What started as a pretty last-minute enquiry, following a recommendation from someone I knew from school, ended up becoming one of my favourite weddings of 2022.
And when you look at Stourhead, it’s really not difficult to understand why.
Set amongst the beautiful Wiltshire countryside, Stourhead is a National Trust estate known for its incredible landscaped gardens, lake, woodland and, of course, the iconic Apollo’s Temple overlooking the water.
Sunny and Tom also couldn't have picked a better time of year to get married here.
This was an autumn wedding, so the gardens were full of colour. The trees had turned golden with hints of deep red, leaves were falling throughout the day and the whole place looked incredible on camera.
Some things you can plan as a wedding videographer, and some things nature just decides to give you.
When I got back into the studio and started going through the footage, I found this beautiful shot of Sunny walking towards Tom at Apollo’s Temple with autumn leaves naturally falling directly in front of my camera.
It was one of those little moments where you're sitting at your desk thinking, YES!
You couldn't have planned it.
The light was beautiful all day, the setting was incredible and everything just seemed to come together.
It was an absolute dream to film.
The day started at Sunny and Tom's beautiful home on the outskirts of Tisbury, where I joined Sunny and her bridesmaids for the morning preparations.
As soon as I walked through the door, I knew it was going to be a good day.
Everything was incredibly calm.
The bridesmaids were having their hair and make-up done while music played and everyone slowly got themselves ready for the day ahead.
I was also slightly obsessed with the house.
It was a gorgeous modern barn conversion with huge windows and natural light pouring into the rooms. In fact, when I first arrived, I genuinely thought it was another wedding venue rather than their home.
For a filmmaker, spaces like this are a dream.
Natural light makes such a difference during bridal preparations, particularly because I always want this part of a wedding film to feel relaxed and natural rather than heavily staged.
Sunny was upstairs doing her own make-up, positioned beside a large open window overlooking the courtyard.
The mirrors, window light and details she'd already laid out gave me loads to work with creatively without having to interfere with what was happening.
Exactly how I like to film a wedding morning.
Meanwhile, my second shooter Rob was with Tom and his groomsmen at The Spread Eagle Inn, situated within the Stourhead estate.
Being so close to Apollo’s Temple meant the guys could enjoy the morning without having to worry about a long journey to the ceremony.
And they looked seriously smart.
Tom had chosen a beige suit paired with burgundy, which worked beautifully against the autumn colours surrounding Stourhead.
Finished with buttonholes from Pamplemousse Florist, the guys were ready to make their way towards Apollo’s Temple and wait for Sunny.
Back at the house, everything was still remarkably chilled.
One of the moments I always love capturing during bridal preparations is when a bride opens a letter or gift from the groom.
It's usually a very personal moment, so it's not something I want to intrude on.
I'll normally find my position, keep my distance and allow it to happen naturally.
I don't need five minutes of footage.
Sometimes it's just a look.
A smile.
A few tears.
Those few seconds can end up becoming some of the most important footage from the entire morning because they bring another layer of emotion into the final wedding film.
Sunny opening her letter from Tom was one of those moments.
And then there was the dress.
WOW.
I genuinely think Sunny might have single-handedly brought sleeves back into my weddings.
At the time, I'd filmed plenty of weddings but hadn't really seen many brides choosing this style of dress.
Then, almost immediately after Sunny and Tom's wedding, I seemed to film bride after bride wearing something similar.
I'm all for it.
The sleeves added so much detail and elegance to the dress and it suited Sunny perfectly.
Against the autumn colours at Stourhead later that afternoon, it looked incredible.
And then we arrived at the ceremony.
Just look at that backdrop.
Apollo’s Temple has to be one of the most spectacular outdoor wedding ceremony settings I've filmed.
Perched above Stourhead's famous lake and surrounded by landscaped gardens and woodland, it almost doesn't look real.
There's a good reason this part of Stourhead has appeared on screen before — most famously in Pride & Prejudice.
Standing there with the lake stretching out below you genuinely feels like being on a film set.
Except this time it was the backdrop to Sunny and Tom's wedding.
Sunny, her bridesmaids and her parents made their way through the woodland towards Apollo’s Temple to meet Tom.
It was probably one of the longest bridal entrances I'd filmed at that point.
And from a wedding filmmaker's perspective, I absolutely loved it.
A wedding aisle can normally disappear in seconds. Before you know it, the bride has reached the front and the ceremony has begun.
Here, we had time.
The longer walk through the gardens allowed us to capture Sunny's arrival from several different perspectives while still letting everything happen naturally.
