Gretna Green

GRETNA GREEN | BLACKSMITHS | HISTORY

Beth and Kieron were probably one of the most laid back couples I have come across, and their wedding day perfectly reflected this. It was small and intimate, with only 2 of their friends in attendance along with their gorgeous baby boy. They planned a Gretna Green elopement with a short service, no muss, no fuss. They then headed to their Air B&B where they had hired a private chef to cook them a gorgeous meal on the evening of their wedding, which they paired with some board games and a little bit of whiskey (they were in Scotland after all).

This was my first time shooting at Gretna Green - and even being there at all, and I gotta say, I fkin loved it.

Gretna Green has a reputation for its small elopement style weddings. It’s quick and easy way of just heading over the border, have a quick service and get the job done. It operates as revolving door type system, with weddings being back to back throughout the day (however, you do not feel rushed or pressured to move it along in any way, its all extremely accommodating and personal when you are there, Beth and Kieron had a wedding just before there’s and one straight after, but we never ran into the other wedding parties, you are kept very much to yourselves with no interference from anyone else), its extremely private and a genuine pleasure to be a part of a Gretna Green wedding, and I hope I have more to come in the future!

So - WHAT MAKES GRETNA GREEN SO SPECIAL? WHY DOES IT HAVE THIS REPUTATION? ITS SUCH A RANDOM PLACE!

Well, I love a bit of history, so here’s what I learned -

Back in the 1700s, it became illegal to marry under the age of 21 without your parents permission in England and Wales - but this law was never passed in Scotland. So, thousands of young lovers would make their way over the border and into Scotland in the hopes to evade this new law, and marry one and other as they saw fit. So, WHY Gretna Green? Well it’s the first village you come across in Scotland after passing the English border, of course. Back in the day, anyone with a trade could legally marry you - it was the equivalent of a Captain of a ship being able to marry you aboard his vessel (..that is a thing isn’t it??), well thankfully, Gretna Green housed a huge blacksmiths workshop - and so began the tradition of running across the border, heading to the nearest blacksmiths and marrying the love of your life - with or without your parents permission!

During the ceremony, the blacksmith would slam his hammer down on the anvil thus symbolising the forging of two lives in a now unbreakable bond - and you’ll be pleased to know, that Gretna Green still practises this tradion today. You get married over the anvil, in an actual blacksmiths workshop, and the hammer is indeed struck against the anvil (I wasn’t ready for it, and I shit myself, so just bare that in mind). Not only do they withhold this symbolic, and frankly, cool, tradition, but the ceremony spaces they have up there are absolutely beautiful. I genuinely loved it. It had so many quirks and little corners, I would highly recommend getting married at Gretna Green. What a journey.

The Surprise Wedding

SECRET WEDDING | SHOCK |CURTIS

At first glance you might look at the images of Paige and Marcs wedding at Abbey House, Barrow, and think it was a classic, traditional affair - but that’s not quite the case!

Paige contacted me at the beginning of Summer 22 and said she was interested in Wolf & Raven photographing their special day, but there was a bit of a catch … it was a secret…

…Right!

Paige said she and Marc had a date booked around Christmas time in 2024, but that she didn’t really see the need to wait around for almost 2 years and that she just wanted to be married to the father of her children and finally share their last name! They also concluded that all they really wanted was a fairly small wedding party and they just wanted to celebrate their marriage with all of their friends in a true party style. SO, they scrapped their 2024 wedding, and made some huge changes that felt much more true to them and their love.

So how did they manage to get away with keeping it a secret you may ask?

They invited their immediate families and a handful of close friends to Abbey House for the wedding ceremony and tasked them all with the huge responsibility to not, tell, anyone! They were swore to secrecy - and yes, this even included having to sneak off on a secret hen and stag do! #nopapsplease.

The rest of their guests were lured to Abbey House under the guise of an Engagement Do!

Naturally, as their evening guests began to arrive, there were a lot of surprised faces to see Paige stood at the enterence in her (incredible) princess dress! There were “mouth wide open gaspers”, “stone faced and shocked none blinkers”, “the criers”, “the swearers”, and “the guy who punched Marc in the arm” lol. Ultimately, once the shock had wore off, all of the guests were absolutely over the moon to walk in and see the happy couple, the Curtis’, and be able to share in their momentous day by way of huge celebrations leading long into the night.

The Post Lockdown Wedding

Fate | K2B | 1 Year

The gorgeous Abby and DJ Odoe tied the knot, officially, in May 2021 after 10 years together! But due to the ole C19 still knocking about, and people not knowing their arse from their elbow, their scotch eggs from their substantial meals, Abby and Owen opted for a small, intimate and relaxed ceremony with close friends and family. They did the legal bit at the local registry office, followed by celebrations in their village local (although, just because their wedding was “small”, if iv learned anything at all from these two, its that I have no doubt whatsoever that their celebrations were B I G).

I got in touch with Abby to ask her if she would be interested in doing some modelling for Wolf & Raven (cos, yanno…her face), and she was not only game, but she even offered up Owens services too - as she wanted to recreate a wedding/elopement! Although their wedding day was everything they both wanted, Abby had a tiny regret that they never got any official photos and that all their pics were taken on friends phones. So upon trying to coordinate all our schedules there was one date that worked for everyone - and that was the day before their 1 year anniversary! FATE!

