Summer Wedding At Dodmoor House
Emma & Ryan’s Intimate English Wedding
I was honored to be asked to photograph Emma & Ryan’s summer wedding at Dodmoor House. I had been waiting to have the opportunity to work at this beautiful venue for so long, I couldn’t wait for Emma & Ryan’s wedding to arrive.
Emma, originally from the UK, moved out to America for work where she lives today. It was after moving out to the States that Emma met Ryan and their story began.
I thought it would be nice to hear from the bride in this blog so I will let her tell you all about their wedding planning journey and the big day itself.
The Vision
Ryan had always known that it would be held back in England, knowing that all my family are there. Lucky for us, my family live in a beautiful part of the country, Northamptonshire.
We knew we wanted our wedding to capture the beauty of the English countryside.
With some different traditions from the two cultures, we worked on what the most important things to us both were. But mostly we wanted to ensure our wedding felt authentic, rustic yet elegant and was very personal to us.
I wanted to add in some extra ‘British’ touches for our guests travelling overseas with a few hints of red. Basically, I knew we had to have the vintage red double decker bus!!
The Planning Process
So, this was a tricky one for us. We had to plan our wedding from another country! Luckily, my family were happy to help. They searched venues we were curious about, took photos for us or even face timed us while they were there so we could get an idea of what it was like.
After securing our date, and not actually knowing the next time we will be back in England we tried to check off some other vendors.
The venue had a list of vendors that they frequently work with and hold to incredibly high standards. We chose our caterers – Lemon Zest, DJ and lighting – Potter Group Events, florist – Willow & Thyme, photographer – Katrina Matthews, hotel accommodations and transportation.
We kept the red bus a secret from the guests, they absolutely loved it when it turned up at the hotel to take them over to the venue.
The Details
Being creative, I knew that I wanted to have a major part in designing my wedding. I designed all of our stationary, save the dates, invitations, bar signs, seating charts, website and thank you cards! With hand painted foliage, textured papers, each hand tied with twine and sealed with our wax stamp, they were definitely a project within themselves, but I loved doing them!
In the evening, we had some fun with our choice of late night food. With two different countries being represented, one of the first things we knew we wanted to do was mini sliders with little American flags on the top, and mini fish and chip portions with union jacks. Something fun and different to represent both of us.
So many guests commented on the little things like that which truly made the wedding a little more personal.
Memorable Moments
One of our favourite moments was the final song of the night. Ryan, being a huge Prince fan had one request for Potter Group , and the lighting. He wanted the final song to be Purple Rain and to light up the entire barn bright purple, all I can say is WOW! We kept this a secret from everyone and they executed this for us perfectly. It worked so well, and our guests loved it!
Directly following the end of this song, all the guests were ushered outside for a sparkler send off. This was such fun way to say goodbye to our guests and one final bit of fun for the evening. Being surrounded by our friends and family in a moment like that, is something we will never forget.
I loved Emma & Ryan’s wedding at Dodmoor House and have shared their images on numerous occasions. I loved that they were up for anything so we could make the most of the time we had. We managed to fit in so much including some epic photos with smoke bombs, champagne and even a walk along the canal.
To see Emma & Ryan’s full gallery head over to my wedding portfolio page or get in touch to find out how we can create moments like this on your big day xx
