Wedding photographer Weetwood Hall: Today was the big day for Laura and Dan so it was off to Weetwood Hall to meet up with them to shoot their wedding as it unfolded throughout the day. We arrived at the hall to catch up with Laura and the girls for the prep shots in the bridal suite where I was subjected to more Abba songs than I care to recall (you all know I listen to death metal right)! Despite the soundtrack, I managed to keep calm and we captured some lovely shots of the hair and make-up session before heading out to meet Dan, his dad and brother-in-law who were best man and groomsman respectively. The sky was pretty dark and we’d already experienced rain on the way to Leeds but the showers held off at least until the groom photos had been done. Then, back to the bridal suite to finish the preps, photograph the flowers and of course the bride getting into the dress. By this time, it was raining pretty bad and it didn’t look promising as we finished the portrait shoot of Laura in her dress and ready for the ceremony. However, by the time Laura and Dan had said their vows and headed down the isle to smiles and applause from the guests, the sun had come well and truly out!
I ran through the group shots of friends and family as quickly as possible keeping a weather eye out on the fermament and, thinking we’d got off unscathed, headed further out into the grounds with the bridal party. Honestly, I can’t remember when I last saw such a heavy rain storm appear so quickly and within a minute or two we were all getting drenched! It rained so hard that it was almost impossible to make the 150yd dash back to the hotel so, by good fortune, my car was very close by and I managed to get a brolly for the bridesmaids while the boys and a few other friends took a lashing under a nearby tree. Eventually, Dan made a dash and managed to grab a couple of beer parasols and we managed to get back to the hotel and to dry off for 10 minutes. Almost as quickly as the rain had arrived, it disappeared and so we rounded up the bridal party and headed out again. This time we managed to get the photos done before heading in for the wedding breakfast, after which, we managed some more photos in the most beautiful evening light. The evening ended with a first dance and a quick shoot under the arty lights at the back of the restaurant before leaving the couple to enjoy the evening. Here’s just a sample of the images from the day.