Polhawn Fort wedding: Maria & Tim’s colourful celebration by the sea

Polhawn Fort in Cornwall is a venue where I always really enjoy photographing – I absolutely love the contrast between the bright blue sea and skies outside, and the beautiful dark interior of the old fort. It’s always a really interesting place to photograph a wedding, so I was delighted when Maria first got in touch. We chatted on Skype for a very long time, talked a lot about the wedding plans and photography, and dangled our respective dogs in front of the webcams at each other. So I had high hopes for the wedding day, and the sense that this was definitely a little different to other weddings. It turned out to be the most colourful and wonderfully uproarious wedding weekend, and an absolute blast to photograph.

Saturday’s wedding day was an explosion of a celebration, with so much fun and laughter all day long. I loved the beautiful bright silks of the bridesmaids’ dresses, with the reds, yellows and oranges all reflected in the gloriously bright and colourful bouquets and floral arrangements. Humour played a huge part in the day. With a firm nod to Tim’s commando past, action men adorned all the tables and drunken commando figures clambered all over the brilliantly themed cake. Maria and Tim’s ceremony took place in the brightest July sunshine, with the sound of waves crashing in the background and seagulls circling overhead. It made for a brilliant contrast as everyone moved inside to the dark interior of the fort for the wedding feast, and I loved the opportunities for photography with just slivers of light creeping through the deep windows. Maria’s Italian heritage led to a lot of traditional drinking games punctuating the meal, and it was a fantastically fun afternoon to photograph. Later, guests enjoyed moving back outside to relax in the evening sunshine and enjoy the specially created Rum Bar, with some extraordinary measures being poured out by best man Mandy, while small children tested their punches on ex-commandos and the sun went down over the Cornish sea. A short refresh later, and everyone returned inside to start the party on the dance floor, with a hilariously unorthodox take on the first dance!

I returned on Sunday for the recovery barbecue – a wonderfully relaxed afternoon in the sunshine, with fresh scallops and steaks on the bbq and an ice cream van for afterwards. It was the perfect finish to the celebrations. The whole weekend was such a wonderfully joyous party to photograph – everyone was so relaxed and having such a brilliant time. I loved just moving around and capturing all the fun as it was taking place, and I hope that this is all reflected in the images.

The last word must go to Bruno, Maria and Tim’s Jack Russell. A dog with a quite wonderfully unique personality, he spent the weekend padding around amongst the wedding celebrations, hoovering up the crumbs and the attention, and snarling his own very special smile when teased – scroll down and find that photograph! Please give me more weddings with dogs…

Wonderful suppliers involved in this wedding:

Venue: Polhawn Fort, Cornwall

Maria’s dress: designed by Ritva Westenius and fitted by Sam Cox Bridalwear

Bridesmaid dresses: Paul Hawley, London

Caterer: Richard Crouch

Florist: Ruth at Polhawn Fort

Hairdresser: Victor Varga

Evening entertainment: The Grove Environment

Wedding cake: Divine Cakes