Lympne Castle reception – Wedding photography – Lucie & Steve.
What incredible fun I had shooting Lucie and Steve’s wedding day from start to finish. This was one of the longest wedding shoots I have ever done, as I offer my services for the entire day and evening without time limits. I left home at 8am on Saturday 2nd May 2015 to capture the bridal party’s preparations and didn’t arrive home until 1am the next day, after grabbing a lift back to Canterbury in the wedding party bus.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Lucie and Steve’s wedding day began in high spirits as the bride, her parents, and her bridesmaids had their hair and make-up done to perfection (the latter was by the bride’s sister). Meanwhile, Steve and his groomsmen were suited and booted in style, and met with many of the other wedding guests to take a classic red London bus from Canterbury to the wedding ceremony venue, the Church of St. Peter & St. Paul in Faversham.
The church provided a beautiful backdrop to a beautiful ceremony, one that was full of laughter, celebration and more than a few tears of happiness. As the bride and groom walked down the churchyard path as husband and wife, you could hardly see them for the confetti! The vibrant blue and yellow colour scheme made for some lovely group shots at the church gate. Spring was most definitely in the air.
From the church, the wedding party and guests re-boarded the wedding bus for Lympne Castle, the wedding reception venue.
The stunning and historically important Lympne Castle has parts that date back to the 13th century. It was once home to Thomas à Becket and played an important role as an observation post in World War II.
As Lucie and Steve are both scientists, this was the theme for the reception, which added a huge amount of fun and personality to the proceedings. The wedding tables were named after famous scientists and the table plan hung from the skeleton. Instead of place markers, there were petri dishes. Even the pick and mix sweets were presented in chemical flasks and bottles. And how could I not mention the dry ice on the tables as people were seated!
Dinner was accompanied by fun, games, quizzes and challenges, as well as some lovely speeches. After dinner, as the guests chatted in groups and milled around to socialise, they were kept entertained by an amazing magician. After cutting two cakes – one a more traditional but personality-packed wedding cake, and the other a layered ‘cake’ of fruit and cheese – Lucie and Steve performed a brilliantly choreographed first dance before the rest of the guests joined in.
I always enjoy covering the whole day as the evening reception is often a goldmine for images that capture the wedding guests’ personalities and the love that surrounds the bride and groom from their friends and families.
A huge thank you to my good friend Annamarie Stepney for assisting me on the day.
Here are some very kind words from the bride and groom.
“Choosing our photographer was one of the hardest decisions we had to make about our wedding. We trawled through photos for weeks and weeks and met several photographers while agonising over who to pick. If I am honest we were still a little worried that we had made the right choice right up until we met Ben at our pre wed shoot….. but we really needn’t have because Ben is an absolute STAR! The pre wed shoot was a brilliant way to get to know each other, get used to having our photos taken and we got some amazing photos which used on our wedding day.
On the day itself Ben was an absolute pleasure to have around or not even know he was around! He has this special ability to blend into the background, yet take control as needed (i.e. group shots) and worked tirelessly all day and night to capture all the little details of our day. One of the brilliant things about Ben is that he enjoys the evening party of the wedding and unlike most photographers he stayed right until the end to capture everything, right down to boarding our routemaster bus home with us!
One of the things we loved about Ben’s photos was the amount of colour and warmth he seems to generate and despite the sun not shining on our wedding day we were not disappointed. We wanted our wedding to be bright, bold and colourful and Ben has captured this perfectly. The photos capture moments and reactions from the day which we will never be able to recreate and for this we are truly thankful. We cannot recommend Ben highly enough and will treasure our photos forever.”
If you’re considering getting married at Lympne Castle then please do get in touch I’d love to hear from you. Below are a few of my favourite images from a wonderful day.
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Lovely wedding 😉