An East Close Hotel and Parley Manor Wedding

Lisa’s vintage style wedding at Parley Manor

It was great to be back at The East Close Hotel recently. If you knew the hotel in the old days, you’d be amazed at the transformation! Having not been there for a while, I had three bookings at The East Close recently! If you’ve got a wedding booked at The East Close Hotel or at Parley Manor Weddings, and would like to see more of what I can do for you, email me now or call 01425 672706.

From the very start, Lisa made it clear that she had a vision for her wedding, and that certainly turned out to be the case. She chose on of Dorset’s most popular venues, Parley Manor near Christchurch,and had very firm intentions about how different everything was going to look ….  more of that later.

The difference began with the engagement photo shoot, or couple photo shoot. By her own admission, Lisa was making all the decisions about the Wedding Day at Parley Manor, aiming for a vintage look, so she let Billy decide about the theme and location for the pre-wedding photo shoot. As he was not being allowed by wear any of his Star Wars outfits to the wedding, he wanted some way of getting his passions included, and so chose The Bournemouth Aviation Museum as the location. We checked it out, got the necessary permissions and shot – on a very cold wet miserable day! I’ve blogged that shoot already, and posted the pre-wedding photographs, together with the Guest Book pages and you can see it here.

I joined Lisa with all her bridesmaids and her mum at The East Close on the morning of the hotel, and I knew right then that the day was going to be a delight, and that we’d get some wonderful wedding pictures for her and Billy. The atmosphere in her room was full of excitement, and emotion, along with all the very usual panic that accompanies the preparations on the morning of a wedding. Everyone was involved in getting things ready, whether wielding the iron, or sorting out hair, finding shoes, and so on. But at last Lisa was ready, and there were tears and love and excitement when she come back into the room having finished getting into her dress.

When a parent sees their daughter in her wedding dress, all ready to start her new life, there’s always something very special in the air.

And so off to Parley Manor, in a gorgeous little car, a Ryecroft Tourer Convertible from Superwed at All Aspects with Lisa in her vintage wedding gown looking stunning. And a very different day from the eshoot – August 22nd was perfect, warm but not hot, and bright not harsh and blinding as August sometimes can be.

It seemed as if everyone had a fantastic day! We got the family and friends wedding photographs done quite quickly, and that left the guests free to enjoy the drinks reception, the gardens and the beautiful weather, while Lisa, Billy and I had a wander around the gardens at Parley Manor for their photographs. Parley is great for wedding photography, so many different locations within just a few yards walk of each other, set in the beautifully maintained gardens.

Merlins worked their usual miracles with the catering, Julie Nicholls had transformed the marquee into just what Lisa wanted, a beautiful vintage venue dressing! I loved the candelabra, and the pearls draped everywhere! The evening entertainment was from another of the Parley Partners, Parley Manor’s recommended wedding suppliers, the Gem Roadshow. I love creating First Dance photographs in black and white, I think they look very special, given some secret recipe processing!
If you’d like to find out what I can offer you for your East Close Hotel or Parley Manor wedding, call me now 01425 672706 or use the contact form