Plumpton Racecourse Wedding Photography. Today saw us at a bit of a different venue for Richard & Alex’s wedding. Plumpton Race is set in the heart of the Sussex country side not far from Lewes and is probably better known for its horse racing rather than weddings!
We didn’t start the day at Plumpton though we were over at Richard & Alex’s house in Haywards Heath where we started the day with Alex’s preparations. Alex had quite a house full as she was getting ready with her 5 bridesmaids but it wasn’t long before she was in and looking amazing. We just had time for a few quick photos of Alex with her dad before it was off to Plumpton to meet up with Richard.
I’ve photographed lots of weddings over the years but I think it’s fair to say out of all of them Richard was probably one of the most nervous groom I’ve come across in a long while! Fortunately we managed to get him relaxed enough for a few quick photos with his bestman and the ushers before he headed off up to the ceremony room and we went off to wait for Alex to arrive.
As Plumpton is a race course it seems quite apt that they used the jockey weight in room for Alex to have her final interview with the registrars before the ceremony! We managed to pop in and get a few quick photos of Alex and her bridesmaids in the room before it was off to the ceremony room.
The ceremony start with the bridesmaids and ushers walking in together followed by Alex and her father. As Alex walked up the isle you could almost see the nerves disappear from Richard as he looked back to see Alex walking towards him. It was a lovely ceremony with readings by two of Richard & Alex’s friends and the mums being the witnesses for the signing of the register.
After the ceremony we headed outside for photos and the drinks reception although unfortunately it had started to rain during the ceremony so we had to revert to our backup plan for the group photos. It wasn’t a big problem for us as having previously visited the venue and planned for bad weather we were able to seamlessly deal with it. Once we’d worked through the groups we spent some extra time with Richard & Alex and their bridemaids and groomsmen as it was important to them that we got extra pictures of them as they were an important part of their day. We had a lot of fun with them getting lots of different and fun photos of everyone – despite the weather!
Once we’d finished with the bridesmaids and groomsmen we got to spend some time with Richard & Alex getting them some special images for their wedding album. There were lots of great spots to use at Plumpton and I hope when we go back again if we get some better weather we can get to use some of the other areas. Before we headed into the wedding breakfast we were allowed on to the race course for a few quick photos which ended up with my lying in the wet grass to get some great photos – well worth it!
The wedding reception was held in the marquee which is a great space and plenty of room for everyone with the dance floor setup at the far end of the marquee and the bar area just as you come in. As the guest were enjoying the wedding breakfast we took a few moments to finish off setting up our photobooth which Richard & Alex had booked for their evening reception before getting ready to cover the speeches. The speeches started with Alex’s dad who made a lovely speech about Alex & Richard which was followed by Richards speech thanking everyone for coming and to those that had helped to organise everything. Finally it was the turn of Richard’s bestman who was also his brother so he had lots of great stories to tell about Richard growing up.
As the marquee was all setup for the evening reception it wasn’t long till the evening guests were arriving and we got the photobooth open for the guests to enjoy before getting ready for the cutting of the cake and the first dance. By the time we packed up and headed home it had been a long day for us but what a great day and a lovely couple.
