What a phenomenal day at Eastington Park for the loveliest of couples (and of course their doggies!).
Cheryl and Harry run the fabulous Crossfit gym in Swindon; Crossfit Swindon. And whilst most days are spent training and coaching, their wedding day was a celebration of everything they are to each other and of course a different look to the normal gym gear!
They chose a summer wedding at the beautiful Eastington Park with a summer floral elegance as their theme. They totally nailed this! From the elegance of the Bride and her bridesmaids and bridesmen, to the handsome Groom and his crew, their gorgeous parents and grandparents, and of course their guests did them proud as well.
And as for the venue Eastington Park; it was dressed within an inch of its life and boy was it spectacular.
This was a dream wedding for me as a photographer. We worked so closely together as a team before the wedding day and on the day itself. Happy people to photograph, so many incredible details, and of course Cheryl and Harry themselves. Although doggies Luna and Arnie very nearly stole the show (but not quite!).
Choosing a small selection of images to share with you all has been hard!
So here are just a few of their many perfect images from the Wedding Story for you to enjoy along with their wedding day memories in their own words…
“Went for tale coats as we thought it fitted nicely with the ‘elegant’ theme, and Harrys favourite colour purple being the choice of tie.
We dressed Arnie in a matching harness with grey suit material along with mini tie and pocket square to match his papa- cute!!!”
“Was made particularly special because it was the first big celebration/event prior to covid, we both felt extremely lucky to have all our nearest and dearest together.
Cheryl to have her Nan with her after her being extremely poorly at the beginning of the year and being bed bound. We felt so incredibly blessed to have Nan with us after such an awful start to the year to have her happy and healthy enjoying the day was just super special!!
Also to have maid of honour Niamh (living in Ireland) and bridesmaid Liz ( living in Paris) first time to have all the girls together in nearly 2 years and having the build up in the two weeks prior to the wedding was wonderful!”
“Mum and I matched with our earrings so we were the same 😊”
“I spend 99.9% of my time in gym wear, with a cap on so I wanted to have the chance to become a princess for the day and wow Harry with something special.
It was the first thing I chose before we even started anything else as I wanted to be guided by the style of that before choosing anything else.
It without a doubt got the reaction I was hoping for and felt so very special to feel so girly for the day.”
“Cheryl and Clare (mother of the bride) were the ‘dream team’ I absolutely loved working with my mum to make our vision come to life.
We spent months planning, putting together pictures of ideas and having ‘mini meetings’ to keep the magic of the build over the 2 ½ years alive.
The wedding too two and a half years to plan”
“All based around our favourite colour ‘purple’ which is why there was a running theme of ‘lavender’.
Summer, floral elegance was the main idea and feel for the day. Lots of neutral colours with green foliage to pull out the gorgeous lavender colouring in men’s ties, centre pieces and staircase flowers.”
“‘A million dreams’ – from the Greatest Showman, the reason for choosing was the words ‘ A million dreams is all its gonna take, oh a million dreams for the world were gonna make’ .. because we decided the lyrics were perfect for us wanted to tackle everything and anything we can as a mini team.”
“Arnie ( our 2 year old pom dog) had a birthday card for me and inside it read ‘ Daddy said will you marry him?’
“It rained very briefly which originally when we planned for August I said I would be devastated if it rained….
Such a stupid statement to make because it didn’t affect the day in anyway!!
So for any couples planning a wedding don’t even give it a second worry because it makes no difference whatsoever!”
“I have always said that Nikki was ‘the one’ because of her ability to let pictures tell a story and capture the spirit and character of a person and allow you to immerse yourself into remembering the moments they were taken, they aren’t ‘just pictures’.”
“We decided we loved the idea about including loved ones that were no longer with us, so made them ‘mini seats’ so they could celebrate the day with us. A ‘Palmer’ and ‘Loxton’ ladder of remembrance was made with pictures so they could still be part of the day.
It was lovely for nanny, auntie Carol and Ralph (Harrys dad) to still have their husbands/ sister with them for the day, Auntie Carol did shed a few happy tears and was particularly touched at the idea.”
“By far the best bit was putting on the dress and my dad coming up to collect me from the bridal suite and then opening the doors to the ceremony room and seeing everyone all together with Harry waiting at the end of the isle gave me butterflies!!!”
“What an incredible talent you have, wow ! You are simply the best !!! Sitting and watching the photos today, has filled me with so much happiness ! It was like re- living the day!!!
What a women you are, those images have taken our breath away, and made us shed so many happy tears!
I cannot described to you the feeling of looking at the images of me with my Nans! As you know, Gramps was such an influential, important part of my life so to have them in so many, magical pictures you have honestly made the most happiest of memories that I will forever cherish and I’m so incredibly grateful for! Thank you !!
Thank you Nikki, I cannot put into words just how special these images are.
You are an incredible talented lady and these images will stay with me forever and leave a very VERY important imprint on my head, thank you !”
“It was everything and more of what we expected from the day, the only sad thing was it went soooooo fast !!!
We took a walk together at 3am around the grounds when everyone had gone to bed and sat on the swing together, a moment that I will remember forever 😊”
“We worked together at a local leisure centre ‘ Link Centre – Swindon’ Harry had just finished serving frontline infantry in Afghanistan and this was his first ‘civilian’ job.”
“The grounds are just stunning and the final decision was based on the fact we could have the dogs with us to share the day too.”
“Sharing platters as they looked fantastic and got tables mingling and chatting, beef main course followed by fluffy puffin ice cream who created bespoke flavours for us based on our favourite flavours.
We even had two flavours based on our favourite alcoholic drinks (rum- Bahama mama and gin elderflower).
Our wedding cake was a three tier biscoff, red velvet, lemon and blueberry. With edible glitter flakes, grey marbling. Also ft edible icing dogs on the bottom peeping out and a topper of me and Harry in gym gear on the top!”
“Soak up and enjoy everything and anything you can, take a moment on the day to just sit and observe all that is happening around you. When we sat at the wedding breakfast on a couple of occasions we just people watched for a bit and really enjoyed seeing all our friends and family laughing and joking together.”
Photography: Nikki Kirk
Ceremony venue: Eastington Park, Stonehouse
Reception venue: Eastington Park, Stonehouse
Flowers: Stephanie Saunders- Cotswolds Luxury Florist
Dress: Sophia Tolli
Bridesmaid dresses: Ever Pretty
Groom’s outfit: Gary Andrews Suits
Doggie outfits: Sew it Fits Swindon – Helen Sleiman
Cake: Kimmies Cakes
Catering: Berry Blue Catering
Stationery: Purely Bespoke Design
Venue dressing: Chantelle at Love Letters
Entertainment: String quartet Wiltshire String Quartet
Magician – Dorian Davies
Singing waiters
Band: Vegas Hooligans
Favours: Pomeranian Cookies – Kimmies Cakes
Hair and beauty: Hair – Claire Guy Bridal – Make up – Lucy Humphries beauty
Rings including engagement ring: Beaverbrooks