Quarry Bank Mill Wedding Photography

Quarry Bank Mill wedding photography – Emma and Dan

Emma and Dan got married last year on a beautiful summer’s day at one of Cheshire’s National Trust beauties, Quarry Bank Mill in Styal. Emma and Dan were such great fun to work with and were complete naturals in front of the camera. A photographer’s dream! You will see they completely smashed the portraits… it helped that we were blessed with the most incredible light too!

Everything about their day was lovely. There was a charge of sheer happiness and emotion throughout the day and everyone that was part of the day were beaming from ear to ear.

The team at Quarry Bank Mill were fabulous as always and went above and beyond to make sure the day went without a glitch.

Enjoy looking through the photos and scroll down to the bottom to read what Emma and Dan had to say about their day. x

A few words from Emma and Dan

How they met…

We met through mutual friends that Dan knew from college and I knew from University. We all went out in Manchester for their birthdays but didn’t actually spend that much time together. After we added each other on Facebook we spent a lot of time chatting, texting and flirting and it all went from there!

The proposal… 

It was like a dream! We both love travelling and we were on our usual Summer adventure. We had just spent 2 weeks exploring Malaysia and Singapore and were ready for some serious relaxation in Bali. We both absolutely love our food and so after surviving on the backpacker staple of supermarket noodles, Dan said he would treat us to a proper meal at a restaurant. I spent the day sunbathing and having a massage then we got dressed up and wandered to find the restaurant. It took us about an hour to get there as it was right at the end of the beach. Dan had booked a canopy on the beach and after an incredible 5 course meal watching the sun set, he got down on one knee. He had been carrying the ring in his bum bag for the entire trip!

About their day…

I have always dreamt of being a bride ever since I was a little girl so I knew I wanted it to be perfect. We got engaged in 2013 and took 13 months trying to find the perfect venue! Quarry Bank Mill was just that little bit different and we are both History geeks so it seemed to suit us really well. Nevertheless I am terrible at making decisions so it wasn’t until my mum saw it and fell in love that we decided to book. Actually Dan was on a school trip in the middle of the Mexican jungle without any contact with the outside world when I went to book it, so I think he was just relieved when I messaged him to say I had made a decision about the venue. I don’t think he wanted to look any more! We knew we wanted a travelling theme as that has been such a massive part of our lives. I spent the 3 years before the wedding Pinning a million different ideas and knew we wanted to design as much as possible ourselves. Dan spent most of his evenings creating our wedding stationary on his laptop as me and my mum sat cutting and sticking. Everything was so personal and we wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Favourite parts of the day…

It was genuinely the best day of our lives so it’s hard to choose a favourite! We both really enjoyed our time together in the camper driving to the venue as we got to spend a quiet half an hour as husband and wife. The driver went extra slowly so we could have even longer together! Going out for photos in the evening light was great fun too, even if we were a little tipsy by then. Dan especially loved dancing with all our family and friends in the evening and the dancefloor was never empty! It was all just amazing but as they say, went far far too quickly! We could have done with an extra day just to say hi to everyone who came.

Supplier love…

Obviously the amazing Ayesha Rahman who took our beautiful photos. We had a lot of family and friends help out with the different elements of the day. Rosemary Offer endured many hair trials to ensure my hair looked perfect on the day! I honestly don’t know how Laura managed to get through my 6 bridesmaid’s hair in the morning but she did a great job! Daniella did my make up and it made me want to have my make up done professionally on a daily basis! http://www.daniellafrancesca.com/. We loved our camper van that took me, my dad and my bridesmaids to the church and then me and Dan on to the venue later. It fit so well with our travelling theme and the driver was so friendly! http://thelovebusweddingcompany.co.uk/. Janine at Timeless Bride helped me find my dress and she was absolutely incredible. Every time we visited her shop, she was so lovely and helpful and always had time to make sure the dress was perfect. http://www.timelessbride.co.uk/. Jane Jackson created some beautiful bouquets as well as helping to dress the venue with her incredible flowers. David Lee was a fantastic DJ who not only provided music, but lighting and photos as well! http://weddingdjservices.co.uk/. Finally our venue was incredible – Mandy and Heather did everything they could to ensure our day was perfect https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/quarry-bank/features/weddings-at-quarry-bank.

Advice from the happy couple…

At the end of the day, a wedding is about 2 people in love dedicating their lives to each other. So remember that when you’re stressing over the guest list or sick of the sight of twine. Try to get some alone time together on the day, you’ll really appreciate it. And it really does go by quicker than you can ever imagine so try to organise a receiving line at the church or the venue so that you can greet all your guests – we simply just didn’t get chance to say hello to everyone which was a shame.

Emma and Dan’s first dance…

Tenerife Sea by Ed Sheeran. We didn’t actually have a ‘song’ but we did have a few contenders for a first dance. We both loved Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran but felt it was a bit overplayed. It was only when we mentioned this to our DJ and he suggested we listen to Tenerife Sea that we totally fell in love with it. We did have to practice the first dance a few times in the weeks leading up to the day!

Emma and Dan summed me up in 3 words…!

Hilarious, sneaky, cheeky.

Finally, a little testimonial from Emma and Dan. Thank you so much!

Ayesha was a dream photographer. Nothing was too big or too small for her and she managed to capture every tiny element of our day. She quickly became a friend and was the icing on the cake to a perfect day.

Quarry Bank Mill Wedding Photography by Ayesha Photography.