We absolutely loved photographing Ali and Jake’s amazing Yorkshire wedding at the wonderful Sledmere Barn. This was our second wedding at Sledmere Barn – we’d happily photograph there every week, it really is a fabulous Yorkshire wedding venue! Ali and Jake made all their decorations by hand – with a little help from their family and friends as well! All the hard work by everyone involved really paid off, Sledmere Barn really did look stunning. We know just how much Ali and Jake in particular loved the boho style flowers by Ivy Lane Florist – the flowers really were stunning! It has to be said, Ivy Lane are always highly recommended by all our couples who use them. Ali commented on the day not just how beautiful the flowers were, but how lovely Becky of Ivy Lane had been to work with throughout the whole wedding planning process.
As well as Ivy Lane Florists, we also worked with several more amazing suppliers: Lillian West (dress designer), Wedding Belles and Beaus, York (wedding dress shop), Slaters (suits for the best men), Next Signature range (Jake’s suit), Sophie Cash (make up), Sweet Hair Salon (hair), The Wolfpack (live band), Nomad Catering and The Pizza Kitchen (catering).
We’ve worked alongside Ivy Lane and Sophie Cash many times and they are both fantastic at what they do – and we know Ali and Jake would recommend every single one of their suppliers, as Jake mentions below. It’s also worth noting that all the cakes and sweet treats were completely DIY – all baked by Ali’s closest family and friends. We may have had a little slice of cake – and it was amazing! The cakes looked so beautiful too, what an amazing job everyone did – they went down a storm, especially Ali’s sister’s tiffin! We asked Ali and Jake to tell us a little about a few key parts of their day and they were kind us to supply the following lovely words.
The Dress: “My dress is by Lillian West and from Wedding Belles and Beaus. I wanted a lace dress from the very beginning as I really like vintage things and my engagement ring is also vintage. I went to lots of shops in Hull, Beverley and York. Finally I found my dream dress in York! I hate my arms so I knew I wanted some kind of cover or sleevage. Originally I thought I’d get an a shaped dress to hide my hips but after trying on the mermaid fishtail ones I knew they suited my shape better. The bridesmaids dresses I knew early on I wanted sage green colours so it was just a matter of finding ones that we liked. I liked the rustic style of these from ASOS and they were haunted neck (compared with my dress) and had plenty of room for them to eat and drink to their hearts content!” – Ali (Ali looked absolutely amazing in her Lillian West dress – and Jake looked ever so dapper too we must say!)
The Venue: “We originally looked at lots of different venues and I always wanted a barn but thought it was out of our price range. After scouring all of Hull and the nearby areas we didn’t see anything we liked and didn’t like being tied into a package just serving chicken wrapped in bacon! So I started looking at barns again and actually found Sledmere Barn on a forum (it never seemed to come up on any searches anywhere). We loved the rustic style of it and the authentic brickwork so we made a booking to view it. We fell in love with it when we saw it and the price too! It meant we could have our dream wedding and find all local suppliers to really make it personal to us and get the food/ drink and feel that we wanted. We also liked it was near the house and gardens of Sledmere House if we wanted to access them (which we did!) also it was rural and out of Hull. Jake recently walked the Yorkshire wolds way too so it was just perfect.”
The best part of the day for Ali: “This was seeing all of our friends and family having a lovely time, everyone was talking to each other without us having to introduce them. The speeches were another highlight for me as they were perfectly full of love and lots of laughter. And possibly the pizzas!”
The best part of the day for Jake: The best part of the day was seeing Ali at the Alter, everything fell into place and the nerves instantly dissipated. Also, working with M and G Photographic and the other suppliers was great, everyone was on form and provided the foundations to a fabulous day.”
The suits “I’d spent almost a year jumping from tailor to tailor worrying about colour schemes when what was really important was a suit that actually fit me and was within budget!” – Jake
The photography: Also, before writing this blog, Ali and Jake left us the most amazing five star review: “Our wedding day was something we’d planned for 2 years, but throughout those two years you never know what it’s all actually going to look like! But we needn’t have worried, we had the BEST day with all our family and friends and having Patrick as our photographer was the icing on the cake! From our very first meeting we felt so relaxed in his company, he is very professional but also manages to put you at ease – and no questions are too silly either!
The pre- wedding shoot is definitely a must too! Patrick’s style captured our day perfectly, full of happy tears, laughter and lots of family and friends enjoying themselves. When Patrick says ‘you won’t notice I’m there’, he really means it! He manages to be everywhere without being seen and get those special private moments as well which we really love. If you’re looking for a natural look to your photos, there’s no one better! Thank you for bringing our wedding day to life, we’ll cherish these photos forever! Love from the Trumans”. Wow, such a lovely review from such a lovely couple – it means so much to us to know you love your photos. Thanks again for taking the time to write such a thoughtful and heartfelt review for us Ali and Jake.
Our own favourite image: we like to pick our own favourite image, as photographers, for every blog we write for our couples. And for Ali and Jake’s beautiful day, it’s the image pictured below which was taken during the speeches. It shows Jake leaning over to kiss Ali at the end of his speech. We took a big gamble by trying to anticipate this moment – we hid round the back of the top table for 3 or 4 minutes, fingers crossed, hoping it would happen. Jake’s speech was lovely and it felt as if a kiss was coming! So we left the main action and took up a more unusual position for a photograph of the speeches, around the back of the top table. This allowed us to compose the shot and wait; our position meant Ali and Jake were framed perfectly by the beautiful arch. This approach doesn’t always pay off, sometimes we wait and wait and it just doesn’t happen! But it’s what we are constantly doing – rather than just photographing moments randomly, we try to anticipate things before they happen, letting us frame and compose beautiful images for our couples by capturing the best moments of the day creatively – M and G Photographic.
Below you’ll find our other personal highlights from Ali and Jake’s wedding day. We’d quite happily photograph it all again… Ali and Jake, if you’re game – we’ll see you in Sledmere in 15 minutes!
Natural, unposed wedding photography by Yorkshire Wedding Photographer M and G Photographic. If you’d like us to photograph your day naturally and without posing – a few group shots aside! – please get in touch here. We’d love to hear all about your plans!