The Ashes Wedding Photography

Sometimes I meet couples who I just click with so well that rather than taking photographs of people I don’t know, it feels as though I am photographing friends who I have known for a long time – this is exactly what capturing Jen and Phil’s wedding at The Ashes in Staffordshire was like 🙂

They are such a laid back and fun couple and being a part of their wedding day was an honour. Jen and Phil couldn’t have asked for a better day, the sun didn’t stop shining all day, everything went absolutely as they had planned and everybody had an incredible day. Just perfect! It was also lovely for me as I got to meet up with the lovely Helen and John again, whose wedding I photographed last year (Helen is Phil’s cousin) – great to see you both again!

This was the first wedding I have photographed at The Ashes and wow, what an amazing wedding venue! The venue is made up of beautiful barns set in stunning grounds. There is no end of photo opportunities all around the venue and the staff there were extremely helpful and lovely to work with 🙂

Thank you so much again Jen and Phil for asking me to be your wedding photographer and for all your lovely words, it has been so nice getting to know you both and I wish you a very very long and happy marriage together xx

Here is Jen with her wedding story:

How did you both meet?

Phil and I met through a mutual friend at university. Our friendship groups had always overlapped but it wasn’t until I moved in with our mutual friend after uni that we became closer.

How did Phil propose?
As we had been going out for over 5 years before Phil asked me, every time we went on holidays, for weekends away, for nice meals out etc, people (including me) thought he may propose on one of these occasions. We weren’t shy about letting Phil know this either, ha! As he can be stubborn sometimes, he didn’t play ball, and when he asked me to marry him, it was in the house and I was in total shock for over 2 hours!

Phil had always wanted the element of surprise when he proposed and he really succeeded with this!! I’d once said it would be cute for him to propose by putting the ring around the cat’s collar; Phil had laughed at this at the time. I came home from work and he had tied a ring that he knew wouldn’t be my taste to the cat’s collar (I later found out he had bought 4 rings from Poundland to play this trick on me!). I didn’t understand what was happening and then he went down on one knee and pulled out a gorgeous ring and said some lovely words before proposing to me. He had then booked a meal at our favorite restaurant as a surprise for afterwards (it’s a good job I said yes!)

How did you find wedding planning? Do you have any tips for other brides?
Wedding planning was stressful for both of us, especially towards the end when finalizing the last minute details. Plus, as I am not the best decision maker at times, some of the decisions took ages to make! Having said that, looking back, it was good fun and well worth the effort to get the final details in place. The venue looked amazing, the music, string quartet and DJ’s (that all took a lot of planning) could not have been any better (nor the wedding photographer!). Advice maybe that although at times it may be stressful and tiring, enjoy the planning stages as you will only do it once and it will contribute towards being the best day of your lives. It’s well worth the effort!

Why did you choose The Ashes as your wedding venue?
It was simply stunning. We both love barn conversions and this venue had been converted to an unbelievably good standard. We had heard good reviews about the venue as it was close to where Phil grew up. The place sold itself really and we couldn’t have asked for a better venue.

What was your favourite part of your wedding day?
All of it!! Everyone says that the day will absolutely fly and it will also be the best day of your life. Both of those things are so true. The weather was perfect, the guests all had a great time, we have some amazing photos of our special day, the food was great and the drinks were flowing. We couldn’t have asked for a better day or people to share it with.

Overall it was a truly amazing day. Thank you so much to everyone that contributed to this. We are extremely lucky to have such great friends and family.

Aww, thank you so much Jen! Here are some of my favourite photographs from your amazing wedding at The Ashes: