Helen Lisk Photography

Monks Withecombe, Dartmoor: a preview of Bea and Alex's wedding

Bea and Alex celebrated their wedding recently at the beautiful Monks Withecombe, at Chagford, Devon. Placed right up high on Dartmoor, it is a really stunning spot, and the flower garden at Monks Withecombe was a delight. The spectacular tent from Splendid Tents was wonderfully placed, with an open side overlooking the moors during the wedding breakfast. I loved watching all the guests playing rounders, cricket and generally just lazing around in the glorious sunshine, enjoying the views over Dartmoor as the day got longer. I look forward to sharing more of this gorgeous wedding at a later stage, but here is a little preview for now:

Lovely suppliers involved in this wedding:

Venue: Monks Withecombe, Chagford
Tent and catering by Spendid Tents & Tipis, Burnicombe Farm, Devon
Bea's dress from The Mews, Bristol
Alex's suit from Moss Bros
Flowers from Peamore Flora
Bea's hair and make-up by Bells Brides, Plymouth
Band: Hazaar!

You might also like to have a look at:

Daisy and Sally's wedding on a Cornish farm
Hannah and George's wedding at Muddifords Court, Devon
Lucy and Scott's wedding at River Cottage HQ, Devon

I hope you enjoyed these images. Please do also visit me on Facebook and 'like' my page there - your support is always very much appreciated, thank you!

Engagement photography in South Wales: Emily & Mark in Cardiff

I have a massive backlog of beautiful images that I am dying to get up here on the blog. It has been an incredibly busy few weeks, with glorious weather, several engagement shoots and some utterly beautiful weddings. So I am hoping to catch up a bit and show you some previews, starting with the lovely Emily and Mark. It was wonderful to photograph you both and I can't wait for your wedding in September!

You might also like to have a look at:

Weymouth wedding photography: Natalie and Mat at Lorton House
North Somerset engagement photography: Nat and David
Family photography on the beach in Devon

I hope you enjoyed the images on my blog! You can also visit Facebook and 'like' my page there to keep in touch with my work - your support is always very much appreciated, thank you :)

Daisy & Sally's Cornish farm wedding: feasting, wellies and a bucket load of emotion

Here is a bit of a visual and emotional treat. Daisy and Sally's wedding was last October and it truly was one of my favourite days ever. Not only was the styling and attention to detail absolutely beautiful, and the Cornish farm / converted barn setting just perfect, but the amount of emotion flowing through the day was extraordinary. Just going back through the photographs to prepare this blog post, I found myself welling up again at several of the images and it really took me back to the feelings of the day. The pride, the joy, the pure happiness on people's faces - it was just incredible to photograph and be a part of, and I will remember it forever.

Some of these images have already been featured on Rock My Wedding, and you can read more about the planning and preparation from Daisy and Sally's point of view there.

Arriving at the farm in the morning was wonderful. The whole wedding was such an enormous combined effort from Daisy and Sally's family and friends, and it was lovely to see everyone still bustling around getting things ready. Fliss the Best Woman was in the kitchen up to her elbows in rice salad, the girls' brothers were setting up the homemade Punch & Judy photo booth, and Sally's Dad was putting the final touches to his (quite unique!) pissoir for the gents. Meanwhile one of the farm cats was strolling around, coolly ignoring everything that was going on. When I stepped inside the barn to have a peep at the reception set up, I nearly fell over with joy. Just the most beautifully creative decoration, with scaffolding tables in long rows, beautiful wildflower arrangements everywhere, fabulous enamel plates and the ampersand motif running through everything, right through to the enormous 'L'ampersand' illuminated version on the wall. I loved the big picture gallery of photos of Daisy and Sally - there was something really special about seeing their relationship over the years, with everyone gathered there on the day to celebrate their love and the official joining together of their lives. To see everyone gather in the yurt for their humanist ceremony (taken by Sally's sister Rosie), celebrating afterwards with bear hugs, tears of joys and a huge feast of local food, right through to the incredible giant bonfire later in the evening - it was all just extraordinary.

So, enough waffle. I can try and explain how amazing it all was, but the pictures will do that so much better than my words. Here is their beautiful day:

Congratulations to Sarah and Philip, who celebrated their wedding at Hexton Manor in Hertfordshire last weekend. Hexton Manor is an 18th century house set in beautiful parkland, with a walled garden and a gorgeous lake, and huge amounts of space to spread out and explore. Sarah and Phil had their ceremony inside the house, then enjoyed drinks by the lake afterwards in the sunshine. The guests then wandered round to the walled garden to sit down for the wedding breakfast in the lovely marquee there. Guests were invited to bring a cake to enter for The Great Wedding Bake Off - the cakes were displayed and tested by a row of willing volunteer guests, before being shortlisted, and judged by the bride and groom in their hilarious (and somehow slightly scary!) Mary and Paul masks. The cakes were all then served up as the wedding pudding - what a brilliant idea!

It is pretty impressive that Sarah and Phil managed to pull together such a beautiful wedding - with three year old twins, I can't imagine they have an awful lot of time left in the day. However, they did create something really wonderful, and it was a gorgeous day to photograph. I'm looking forward to editing the rest of their images - in the meantime, here is a preview of their wedding: