This was an epic Wedathalon at the Lord Leycester and Park Farm in Warwickshire
This was my first crack at photographing a wedding at Lord Leycester in Warwick. While I always make sure I do a recce before the wedding ceremony, it was lovely that my first visit there was with Amanda, Andrew and all their friends. I first met Amanda when she was a bridesmaid at her friend’s wedding at Warwick House in Southam in 2015. I have since photographed several of Amanda’s friends’ weddings over the years. It has reached the point now that it is like hanging out with friends whenever I go to one of their weddings. It’s absolutely lovely!
The Lord Leycester is an absolutely stunning wedding venue! I love historic buildings, but Lord Leycester is extra special. From the stunning courtyard to the rolling floorboards of the Great Hall upstairs, you get a real sense of what has come before.
Park Farm, Shuckburgh
After we were finished at Lord Leycester (did I mention this was a Wedathalon?) we went on to Park Farm in Shuckburgh. Park Farm is a super cool, farmhouse wedding venue, set right off the beaten track. When we got there, we found Amanda and Andrew had been very busy creating their own “Wedathalon”. There was a paddling pool full of balls where the guests had to find hidden rubber eggs. There was blindfolded wheelbarrow racing, three-legged races, frisbee, and trampolining! It was incredible! …and it was all done competitively too! This meant everyone gave it their all. It was so much fun to photograph. I had a blast and so did their guests! I think this comes across in the photos, and I hope you enjoy looking through. Thank you for inviting me, Amanda & Andrew. Congratulations and all the best for your future together!!
Their Love Story
1) Please tell me how you first met.
We met back in 2011 while playing Ultimate Frisbee for the Leamington Lemmings Frisbee team. Our teammates love to think that they acted as matchmakers but we’d actually caught each other’s eye much earlier and had good fun winding everyone up while we were first dating.
We were going to a tournament in Cardiff, and Andrew had forgotten to print the car park pass, so he asked for my number in case he couldn’t get in! We just started messaging each other and chatting at training right from then.
We officially became a couple while at a frisbee tournament called ‘British Thumber Time’, but it wasn’t a particularly romantic weekend by conventional standards… As it was just a ‘fun’ tournament, there was the usual Saturday night party and the fancy dress theme for the weekend was ‘Great Britain’. Our team collectively dressed up as a full English Breakfast, where Andrew took the role of tomato sauce (complete with full red face paint) I was dressed up as a teabag… If this wasn’t unattractive enough, in one of the matches before the party, Andrew was knocked out by accidentally getting in the way of someone’s throw, suffering a concussion and a fractured jaw..! Why we ever thought it was the ‘perfect’ moment to get together, I’ll never know, but we did, and we’re still going strong years later!
2) When did you know they were the one?
We just seemed to hit it off straight away. I loved being around Andrew and just had the biggest smile on my face every time we went on a date.
I think the moment we knew was when we went to Manchester for a weekend away. We were just talking over a drink while waiting in the queue for a comedy night, and Andrew said something really special that I will remember forever. But I’m going to keep what he said to myself!
3) Could you give us the story of the proposal?
Every Friday, Andrew and I usually go for date night at our local pub for something to eat and drink. It’s nothing special, but we love our little time to catch up and spend some quality time together after a busy week.
The weekend of the proposal, Andrew and I were over in Jersey (where Andrew is from) to compete in the Jersey Triathlon and spend time with his family. Our love of sport originally brought us together 7 years ago while playing Ultimate Frisbee for Leamington Lemmings Ultimate Frisbee club.
On a Friday in Jersey, we had the most lovely day in the sunshine with a nice bike ride and then relaxing in the garden. Being a Friday, Andrew suggested we still have our date night, but being away from home, we got a takeaway pizza and some prosecco and went out to watch the sunset at Corbiere. Corbiere is my favourite spot on the island that I insist on going to see every time we are back over – it’s a lighthouse that looks out to sea and has the most beautiful sunsets.
We’d had our pizza, and it was a bit windy and chilly that night, so we were snuggled under a blanket with this gorgeous sunset in front of us, and we started to reminisce. This is when Andrew found the perfect moment to pull out a red box with the most beautiful ring and asked me to marry him. I was completely in shock, and of course, I said yes.
To top it off, some fireworks started to go off in the background (totally unrelated to the proposal but a perfect coincidence!). I could not have asked for a more perfect proposal…And to cap off the weekend, we both got PB’s in the triathlon, which must have been the sparkle power!!
4) If you don’t mind sharing, can you tell me something quirky, funny or silly about your partner?
Well, how long have you got…! I don’t think either of us counts as normal. I think we both just don’t really care what people think of us. We both have an unusual amount of love for our two cats, Paige and Bosco (the soppiest cats we know).
Andrew, every day after work comes in and eats cheddar cheese, and I’m often found dancing and singing in front of the mirror! We both are very much into our sports, and for our honeymoon, instead of opting for a relaxing time, we are going to be doing Ironman New Zealand (the full distance for Andrew and 70.3 for Amanda). People often think we are crazy for all the things we do, but it’s what we love and enjoy.
5) What is your perfect day together?
A lovely bike ride in the sunshine to a nice café somewhere. Then finishing off with dinner at our local pub while the sunsets.
6) Apart from the obvious, what are you most looking forward to on your wedding day?
Just having a fun day with all the people we love in one room, celebrating with them.
7) What was it that inspired you to go for the theme or the decor you chose for your wedding?
We wanted to incorporate our love for triathlon and bring in an element of how we met. We didn’t want anything formal; we wanted our guests to relax and enjoy the day.
8) Please tell me one thing you wish you had known at the beginning of your wedding planning process that you could pass on to future brides reading this blog?
I knew what was going to be involved, as I have been to a lot of friends’ weddings, but some advice I would give is to give way more time than you think you need towards making decisions.
The ‘doing’ bits of the process are fairly straightforward, but even small decisions suddenly become very important and take up way more time than you’d expect. Oh…. And don’t plan two half Ironman triathlons to train for in the months leading up to it!!
9) When searching, what were you looking for in a wedding venue?
When choosing the ceremony venue, we knew we wanted to get married in Warwick as it is where we live.
The Lord Leycester Hospital is a stunning venue, and we are lucky to have something so nice, so close to us. Since we go past it most days, it will always be a lovely memory for us.
For Park Farm, we wanted somewhere nice and chilled and space for people to be outdoors, as we both love being outside. We wanted to avoid too much formality and be allowed to make it our own space as much as possible. Jill and Tim are so relaxed and just made it easy for us to plan what we wanted, so we can’t thank them enough.
10) Could you tell me the process you went through when you were looking for a wedding photographer?
I have been a bridesmaid for a lot of my friends’ weddings, and Duncan was the photographer for the first of my friends who got married. He did such an amazing job that he has been the wedding photographer for nearly every wedding we’ve been to since.
It’s now actually strange to go to a wedding without Duncan! We have got to know him well, and his work is so good that there was simply never a question of looking anywhere else. In fact, we’d settled on Duncan before we were even engaged!
Vendor List
Photography | Duncan Cox Photography
Ceremony Location | Lord Leycester Hospital
Reception Location | Park Farm
Florist | Melanie Webb
Wedding Band | The CoverUps
Dress Designer | Louise Bentley
Wedding Dress Retailer | Your Wedding Dress