And with those autumn leaves falling around her as she approached Apollo’s Temple, it couldn't have looked much better.
There's something quite different about filming a ceremony outdoors.
You have the movement in the trees, natural light changing throughout the ceremony, the sounds of the surrounding countryside and this enormous landscape behind the couple.
At Stourhead, all of those things are amplified.
Turn one way and you have Apollo’s Temple.
Turn another and you're looking across the lake and gardens.
Everywhere you point a camera, there's another composition.
For someone like me who loves incorporating landscapes and a sense of place into my wedding films, it was pretty much perfect.
Sunny and Tom said their "I dos" surrounded by their closest family and friends, with one of Wiltshire's most recognisable landscapes behind them.
But Tom wasn't quite finished with the surprises.
After the ceremony, everyone began preparing to head back to the marquee at Sunny and Tom's home.
Sunny thought she knew exactly how she and Tom would be getting there.
Tom has a beloved old Ford pickup truck - sorry, Tom, old is definitely the word 😂 - and Sunny was expecting him to come around the corner in it.
She waited.
Then she heard an engine.
Except it wasn't the Ford.
Around the corner came a vintage Jaguar.
Sunny's reaction was absolutely priceless.
She was completely gobsmacked.
These are exactly the kinds of moments I love at weddings because the reaction is completely genuine.
There's no posing or recreating it afterwards.
You've either got the camera rolling or you've missed it.
Thankfully, we were ready.
And judging by Sunny's face, I think Tom made the right choice.
Once we arrived back at the marquee, the atmosphere changed immediately.
The drinks were flowing, everyone was in high spirits and the party properly got underway.
Because the reception was being held at Sunny and Tom's own home, there was also a lovely relaxed feeling to everything.
Nobody needed to go anywhere.
Everyone could simply enjoy themselves.
As the afternoon moved towards evening, we managed to take Sunny and Tom away for another short portrait session.
And once again, nature decided to give us a little present.
An incredible sunset.
It was absolutely freezing - and I'm pretty sure we were all questioning our decision to be standing outside at certain points - but visually it was completely worth it.
Those warmer sunset tones worked beautifully alongside the colours we'd already had at Stourhead earlier in the day.
It's another reason I always encourage couples to give us ten minutes if the light suddenly does something special.
You don't need an hour-long photoshoot.
Sometimes ten minutes at exactly the right time gives you something incredible.
Looking back, I think this wedding had pretty much everything I love about filming weddings.
A beautiful location.
A relaxed morning.
Loads of genuine emotion.
A ceremony somewhere completely unique.
Little surprises throughout the day.
An incredible sunset.
And, most importantly, two people who made us feel incredibly welcome from the moment we arrived.
Sunny and Tom treated us more like friends than wedding suppliers, and that makes such a difference.
When people are comfortable around you, you get to capture them as they actually are.
That's always been the goal with my wedding films.
I don't want couples spending their wedding day constantly thinking about the camera.
I want them enjoying their day while I quietly capture everything happening around them.
Sunny and Tom's wedding was exactly that.
This wedding also gave me my first opportunity to properly experience just how special Stourhead is as a location for filming.
I've since returned to Apollo’s Temple for something slightly different - an incredibly emotional surprise proposal.
Victor travelled from the Dominican Republic to visit his girlfriend Nicole in the UK and chose Apollo’s Temple as the place where he wanted to ask her to marry him, partly because of its appearance in Pride & Prejudice.
That turned into another unforgettable afternoon at Stourhead and a completely different story to this one.
Having now filmed both a wedding and a proposal here, I think there's something particularly special about Stourhead when you're telling a story on film.
It's not simply a beautiful backdrop.
The walk through the gardens, the woodland, the lake, Apollo’s Temple and the changing light give you so many different layers to work with.
For a wedding filmmaker, that's pretty difficult to beat.
Although I'm a Dorset based wedding filmmaker, I regularly travel throughout the surrounding counties and across the UK to film weddings. Stourhead sits right on the Wiltshire/Somerset/Dorset side of the South West, so it's also incredibly accessible from many of the areas where I regularly work.
My approach is always centred around capturing a wedding as it actually felt — the people, the emotion, the landscapes, the tiny moments and all the things you might not even notice happening around you on the day.
Sunny and Tom's wedding is still one of my favourite examples of that.
What began as a fairly last-minute recommendation turned into a wedding I still remember years later.
And I'm very glad that email landed in my inbox.
Thank you again, Sunny and Tom, for being such an incredibly welcoming couple and allowing us to be part of your day.
It was an absolute pleasure to capture it.
Watch Sunny & Tom's full Stourhead wedding film below.
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