The Ashes Wedding Photos – Colourful, sunny day for a lovely couple

The Ashes is a gorgeous barn venue in the lovely Staffordshire hills and was the perfect setting for Laura and Sean’s laid back, colourful day. I have taken the easy option and asked bride, Laura, to write up the day for you instead of you having to listen me waffle on! You can read all about their day and their lovely suppliers underneath the photos.

In short it was a super hot, super laugh filled, gorgeously colourful day for yet another super couple. I really am very lucky to work with such easy going and fun to be with couples. Wishing you both every happiness for your future together.

“Jordanna is super laid back and friendly and made us feel at ease straight away. She is genuinely passionate about her job and looking through her work it seemed she was awesome at capturing moments that may typically go unnoticed in a unique and alternative way. Every wedding she has photographed seemed unique, special and different. On the day Jordanna was awesome, directing us when needed, picking out special details, and bringing her sense of humour to the day! She also worked well with our videographer and they captured some great moments without making us feel like we spent the whole day posing!”

Laura’s words of wedded wisdom…

The backstory…We met on Monday 14th September 2009 when we started work together at the Metropolitan Police Service. Fresh (or bedraggled more likely) out of uni, new to the bright lights of London we quickly became good friends. A mere two years after our first meeting Sean finally asked me out! Then, on Sunday 14th September 2014, a whopping 5 years since we first met, after various new jobs, house moves and a stressful flat purchase they went on a well deserved holiday to Croatia. At the top of the national park Marjan outside of Split, with the smell of pine and lavender in the air, and 30 degree sunshine pouring down on them Sean got down on bended knee and proposed to me. Sean was surprised I didn’t cry at the emotional encounter, however after trekking up a mountain without any water there was some severe dehydration going on! We then tied the knot just under 20 months later after lots and lots of planning!

Finding the venue…We wanted to get married in a rustic barn and I am particularly fond of exposed brick! We wanted to provide our own drinks during the day and are not huge fans of chair covers so we felt we had quite specific criteria to look for our ideal venue! When we visited The Ashes we fell in love with it straight away. Even though they had weddings on almost every day it was immaculately maintained, there was exposed brick galore and the Grade II listed barns were absolutely stunning! It also felt very remote, surrounded by beautiful green rolling hills and the ducks, horses and highland cows added to the countryside magic. It was also in Staffordshire, so with Laura’s family being from Durham, Sean’s from Devon and friends scattered all around the country it was a good 3 hour drive for most people, so a pain in the bum for everyone to get to!

The look…My engagement ring is a beautiful c.1930s art deco ruby and diamond octagonal ring from Grey’s Antiques Market in London. Therefore I really wanted a beaded art deco dress to get married in. After many hours on Pinterest I discovered the designer Gill Harvey’s bridal collection Eliza Jane Howell. Laura chose the dress “Lauren” as it felt like the dress was made for her. It was comfortable, stylish, very unique and was exactly what she wanted. The intricate detailed beading, capped sleeves and low back was stunning. I teamed her dress with an Art Deco halo slide from Etsy and silver shoes from Dune. I knew I would have brightly coloured flowers so decided on a pale grey for her bridesmaids dresses so that the flowers would really ‘pop’ next to them, and they would compliment the beading on her dress. The dresses were from BHS (RIP!) but looked amazing with the flowers and my dress. Sean likes colour just as much as me and wanted a bright blue suit. After several failed attempts suit shopping I pointed out a teal coloured suit by Alexandre London in House of Fraser. Unsure on the tealy green Sean reluctantly tried it on but they both agreed it looked amazing! Being 6 foot 4 it had been difficult finding a suit that fit and looked good, but the slim fit really suited Sean! The groomsmen were also in pale grey suits to compliment the bridesmaids, in suits from Debenhams. Sean, the groomsmen and male family members all wore bow ties and ties from a fashion designer who owned a stall in Chelsea Market in New York. We found them when Sean was working in NYC last year on their mission to Chelsea market for New York’s best tacos!

Our florist…I wanted really bright, colourful wild flowers that looked really natural and unstructured. Tineke Bridal was recommended by The Ashes and after looking on Kerry’s website they knew she was the florist for them. They wanted large centerpieces and Kerry had wooden trugs we could fill with hydrangeas, sweet Williams, peonies and lots of other brightly coloured wild flowers.

The ceremony…We wanted a simple ceremony and felt we had enough to worry about and prepare so went for some suggested vows by the registrar! It was amazing walking in and having all of our friends and family there, and when I saw Sean at the end of the aisle blubbing it felt super surreal! We chose Bloc Party’s So Here We Are to walk into as Bloc Party were one of the first gigs we went to together. Patricia, Sean’s Grandma, did a particularly emotional reading called Union by Robert Fulghum. Patricia had confessed she got emotional everytime she practiced it beforehand, but did a fab job on the day! Saying our vows and seeing that we were both wearing our wedding gifts (Sean got me some art deco sapphire and diamond earrings from Grey’s Antiques where he got her wedding ring, and I got Sean a Tag Heuer watch as he’d always wanted one) we were like “PHEW we like them!” We ended with a hilarious reading by Bee Rawlinson read by our expert MC Nicola. Nicola is an absolute character and certainly brought her personality to the reading, acting out the lines and delivering it with expert comedic timing! My mum gave me away which was lovely.

The party…During the day we had the amazing Replay Acoustic Duo playing during the drinks receptions. Jess has an amazing voice and they sounded really good playing lots of our favourite songs and entertaining our guests in the courtyard whilst we sipped Pimms and ate ice cream! On the night we booked a band we found on Rock My Wedding called Plastic Pantomime. Having a great band was really important to me as I love a good boogie (as Jordanna can attest from the sweaty hug I gave her when she left!) and the band played so many amazing and different songs. They played crowd pleasers like Stevie Wonder and The Killers but you could also dance at your wedding to QOTSA and Arcade Fire. From emails leading up to the big day the lead singer Sean was hilarious and we knew he would put on a great show. He was a great showman and him and the band were absolutely fab with lots of banter, amazing live music and playing lots of dance and cheese during the disco too!

Final tips…The Brock-Geddes’ Advice:
Our wedding day was absolutely perfect. For two people who are typically (admittedly) quite up tight control freaks we were super, duper chilled on the big day itself – much to many of our friends’ surprise! We had done lots of prep and planning beforehand but we made sure the weekend before we did nothing, which really helped us feel chilled out and like we weren’t manically prepping until the last minute! We also got everyone together for drinks the night before which really helped all the guests bond and get to know each other so that on the day it already felt like everyone was old friends! As for the day itself it will go by in a blur, so just savour every moment and don’t sweat the small stuff. Only you knew where all the decorations were meant to go, or which way the buttonholes were meant to be pinned on, so don’t worry if things aren’t absolutely perfect. As long as you’re relaxed, happy and having a blast then your guests will vibe off that and feel the same way too!

Special mention from me to Stefan of YSD Videography – who was great fun to work alongside. I look forward to seeing his handiwork.

I hope you enjoyed this preview of Laura and Sean’s gorgeous day. They will be receiving their full gallery VERY soon…please contact the couple for the password if you would like to have a look.