The Gallivant Wedding Photography

Wedding Photography at The Gallivant

Let me tell you all bout Tracy & Joy! I met these two lovely ladies at a wedding fair 18-months before their wedding and we hit it off straight away. I mean, what’s not to love about these two? With their huge welcoming smiles, love of life, infectious laughter and upbeat personalities, they made you happy just being with them! Roll on their wedding day and I got to meet lovely Flo their vivacious and very funny daughter, and their best couple Phil & Michelle who were getting ready at the Gallivant with them. It was the most non-wedding day I’d had in a long time, they were all such fun and so easy to be with it really felt a million miles away from work. I really enjoy covering couples preparing for their wedding together. It somehow feels right when they’re getting ready for such a big moment, measuring each others excitement and nerves. Doing up dress buttons and checking each other’s lippy. Popping the fizz and getting sneaky kisses in. After many funny moments that morning, when they were all buffed up, looking a million dollars, they walked hand in hand into their wedding ceremony, beaming as their big moment had arrived.

Female Documentary Wedding Photographer

The Gallivant is a little secret hideaway, tucked away beyond Rye and lovely Winchelsea beach. A boutique hotel that feels like home. That’s what they loved about it. Walking through from their garden room into the hotel and through to their ceremony with everyone waiting, they couldn’t have been more relaxed and happy. Ceremony under way, Flo gave the first reading with so much confidence it wasn’t hard to see where that came from! Then another reading from a cousin after very sparkly diamond rings were exchanged. And so they were married. All the months of planning, decision making, tastings, scheduling, outfit shopping, detail making, it all boils down to this moment. The moment a couple exchange their vows and become legally married. I approach photographing weddings like a quiet friend – one with a camera. Or two. Observing quietly as moments unfold, watching where the action is and capturing those moments without intervening with the flow of things. That’s what documentary photography is all about. Not creating the cheesy posed photos everyone hates, but allowing moments to happen naturally without saying ‘look at me’ and ‘smile’ every 5 minutes!  If this approach appeals to you, get in touch and I’ll chat through how I can cover your wedding day. Here are a few links to some seaside weddings you might want to look at too – Livvy & Toby’s Itchenor Sailing Club wedding, and Xin-Wang & Tom’s Brighton Bandstand wedding.

Wedding Celebrations at the Gallivant

After the ceremony, then came the confetti run and they made a fantastic job of getting confetti into as many nooks and crannies as possible! Guests were happily chatting to each other with drinks and scrummy nibbles whilst we did a few family photos, and then a short photo session across the road at Camber Sands. This is what this venue is all about – the beach! These two beauties really were an absolute joy to photograph and I loved that they were just themselves, relaxed, happy and enjoying running around in the dunes and on the beach like teenagers 🙂 The photos from the beach are some of my faves from the day. Back at the Gallivant, guests were getting seated for dinner and the happy couple made it back just as the rain started. Hashtag blessed! After a delicious lunch there were speeches, some emotional ones too, reflecting on those much loved and missed absent family and friends. And then the dancing started! Their DJ was the boom and with the tunes spinning, getting their funky on, they literally did not stop dancing. I loved loved LOVED being there and was really made to feel at home and part of their day. Everyone was so welcoming and the staff at the Gallivant did an amazing job looking after everyone. Joy & Tracy, thank you SOOO much for booking me. Thinking of that day still makes me smile a lot, and I wish you both a lifetime of love and happiness. Keep on groovin xxx