Highcliffe Castle Wedding, Dorset – Hannah & Carl

Highcliffe Castle Wedding.
“We absolutely adore the photos! We couldn’t be happier, they are beyond beautiful. You have perfectly captured the story of our wedding day, from start to finish. We had very high expectations for our wedding photos but you have exceeded even those. It was so nice on the day to have one less thing to worry about because we just knew our photos would be amazing. We honestly couldn’t be more thankful to you, you have captured our day so wonderfully. Each and every single photo is beautiful, you are so talented Thomas, thank you so much for shooting our day.” Hannah and Carl.

Hannah and Carl met in Portsmouth, when Hannah was just 18 and Carl was 19 and they got engaged after three years together. On a holiday in Dubai, Carl bought an engagement ring so Hannah knew a proposal was coming but didn’t know when! To pop the question, Carl chose a romantic picnic at Henley river, which is a special place for both of them. You can see their pre-wedding session here.

Their Highcliffe Castle wedding was in Dorset, it was a beautiful day, the sun shone and everyone was happy! Thanks Hannah and Carl for having me along on your special day.

“I had been looking on the internet for months and started to whittle down the kind of dresses I liked. I liked lace, v neck straps and a ball gown style but I couldn’t find one dress that had everything. So good old Google came to the rescue, I typed in those three words and up it popped – I just knew it was the one. I loved the lace detail, the scalloped edge on the bottom, the v neck at the front and back, the detail on the belt and how I had to pick it up to walk (sounds silly that I liked having to pick it up but that made me feel like Cinderella! ) .

It is now with The Wedding Wishing Well Foundation charity. I didn’t want the dress to just sit around, I wanted to help someone else’s dream wedding day come true.”

Hannah’s shoes were Lychee, Lady Dragon Heart Shoes by Vivienne Westwood” I had seen these shoes in a wedding magazine and instantly wanted them as my wedding shoes. They are just so cute and fun! “

” We had been looking for a venue for about a year and nothing grabbed us. We wanted somewhere by the sea, that had the wow factor and that was modern, airy & light inside (not too demanding! ) .  Nothing we had looked at fitted the bill until we viewed Highcliffe Castle, it was just perfect, it ticked every box. There is literally no where else in the world we would rather have been married.”

” I’d always wanted a string quartet and my Mum and Dad booked them as a surprise for us. Unfortunately, me being the ultimate surprise ruiner, I found out before the day. It was the perfect addition to our day, they played gorgeously and even played mine and Carl’s favourite song as we signed the register – ‘ married life ‘ from the Disney Pixar film UP ! “

” I initially didn’t want a car but I am so pleased we did. Don our driver was amazing and that moment in the car with my Dad is one that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

” I walked down to Ray LaMontagne – ‘ Can I Stay ‘, played by the string quartet. Carl had always said, since we first met, that this was the song he imagined me walking down the aisle to. I had never heard of it before but now love it, it is a beautiful song.”

“We both wanted a elegant day but without the stuffiness and, of course, we wanted to make sure that we and everyone else had fun. I love the beach and having grown up on Hayling Island, being surrounded by the sea, I always knew that I wanted to incorporate the sea in some way into our wedding day. With Highcliffe being a seafront venue, a beach theme just fitted our day perfectly.”

“We had space hoppers to add a bit of fun and a peep board too ! “

” It was the most amazing local ice cream, I was so worried with the British weather but we had a scorcher of a day and so many people went up for seconds and thirds! “

” We had always liked the birdcage style wedding cakes and so we settled on that quite early on. The bottom two tiers where white, with the middle tier having some pearl detail and the bottom tier having a blue ribbon and a white flower made out of sugar icing and the top tier was the blue birdcage, with pearls draped on the top and another sugar flower. Two tiers were lemon sponge and one was chocolate orange. It must have been nice as Carl and I didn’t get a look in, all three tiers went in about ten minutes ! “

” I couldn’t have had the day without our dogs, Zorro and Dinky, they had to be there and it was something that I asked every venue ! ““We had two first dance songs (I know, greedy!). For the first, we danced by ourselves outside in the sunshine to ‘ Songbird ‘ by Oasis, played by the string quartet. It was so lovely to have a secret moment outside with my new husband, that memory is priceless.”

” My ring was from a little Scottish Jewelers. We went away on holiday with my family (they are Scottish and do an annual pilgrimage to Scotland) and I walked past a family run jewelers and did a double take when I spotted it. My Grandma was Scottish and sadly passed away when I was 17, the year before I met Carl, and it felt right to buy my ring in Scotland. I knew that I wanted a bit of extra bling and it has diamonds half the way round. The locket was a wedding present from Carl. It has two photos of my Grandma in it, one taken on her wedding day and the other as I remember her. I couldn’t have wished for a better present (we had agreed not to give anything so it was a massive surprise) I’m just pleased he arranged for it to be given to me before my make up was done”

“The  ‘official ‘ first dance was ‘ You’ve Got a Friend in Me ‘ by Randy Newman, better known as the song from Toy Story. We are best friends as well as husband and wife, so it just felt right.”

” The Photo Booth was so funny, we have so many pictures that hold so many good memories! “

” The Sparks kept everyone dancing all night. Our guests even demanded an encore!”

” Our guestbook was to ask the guests to respond to our messages in a bottle with their own note. We had dates on the bottles and will open them each on a different anniversary, the dates range from 1 year to 25 years.”

 ” For us the photography was so important, it is the only thing that you keep after the day. You want your memories to be captured perfectly. I spent months and months looking for the right photographer and we couldn’t have found anyone more perfect than Thomas.

Thomas perfectly captured the story of our wedding day, from start to finish, with photos detailing the wedding preparations, the nervousness before the wedding, the moment that our eyes first met walking down the aisle, the exchanging of rings, the smiles, the joy, the laughter, the emotion of all the speeches, the cutting of the cake, the first dance and the crazy dancing afterwards. All of this without intruding. For all of our photos (bar the portrait shots) we hadn’t even realised that Thomas was there. This made for wonderfully natural photos – both of us and our guests – which captured the real emotions on the day. This is an exceptional art, that is rare to find. It is so lovely to be able to relive the best day of our life in such detail with Thomas’ beautiful photos. We had very high expectations for our wedding photos but Thomas exceeded even those. It was so important on the day to have one less thing to worry because we just knew our photos would be amazing. We honestly couldn’t be more thankful to you Thomas, you have captured our day so wonderfully. Each and every single photo is beautiful. You are so talented, thank you so much for shooting our day.”

 

Venue: Highcliffe Castle
Highcliffe Castle Wedding Photographer: Beecham Photography
Videographer: Emma Stock
Wedding Dress: Pronovias Bermeo
Hair: Charlotte Jane Mead
Make up: Teresa Jolly
Florist: Floral Designs Dorset
String Quartet: Estilo String Quartet
Entertainment: The Sparks
Car: Fosstalgia Cars
Ice Cream Tricycle: The Wessex Ice Cream Co.
Photo Booth: Photopoint Ltd

 

To chat about your wedding photography, please get in touch via our contact page or by email thomas@beechamphotography.com or call 01539 729217


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