Buxton Pavillion Wedding in May
Like a teacher, I’m not supposed to have favourites and to be fair all weddings touch my heart, I do fall slightly in love with all couples, but some stay with me longer. I’m still in touch with couples from over ten years ago. This is one of these couples I hope to stay in touch with for years.
Steph and Dan had decided to get married and then.. Covid happened. so three years and three children later- yes they had twins! you can see their baby photos here – the wedding finally, joyfully took place, quite different from when they first imagined it, very child centered, with a toddler and two breastfeeding babies, and all their friends’ babies and children too. Weddings with children tend to be a different kind of fun, more toys and play, high with sweets rather than drunk.
As I’d met them before, with their babies, at home, it was like meeting friends again and it filled my heart with joy and love. I had been recommended by another couple whose family I photographed a few times, who had found me from a couple whose wedding I photographed so that’s the best way of being sure it’s a great fit and we like each other before we even start working together. Both the other families were at the wedding and I was so very happy to see them I had to make sure I took photos of everyone else too.
I’d been to Buxton Pavilion before with my own kids and loved the place. Who doesn’t like Derbyshire? Buxton is a lovely town and the Pavilion is a beautiful building with a great garden. It even has a little train that goes round, to the great joy of the guests, not just the kids. We explored the garden with Steph and Dan while the guests were in the train, we could have spent a lot more time taking photos there and I know I’ll always have more ideas than the time we have allows. There was an area of the lawn that was carpeted with white flowers, as if id’ been snowing, quite magical.
What do they say about their wedding? It’ll be a really relaxed and informal wedding, with the focus being on people enjoying themselves and having a good party. It’ll be botanically themed as we’re getting married in a conservatory at Pavilion Gardens in amongst the trees and plants – so no formal rows of seating – people huddling round. The reception will be again informal – no table plans, we’ll be having a buffet followed by a pub quiz, then there will be time for pub games around the venue. We’ll have speeches, band and DJ in the evening, along with some food in the evening – street food style mac n cheese / slow cooked meats / fries with personalised toppings.
And afterwards:
We were so happy with how the day turned out. The main thing was we wanted it to have a very relaxed, informal feel, full of laughter and smiles and that’s definitely what we got. I think my favourite thing was that after waiting so long to do it, and doing all our life events in a bit of a backwards order, it was so wonderful to look around the room and realise it was a perfect reflection of the life we’ve built for ourselves and the amazing people who’ve come on the journey with us. We felt very loved and I don’t think I’d have had it any other way!
I loved how they decorated the place, the letters giving a beautiful background under the red curtains, what do you think?
For this wonderful Buxton pavillion wedding I created a longer than usual virtual album because I loved every minute of it. If you are looking for a wedding photographer for a Derbyshire wedding, I’d love to hear from you.
Their vendors:
My dress and veil were from Monsoon and the shoes Manolo Blahnik (but second hand)
The bouquets, flower crown and button holes were from a lovely lady I found through Etsy called Hidden Botanics The rest of the flowers on the tables and around the venue we sourced wholesale and put together ourselves. There was even some ivy from our garden in there somewhere!
The sweet cart was kindly loaned by the venue and we filled it up with our favourite treats, including some pub snacks like pork scratchings as a nod to our days in the trade.
Our lovely wedding cake was from The Cloud Cakery and the beautiful free from cupcakes were from Bloomin’ Lovely Cupcakes
Dan’s suit was from Next, the band was Electric Soul Club and the lights were from Kayleigh at Tying Knots Venue Dressing –