Lauren and Lee were married at Cooling Castle Barn on Friday 5th June 2026, with the whole of the day held on site beside the flint gatehouse and the ruins of the 14th century castle. We filmed for eight hours, from getting ready in the early afternoon through to the first dance, and it was a day built almost entirely around the people in it: an outdoor ceremony in June sunshine, a bubble walk through the gardens straight afterwards, and three speeches that had the barn laughing one minute and completely quiet the next.
The Morning
Both Lauren and Lee got ready at the venue, which gave the run-up to the ceremony that unhurried feel you only really get when nobody has to travel anywhere. They had deliberately set aside time for letters and gifts beforehand, and those few quiet minutes with a handwritten envelope are almost always some of the best footage of the whole day. Lee headed across to the ceremony first at half past one, with Lauren following just before two.
The Ceremony
Lauren and Lee married outside at two o’clock, in front of their families, with the ceremony led by the Medway Council registrars. Lauren was walked in by her dad, Dave. There were no readings, so the ceremony stayed tight and personal: the declarations, the vows, the exchange of rings and the first kiss as husband and wife, with the castle gatehouse standing behind them the whole way through. The registrar kept the room laughing between the formal parts, which is always a gift when you are filming a ceremony.
Everyone spilled straight out into the gardens afterwards for a bubble walk and group photographs. It is one of our favourite things to film at Cooling Castle Barn, because it gets the entire party moving, talking and laughing in one go, rather than standing about waiting for the formal shots to finish.
The Speeches
The wedding breakfast was at quarter past four, with speeches following at six. Lauren’s dad, Dave, opened, then Lee, then Mark as best man. Between the three of them they covered a lot of ground: how Lauren and Lee first met, which is a considerably better story than most, the home and the family the two of them have built since, and thank yous to both sets of parents and to the guests who had travelled a long way to be there.
Lee’s speech in particular swung between very funny and genuinely moving inside the space of a sentence, and the room went with him every time. Speeches like that are the reason we record onto dedicated microphones rather than trusting the room, because the half-second pause before someone gets a difficult line out is usually the part the couple most want to keep.
The Celebration
The cake was cut at seven, and half an hour later Lauren and Lee took the floor for their first dance to A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, before the room was invited up to join them. That was our cue to wrap, eight hours after we arrived. Warm, funny and properly full of family, it was exactly the kind of wedding we love to film.
Credits
- Venue and catering: Cooling Castle Barn
- Photographer: Chris Blackledge
- Flowers and styling: Danny Watchorn
- Dress and suits: Bijou Bridal
- Cake: Jeys Heavenly Events
- Make-up: Nikita Fuller
- Hair: Sophistic Hair
- Stationery: Tomarty Stationery
- Ceremony: Medway Council registrars
- Videography: Talking Fly Wedding Films