Buxted Park Hotel Wedding Photographer – Katie and Elliott
As an experienced East Sussex wedding photographer, I’m lucky enough to work at some of the counties best wedding venues, and this is certainly the case when I return to capture wedding photography at Buxted Park Hotel. Katie and Elliot chose the perfect location for their spring wedding.
Buxted Park Hotel is a palatial Georgian country house hotel that sits in 312 acres of beautiful gardens and parklands. It’s rich and glamorous history has seen it play host to the likes of William Wordsworth, Winston Church and Marlon Brando and to add to that list of greats, it was the location for Katie and Elliott’s wedding in the spring of 2023!
When I capture wedding photography at Buxted Park Hotel, I love the impressive façade of the building, the elegant Georgian interiors and the gardens as they all make amazing backdrops for wedding photos. I also love the fact that guests get exclusive use of the venue for the day, allowing them to really relax and explore this majestic setting. The staff there are lovely and nothing is ever too much trouble, including getting a ladder to hang the wedding gown from a high doorway.
I first met Katie and Elliott when I captured their Surrey pre-wedding photoshoot at Devil’s Punch Bowl. We enjoyed a walk and a relaxed photo shoot and I got to meet their dog Maisie. A delightful and unexpected benefit of capturing Surrey pre wedding photography is getting to meet my couple’s dogs! So, seeing Katie and Elliott again felt like catching up with friends.
Experienced Sussex and Surrey Wedding Photographer
On the morning of the wedding, I woke to perfect spring weather, and headed over to Buxted Park Hotel in Uckfield. As Katie got ready, I captured some great images of Buxted Park Hotel all dressed and ready for the day. It looked so elegant with really sweet with personal touches such as hand painted dinosaurs on the tables!
Katie looked amazing in her Allure wedding dress that she bought at Couture and Tiaras Bridal Boutique. It had thin spaghetti straps, a plunging sweetheart neckline and beautiful layers of chiffon skirt that fanned out into an A-line shape, giving Katie a fairytale bride look and creating a magical silhouette in all of my images. Hairstylist and make-up artist was Kate Waller. I don’t normally mention bride’s shoes but Katie’s, made by Beretun Designs were so unique (hand painted with her favourite dragons!) that they warrant a mention and an image of their own!
As if they weren’t enough, Katie’s bouquet was cleverly made from printed paper and looked so good. Katie’s five bridesmaids looked elegant in teal dresses and held pretty bouquets made by Tony Dunn Flowers who did all of the flowers for the day. Before heading to the ceremony, I captured a really special moment with her dad coming up the stairs to meet her and see her for the first time with her bridesmaids looking on.
I got some great images of Katie and her bridal party before the ceremony, included some of Katie holding a lucky horseshoe which is a family heirloom that is very fragile so just came out for the photos.
Candid Wedding Photography at Buxted Park Hotel
The wedding ceremony was held in Buxted Park’s beautiful Orangery. An original part of the Georgian building, it has views over the lawns and fishing lake and through its ceiling to floor windows is bathed in tons of natural light. Us East Sussex wedding photographers can never have too much natural light!
I got my first glimpse of Elliott and his grooms party who were convened at the front of the room looking relaxed and very smart in blue check three piece suits from suits direct. They were relaxed and chatting to the guests as they arrived to take their seats. Katie looked beautiful as she walked down the aisle smiling and looking at Elliott who was blown away by the sight of her walking down the aisle. The wedding ceremony was characteristically personal to Katie and Elliott with them writing and reading their vows. After the ceremony there was a fun confetti moment outside that I captured perfectly.
Guests then enjoyed a drinks reception and I took my chance to get some romantic portrait images of Katie and Elliott as well as some fun images of the wedding party. The groomsmen and bridesmaids were a joy to be around. They were so much fun and so attentive to Katie and Elliott. They really helped to make the day special for them and they were so helpful to me in rounding up guests for the group photos.
The wedding breakfast was hosted in Buxted Park Hotel’s majestic ballroom. With five full length Georgian sash windows and five impressive empire chandeliers it’s a seriously impressive room. Everybody enjoyed a delicious meal prepared by Buxted Park Hotel’s talented team of in-house chefs. Followed by some very well received speeches. Katie gave a great speech and when it came to the best man speech, they pulled out a long roll of paper covered in Latin writing. It was a really funny moment and had the guests in fits of laughter!
Creative Buxted Park Hotel Wedding Photography
It was during the speeches that I captured my favourite image of the day and it was one of Katie and Elliot smiling at one another totally candid and unaware of anyone around them, totally immersed in the moment they shared together.
Now, as guests happily milled about enjoying exclusive use of Buxted Park Hotel, I took the wedding party back outside for a few more images. There was a fun ‘throwing the bouquet moment’ (not the paper one!) which was caught by one of the best men much to everybody’s delight.
Evening celebrations were held back in the ballroom and started with the cutting of the most magnificent cake that had been made by Katie’s step dad. It had three tiers and had dinosaurs on the top. It was simply awesome and tasted pretty awesome too!
This was followed by a fun ‘Who does what better?’ game hosted by the DJ Paul from Those Party People. Then came the game ‘Jump In’ that involved Katie and Elliot sitting side by side on the dance floor whilst guests jumped in pulling funny faces or striking an unusual pose. It was silly fun and created some great images for me and great fun for the guests, i can really recommend that as a fun way to get the evening celebrations off to a fun start.
Storytelling Wedding Photography in Surrey
Katie and Elliott then took to the dance floor for their first dance. It wasn’t long before their guests joined them as they were really up for a party. With the dance floor full and the sun already set it was time for me to get some dancing shots with everyone enjoying themselves. I love getting dance moves and some guests can really rock!
Before heading off, I quickly whisked Katie and Elliott outside for an after dark image of them outside the lit house. With all of their loved ones partying inside, it was the perfect image to close the story of their gorgeous wedding day.
A fun and stylish wedding at a simply awesome wedding venue. Congratulations to Katie and Elliott for getting married and creating such a memorable day. A big thank you for allowing me to tell the story of your special day. I loved it!
If, like Katie and Elliott, you’re getting married at Buxted Park Hotel and are looking for an experienced Buxted Park Hotel wedding photographer to capture your day with timeless, storytelling images, then feel free to get in touch. I’d love to hear about your wedding plans.
I’ll leave the last words to Katie and Elliott. Here’s what they had to say about me.
“Myriame has been absolutely fantastic from our engagement shoot right through to the creation of our wedding album! She taught us how to pose and made sure we felt comfortable at all times. The photos are absolutely amazing. I absolutely recommend her. Thank you so much for all your help Myriame.”
