A quintessential English walled garden wedding at Prussia Cove in Cornwall captured on film
Once upon a time, in a sleepy smuggler’s cove near West Cornwall, Charlotte & Matthew were married with a celebration that resembled a cross between a vintage garden party and the prettiest village fete you ever did see.
Every artist or artisan has a dream client, a favourite venue and a concept that sets their imagination alive. Well… for us, this was it. When Charlotte & Matthew got in touch to ask if we’d consider shooting their wedding entirely on film, we were so excited. Nervous, because anybody that understands film photography knows of the risks and stresses that come with the idiosyncrasies and issues of working with vintage equipment and yet there was no way we could say no. A walled garden dinner at our favourite venue by the sea? Floral displays hidden around every nook and cranny? And the opportunity to just have a massive play with all of our favourite film equipment? Well obviously we said yes!
Porth en Alls is a well hidden estate tucked away on the Cornish south coast by Prussia Cove. A famed smuggling cove, I wish I could tell you the history of Porth en Alls but alas it is a mystery to me. One thing I can tell you, is that the old house is riddled with charm and transports you back to a time long ago. A time long ago was definitely the theme for Charlotte’s wedding. A true vintage beauty, Charlotte loves all things of yesteryear and a talented film photographer herself, it was always plain from the get-go that she would have her day documented entirely on analogue. Her french lace gown by Laure de Sagazan was sourced via the Mews Bridal in London and it had the prettiest voile puff sleeves in a soft white. Bunting decorated the cheerful walled gardens that overlooked the ocean, pastel tablescapes teeming with blooms locally grown by Katie of Wild Rose Cornwall were overlooked by the foxgloves and sea beets that grew wild in the walls and cobbled paving stones led down to a private cove by the aquamarine sea. Boats sailed gently past every know and then and an acoustic band serenaded the guests as they milled among the sea pinks, dined on nibbles from Flora New Yard and watched the seabirds sunning themselves on the rocky outcrops.
A super 8 wedding film at Prussia Cove
For years Jon has longed to make films on film. We grew up in the 90’s so perhaps we’re nostalgic for the mediums that remind us of our childhood photographs and home movies so when Charlotte asked if we would be up for making a super 8 home movie for her wedding, it was all the nudge we needed.
There were so many beautiful details, it’s been a difficult task to just include a few but some of my favourites were the flowers (of course) the bridesmaids dresses and Charlotte’s beautiful straw bridal hat which ended up being left behind but was still such a cute feature (and something I highly recommend having for those summer wedding brides!)
Georgie Harandon was on makeup duty, performing an exemplary job as always with Lauren Bramble managing the hair. A vintage VW carried them to the church where a string quartet played hymns for the congregation to sing along to. The beautiful little church at St Hilary was filled to the brim with delicious floral displays bringing the churchyard vibes inside.
Linen white bridesmaids dresses by Heart and Daisy
A flower filled wedding ceremony at St Hilary church, Cornwall
This confetti shot below is probably my favourite capture from this entire wedding. I shot the entire wedding on manual focus as my auto focus film camera was due back from the repairshop that same day and hadn’t arrived in time so I was so relieved when this moment happened to allow me to get properly focused during the chaos of the confetti showers. Shooting the entire day on manual focus gave me a big appreciation for all those film photographers back in the day that had no other choice. Being nimble and fast with your fingers, knowing the camera inside out and being able to predict moments whilst knowing where to focus in time is a skill that goes to the next level with film photography and sometimes it feels like photographs are happy accidents and so hard earned. This was definitely one of those!
Part of what I love about it also goes beyond the camera and any composition but also the beautiful bright white colour pallette and pastels. The image’s colour pallet is largely greens and whites which work so well with kodak film and a good colour pallette is one of those things you don’t necessarily give much thought to but affects the mood and aesthetic of an image so much. Soft diffused light makes a big difference too and the part cloudy, part sunny day were perfect conditions for really doing all the pastel colours justice.
A traditional group photograph at St Hilary church
It’s not often these days that we get asked for the big ‘everyone’ group photograph but there were so many nods to nostalgia and tradition at Charlotte & Matthew’s beautiful day, that of course we had to capture everyone in front of the church. I love how this photograph feels timeless - as if it could exist in any time within the last 40 years.
Medium format portraits
A romantic flower filled wedding by the sea in West Cornwall
We zipped over to beautiful Porth en Alls which was looking divine in the June sunshine. A quintessential summer’s day - bright blue skies, hedgerows spilling with wildflowers and Katie of Wild Roses beautiful installations decorating the sprawling historic Porth en Alls manor house.
Flora New Yard served up delicious canapés whilst guests frolicked among the sea pinks and the homemade bunting fluttered in the breeze. All of the tables were set up in the walled garden for dinner with hand-penned letters to each of the guests carefully bound in silk. Dinner was a seven course taster menu of food that was cooked outside over an open flame with a mix of seafood, meat and local veg and as day turned to dusk, we headed down the secret staircase to Porth en All’s private access beach to catch the last of the light and that dreamy pastel evening setting for a few couple’s portraits.
Forget a wedding cake, Charlotte & Matthew had a wedding cake table of all of their favourite flavours baked by Flora New Yard and decorated with edible flowers. It was an artists installation in itself but by the time we managed to get around to the cake cutting, darkness had descended and it was almost time to dance. As they were having all of the guests stay for the whole weekend and we were going to be coming back the next day to capture their Sunday BBQ, the cake table came back out so everybody could enjoy a Sunday afternoon of seafood BBQ and cakes and tea in the sunshine. It was absolutely perfect.
All the pastel yellow drapery in the refectory part of the venue looked incredible lit up and glowing for the evening. They had a DJ play a really nostalgic and refined playlist of the 90’s strongest club songs which got everybody really dancing.
It was so difficult and overwhelming to pick just a small selection to share here in a blog post - we’ve shared more on a gallery here but it’s so hard to choose our favourites. This wedding will live rent-free in our day dreams for the unforeseeable future now (as will the lobster fries at the Sunday BBQ.) Thank you so much Charlotte & Matthew for choosing us to bring your wedding photography & videography vision to life and treating us with such warmth throughout your wedding photography journey. It was truly a career defining commission for us - entirely analogue, a whole weekend at our favourite Cornwall wedding venue by the sea.
