Walcot Hall Wedding Photos for the fabulous Soph & Jack

Walcot Hall is up there as one of my all time favourite venues so I was thrilled when the lovely Soph and mad as a box of frogs, Jack asked if I would like to be their wedding photographer. I had been dying to shoot a Walcot Hall Wedding. HELL YES!

As I am always grumbling about my inability to write blogs; I was thrilled when Soph was happy to jot down all the details of their day for you. If you make it through some of my fave shots – yes I have gone a little OTT here but SO much inspiration/ goodness and happiness to share I couldn’t resist! – then you can read ALL about it below the images.

It was a brilliant day – so much colour; fun; laughs; playfulness; awesome 91 year old grannies who were still dancing at midnight (You are my hero!); great food and music; one beautiful dress; ace surprises that made the day really unique (Check out the personalised DVD cover favours!); The TOASTmaster; the microscopic menus (courtesy of Jack – coincidently a fab illustrator); one epic venue in Walcot Hall and a fantastic couple that let me run riot. Heaven!

And any couple that shoehorn Hall and Oates into their ceremony are legends…(We did the same! 🙂 )

Anyway I shall leave you to quite a few (sorry not sorry) images…I hope you love them!

“You were a pleasure to work with – organised, honest, hard-working, easy-going and most importantly, an amazing photographer. It really felt like you loved capturing our wedding and we will always be grateful for your work. We are thankful for Daisy and Ev  for finding you in the first place!”

Soph’s words of wedded wisdom…

The backstory…Jack and I met in college in 2004 when we were mere babies (16 years old). After playing hard to get for a year we finally got together and have been together for nearly 11 years! We have been through college, uni, travelling and establishing our careers together before getting engaged on Christmas Day, 2014. We had an engagement period of 16 months before the big day in April 2016.

Finding the venue…We researched a lot of different places online and Walcot Hall really stood out as somewhere a bit different to the norm. We actually only looked at one venue in person (Walcot) and fell in love with it straight away. There are many different accommodation options on site including ‘hidden treasures’ of yurts, cottages and the beautiful converted chapel – this was a big selling point for us as it meant having all our friends and family on site for the weekend. The venue is situated in the Shropshire hills and the surroundings are just stunning. There is the option to have the wedding ceremony inside or outside which is also good!

The look…Sophie: I always knew I wanted a lace, long-sleeved dress so this helped narrow down my choices a bit! Again, I researched online a lot and eventually found designer Katya Katya Shehurina. She has a beautiful little boutique in Soho and I went down and fell in love with all her dresses! After trying on 7, the last one I tried was ‘the one’ – entitled Floriana. To make it a bit different, I opted for a light blue slip to wear under the lace to give a bit of colour and make it more ‘me’. The whole experience of getting the dress was amazing and the staff in the shop are lovely. Then I am a bit of a shoe fiend so I had 3 pairs of shoes for the day; some royal blue suede court shoes from Mango, a sparkly pair from Kurt Geiger and some royal blue chelsea boot Hunter wellies! My flower crown was from Orelia; lipstick was Ruby Woo by Mac (and given to me by my lovely friend Bridget) and my best friend did my nails (Nails by Laurie on Facebook).
Jack: the pocket squares and ties were from a shop on Etsy called ‘The Best Boys Ties’. They are handmade in the Ukraine. The tie pin was from a supplier on Not On The High Street ‘Maria Allen Boutique’ where you could get it engraved too. The brogues are by Poste. The suit was bespoke Moss Bros. Our wedding rings were made bespoke by a friend of a friend who has her own studio in Hackney – Clarice Price Thomas. She did an amazing job and we would highly recommend her.

Our florist Sarah Jane Midwood did an amazing job at creating the look we wanted. For my bouquet, I wanted a mixture of bright colours and wild flowers and it was absolutely stunning. The button holes reflected my bouquet on a smaller scale and the centrepieces were also tied in with the colours of the wedding – blue and orange. Sarah Jane also did some beautiful hanging jars for the courtyard which really added a touch of magic.

The ceremony…Our ceremony was a little bit different to the norm. We had a mixture of Christian and non-Christian themes to reflect our beliefs which was a tough job for Tony leading our ceremony but he did a great job! Three of our friends sang ‘Amazing Grace’ pretty much a capella and that was a really special moment. Jack didn’t know that one of his friends, Ed, had been rehearsing with two of my bridesmaids to sing this so it was a pretty special surprise for him! We also got our whole congregation to do a sing-a-long to Bob Marley ‘Is This Love’ which was a great moment. My mum and best friend Becky did readings to represent the females as it would all be men doing speeches at the meal! Jack and I tailored some of our vows to include me promising to entertain his crazy artistic ideas and plucking his eyebrows when required and he promised to feed me pizza after drinking too much gin and removing all spiders from the house. We walked out to ‘You Make My Dreams Come True’ by Hall & Oates.

The party…We hired a band for the evening and this was one of the best decisions we made. Twisted Tubes are a 10-piece brass band from Manchester that play fun covers. We asked the to walk in through the back of the ballroom and surround us after our first dance and this was an incredible moment. They kicked off with ‘Thrift Shop’ by Macklemore & Lewis and as everyone was already on the floor for the first dance, the party got started right away and didn’t stop until the early hours! Two of our close friends DJ’d for the rest of the night and did a great job. Music is really important to us so we couldn’t just have anyone DJing!

Final tips…The Hudson’s Advice:
1. Go with your gut on decisions
2. Make sure the wedding represents you as a couple; not just what everyone else is doing or seems ‘cool’ at the time
3. Take a moment to stand back as a couple on the day and watch everyone having a good time
4. Stick to your guns – if you want something to happen then don’t let anyone sway you

And there you go. If you made it to the end then bravo and thank you! If you are friends and family of Soph & Jack and you can’t get enough of them then feel free to have a nosey at their fun engagement shoot here at The Barbican, London.