This photograph is from a wedding at the wonderful Whitley Hall located in Ecclesfield on the outskirts of Sheffield. This beautiful 16th century manor house makes a perfect wedding venue for those who appreciate historic buildings. With oak panelling almost everywhere and the wonderful oak four poster be in the bridal suite, this really is something out of the ordinary for a hotel wedding venue.
The photograph above was taken in the beautiful grounds of the hall, very close to one of the magnificent lakes. An image of the bride and groom together is one of the essential images we need to capture from a wedding day. We don't tend to do much in the way of posed, set up or staged photographs, we feel they tend to look unnatural and contrived and often don't reflect the true personality of the bride and groom. We will try to place our couples in the best location available to us, in good light with a favourable background, but after that it is up to them. If the bride and groom do need some assistance with posing, we will help, but most of the time our couples are just happy to be married and happy to be together on their wedding day and just interact naturally together.
In this image we asked our couple to stand together facing each other on the lawn at Whitley Hall while we took a series of pictures of them. We probably suggested that they should have a kiss (they are married after all, it is allowed!) but other than that they were just so relaxed and interacted so naturally and wonderfully with each other. They didn't need any direction, guidance, help or coaching and why should they? They are a loving couple on their wedding day, not a pair of hired models for a planned photo shoot so often featured and passed off as examples of “real wedding” photography.
The Whitley Hall Hotel is located in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, UK on Elliott Lane, S35 8NR. Their Website can be found at https://www.whitleyhall.com/
Keywords: bride & groom portrait (75), bride and groom together (117), kiss (11), Sheffield (192), Whitley Hall (43). 1/320; f/4.0; ISO 200; 170.0 mm.