Cheshire based portrait photographer

Our beautiful sunny wedding day at The Ashes, Endon

Posted on Saturday 2nd July 2011 in Wedding Suppliers

Matt and I got married last June at The Ashes in Endon, Staffordshire. We chose the Ashes because the minute we drove down the long drive to the venue and walked into the barns we knew we had to have our wedding day there. It has a very special atmosphere. We were greeted by Sarah who was so friendly and welcoming and took the time to find out all about how we wanted our wedding day to be.

Aswell as the venue, the other really important thing to confirm was our photographer of course! You wouldn't believe how many people asked me who it would be! I always joke that I picked our photographer before choosing my groom(!) but for me, having trust in the person who will be recording our big day and preserving our memories was extremely important and I knew I'd picked the right team in Stewart and Julie Randall.

I wanted to make our wedding day as personal as possible and be surrounded by our closest family and friends, we involved a few of them in the wedding day! I enjoyed making the invitations, order of service, table plan, favours etc myself and my lovely friend Rachel did an amazing job with the flowers on the day, I couldn't have wished for more beautiful bouquets and arrangements.

Our dear friends Chris & Julie performed a song as part of the ceremony which Julie had written especially for our wedding. It is utterly beautiful and was an unbelieveably generous gift. My friend James, did a great job of entertaining us all during the drinks reception and Vanya & Graham provided our wedding night accomodation in their beautiful home in the middle of the countryside and cooked us a fantastic breakfast for our first morning as Mr & Mrs Edwards.

Lots of other friends and family were at the end of the phone when things occasionally got a little bit stressful! Like when the mens suits didn't fit with less than a week to go and then still didn't fit Matt two days before the wedding, meaning he had to seek the help of Platts Formal Hire in Crewe who sorted him out a perfectly fitting suit in double quick time after Groom in Chester had let us down badly. We really wished we'd gone to Platts in the first place! Most of the other preparations went without a hitch and we definitely did have the best day of our lives.

In case you're interested, the other suppliers we used and would recommend are Maria Modes & Lucille's both in Macclesfield where we got our dresses, Element Bespoke Jewellery in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham where we got our wedding rings - really friendly guys and good prices too! Jenkinsons Caterers who provided a top meal for our wedding breakfast, and the Toni James Band who got everyone dancing and created just the right atmosphere for our evening reception.

I have included a few photographs that I took of our wedding day, mostly detail shots and a few taken during the drinks reception - obviously none of me! I knew I wouldn't be able to resist bringing my camera along but it's safe to say, it didn't get used very much.