The Ashes // Ali & Mark

The Ashes wedding venue in Staffordshire

Describe your wedding in three words

Fun, Happy, Amazing

Why you chose the date of wedding (did it have any meaning?)

It was the only Saturday left at The Ashes (18months in advance!) Quite lucky the 1st July is easy to remember

Anything about how you met/proposal story

Met online in April 2020 and after months of talking on the phone (because of lockdown) we finally met at Lady Bower Resevoir for a 10 mile walk.

Fast forward to November 2021, Mark proposed whilst on a bike ride during a holiday in Exmoor.

Your inspiration/style/aspirations for the day

As we met in the peak district we wanted our wedding to be as close to the peaks as we could. We also wanted a private venue and ideally a relaxed barn/countryside feel which matches our personalities. We visited numerous venues but when we saw the Ashes we knew that was perfect for us. We wanted a fun day with our close friends and family so this private venue was ideal.

Memorable/emotional/funny moment on the day

Lou’s suggestion to talk about beans during the gold hour photos.
The band playing our first dance which was a song we shared during our early stages of dating (Daughtry – Start of Something Good)
Our friend Mark announcing us into the wedding breakfast so loudly it stopped the kitchen staff working and made a guest almost fall over his chair

How did you discover me and why you chose me to photograph the day

We found James Andrew Photography on The Ashes website, however he was not available but suggested you. He told us how you photographed his own wedding at The Ashes which we thought was a big compliment, and it turned out to be the best thing for us. The early discussions with you and all the helpful information on your website made us feel extremely confident that you were the photographer for us, then we had the engagement shoot with you and were certain we had made the best choice.

You style of photography which was good to see from the excellent gallery on your site was exactly what we were looking for.

Wedding song?

Daughtry – Start of Something Good

Any advice for couples planning their wedding?

Remember not to sweat the small stuff and focus more on the elements that are important to you

Are you going on a honeymoon?

We had a dog-moon (mini-moon with our dog) right after the wedding in the Peak District, which was a perfect time to relax and unwind together whilst reminiscing about the amazing wedding day we had. (It was nice too that the preview photographs arrived in middle of that week).

We were lucky enough to then go on our honeymoon a few weeks later to Kariega Game Reserve in South Africa to spend a week on safari. It was a truly incredible experinece seeing the animals up close and in the wild. This has left us with incredible memories that will last a lifetime including having sunset drinks amongst the elephants and giraffes.

Anything else….

Just a huge thank you for being part of our day, you and Lou were amazing and we felt incredibly at ease all day. The moments you captured in the photos are exactly what we hoped for.

Review

“Choosing Jess as our photographer was one of the best decisions we made for our wedding. She and her second shooter Lou were so calm and professional, fitting in to our day seamlessly.

We really wanted a photographer who would take natural shots throughout the day and they did this beautifully, putting us and our guests at ease to capture some truly special moments. They were an absolute joy to have around, never intrusive and always friendly and enthusiastic.From the moment we made our first enquiries with Jess we found her to be warm, professional and extremely helpful. Her website has lots of great information and she was always happy to answer anything else we weren’t sure about.

We chose to have an engagement shoot with Jess as part of the booking, which we feel was a great choice as we got to know Jess before the big day. She also shared some really helpful tips to ensure we felt relaxed and confident, as neither of us particularly enjoys being photographed!

We were delighted to receive a few preview photos shortly after the wedding, allowing us to relieve the excitement of the day until the full set was ready. The final photos are amazing, everything we hoped for and a wonderful reminder of such a perfect day.

We’d highly recommend Jess without hesitation.“