Harleys and sunsets: Mark & Emily - Kingston Country Courtyard

Mark and Emily came to us with an idea. This wasn’t just going to be an ordinary wedding, they wanted to combine all of Emily’s friends, a cohort of laid back teachers and all of Marks friends, a pack of tattooed bikers, whilst also chucking in marks prized Harley Davidson for good measure…we were immediately on board.

Set in the rolling Dorset hills, with views of Corfe Castle one direction and the Dorset coastline in the other, Mark & Emily had chosen the stunning Kingston Country Courtyard as their venue. A venue with a barn built in the 16th Century, mixed in with an eclectic crowd of Mark and Emily’s friends and family…it was set to be a good day!

Arriving at 10:30, we headed straight to the Bridal Suite, set in the attic of the barn, the main arena for the wedding celebrations to take place. It was here we find Emily, her Maid of Honour, the Mother of the Bride and Bridesmaids all beginning their prep for the day, with support from Emily’s Mum with make up and hair being tackled by Nicola from NW Hair Studio!

The vibes during Bridal Prep were just fucking supreme, everyone was as relaxed as can be, not a bit of negative energy to be found, which is exactly how like to start a wedding day! As the ceremony crept ever closer, we took the opportunity to pop down to the outdoor ceremony space, using the Dorset hills as the most insane backdrop that we have seen (maybe even ever!).

We love an outdoor ceremony, it gives the best natural lighting whilst also giving us the most amount of space to be able to move around without getting in the guests view of the main event! The ceremony went as smoothly as possible with the Dorset Registration Team leading the show, lots of laughter from Mark & Emily’s friends and family…

One thing that will always stick in our mind is the contrast of the guests…one side filled with your typical wedding guests in lovely colourful outfits, the other side filled with tattooed, bearded bikers all in black…three guesses on which side Scott fit in most with!

After the ceremony, all the guests lined up to prep for a bubble aisle…you read that correct…no confetti for this wedding, bubbles only…and again, photos of tattooed bikers running around with bubble guns will never cease to amaze us!

What happened next has never happened at a wedding before. Mark had to go and meet the owner of the estate to see if we were allowed to go further into their farm land to go and get some shots…luckily the owner approved and we headed across their private property to gain access into the fields behind the venue…which gave us access to views across Dorset, but most impressively, awesome views of Corfe Castle!

We played the Wedding Card Game for ten minutes, to ensure that we could get some genuine shots of Emily & Mark enjoying themselves, without feeling like they were being poked and prodded the entire time…We can safely say, they really enjoyed themselves…they felt the immediate release of pressure of not having to shit yourself about you being the sole focus of the lens! Once we had a few rounds in us, we chucked the drone up for good measure and then carried on with the day!

Emma from Make Your Mark Events was setup from the drinks reception into the evening with such a cool idea, that in three hundred weddings we’ve not seen…Emma had painted a lovely big canvas of the surrounding area, with Mark and Emily as the focus, using the fields nearby, the guests were instructed to add their own flower onto the painting…it gave such a cool effect and, we think, an absolutely sick gift for the couple to display in their homes!

Once speeches had been made and guests had begun to finish up their meals, the sun was starting to set, we had already done a check around the venue and the surrounding hills along with the various tree lines, meant that we weren’t going to get a Golden Hour…Which honestly, hurts our souls every time…but, not content with that…and knowing that Marks Harley hadn’t been made enough fuss of…We had a quick chat with the Venues Event Manager, who told us that two minutes down the road would be the perfect spot…so we jumped in his car, Mark on the bike and off we went…

Timing is everything with golden hour…even five minutes can absolutely fuck it…luckily, this isnt our first rodeo and even the Venue Manager was impressed at how spot on we had the timing…we got to the spot, literally two minutes down the road and pulled into a lay-by, pulled out the card game and immediately set to work…And. We. Made. Fire.

A bike, a cool couple and an absolute banging sunset…it was the kind of shit dreams are made of! We shot some bangers and then headed back for more evening shenanigans back at the venue! It’s rogue, but one of the core memories from the evening was Emily’s friends getting down on one knee to propose to her whilst Taylor Swift’s Love Story played across the dance floor!