A Wedding at The Green Taverners Plymouth

Back in March I was honoured to capture Abby and Harry’s wedding in my hometown of Plymouth. The day started at Abby’s parents home where she was getting ready with family. Abby had her hair done by Jade Sienko and her make up was done by Lucy K MUA. When the beginning of Abby’s make up was being done I busied myself with photographing things like the wedding dress, shoes, flowers, jewellery etc. I was back with Abby in time to capture some beautiful finishing touch make up photos and then her mum helped her into her beautiful dress. I was able to capture a quick first look photo of Abby's dad seeing her as a bride for the first time before I made a head start to the wedding venue.

Bride's Shoes: Quiz
Flowers: Jamelia’s Flowers

When I arrived at The Green Taverners Plymouth I quickly photographed the ceremony area while it was still empty of guests. I was told by the staff that the room wasn’t set up as it normally is for ceremonies. So if you are looking to marry at the venue and you’re wondering what it will look like, I’m not sure if this is how it would actually be for your day. The layout for Abby and Harry’s day was a little difficult to work with as there wasn’t much room at the front; but with cooperation from the excellent registrars who work in Devon, we made it work. After scoping out the rooms and set up, I got myself in position to capture Abby arriving with her father in the wedding car.

The venue staff offered a few options for the location of the confetti aisle and I went for the place that I thought would give us the best shelter from the high wind. Even though we had the two buildings either side, it was still quite blistery but I love the confetti chaos it created. We were given permission from the staff to have some group photos in a seating area of the football pitch. I managed one big group photo of everyone in the seating area before the rain came. I haven’t included the group photo in this blog as I have been asked not to share photos of children that attended the wedding. The rain shower drove us all indoors so I finished off the group photos in the large downstairs room, again I’ve not included many photos as children featured in most of the group photos.

I got the impression from the venue staff that the areas that can be used for photography do vary from wedding to wedding, I think this is determined by things like the weather and the proximity to home games. For example, we were told there was a private grassy area that we’d be taken to for the bride and groom’s photos but due to excessive rain fall on the lead up to the wedding, the ground there was extremely boggy and therefore no longer suitable. Due to this, we were given permission to have the couple photos in the seating area instead and because it was still a bit rainy, they let us use the grandstand so we’d have a bit of shelter. We were told that we were lucky to have been given the okay from Argyle to use this area because it’s not normally offered. I learned that The Green Taverners and PAFC are actually separate businesses so photos with the pitch are never guaranteed. We were so thankful that Green Taverners adapted the plan at short notice due to the restrictions we faced with the weather and communicated with PAFC to get us access to the grandstand. It was quite a view and really amazing to see the stadium completely empty. It took a bit of getting used to for me to work with the very steep angles that come with stadium seating but it’s nothing a bit of squatting couldn’t solve.

After the bride and groom’s photos, I rushed upstairs (where the ceremony was held) to capture the room now that it was set up for the evening reception. It was laid out beautifully by the very talented wedding décor artist My Special Day Wedding Planning & Events. I photographed details such as the cake (made by Sherry Moore), wedding post box and sweet cart while the guests were busy finding their seats.

Food was then served (catered by the venue), followed by speeches and a game of Mr & Mrs. The Groom then invited his groomsmen outside to share a cigar, but one was given a galaxy ripple in place of a cigar which was a great substitution.

The couple had a glitter wall set up which read ‘happily ever after’ in neon. Lots of guests wanted photos in front of this so I played the role of photo booth for a little while as groups of people took turns to have a photo (I’ve just uploaded a small selection as an example). I always love the opportunity to capture photo requests from guests and I encourage people to ask me if they have any photos they’d like me to capture. As well as taking photo requests by the glitter wall, I also captured candids around the room but I have left those out of the blog because children were in most of those photos.