The Ashes Wedding Barn Photography - Roisin and Mark

“Mike was recommended to us by our mutual friends. We had seen their wedding pictures and the ones on Mike’s website and Instagram page and we just loved their natural, relaxed, un-posed, unpretentious look. Neither of us would have a clue how to act in front of a camera if we’d had to pose all day long. With Mike we didn’t need to. We just enjoyed our day while he snapped away in the background. We couldn’t be happier with the results. Mike’s photos have captured all the love and warmth and happiness of the day perfectly.” – Roisin and Mark

The Perfect Match

Roisin and Mark are a perfect example of an online dating success story. They met on match.com and knew they had something pretty special not long after. Two and a half years later, Roisin and Mark found themselves getting engaged in the presence of a rutting deer at Dunham Massey National Trust Park. Roisin and Mark had planned to get married in 1 or 2 years’ time. However, on their first venue visit, they were so bowled over by The Ashes Barns that they decided there was no good reason not to do it sooner. It was planned in exactly 5 months (to the day from visiting the venue).

The Ideal Venue     

Shooting weddings at The Ashes Barn in Staffordshire is always a fantastic experience for any photographer. There’s no bad angles because everywhere you turn, you find another stunning backdrop or an interesting feature to help frame the perfect wedding photo. It’s an award winning wedding venue (Best National Wedding Venue 2014, Wedding Industry Awards) with 50 acres of rural countryside set at the foothills of the Peak District National Park. The whole estate is full of character but it is also enough of a blank canvas for each couple to add their own unique touches for their special day.

Mark, the groom, is an Art Director and so most of the design work (from the stationery to the rustic dried flower wall hangings and centrepieces) was done by him, given his creative background. The dried flowers for the bouquets and décor fit perfectly with the rustic country barn setting. In keeping with this, they had decided on a sage green colour scheme for the Bridesmaids – though this became sage green and peach 2 weeks before the wedding as Roisin’s sister’s baby bump didn’t cooperate with their plans. Whoops! They looked beautiful regardless.

The Special Moment

The happy couple’s favourite moment from the day took place in the 17^th century grade II listed “The West Barn” when Roisin and Mark saw each other for the first time on our wedding day. It was the first time Roisin had seen all the guests- “there was just such an amazing feeling of being loved at that moment! I was grinning from ear to ear. I wouldn’t change a thing about that moment!”

Wedding Wisdom

“It’s so important to remember what and who the day is really about and not feel that there is a set formula that you need to conform to. It’s easy to fall into the trap of prioritising other people’s expectations of the day over your own. Of course we wanted all our guests to enjoy the day but we wanted to make sure that it was our unique day that they were enjoying. First and foremost we planned a day that we would love and cherish.” And what a fantastic day it was. A truly lovely and warm couple. Thank you for letting me be a part of your day, Mike.