Wedding photography at The Station Kitchen…

‘Oh my goodness Naomi, we absolutely love it!!! You’ve got us both in tears…so beautiful. Cant believe some of those shots. You’re so talented! Thank you so so much for all your help. We absolutely love it. x’

When putting together the images for this blog (which by the way, there are loads of them!) I can’t help smiling. Actually, it’s the benefit of not being on top of your blogs, is that you totally get to revisit some incredible love burstingly filled days when things are quieter and they genuinely make my heart sing. This wedding was about music, love, friendship, music, amazing food and loads more love!

I met Lauren at the Grand Hotel in Bristol city centre, literally a stone throw from City Hall. I feel like a packhorse as we’ve got all seasons forecast and I want to be prepared for anything! I felt that Lauren was a little subdued, which is totally normal and totally understandable. She just said, ‘it’s just strange that Rob’s not here, we do everything together’. It wasn’t until I saw the transformation in her, when she saw Rob, that I totally got it. Oh my word, these two are brilliant together and with their families, there was a whole lot of love in that City Hall, it really was an honour to try and capture it and I hope you see by the incredible smiles from them both from that point, just what I mean by that, just so natural and comfortable with each other, really lovely.

The other thing about this wedding which made me just burst, was the music. Now, I don’t really know anything about music, my choices are so bloody wide and ask me to choose a song to put on and you’ll end up with a mix of Mozart or Swedish House Mafia, so I don’t really feel I can talk about this with any authority but OMG, these guys have some TALENTED friends!

During the ceremony, their friend had composed…like from scratch a beautiful piece with cello and other musical bits. He then teamed up with his band  (The Affirmations) and the most INCREDIBLE singer I have EVER heard, Hannah Williams, and they did a couple of sets in the evening. Like I’m obviously all about the still image but I wish I could have recorded her, she absolutely stopped me in my tracks. Just incredible. (and in fact, so incredible that Jay-Z had sampled one of their tracks on his 4:44 album. Crazy. This is stardom in my world. They then had 2 DJ’s, Dutti Girl and DJ Neek.

Oh and ANOTHER thing about this wedding, was the food! haha, this really was a brilliant wedding! So the venue, The Station Kitchen, used to be the old Fire Station in Bristol but now has the YMCA in and is an enterprise training cafe. It s a great idea and is for the most part run by volunteers and offers training and experience for people who want to go into hospitality. I follow them on Instagram now too (@stationkitchen) and their food is great, so if you’re ever that way, do stop! But for a wedding, its a bloody good space. Its central, so they walked from City Hall (past one of their favourite Graffiti artists…slight shame the council had started painting over it!) and it’s got lots of workable space.  Theres a courtyard out the back too, where they had the evening food, Smoke Catering …my goodness, my mouth is watering just thinking about it (just look at their website), BBQ beef and Mac and Cheese in a big smokey type thing, perfect night food. Oh, and a brilliant whippy ice-cream van, Vee double Moo.

Listen, basically, this wedding had it all, even popcorn and tequila shots for everyone during the speeches and for fear of losing you before you’ve seen the images, I’ll stop there!

If you’re planning a relaxed wedding at The Station Kitchen, I would love to hear your plans (have a look at other weddings here) and a massive thank you to Lauren and Rob for having me with you on your day!

Florist: (although they didn’t have actual flowers, the table decs etc) – Wilde Bunch

Dress Designer: Ronald Joyce

Dress Boutique: Isaac Charles Bridal

Rob’s Suit: A Suit That Fits