Mr & Mrs Spence’s Wool Tower Wedding
Nicola and Ian are awesome 😍 From our very first meeting at our house, we knew that we’d enjoy capturing their wedding and being in their company at their big day. Ian loves football like Ryan and they chatted about that while playing pool and Nicola and I love gin and chatting so we already had a lot in common 😂
We had to remind ourselves at points that we were there to discuss weddings and photographs. Getting to meet so many lovely people is one of the best parts of being a wedding photographer. We talked through the engagement shoot plans (posting soon) and also plans for the big day at the Wool Tower.
Our First Wool Tower Wedding.
We had heard good reports about the Wool Tower in Broughshane but had never captured a wedding there. It’s a lovely old brick building beside a river and has lots of old rustic rooms and spots for pictures.
Preparations.
With every bride and groom, we tell them to do exactly what they want on their day, and we will capture it. We always ask grooms if they are going for a haircut, shave or breakfast – to let us know as when they look back on their pictures, we want them to remember exactly what they did. Well this morning, Ryan went with Ian and the lads for breakfast – not to eat though – he was working 🙂
Then it was back to Ian’s house for the lads to all get ready….all while playing a few games of Fifa. A fry-up, a few beers and a game of Fifa. What a way to start the day 🍳🍻️⚽️
Ian supports Everton (hence the blue theme in the suit I guess) and the best man supports Liverpool. So they had a game on Fifa with those exact teams – with Ian racing off into a 2-0 lead, all while goading and gloating……
But you should never celebrate too early as the best man brought it back to 2-2 and then scored the winner in the 90th minute, forever immortalised on camera 😂
After all the laughing, the lads then got dressed up and were on their way to the Wool Tower
Nicola and the bridesmaids were already at the Wool tower getting ready. It’s no secret that bridal prep is one of my favourite parts of the day and this day was no different. The bride is almost always last to get make-up done and I love to take the bridesmaids for a few shots at this time.
Nicola’s beautiful hair (by Emma O’Boylan) and stunning makeup (by Rebecca Saulters) was complete and she had put her dress on. The girls came back to see and were all holding back the tears when they saw how stunning she looked….
Ian and Nicola were both ready…….It was now time for these two lovely people to get married 👰 🤵
Wool Tower Wedding Ceremony
All the guests had arrived, the groom was waiting patiently and the bride was ready. It was time for the ceremony…
Having two photographers means we can capture many different angles of a wedding – Like Nicola coming up the aisle & her and Ian seeing each other for the first time 😍 📸 it just couldn’t be done without 2 photographers.
Once the ceremony is over, everyone spills out into the courtyard for some pictures. I said it in another blog and i’ll say it again – ‘Always have a confetti shot. Always.’ 🎊
All the guests get involved and there are so many smiling faces in the shot. It’s hard to get the bride and groom with open eyes or without stray hands or confetti in the way….but we always get an amazing shot in the end.
We usually let the bride and groom mingle and get a drink at this point…..then after 15 – 20 minutes, while the rest of the guests were enjoying the sunshine, the ice cream, the shortbread and of course, the bar…..we took Ian and Nicola off to get pictures done.
At this point, we always tell the newlyweds to bring a drink or two with them to enjoy while getting the pictures, and it always makes for a nice picture of their first drink as a married couple….
We usually start off with the full bridal party and then split into 2 groups with the guys going with Ryan and the girls coming with me…….
photo time………📸
The videographer for the wedding was Dave McGarvey from Firefly Weddings and we always enjoy working with him. His sister was bridesmaid at this wedding and in typical Dave fashion, he got the guys having a dance off together for the video🕺💃
And with that, we sent the bridal party off on their merry way. Now it was the window we get with the bride and groom for pictures, with Ian and Nicola just chatting with us casually as we moved from place to place and captured candid shots.
And with that, the lovely couple went back to the reception to enjoy the rest of the afternoon with their guests.
It’s at this point in weddings that Ryan and I will go round getting pictures of guests and little detail shots. One of the perks of working weddings is always the sweet cart….and at this wedding…..what a sweet cart it was 🍬🍬 😍
After gorging ourselves on sweets to get a sugar rush energy burst, it was upstairs to capture the room before the guests get called for dinner. We always like to be efficient with our time at weddings so the bride and groom get to spend most of the day with their guests…..it’s always a nice to have a good balance between that and pictures.
The room look absolutely amazing with the fairy lights giving beautiful feel to the images. The stunning floral arrangements where created by Flowers at the Mill and they decorated the room beautifully. It was now time for the moment a lot of grooms fear the most……the speeches. Ian breezed it 🤵
And with that, dinner is served. At this this time we usually charge batteries both metaphorically and literally. It is usually the first time we get a rest from early morning but because we love weddings so much️, we don’t even notice the time passing ❤️
With dinner gone, we capture some more guests images, with new guests arriving for the evening do. Wool Tower weddings have the dinner upstairs and the dancing downstairs, so there is no room turnaround so it’s straight to the dancing
Now i couldn’t write a blog on this wedding without mentioning Ste Ming. Ian had a mask from his stag do – i’m not entirely sure of the full story on how this mask came to be – but it came to the wedding. Ian wore it for a special dance off and also for the group picture will all the stag lads. It was hilarious. We couldn’t stop laughing.
This was a truly amazing day from start to finish with so many familiar faces. We both had such a great laugh the whole time and we often talk how fortunate we are to be able to do this as a job. Ian and Nicola are fantastic people. They got the day they both deserved and it was a pleasure to capture it ❤️️
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog 😍 – if you are planning a Wool Tower wedding, or indeed a wedding anywhere in the world, we’d love to capture your big day. Feel free to get in touch to start your wedding photo journey.
Much love,
Nush.
So sorry I couldn’ make it on your big day with my dad, looks like you had a beautiful day