Wedding photographs from Knowsley Hall

I had been looking forward to Shannon and Kevin’s wedding at Knowsley Hall in Merseyside for a long time as I know it would be incredible and that is exactly what it turned out to be 🙂

Shannon and Kevin as such a lovely couple and photographing their special day was such an honour. I had got to know them both better after spending a day with them earlier this year for their engagement shoot in Paris so by the time of their wedding it was just like photographing the wedding of good friends.

This was the first wedding I had photographed at Knowsley Hall and I was wowed by it as a venue! It is absolutely beautiful. A huge stately home set in fantastic grounds, there was no end of amazing locations I could use, both inside and out, so I hope I am asked to photograph more weddings there in the future, it is absolutely stunning!

Shannon’s hair and make-up was done by the amazing Amy from Flossy & Leigh – one of the nicest and most talented people you could meet, I can never recommend Flossy & Leigh enough! This was also the first time I had shot a wedding with my good friend and film maker extraordinaire, Aaron from Reel Weddings. Aaron and I have been friends for a couple of years now and have worked together on various shoots but this was the first wedding we had worked at together. Aaron’s work is absolutely amazing and it was brilliant working with him, I can’t wait to see his film as I know it will be incredible!

To Shannon and Kevin, thank you so much again for asking me to help you with your Knowsley Hall wedding photography. You are such a nice lovely and it has been so nice getting to know you both this year. I wish you both a lifetime of happiness together 🙂 x

Here is Shannon with her wedding story:

How did you both meet?
Kevin and I met in Cambodia in 2009. It hadn’t been a great night for either of us – I’d received a nasty electric shock from some exposed wiring in a beachside bar and Kev has lost his wallet. But it got better! There was an instant connection between us and we talked for ages. The next morning Kev slid a note under the door of the bungalow I was sharing with friends, he wanted to give me his email address even though there was no expectation that we’d see each other again – I was returning to Australia the next day and he lived in England. But we kept in contact via email for the next two years and finally decided to meet up again in the Seychelles in October 2011. We both knew we had something special and embarked on a whirlwind adventure for the next few years, meeting up everywhere from Mozambique to Iceland.

Kevin emigrated to Australia in September 2013 but we decided to hold the wedding in Kevin’s hometown of Liverpool.

What was the proposal like?
Kevin proposed by climbing out of a lake! We are both avid scuba divers but live in Canberra…which is nowhere near the coast! So he found the next best thing and spent half an hour in rather muddy water waiting for one of my friends to get me to a designated meeting place so he could climb out and propose. He was soggy and covered in lake sludge when he got down on one knee but it was perfect!

How did you find wedding planning? Do you have any tips for other brides?
Planning the wedding from Australia required a lot of organisation. We visited the UK twice before the wedding so were able to view venues and talk with suppliers so I was confident about the people I’d chosen to help with our wedding. Kev’s mum only lives 5 minutes away from our venue so she was a huge help something needed to be done in person.

Why did you choose Knowsley Hall as your wedding venue?
I knew I wanted a stately home because I had family travelling from Australia and New Zealand so I wanted the venue to be something that they couldn’t experience back home. Plus, we wanted the ceremony and reception in the same location. We viewed quite a few around Cheshire and while they all had something to offer, once I saw Knowsley Hall I was sold. Every other venue I looked at afterwards was compared to Knowsley and came up wanting. I couldn’t wait to walk down the aisle in the Stucco Ballroom.

The Hall is still privately owned, with individually decorated bedrooms that everyone who stayed over absolutely loved. We had exclusive use of the Hall from Thursday afternoon through to Saturday morning so we really feel like we had a wedding weekend rather than a wedding day!

What was your favourite part of your wedding day?
Obviously walking down the aisle towards Kevin! I couldn’t quite believe that the day was finally here, after all the challenges that we’d faced in a long distance relationship. There were friends in the room who had been with us the night we met in Cambodia and other friends who had been there in the Seychelles when we saw each other again for the first time in two years. It felt like we’d come full circle.

Also I remember sitting in the wedding breakfast and looking around the room at family and friends chatting and laughing and I felt really overwhelmed that all these people had come to share our special day. They had travelled from all over the UK, as well as from Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. I felt really lucky.

Who were your wedding suppliers?

The venue décor and flowers supplied by Red Floral Architecture were an absolute triumph, I think more guests photos of the centerpieces went up on Facebook than of us!

Amy from Flossy and Leigh was brilliant and I can’t thank her enough! My makeup was still going strong at 1.30am!

My headpiece was a bespoke creation by Nina Wren, who took a necklace belonging to my great-great grandmother and made something truly beautiful.

Aaron from Reel Weddings was great on the day…even though we never got that patch of sunny sky he was hoping for!

The cake was made by Gemma Lee from Iced Gems. She rose to the challenge of making our cake admirably – the design was completely new and all communication was through email and some colour swatches I posted. But the end result was perfect!

And of course Knowsley Hall, with particular thanks to Matt Gough on the day, everything ran like clockwork and so many people commented not just on the beautiful venue, but the quality of the food and service.

“Walking down from the bridal suit with Grandma holding my arm and telling me to breathe…I had felt quite calm while getting ready but at this point I was borderline hyperventilating.”

“My wonderful Grandma came all the way from New Zealand and did a reading of a traditional New Zealand song, Poukarekare Ana – except I’d forgotten to tell her that I wanted her to read it in English and Maori so she didn’t find out until the celebrant announced she’d read it in two languages! She covered it like a champion though and I didn’t even know that she hadn’t practiced her Maori beforehand.”

“Married at last and the relief is palpable! The Liva String Quartet played an amazing string arrangement of “Land Down Under” by Men at Work for our recessional.”

“Our friend Charlotte was waiting with that confetti cone like a coiled spring – this is such a funny photo of the exact moment she pegged Kev right in the face with it.”

“I love this picture of me and my beautiful niece Zoe, who came from New Zealand for the wedding. If you look closely you can see the remnants of a glitter mermaid tattoo from their stopover in Singapore. It couldn’t quite be scrubbed off but I quite like it – she looks like a miniature Popeye!”

“This is a great shot of the State Dining Room with the amazing centerpieces by Red Floral Architecture. The way the room came together for the wedding breakfast really took my breath away.”

“The cake made by Kev’s cousin Gemma who has her own business, Iced Gems. She did such an amazing job, putting the cake together based on emails and photos we sent from Australia. She handmade all the flowers – I managed to get a couple of them home to Australia and have displayed them in a bell jar.”

“Our whale shark crew! We met them in the Seychelles on a whale shark expedition – hence the shark hats!”

“Rich delivering a very funny and moving best man speech. Kev’s done enough silly things to provide him with ample fodder for the speech, but I note that Rich left out his involvement in their various shenanigans….”

“We’d had dance lessons to learn a proper waltz and had been fully intending to practice, but the final lead up to the day was quite hectic and we just forgot. So we winged it. I’d had a few champagnes by this stage so I thought we were pretty good.”