Roberta & Ashley, Notley Abbey

Ashley and Roberta’s wedding was set to be a particularly long day for me. The wedding was at 11am in Chalfont St. Giles which is some way from home and not being a morning person I struggled with the 6am start. And I wasn’t due to finish until late evening when chinese lanterns were set off. But I had the loveliest welcome from Rio & Buster (two King Charles Cavaliers, my favourite breed of dog) when I arrived at Roberta’s parents’ house where the girls were getting ready. That perked me up. And then, when Roberta led me to her two pairs of wedding shoes (one pair for the day and a party pair for the evening) I knew this was going to be a good day. Wide awake now!

After the church it was off to Notley Abbey, in Buckinghamshire, between Thame and Aylesbury. A wedding at Notley Abbey is like a big house party. You have exclusive use of the venue and it’s really flexible with all its different rooms. You can use the space just as you wish. I love how it’s both old and new at the same time, and it has lots of potential for photography.

Since it was going to be such a long day my good friend and fellow photographer Rosie Parsons came along to help (big hugs x) and we were both blown away with all the beautiful details. The flowers were divine – roses in pretty ice cream colours. And the table settings were some of the best I’ve seen. They had ‘perfect duo’ table names like Meribel & skiing, sausages & mash and strawberries & cream, and each table card had a hand-drawn ilustration to decorate. The place-cards were rather unusual: shoes for the girls (of course!), champagne bottles for the boys and boats for the children. There were bowls of bon-bons in colours which matched the flowers (that’s attention to detail for you!) as well as individual menus and a sprig of lavender for each guest. All set off with luxurious silver-ware. Awesome.

The best detail for me though was Roberta’s ‘something old’. She had a little black cat tied into her bouquet which was the very same little black cat that her Grandad had carried with him during the war. How lovely is that?

Favourites from Rosie and I …