Phil and Fern’s New Forest Wedding Photographs
Remember Phil and Fern’s
countryside engagement shoot from last year? At last their much-anticipated cottage garden theme wedding day at
Rhinefield House Hotel had arrived.
Rhinefield House is one of our favourite venues to create New Forest wedding photographs. A stately house located in stunning grounds bang in the middle of the gorgeous forest has such massive potential for beautiful New Forest wedding photographs.
Arriving early on the Saturday morning we made sure we had plenty of time to walk around the grounds and ‘get our eye in, for the New Forest wedding photographs ahead. Landscaped gardens, walkways, statues, water features and the huge maze allowed us to warm up our photographic skills.
I met with Fern and the ladies in one of the Hotels gorgeous apartments. An air of hustle and bustle had already been created. Wedding makeup was applied and hair styled by the bright windows as the girls excitedly chatted, exchanged cards and presents.
The stunning blue and ivory wedding bouquets from Exclusively Weddings had already been delivered and provided a tonal backdrop to the morning’s proceedings.
As her bridesmaids rallied around her with nibbles and champagne Fern remained relatively calm. We were all keeping an eye on the weather as great feature of Rhinefield House is the option for indoor or outdoor wedding ceremonies. The sideways rain outside meant that an indoor ceremony was on the cards, even if it cleared the wet ground would not be friendly to wedding heels. With either choice a couple is guaranteed beautiful New Forest wedding photographs.
In the bedroom the cornflower blue bridesmaid dresses by Frances “Calm Amongst The Chaos” were laid out ready with matching bags and shoes. Ferns Bella Belle ‘Dawn Blue’ Wedding Shoes with Crystal Vine Applique Beading stole the show until I noticed her wedding dress hanging from the wardrobe.
I could tell that the crystal and lace detailed sweep dress would look amazing. After putting on their blue dresses the bridesmaids helped fasten fern into the dress. I was not wrong, as she held her huge blue and ivory bouquet Fern was an image of beauty, simply stunning.
Meanwhile Murray joined Phil and the chaps who were relaxing in the Lounge Bar. Phil is one of the naturally happiest men I have ever met but his sunny disposition didn’t stop him checking and re-checking that he did in fact have the wedding rings in his pocket.
Button holes and ties were figured out, Phil was even sporting cufflinks with the couple’s dog Nemo’s paw prints! The Grand hall, a model replica of London’s Westminster Hall with its intricate carvings and dark oak panelling had been decorated beautifully by Exclusively Weddings for the ceremony. This incredible room features heavily in many New Forest wedding photographs for a very good reason. Sashed Ivory chairs and a mass of countryside flowers brought the eye up the room towards the registrars’ table. Here Phil now stood silhouetted by the huge windows overlooking the garden awaiting his bride.
Mike Judd, Professional toastmaster saw the guests in (we have mentioned on numerous occasions that Mike’s skills should never be left out of a wedding at Rhinefield House and he regularly features in our New Forest wedding photographs).
The fabulous sting trio “Abbey Strings”, stuck up and the beautiful ladies in blue led Fern and her father down the aisle. The wedding guests were treated to a heartfelt ceremony and readings filled with excited laughter and loving smiles.
Once the register was signed we took the happy couple and their champagne outside to cool down for ten minutes whilst the wedding guests filtered through to the bar room. The bridesmaids joined us with handfuls of confetti. The overcast weather provided lovely soft lighting for photographs of the couple and we couldn’t resist a couple of pictures in the incredible Albrama room.
We could hear the guests enjoyed drinks reception and canapés from the garden. Happy chatting and laughter mixed with children playing whilst the babies of the group took their morning nap.
With Mike on board we quickly organised and shot the group photographs in the cold outside, making sure we kept everyone as warm (and hydrated) as possible.
Phil and Fern were keen to take a walk around Rhinefield House‘s grounds. The blue rusty gates, ornamental canals, fountains, clipped yews, parterre and tree-lined paths always make for amazing New Forest wedding photographs.
All credit to Rhinefield House‘s staff and Mike Judd’s organisational skills. The Grand Hall was turned around in record time, with more stunning countryside flowers from Exclusively Weddings adorning the wedding breakfast tables. Each table also housed a small bottle of Phil’s homemade wine and egg place names from Phil and Ferns very own chickens!
At the head of the room, under the garden window stood the impressive four tier blue soap wedding cake! Made by The Yorkshire Soap Company this was a fantastic idea of combining wedding cake and wedding favours into one.
The table plan included hand drawn place settings corresponding to each table’s bird boxes, adorned with pressed countryside flowers.
The greeting line (under the guidance of Mike Judd) saw the guests seated for wedding breakfast and the children’s entertainers “Buttons” had set up in the adjoining room. Another genius idea from the happy couple.
Once everyone was well fed and watered we worked around the restricted lighting of The Great Hall for the speeches. Phil revealed his hilarious formula for remembering his wedding anniversary. His brother did a wonderful job not only of embarrassing but making his guests love him even more with a compilation of home videos and photographs.
With every jaw in the room aching from laughter the wine tasting began- rating Phil’s home brews involved some of the funniest facial reactions I have seen in a long time. A Polaroid camera was utilised next to a guest book, which shortly filled with selfies and messages of love.
The fabulous jazz style The Blue Mojitos wedding band had set up and Mike announced the first dance. Fern and Phil would be the first to tell you that they ‘aren’t dancers’ but the way they swirled about the dance floor you wouldn’t know- still both grinning wildly on the best day of their lives!
All of the guests seemed to flood onto the dance floor and join in with the happy couple and we left them dancing the night away with cameras full of beautiful New Forest wedding photographs.
