A Lewes and Stanmer House wedding: Catherine & Nick

A wedding ceremony and newlywed portraits in Lewes

Their day began at Lewes Register Office. Afterwards, rather than immediately moving on, we stayed nearby to take their newlywed portraits. It was a lovely opportunity to make photographs that connected their story to the place where they had just married, while giving them a little time together between the ceremony and the celebrations.

I liked the way Catherine and Nick allowed this part of the day to have its own time. The ceremony in Lewes mattered, and staying nearby for photographs meant we could carry that feeling into their portraits before moving on to the family celebration. Those first photographs after getting married connect a couple to a very particular place in their own history.

For me, that is one of the pleasures of photographing a register office wedding. There is a clear beginning, followed by the opportunity to step out together and make something more personal. With Catherine and Nick, the photographs belonged to that transition: they had just married, their family was part of the day, and there was a lovely celebration still to come.

A family celebration at Stanmer House, Brighton

We then headed to Stanmer House, where the focus turned to spending time with family. With its elegant architecture and surrounding parkland, the house offered a beautiful contrast to the earlier part of the day in Lewes.

Stanmer House sits within Stanmer Park, just north of central Brighton. Its Georgian architecture and green surroundings make it a different kind of Brighton wedding setting from the seafront. Following a ceremony in Lewes, that change of surroundings gave Catherine and Nick’s gallery a second, distinct chapter while keeping their celebration close to the places they had chosen.

What mattered most here was the family gathering. A beautiful house can give photographs their setting, but the people give them their meaning. I wanted the images from this part of the wedding to sit comfortably beside their newlywed portraits, so that the finished story remembered both their time together and the celebration they shared with everyone else.

Wedding photography that fits around the celebration

What I enjoyed about photographing Catherine and Nick’s wedding was that the photographs could sit naturally within the day. There was space for portraits, but the celebration remained about the two of them and the people they had brought together.

There is a generosity in making room for both. Catherine and Nick’s plans allowed me to photograph them as a couple without losing sight of the family occasion around them. That is what I found so special about their day: its simplicity left room for the things that mattered, and the photographs could follow that rather than dictate it.

Their Lewes and Stanmer House wedding also shows how naturally Sussex and Brighton can come together in one story. The register office and the country house each contributed something different, with the portraits linking the chapters. For couples planning a similar day, I would always begin with that same question: where can we make a little time for photographs while keeping you close to the celebration you have planned?

From Lewes to Stanmer House, their wedding was a lovely combination of a town ceremony and a country-house setting, with family at the heart of it all.