Cranberries Hideaway Wedding Photography

Sophie & Frank

It was my first time as a wedding photographer at Cranberries Hideaway. Found in East Devon, near Axminster, it’s a great location to have a wedding weekend as friends and family can stay on site. The location of the ceremony was to be made at the last minute, as the rain fell intermittently throughout the morning.

If I photograph weddings for another 20 years I don’t think I’ll come across another story like this one! The story of how Sophie and Frank met and how this wedding day came to be would make any sceptic believe in fate, but also before this day even started Sophie and Frank were already husband and wife! Let me explain…

Wonderful wedding at Cranberries Hideaway

Sophie is British and Frank is American and they met on their travels through South America. Frank, an engineer by trade, told a story in his speech about the chances of their meeting. Through a series of coincidental conversations with strangers whilst travelling and being turned away from fully booked hostels he calculated a million to one chance of bumping into Sophie. Months later, and despite the Atlantic between them, they had an intimate wedding ceremony in Texas.

Skip forward to 2016 at Cranberries Hideaway they got to re-live the experience and this time with loads of friends and family in attendance.

The Wedding Day

For this wedding I got to spend time with both the bride and groom, and it’s always fun covering the groomsmen prep, I’ve probably seen every YouTube video of ‘how to tie a bowtie’ in action now!

The right choice was made to hold the ceremony inside, as mid ceremony the heavens opened! With the legalities completed in Texas months previous there was flexibility in how to conduct the ceremony and Sophie and Frank had two close friends conduct the service, which made it unique and personal to them.

The sun came out not long after, allowing for some portraits in the surrounding gardens. We moved on to the speeches and the wedding breakfast and then onto something I’ve not seen before, wedding country dancing. A great idea to get a band to help choreograph some great dancing for the guests. The last shot of the night was the sparkler line in the pitch black of the Devon countryside, a great was to see off a fantastic wedding day!

“Thank you so much Lee! We LOVE our photos! They are beautiful and we feel like they really capture the essence and atmosphere of the day! We so appreciated how fantastic you were with organisation and contact throughout the process, from our first meeting, to follow up after the wedding. You have always given us a really timely response to any questions we had and it makes such a difference when you have a million things going on, to have a photographer who is as proactive and organised as you are. You accommodated our requests and we liked that you asked what we wanted and really listened. We also really appreciated the speed with which you turned around our photos, we can’t stop looking at them! I will recommend you to our friends and family without reservation. Thanks again Lee, we are so happy we chose to work with you!”

– Sophie & Frank