Lara and Luke held their wedding day at Hensol Castle on 31st July 2021. Posted below is some of the wedding photography that I created for them. The day started with the bridal preparations at their home in Cwmbran, South Wales.The marriage ceremony took place at Silo Baptist Church in the same town. Though I should say the first marriage ceremony. The second took place at Hensol castle, where the space allowed for more guests, it was more a blessing really, but no less heart felt. Afterwards the guests welcomed the newly married couple to a torrent of confetti on the castle’s lawn. The bride and groom chose to have a few family shots and a gentle stroll to the lake for some natural portraits of the two of them, The remainder of the time, they spent mingling with guests, catching up with old friends. One of my favourite photographs from the day, is of Lara being hugged by two old university friends, who had not seen each other for a while. This was just after the bride and groom had arrived from the church had had parked outside the castle’s impressive entrance. A lot of photographs would be tempted to set up a posed image with the bridal car, and indeed some couples would expect this too. However I much prefer to photograph natural moments of real emotions. To do this requires a lot of patient and courage to not control the scene and give the moments the space and time to develop naturally. Its is a case for ‘horses for courses’ and not one approach is better than the other. Though I think the memories of your wedding day should be of hugging old friends and not posing in front of a car! The open air court yard at Hensol Castle, adjacent to the suite where the wedding breakfast and speeches had taken place, provided the perfect location for a makeshift dance floor. Dancing inside was still prohibited by the Welsh government at the time.
“…memories of your wedding day should be of hugging old friends and not posing in front of a car!”
