Elizabeth and Russell had their special day at Vaulty Manor in Maldon, Essex. They were looking for a barn style venue so ignored this venue for a while as they thought it was a Manor House due to the name but they said they finally decided to have a look and instantly fell in love with it, they booked it there and then. It's a great venue with a large Manor House for the bridal party to get ready in and lots of other individual rooms for the groomsmen and other guests. There is a barn which has an area for the ceremony, the wedding breakfast and evening reception. There is also a smaller area with a bar where the drinks reception can be held if the weather is bad or if guests want to be indoors.
The bride started her day in the Manor House getting ready with her bridesmaids and family. They had their hair and makeup done in one of the downstairs rooms and got dressed upstairs. The bride had her mum help her with her wedding dress and jewellery. One of the pieces of jewellery was a necklace the groom gifted to her that morning, when she opened it and read the heartfelt note inside she got quite emotional, so did her mum. The bride also gave the groom a gift, it was a lovely smart watch to go with his suit. The groom had some unique accessories; his shoes where brown with red laces, he had pig shaped cufflinks and his wedding ring had wood inside it which looked really nice. After everyone was ready they headed over to the barn for the ceremony.
When Elizabeth and Russell met she already had three children and he had a son so they became one big family and they all seemed to get on really well. Elizabeth had her two sons walk her down the aisle to give her away and her younger daughter as a flower girl. Russell had his son as one of his groomsmen and his dad as his best man. You could tell that family meant a lot to this couple. They had a short ceremony and whilst the guests headed off to the drinks reception we went out to do some couple photos as the sun sets really early in November. It was raining when we first went out but then the sun appeared and there was a double rainbow. They were a fun couple, always joking with each other, not taking the day too seriously and not stressing about things out of their control. We got some great shots around Vaulty Manor's grounds including the driveway, the front of the Manor House, the canopy and the sounding greenery.
It was very cold so we headed inside to the drinks reception to warm up. We quickly done the group shots just outside and headed back in. The reception room was being set up by the lovely events staff, it looked amazing in there. We done a super quick confetti tunnel before everyone went inside for the wedding breakfast as it was very cold and windy. They had afternoon tea served as their wedding breakfast by the Vaulty Manor catering company, the food was so good! They had speeches and then one of Elizabeth's sons was given a birthday cake and sung to as he just turned 16 that day. The DJ set up in the back of the reception barn ready for the evening guests to arrive, he had an amazing set up with strobes and a large LCD screen. The Videographer Tony got the couple to dance in the dark in front of his car with the headlights on, the shots came out great, always worth trying a new idea.
Once the evening guests head arrived the Bride and Groom cut the cake and head over to the dance floor for their first dance. Their wedding cake had two Collin the caterpillars on the top of it because Russell said for every single birthday he can remember he has always had a caterpillar cake so they wanted to incorporate it into their wedding cake. They had their first dance and then was joined by their guests to party the night away. They had a crepe van parked outside the barn serving unlimited crepes and waffles all night to keep their guests warm and fed which I thought was a brilliant idea and the catering company inside served fish and chips cones. We took the couple outside in the cold for one last shot under the fairy lights.
