Joe and Tara's came to us through family. Tara is Sean's sister, and Sean and Alex had us shoot their day, so there was already a connection before we turned up. It is a nice way to come into a wedding, you are half a step inside the family before the morning even starts. Theirs was a rock wedding through and through, held in August at the Best Western Valley Hotel in the Ironbridge Gorge.
A bit about Joe and Tara
They did the day their way. The whole thing ran on a rock and metal theme, right down to the tables, each one named after a different band, and the signage greeting everyone into "DuceFest". Joe wore a clean black suit. Tara wore a long-sleeved lace dress with white cowboy boots underneath and carried a black bouquet built around a small skull. None of it was for show, it was just genuinely them, and it gave the whole gallery a look that no other wedding we have shot shares.
For all the theme, it was a relaxed, friendly day. The pair of them are easy in front of a camera and clearly solid together, which makes the portraits straightforward, you mostly just keep up.
The Valley Hotel, Ironbridge
The Valley Hotel is a Georgian country house on the banks of the Severn, right in the heart of the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. For a photographer the useful bits are the terrace gazebo, a white-columned, ironwork structure that takes the outdoor ceremony, and the grounds and gardens around it for portraits and groups. Inside, the original house gives you a grand staircase and period detail, which is where a lot of the bride's portraits live.
We have shot here a few times now across different seasons, so we know where the light sits and how the day runs at the Valley. There is a longer venue guide here if you are weighing it up.
The day
Tara got ready in the house and came down the staircase to meet her dad, who walked her out to the ceremony. The ceremony itself was outside under the gazebo, with the gorge greenery behind, and the weather held for it, which it does not always at an outdoor wedding in this country.
After the formalities we worked through the group photographs in the grounds, then spent a bit of time on Tara and her dad with his black Jaguar, which is plainly his pride and joy and earned its own set of frames. The cowboy boots came out from under the dress for a few shots too, the sort of detail that tells you exactly who this wedding belonged to.
The reception leaned all the way into it. Rock music on the dancefloor, a proper spread on the food, including a donut wall, and a room full of people who came to enjoy themselves. It stayed busy and loud and good-natured right through the evening, which is the easiest kind of party to photograph. You keep moving and the night hands you the pictures.