So we planned an anniversary elopement…

Abby and Own live in a stunning village just at the bottom of a somewhat overlooked moor - Kirkby Moor. Kirkby Moor has panaramic views of the West coast of Cumbria, you can see Black Combe in incredible intricate detail, and views out into the Irish Sea for as far as they eye can see - a truly stunning location, so we knew this had to be where we ended up on our elopement.

Abby had a couple of suggestions, 1) she had to get her beloved Land Rover in the pics and 2) there was a bridge close by to their house that she envisioned some of the images.

Not a problem!

Well, it nearly was a bit of a problem. We were shooting on the same day as the Keswick to Barrow (an iconic annual charity walk of 40+ miles in Cumbria with over 2.5k participants), and the route went right past the bridge which was already located on a really narrow country road - luckily we were there late morning, and the poor bastards taking part in the K2B were nowhere near passing us at this stage (except 1 guy! Mental). So, we spent a short while here before heading up to the Moor.

I roped in my Dads help to get me 4 hay bales from a local farmer he knows so that I could set up a celebratory picnic for Abby and Owen for when they got to the Moor. We spent the rest of the afternoon here, having a laugh, drinking some absolutely AWFUL Prosecco (sorry guys lol, at least we didn’t feel bad about a shake and spray shot!) and getting some detailed shots of some of the smaller details from their original wedding - their invites, personalised stickers, their personalised face masks (booooo C19), perfumes etc.

Abby did not wear her original wedding dress (which was effing stunning), but she did get an equally gorgeous pant suit from ASOS, and to be honest, I think more brides should wear them - she looked cool af. Her good friend Aimee also sorted out some beaut dried flowers for our picnic, and Abbys bouquet and head piece too, Aimee owns one of the best local florists in our area Flowers by Aimee, Dalton-in-Furness, and she was able to recreate Abbys flowers she had 1 year earlier, almost exactly.

It was a pleasure to spend the day with Abby and Owen and to capture some images which they can treasure throughout the rest of their happily married life!

W & R x

Elopements & Ice Cream

London | Ice-Cream | Vows

Sam and Luke got in touch with Wolf & Raven to photograph their intimate wedding, but also enlisted my help to create an elopement-esk day, utilising my knowledge of the Lake District.

Sam and Luke are from London, and until September 2022, had never visited the Lakes before. Sam and Luke were very relaxed. We had a few calls on the run up to the wedding day where we tried to figure out a rough plan, we narrowed it down to a couple of options. All we knew for definite is that Sam and Luke wanted to embrace the Lakes.

Sam and Luke opted for a registrar ceremony at Cockermouth Town Hall and were staying in a beaut cottage at High Lorton, so with this in mind I did a couple of reccies around this area a few weeks before their wedding, and sent them over some pictures that I had taken of the surroundings.

They wanted to be in the midst of the Lakes and trees and nature, but didn’t really want to walk very far, so we decided the best location would be Whinlatter Pass. I knew that there was a really cool small walk just off the beaten track here, that remained fairly level, snaked along a glistening stream, and nestled in a valley of ferns and evergreens - here we spent a fair bit of time getting some classic ‘I eloped in the Lake District’ pictures.

I had mentioned to Sam in the planning process that there was a lay-by just up from where we took our little walk, and that there’s usually an ice-cream van here with a lovely view of Bassenthwaite Lake in the background, to which Sam said ‘if I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, it would be ice-cream’ - RIGHT, well that’s a definite then!! I did warn that there was a chance he may not be there due to being just out of season and a mid week day, so we didn’t get our hopes up too much. As we pulled around the corner, Mr Ice-Cream man was sat in the driving seat, with the lights on…he was just about to leave!! So we swerved in, I lept out and banged on his window, “I have a bride and groom here who really want an ice cream!” …he looked at me, I looked at him, he looked at the bride and groom, he looked at me, he said..go on then. GET IN! (He was about to leave as he was bloody freezing, bless him). So all dreams came true that day - ice cream on the wedding day and images with a stunning view of the Lake!

We weren’t quite done yet though, on the way back to their cottage at High Lorton we stopped roadside for a brew and had a little wander in the forest, the light leaking in was too nice to resist! After this quick pit stop, back to the cottage we went.

Whilst here, Sam and Luke sat out the front on a little bench and read their vows to each other, they had them written down in beautiful personalised note pads and were able to enjoy this intimate, emotional moment together (I had my zoom on, to give them space lol).

Sam’s eye for detail on the day was unparalleled. Every tiny little aspect, she had thought of, bespoke ring boxes, personalised brew mugs, coordinated and personalised Converse, she even managed to pick a cottage who’s interior matched her colour scheme (not sure this was intentional but I wouldn’t put it past her!).

A lovely, relaxed day in all and Wolf & Raven managed to give these Londoners a tiny little taste of the Lakes in the process, I hope they come back soon to explore it even more.

W & R x