When you get told the groom proposed in a rock night club, you know the wedding is going to be great and it was. I absolutely loved photographing Charli & Edd’s festival themed wedding at Dalby Forest. And oh my God! How awesome was the wedding? Festival themed, marquees, flags, games, forest, fire and sun! (so much sun).
Dalby Forest Wedding Ceremony
Not one, but two wedding ceremonies in the gorgeous North Yorkshire Moors National Park. They had opted for a hand fast ceremony, but in order to be legal, they still had to have the traditional wedding ceremony inside, but luckily, the visitors centre in Dalby forest makes for a perfect place to photograph a wedding with beautiful light in the ceremony room and big glass windows at the front looking out into the forest, the photos look amazing.
Hand Fasting Ceremony
A 20 minute drive into the depths of Dalby Forest, we met up with Bob who works for Woodland Weddings, a forestry commission who host weddings in cheshire and the north west. Greeted by a mini festival site, complete with trapeze marquee, flags, music and games. For anyone who doesn’t know, a hand fast ceremony or handfasting is a Neopaganism custom. The ceremony can be different, some with incense and other parts, but always with a strong theme of nature, mother earth and in Charli & Edd’s handfasting case, involved jumping over a sword at the end. With it all being outside too, photographing the hand fast ceremony to a background of blue sky and trees was really special.
Relaxed Wedding Photography
The rest of the day followed very much like the wedding couple, relaxed. There was no plan for speeches (something the best man wasn’t happy about, ha) and no wedding cake either (something I wasn’t happy about, ha!). A casual walk into the woods to photograph some wedding portraits was then followed by some welly wanging, sack racing and various other fun games. It was a perfect wedding for me to photograph, relaxed, casual and fun. Come the evening reception, there were quite a few red faces and definitely some sore heads the next morning.
Many thanks to Karl Chester Photography for second shooting and grabbing some amazing shots from the day.
It was awesome to work with these guys too:
Springbok Catering
Louise Florists
Events collective
Woodlands Weddings
Peace, Love & Cats
Matt x
Like what you see, let me know in the comment section.