July 28, 2022
Christina Williams
Modern Country Wedding in Pembrokeshire, Wales
If you’re from the area or looking to escape from the city for a modern country wedding, Pembrokeshire is a great place to get married. It’s far enough away from urban life to help you feel relaxed, and our National Park has the perfect mix of coastal and woodland locations.
When the stars align, and the heavens open up:
For this shoot, I wanted to mix it up with wildflowers and the colours of spring, a Welsh woodland backdrop and strong modern dresses. So, I recently teamed up with some super-talented women to create something special. The vision was ‘modern country wedding’ and became a sort of hybrid of city and Welsh woodland! Think about striking modern dresses against a spring woodland. And then think about British weather; yep, this didn’t go to plan as it rained all day long! As a Pembrokeshire wedding photographer, this is something we have to manage a lot. Thankfully, our venue Gellifawr has loads of great interior spaces that we were able to work with.
The dresses: The unique wedding dresses by Jesus Peiro were the real talking point. Our model Valentina absolutely loved them, she felt stylish, empowered, and beautiful. If you live in West Wales, you may already know of White Bride? If not, Sally White’s award-winning bridal boutique, based in Narberth, is simply the best in the West. Sally has a brilliant range of designers and styles.
When it comes to planning a styled shoot it’s very similar to planning a wedding, as there are so many elements to making everything work. Sure, the dress needs to make you feel comfortable and look incredible, but you also need a great venue. As such, I was so happy to chat with Emily and the team at Gellifawr and pull something amazing together.
https://www.jesuspeiro.com/en/
The location: Gellifawr is a multi-award-winning venue set in the Gwaun Valley, it is an exclusive wedding village with a great selection of locations for the ceremony and reception. This means you can create your own unique celebration, with no one having to leave the venue. I am a big fan of outdoor ceremonies, from tipi dance floors to forest views, and Gellifawr provides it all! So yeah, for a woodland wedding Wales it’s a no-brainer for me. The staff are lovely and do everything they can to ensure you have the best day ever.
Sarah from Honeysuckle Bakery came and created a spring-inspired treat. Honeysuckle bakery has announced that they will be working alongside @discovergellifawr. So Sarah can create bespoke wedding cakes for anyone booking with Gellifawr.
Cakes – @_honeysucklebakery
The flowers: For this shoot, I went for a ground installation to frame my bride and groom. I was very lucky to have had Green and Wild Flowers on the team to make a wild spring-themed flower masterpiece, with orange and yellow poppies and mimosa myrandol (my favs) set against the contrasting greens of the woodland grounds of Gellifawr. What’s great about these types of installations is that you can bring that element of wilderness inside when the weather is against you, which is, as I said, exactly what happened; so we brought spring inside. Jill at Green & Wild Flowers also created the awesome bouquets featured with Valentina, as you can see her style is wild and modern. I was so lucky to have had her onboard. Green & Wild Flowers (based in Newcastle Emlyn) covers most of West Wales, including Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, and Carmarthenshire.
Hair and Makeup
Let’s talk about Emma Kathleen’s make-up, she really is super stylish, and if you are looking for dramatic, elegant, and natural looks that can suit the modern city bride then Emma is the woman you need! She is also bloody lovely and never stops smiling. Also, Katie Marie who specialises in bridal hair is another Pembrokeshire legend, and again was a pleasure to work with. Katie created two styles, but for this section of the shoot, she created an elegant and alternative bun that I bloody loved.
Models – Valentina & Daniele
Real married model couple who are now based in Yorkshire, traveled all the way to Pembrokeshire and back in one day! They were so great, and I want to take the opportunity to thank them for their hard work.
With a shoot like this it’s all in the planning, but getting all these talented people together was a triumph and I’m so grateful for all the work they put in, and I am very pleased with our images despite the awful weather!
Ta Christina
Y Mor Photography @ymor_photography
Flowers By – @greenandwildflowers_
Makeup @emmakathlee
Hair – @hair_by_katie_marie_
Bridal Boutique – @whitebridewales
Venue – @discovergellifawr
Cakes – @_honeysucklebakery
Models – vd.modelcouple