Ria Mishaal Photography Blog »

Jess and Andy love the winter. So naturally, with them getting married next December, we chose January to meet up and get to know each other better. I encouraged them to choose a meaningful location for their engagement shoot, and they chose Brighton. So on a cold and very bright January morning, Jake and I set off to meet them on the front.

Brighton is very dear to Jess and Andy. It is full of memories. They have spent much time there together playing the 2p slot machines on the pier and drinking milkshakes in the american diner on the front. Jess’s stunning engagement ring originated from Brighton, and was presented to her on a beach far away.

So on this day they were going to show us just how much fun could be had in Brighton. We started off in the american diner ‘JB’s’ drinking far too much peanut butter and banana milkshake before heading out on to the beach and walking amongst the seagulls and the waves.

There is something about the closeness of these two. Something inevitably consuming about how respectfully they regard each other, how much they enjoy the other’s company, their wicked sense of humour and undoubted love. It was a pure joy to spend a day in their company.

We played the arcade games, Jess won the most out of all of us without a doubt, it was really her lucky day! We ate fish and chips and we laughed. We captured the day in stills and also in stop motion (scroll down to the bottom of the post to see a different way of remembering the day).

Jess and Andy, this year is going to be an incredible year for you and I feel so blessed to have been able to spend time with you so much in advance of your wedding. You are wonderful people and I hope these images being back to you the moments of joy and love of that day in Brighton.

So beautiful.

Stop motion animation is a way of making a film from a series of stills. Jake, my second photographer and husband (not in that order), has a passion and aptitude for slightly more alternative ways of image making, and we have both been inspired by this method of late (you may have spotted the book blowing in the wind in a recent shoot that I did last summer). This is Jess and Andy’s engagement shoot in Brighton in stop motion, filmed by Jake, which I later edited and produced.

For the last four years, Anna and Gwilym have been enduring a very long distance relationship between Edinburgh and Florida, succeeding in love where many others would falter. It is quite the love story.

Having both grown up with an insatiable appetite for the outdoors and adventure, they are cut from the same cloth. The proposal, a beautiful story in itself, spanned thousands of miles too. The question was popped, rather appropriately, whilst they were up a small mountain in Scotland, and the presentation of the ring (Anna’s great grandmother’s ancestral ring) was carried out in true romantic fashion on a small key nestled deep in Florida Bay.

Anna is a dear friend of ours, knowing Jake since their undergraduate years. I got to know Gwilym a little better when we did their beloved engagement shoot in Edinburgh last year. It was the very greatest honour to document the wedding celebrations which took place close to Anna’s parents home in the stunning Lake District. Jake was part of the bridal party, so you may spot him in the visual story below!

While Gwilym was quite the dashing groom, Anna’s beauty shone as she transformed from the outdoor-ready adventurer we know and love to a vision of elegance and poise in her stunning Ian Stuart gown with a striking bouquet of Narcissi – a nod to where Gwilym grew up, in Wales.

The ceremony took place The Holy Trinity Church in Brathay, a pictoresque church on a hill top, just like they have on the postcards. The church hall, at the bottom of the same hill has recently been lovingly and stunningly renovated, and Gwilym and Anna held post-ceremony nibbles and hot drinks for their guests there. Outside the church hall was an archetypal stone bridge of such splendor and elegance.  Gwilym’s father had arranged a little surprise for the couple of a game of Pooh Sticks with wooden battens baring their initials and the date, one of the most original and touching games I have ever seen played on a wedding day!

They held their reception at Merewood Country House Hotel, in keeping with elegance of the day. A quite breathtaking venue with views out over the valley to Lake Windermere, with some of the kindest staff I have ever met. The joining of two families was full of laughter and dancing, lots of beautiful food and meaningful details. The cake was made by Anna’s parents, once professional chefs – and decorated with the most beautiful pearlescent icing. The cheese was all from the Lake District or Wales, a nod to both their childhoods. The favours were handmade chocolates, made by the groom and his family, and every table bore little pearlescent snow flakes.

Thank you so much for your friendship. It is an honour and a joy to share these memories. We love you both very much and wish you every happiness.

 
Anna and Gwilym’s Wedding Suppliers

Ceremony venue: Brathay – Holy Trinity Church

Reception venue: Merewood Country House Hotel

Anna’s dress: Ian Stuart - April

Anna’s Shoes: Rainbow Club

Anna’s fascinator: Kudos in Edinburgh

Anna’s Bolero: Tiffany Rose

Anna’s Jewellery: MacIntyres

Hair and Makeup: Nicola Jewsbury

The Bridesmaid dress: from a range at Debenhams

Flower girl: Tigerlily (dress), Pierce Fiona (cardigan)

The bouquets: made by Michelle and Valerie Ann’s 

Beautiful bouquet flowers provided by www.scentednarcissi.co.uk in the Isles of Scilly

The Buttonholes: Jake Snaddon

Gwilym, pageboy and the groomsmen’s suits: Peter Posh through Kiri at Marrime in Kendal  

Stationary: Gwilym and Anna Rowlands (materials sourced form Paper And More)

The pearlescent cake: John and Lesley Swift

Band: The Vows (a local band from Cumbria)