Matlock, Chatsworth and Bakewell Wedding – Victoria and Lee

Are you ready for an autumnal explosion? Vicky and Lee are an extremely adventurous couple, into mountain biking, snowboarding, walking and generally being awesome in the outdoors. They both moved up to Derbyshire from Bristol a few years ago for work, and their lucky guests from the South West got to see some of the finest views the county has to offer all during their fabulous day which started with a ceremony at Matlock County Hall.

This is a huge old building perched high on the hill overlooking the town in the peaks. Whenever I shoot there I’m always so impressed with the picture opportunities and quality of light in the wood panelled ceremony room.
As their guests assembled at the hall I took the boys for a few pictures outside and they were all in extremely good spirits, lots of jokes abound and with three best men I could tell I was in for an amazing day, this couple had rallied their very best friends around them.

As always the moment when the father of the bride lets go of his daughters hand gets me hard, I have a daughter of my own and cannot convey how fast time speeds up when you have children!  He looked incredibly proud of his daughter and the love in the room was clear to see!

After an epic double-level confetti shower effort from their lovely guests, it was time for a scenic tour of Chatsworth House and Monsal Head on the way to their wedding reception at the Rutland Arms in Bakewell. Vicki is a huge fan of pride and prejudice (what girl isn’t?!) and Chatsworth house is widely accepted to be the home of Mr Darcy, with Pemberley being based on the ‘Palace in the Peaks’ by Austen herself, and of course it’s been used in lots of dramatisations of the famous tale. So we had to stop on the way and get a few shots of the two romantic leads!

I’ve got this far and haven’t yet mentioned the third player in their day, Vicks beloved Morris minor, gifted to her by her grandmother when she was 17, before she even learned to drive! As she has sadly passed away since then the car holds huge importance to Vicky, and it’s heartwarming to see her keeping such good care of this beautiful classic car which is such a valuable link to her past. Even the car breaking down the night before the wedding couldn’t stop her and it was centre stage in the pictures and on the day. No chauffeur for this bride, off came the heels, out came the coordinating maroon converse! My kind of lady!

Lastly a mention must go out to the sterling effort from Lee’s three best men with the speech, not only did they not Google one joke, they handcrafted a huge ‘Wheel of Lee’ for their speech and the result was original and amazing! This was a quintessentially autumnal wedding full of laughter and love (and an epic sparkler send-off) hope you enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

All images copyright Kate Lowe 2015