When my brother moved over to the UK last year, Matt and I decided that we’d love to go visit him. To make this possible, we decided to try to book some weddings in the UK.
We only wanted a few, so we were stoked when we booked three weddings in a row, on consecutive weekends!
The funny thing is, soon after we booked the weddings, my brother (Lachlan) decided to come home! He couldn’t hack the cold weather. Haha!
Matt and I were both still very excited to be heading over to the UK. The last time I was in England I was 13, and this was Matt’s first time over there.
The three weeks we planned to stay soon stretched out to two whole months. Yes! That’s right! After finishing the weddings we’d have a month and a half off in the UK and Europe. How amazingly blessed are we?! When you make the flight to that side of the world, you really make the most of your time over there.
Not only were we lucky enough to spend three weeks in London, we also visited Wales, Paris, Rome, Venice and Santorini. We had such an amazing time, even getting to attend Wimbledon twice. Once for the finals!
So, this is the first of our UK weddings.
We first met with Hatty and Joel over Skype, and after giggling like children at their ‘cute accents’, we got to know them more and chatted all about their wedding day.
As Hatty and Joel described their ideal day to us, we became more and more excited about our trip over! We couldn’t wait to meet them in person! After arriving in London and having a few short days to get over jetlag, we caught the train from London to Leeds.
The morning of the wedding Joel picked us up and we chatted away with excitement during the 40 minute drive out of town to the Priory Cottages. He dropped us off and made a quick exit (so he didn’t see his bride).
Hatty was sitting getting her makeup done when we walked into the beautiful stone cottage. She squealed with excitement and thanked us repeatedly for coming all the way from Australia to shoot her wedding. I squealed too, and repeatedly thanked her for making it possible!
The setting for the wedding was amazing. A beautiful square of stone cottages, with white pebble paths and rows of lavender around a centre water feature. Wheat fields surrounded the property, with occasional patches of red poppies springing up in the distance.
The weather was forecast to be horrible and rainy, but as the day went on, the sun came out more and more! We joked with Hatty and Joel that we’d brought the sunshine over from Australia, that was our gift to them!
Matt caught a lift to go photograph the boys, and after Hatty finished her hair and makeup she slipped into her beautiful elegant gown, and then we were off to the church in an old 1961 Bristol. Hatty got choked up as she said her vows, which was really sweet. Joel simply beamed from ear to ear.
Probably the highlight of the day for me was just after we hopped back into the Bristol after the ceremony. I was sitting in the front next to the driver, with the newlyweds in the back seat. I heard Hatty exclaim “Joel! I’m just soooo happy!” It was a really lovely moment and summed up the whole day perfectly.
As you can see in the photos, not only were there huge amounts of joy at this wedding, but Hatty and Joel had also gone to so much effort to make it personal. All the little details had meaning to them, they’d really put a lot of thought into every part of their day.
For example, they had Blackpool rock candy – because Joel grew up in Blackpool. Instead of having a guest-book, they had guests write notes to them on vintage Hawaii postcards, because Joel proposed to Hatty in Hawaii. The confetti thrown outside the church was grown in Wales by Hatty’s auntie. All the food was organic and free-range, sourced locally in Yorkshire, and the wedding cake was home-baked by good friend Fran. How sweet!
The reception was lovely, the food was delicious, the guests had such great time. The speeches were hilarious, yet heartfelt and the first dance gave me goosebumps.
Hatty and Joel, we had such an amazing experience! It was so wonderful spending time with you both and so special to be a part of your big day. As we said to you then, even if yours was the only wedding we shot over there – it would have totally have been worth the trip over!
~Katie.
