Cheshire (where I was born). But a chance comment from my grandparents, led me, some years ago, to a church near Shrewsbury. A brass plaque there, to my Great-great uncle, John, a volunteer soldier, who died out in South Africa, in the Boer War. Turned out that the Beddalls were from Shropshire. I’ve got a direct line now, that I’ve researched back to 1585. All in the same small area, near the Staffordshire border.

With a ceremony at 3 pm, once I’d backed up the images from the Friday and cleaned the cameras/lenses, I had a couple of hours on Saturday morning to zip around the villages, south of Market Drayton, where they had lived and died. Even today these places are small and the connecting lanes narrow – Cheswardine, Chetwynd, Sambrook, Hinstock and Edgmond. A brief chance to put images to these place names, from hours of looking at old census and parish records.

No stately homes, with large oil paintings of my ancestors on all the walls, such as there are at Iscoyd Park. These people were blacksmiths and agricultural labourers – no money, no big houses, no estates, no gravestones. Quite a contrast. All that is left, is your imagination when standing on the spot where they lived. Like the small cottage, beside the Shropshire Union canal, where James and Mary Beddall lived in the nineteenth century. Grandparents to that soldier. Who had married at the local church on Christmas Day in 1839, with James dying of typhus fever, twenty years later. Mary kept the family going (at least seven children) working as a washerwoman. No cottage there now, replaced by a modern house, on the same spot. No images of them either…Photography was then only just beginning

If I could time travel with my camera…

7 Comments

  1. Dom Whiten says:

    Brilliant work, as always, Martin! Lovely wedding and equally cracking photos – crisp, clean colours and your black & white shots always look superb. Lucy & David must be really happy with these.

  2. Really lovely work Martin. Such a great collection of moments. Bet they love their photos!

  3. What a fabulous wedding. All the feels! Your images are fab and convey a great party atmosphere!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *