Photography Tips at The Ashes Barns
From One Little Daisy
I’ve now shot over 200 weddings at The Ashes and across all those years of working with wonderful couples I’ve seen a whole range of different ways that people have chosen to organise different parts of their day. Some good, and some not so good. I thought I would write this blog to share 5 good ideas and 5 that didn’t work so well from where I observed them.
The Good - 1.30pm or 2pm Ceremonies
This specifically applies to weddings where the service is held at The Ashes Barns rather than those where the service is held at a church. I’ve always found that these two times really do seem to result in the best flow of weddings at The Ashes Barns. It gives a really nice flow to the day. It means nobody has to start getting ready too early and there isn’t a big gap later on in the day where people don’t have anything to do and are waiting around for the evening to start. It also allows plenty of time to get to the Ashes for your guests.
Ceremonies that are much earlier there is often a rush to get ready followed by an extended time after the meal before the evening guests arrive. Ceremonies that are later in the day have always felt a little more rushed in terms of being able to mingle with your guests and spend quality time with them.
The Good - Live music during the drinks reception
Whenever a couple have organised some form of live music to be played during the drinks reception I’ve always felt like it’s really lifted the atmosphere. Whether it be an acoustic duo like The Ashmore Brothers or Synergy or a steel drum band, the result is always a crowd pleaser. I once had a full brass band that set up during the ceremony and surprised the guests. It went down a storm.
For autumn and winter weddings when a lot of people stay in the west barn for the reception due to the lower temperature the balcony provides a great place for your live music act to set up leaving the whole area outside free for your guests to mingle.
The Good - Close up magician during the meal/evening
The Good - Providing big colourful confetti
I always try and get a beautiful confetti photograph when I’m working at The Ashes Barns. I take time to set this up and get something the couple can hang on the wall. The best confetti is always the really simple multi coloured stuff but also making sure that the confetti pieces are quite large and of course biodegradable. When you have small similar coloured pieces of confetti it gets lost in the background. The more people that get involved in throwing the confetti - the better!
The Good - Engaging Garden Games
Garden games are quite popular at weddings but I’ve found they are often hit and miss depending on the audience. I think you have to read your guests well and pick the types of games that they will enjoy rather than just stick to a generic set of games. I’ve found the most most well received games have been where theres a real competitive edge to it - table tennis, bowls and croquet! Also make sure you yourself get involved with the games - people forget they are actually there.
The lawn area and the courtyard both make for great locations to setup engaging garden games. I’ve found it’s definitely the larger versions of those games that have had the biggest mount of interaction.
The Bad - Speeches in-between courses
Of all the things I’ve seen that hasn’t worked from my perspective it’s when speeches are planned to be between courses during the meal. It seemed to not really have any positives at all, only negatives. Gathering peoples attention at weddings can be a testing thing. What I found is that after each course people often wander around to talk to others, or visit the toilet, or get some fresh air outside.
Gathering everyone up multiple times and getting them to go back to their seats becomes very frustrating for the couple, the Events Team and the person speaking. As they get one person sat, another would leave their table unaware of what is happening.
The catering team have no idea how long each speech will be and so it makes it very difficult for them to have each course ready at the optimum time, it means sometimes food being plated ready to come out only for the speaker to go on 15 minutes longer than they planned to. The entire meal takes much longer than planned due to all of the stop and start. The knock on effect of this is often evening guests arriving whilst the speeches are still going.
The Bad - Long gap between meal finishing and evening
Try to avoid having a gap of more than 90 minutes between your meal finishing and the cake cutting and first dance. I found when there is a really long gap with nothing to do the guests can start to get a little tired. A wedding is a long day for the day guests and keeping a nice flow really helps keep the party feeling going and everyone in a happy mood.
If you do have a long gap due to having an early ceremony then consider planning some entertainment to fill it. Such as a photo booth, casino tables or a band. One wedding I remember had a long gap due to an early ceremony had booked an acoustic duo to sing and it was a beautiful day so they ended up almost doing a mini concert for the guests.
The Bad - Choosing a photographer/videographer with different styles
Photographers and videographers have all sorts of different approaches to your wedding day. You should avoid choosing ones that don’t complement each other. For example if you pick a photographer who specialises in candid storytelling but a videographer that sets a lot of shots up you’ll find that the two approaches really don’t gel. It makes both suppliers job harder and can compromise the end product.
The Bad - Going for a drive during the drinks reception
I’ve seen it a few times where the couple have been married at the Ashes itself yet had a car come and take them for a drive during the drinks reception. Where it’s been done and the car has only taken them for 15 mins or so it was fine but I had it a few times where the driver didn’t realise how long they were gone and the couple missed 45 mins of their drinks reception. When they came back we still had to do the portraits and group photos and they ended up having no time at all spent mingling with their guests.
The Old Dairy is open for the couple from midday so if you do want to spend a little quality time together just after getting married I’d suggest popping in there for a few minutes instead.
The Bad - Sparklers too late on a summer evening
Sparklers are a popular thing to have at weddings these days. If you do decide you want sparklers at your wedding I’ve found it only really makes sense to have them during the autumn/winter months where the light drops earlier. I’ve had a couple of weddings now where the sparklers were done much later due to it being summer and as a result the guests are a lot more inebriated. This has resulted in a few near misses with some sparklers burning peoples clothing as guests are less careful. The earlier in the evening you do your sparklers the better to avoid any accidents.