Vikki & Ash’s Outdoor Wedding at Norwood Park
Vikki and Ash travelled down from Beverley for their intimate summer wedding at Norwood Park, with just 22 guests joining them for an outdoor ceremony in the bandstand.
I was there for four hours, covering the ceremony, drinks and canapés afterwards, family photographs and then spending some time with Vikki and Ash around the grounds. It was a much smaller and more relaxed wedding than a typical full day, but photographically we certainly weren’t short of opportunities.
Norwood Park is one of those venues that really comes into its own when you can make the most of the grounds, and with the whole wedding taking place outside, we were able to do exactly that.
An outdoor wedding ceremony at Norwood Park
The ceremony took place outside at Norwood Park’s bandstand, surrounded by the gardens and Nottinghamshire countryside.
Summer weddings and outdoor ceremonies obviously sound like a photographer’s dream, but bright sunshine can actually be pretty unforgiving. Harsh shadows, squinting and very contrasty light aren’t always the easiest things to work with.
Fortunately, we had lovely soft light for Vikki and Ash, which was perfect for the ceremony and the photographs afterwards. In fact, every photograph from the wedding was taken using natural, ambient light. Not a single flash fired all day, which is quite unusual for me!
After the ceremony everyone stayed outside for drinks and canapés, giving me plenty of opportunities for the natural, candid photographs I always like to capture while everyone relaxed and chatted.
Family photographs at Norwood Park
With only 22 guests, there was no need for a huge list of group photographs. We got everyone together for a full group shot on the steps before moving around to the rear of the house for the family photographs.
There’s a great doorway at the back of Norwood Park which sits in the shade and works particularly well for groups on a bright summer day.
Once we’d finished, the guests headed off to the reception at a separate location. This left us with something you don’t always get on a wedding day, time.
Relaxed wedding photography around the grounds
Wedding days can be incredibly busy. Even on a full-day wedding, the time I actually get alone with a couple can sometimes be surprisingly short. Ten or fifteen minutes here and there is often all you’ve got before they’re needed somewhere else.
Vikki and Ash’s smaller wedding was completely different.
With the guests on their way to the reception, there was no rush, so we could have a relaxed wander around Norwood Park and make the most of the grounds. Rather than racing through a list of locations, we could stop when something looked good and just see what worked.
We used the gardens, the steps at the rear of the house and the main entrance, where we created a bridal portrait of Vikki with the train of her dress spread across the steps.
Some of my favourites from the day are the more colourful photographs through the borders, particularly the shots with the purple flowers in the foreground against the warmer tones behind. The grounds at Norwood Park are beautifully maintained, and there’s loads of colour and variety in the planting to work with during the summer.
An intimate wedding at Norwood Park
Vikki and Ash’s wedding is also a good example of how you don’t need a huge wedding or a full day of photography to come away with a really varied set of photographs.
In four hours we covered their outdoor ceremony, candid moments with their guests, the whole wedding party, family groups and then had plenty of time for relaxed photographs of the two of them around the estate.
Having only 22 guests actually worked really well. There was no rushing around trying to organise hundreds of people and, once everyone had left for the reception, we had Norwood Park’s grounds to ourselves.
A lovely little wedding to photograph and a very different way to spend a Tuesday afternoon.
Congratulations Vikki & Ash!
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