When there’s a will there’s a wade - Caroline & Will at Grangefields

Since starting our business and having our phone number up on our website for the whole world to call, let’s say it’s had some ups and downs. You could say I might be the hard-headed type of chap that answers unknown callers and maybe tries to annoy the cold callers, and that can be fun biannually, but not every day. So you might be unsurprised to hear I am a little gun shy when answering unknown numbers, but the only reason I do answer them nowadays is because of Caroline & Will.

We were in our old house and I was probably playing with our cat Albert. He is right Cog, loves fetch, responds to a whistle and has a favourite. As do I 😉. And we got a random call, from Caroline enquiring about her and Wills's wedding. It was a quick call, I answered all the questions kinda thought that was it. Cue a year later having shot one of our favourite days and what resulted in 3 bookings due to Caroline recommending us to what seems like all her engaged friends. At some point, we might need to charge her commission!

We have a little rule that we implemented not so long ago, meet with prospective couples! The idea really is just to see whether or not we are the right photo and film team for them. As we like a relaxed, candid approach and some people would rather or be better suited to a more direct and pose-driven approach. So it’s best to meet and have a chat, plus if you find us irritating as people, it’s probably best you don’t hire us as we will be with you on a pretty special day. We didn’t have this rule in place just yet when we booked Caroline & Will but, we knew we were a good fit as Tara Knott (the best wedding stylist) had recommended us, who we had worked with previously at Joe & Laurrie’s wedding at The West Mill in Derby. So we were pretty secure in the fact we would be a good fit.

Funnily enough, the last two weddings we have worked with Tara, both moved their weddings forward slap bang in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and they were both weddings that as photographers and videographers you would happily shoot every week sans the risk of covid obviously.

We met Caroline & Will plus their little pal Stitch the Beagle at Dovedale in the Peak District, the best national park full stop! Come at me Lake District Luddites! I’d rather peak than a lake any day of the week. What made this pre-wedding shoot unique was it was a week before the wedding as moving the wedding forward meant we no longer had the time to space it out. They were absolutely lovely and our intuition to trust Tara to have great clients paid off.

It was our first time shooting at Dovedale and it was eventful, we got to know them better and tried to get to know Stitch but he had better things to do. And the best part is Will is a water baby, I thought I was one as if there is a pool or a body of water I’m in it (as long as the weather is right). But Will on an overcast day, couldn’t have been more than 12 c, waded into the cold water of the River Dove several times. I can’t remember if he was following Stitch in or Stitch was following him in.

The Wedding was one of those days where everything came together and was just an ease. I was with Will for groom prep and Alexandra was with Carolie for bridal. There was a first and probably last for us at a wedding, the groom’s best men bought him a car to drive to the venue. I was told it was roughly the same price to buy this as it was to rent a wedding car and it looked like the spitting image of the inbetweeners car, a bright yellow fiat.

The whole day was at Grangefields which was beautifully styled and is such a lovely space. They do the best food too. So if you are in the Derbyshire area and good food is high on your list for your wedding day, give Grangefields a gander.

Will & Caroline chose it as they have a shared dream of owning an old farmhouse with a central courtyard they can renovate together, so Grangefields is a perfect fit for a pretty important day.

I could blather on about how ace their day was but we like to think our photos and films can tell the story pretty well, but I will mention one highlight for me and it involves one of the most heartbreaking things ever written when Christopher Robin says goodbye to his silly old bear.

I think more weddings & people need to embrace Winnie the Pooh, hands down the best bear. My heart does go out to Paddington, sorry lad! And please no one mention Rupert, he can take his kite and go home. He doesn’t hold a candle to Pooh or Paddington for that matter. Rant over. I mention all this as C&W had two readings during their ceremony and one was read by Stef, Caroline’s sister, who I will be seeing next year when I will be filming her wedding. I’m telling you I should be giving C&W some sort of cut. And it was such a lovely choice, as it was unique and bloody emotional. This will all make sense if you watch the film to the end, I think what I just did there was a type of Click Bear Baiting. I am very, very pleased with that pun! Can’t stress that enough.

We will probably see these two again celebrating another couple’s love and we can’t wait to bump into them. Just a shame it’s not socially acceptable for wedding guests to bring their dogs too.