I am very excited about today's wedding. The Bride is the sister of one of my best friends and she is just stunning. She was also married at one of the most gorgeous venues - actually where me and Mr BW were thinking of for ours. There story is just wonderful and their photographs are amazing. I am sure you will enjoy looking through them.
Love and best wishes to them for a long and happy life together
Love Katie x
All images and the following words are courtesy of Tobiah Tayo Photography and all the wonder that is! More work and wedding wonderfulness can be found here
This is the wedding story of Rachel & Thomas. They had met 12 years ago, fell in love, moved to Dubai with their respective careers and here they are. We met up with them at Nunsmere Hall before the wedding to chat about the day and meet for the first time. We instantly got on really well and we couldn’t wait for their wedding which was just days away!
Rachel works for Emirates and Tom works in wholesale for the high-end fashion label, Diesel. As you can imagine their wedding day naturally featured an extremely well dressed bridal party and perfection in many other areas too. They were both still easy going and a pleasure to be around, despite a few healthy nerves in the morning as can be expected!
Rachel and Tom were married local to their family in Bamford Chapel in Rochdale followed by their wedding reception at Nunsmere Hall in Cheshire, just 10 minutes from our home.
Our day started with Rachel and her bridesmaids getting ready at Nunsmere. Well, 3 of her bridesmaids were here but one was yet to arrive. The lovely Awatef was arriving from Paris but she hadn’t made her flight the night before! Thankfully she arrived with enough time to enjoy some champagne and to get ready.
Hair and make-up was done beautifully by the super-lovely and talented Reha Akhtar. Rachel’s dress was a stunning creation from Justin Alexander. She wore elaborate crystal drop earrings and an amazing pair of Badgley Mischka shoes to offset the dress. Tom and his brother wore matching tailored suits and the bridesmaids blush-pink floor length dresses.
We soon set off after photographing the details and the girls to meet up with Tom at the church. There were lots of guests arriving and lots of hugs. You could definitely see that Tom and Rachel are missed by their friends and family here in the UK and that everyone enjoyed celebrating their special day with them. Tom’s best men, his brothers, Oliver and William were keeping our groom calm and entertained before Rachel arrived. A little later than planned, Rachel walked down the aisle towards Tom with her proud mum Geraldine.
The ceremony was lovely and featured music from a string quartet who played prior to, during and after the ceremony. After they had said their ‘I do’s, Tom and Rachel greeted their guests outside who soon formed at the gates to shower them with the largest amount of confetti we’ve ever seen! I’m sure they completely disappeared underneath it all for a few seconds! Time for a few quick photographs and then it was off to the wonderful Nunsmere Hall.
I think the sunshine had travelled with them from Dubai as it was certainly shining when we arrived at Nunsmere Hall! Perfect weather for cocktails and champagne overlooking the sunken garden at the back of the hotel.
After catching up with family and friends as well as enjoying their drinks and canapés we headed out to start the family photographs. There is so much to choose from at Nunsmere Hall and the line of trees near to the entrance provided some welcomed shade for us to shoot in and was close enough for everyone to get back to the reception.
Rachel and Tom had chosen elegant decorations for their table centrepieces and after guests were seated they enjoyed some amazing food (as did we!) followed by the speeches.
Rachel’s father had sadly passed away a few years ago but her sister stepped up and delivered an amazing speech. Tom’s heartfelt speech was followed by his brother Oliver’s very funny tales of their childhood and reminders that he will be visiting them for lots of all-expense-paid holidays in the near future!
After their first dance we nipped outside for a few more photographs. The darkness setting in wasn’t a problem at all, it was perfect! We always strive to do something a little different where possible. We used some studio lights, an oven mitt and a little smoke pellet to create some cool images before we headed off home.
