The Merewood Wedding of Cathy and James

Autumn is my favourite time of the year to photograph weddings. There’s a sweet spot from early September through to around mid-October when the weather is perfect, not too hot or cold, with gorgeous sunshine, cooler evenings, and a warm fireplace inside. If you’re lucky, you can also witness the most spectacular sunsets.

Add to that the seasonal changing of colours and a soft carpet of golden leaves on the ground, and there are a whole lot of photo opportunities that open up for you as a wedding photographer.

Cathy and James’ day (or Cath and Beard, as I now like to call them) was one of those perfect autumn days. The sun shone brightly over Merewood Country House all day, the wedding party and guests were living their best lives celebrating, we had the brilliant singer and guitarist John Penn providing the soundtrack to the afternoon and evening, and I made a new friend, a black labrador called Eric (although there was a disagreement with his owner about whether or not he was the best boy in the world, but I’ll let him have 2nd place after my daft old pup).

We also had one of the most spectacular golden hours for Cathy and James’ couple photos in the grounds of Merewood. This was followed by a truly epic Lake District sunset over Windermere and the surrounding fells. Not being one to want to miss a good photography opportunity, I had to rush Cath and Beard out for their couple photos between courses while they were eating to make the most of it all. Then again when the sky started to turn a beautiful shade of gold, while Cath was trying to finish her sticky toffee pudding! They put their trust in me as their photographer to get those photos, which was nice and put absolutely no pressure on me to deliver some truly amazing wedding photographs.

I think I might have achieved that and more than met their expectations when their response to their wedding photo preview was an email with the subject line: “We f***ing love you!” And you know what? The feeling was definitely mutual.

It was a brilliant day at Merewood Country House, one of the Lake District’s best. I know it’s a cliché, but a great time really was had by all, including me, your friendly neighbourhood wedding photographer. More importantly though, my most heartfelt congratulations to Cathy and James, and a huge thank you for asking me to be a part of your day.