Lydia & Nick - West Horsley Wedding

We’re continuing the Great Blog Catchup™ today with a wedding I’ve been looking forward to posting for months, I love it so much. Lydia & Nick were married in December last year at Lydia’s parents’ home near West Horsley. It was a cold, dark day but the candles blazed, songs were sung and the bride and groom made their entrance to the wedding breakfast on a cycle-rickshaw. It was damn cool and the couple were hot.

Lydia’s parents’ house has a wonderful old barn on the property and it was transformed into the central hub for the day’s proceedings. Running off the barn was a large marquee for the wedding breakfast. The marquee included a huge reveal curtain to keep the dining area secret which, decorated throughout with hundreds of coloured paper lanterns, looked particularly magnificent.

Lydia got ready at home with her two bridesmaids and mid-morning I met up with Nick and his groomsmen just down the road at The Duke of Wellington. Lydia’s dress was a sensational Rime Arodaky number; both unusual and elegant, a really rare combination. Lydia, as you’ll see, looked truly stunning. The ceremony itself, held in the Barn, was beautiful, but it was also – from a photographic point of view – extremely dark. So dark in fact, that I informally refer to it as the Dark Dark Wedding. It was, without doubt, the darkest wedding ceremony I’ve ever shot! However I love a challenge and, while it pushed things to the limit technically, the end result was glorious. Limited winter light from a high window, the walls lined with rows of candles and an incredibly intimate setting made for something extremely special.

Nick is a musician and runs Meet & Jam which is a network of musicians, studios, engineers and producers so it’s no surprise that music played a massive part in the wedding. During the ceremony, Lydia’s sister Rebecca sang the most remarkable solo, Nick’s band played during both ceremony and reception – and were joined by the man himself – and in the evening The Easy made sure the party did not stop. An incredible party filled with love, laughter and damn good music.

It was also awesome to meet Camilla Adams of Fine Pair. Cam filmed Lydia & Nick’s day and she is unquestionably one of the best image makers I’ve ever met. She is wonderfully chilled and friendly and, in short, she rocks. Anyway, enough chatter from me. My thanks to Lydia & Nick for having me, it was a great pleasure. Now then, time for some photographs!