Elopement wedding photography in Saltburn-on-Sea, North Yorkshire

I always LOVE being asked to cover elopement weddings so when Helena got in touch with me to see if I was available to take care of the photos for their elopement wedding in Saltburn-on-Sea in North Yorkshire I was SO excited!

Then, after arranging a chat with her, I discovered they didn’t actually want the wedding part of their wedding photographing at all! They had booked a ‘no guests’ ceremony at Saltburn register office and the ‘no guests’ extended to the photographer too. Their idea was to get married, check in at their accommodation, and then have me arrive to do a couple of hours of wedding photos wandering around the seafront in Saltburn. Sounded fab!

Helena & Sam had booked into The Outlook, a stunning self-catering apartment and part of The Spa Hotel in Saltburn. It’s tucked away out of sight from the main road so took a while to find! Oh, did I mentioned when I arrived it was pouring with rain?!

It was lovely to meet Helena & Sam in person having only communicated ‘virtually’ so far. They looked fab in their wedding outfits and definitely needed some gorgeous wedding photos to do them justice! However, it was raining pretty heavily and the forecast wasn’t promising. So we decided we’d start by making the most of the lovely apartment with some indoor photos, see what the weather was like after and, if necessary, grab the brollies I keep in the car for moments like this.

I loved working with Helena & Sam and we had lots of fun while trying out some wedding photos in the lounge, bedroom and on the stairs.

We picked some spots in the apartment with wonderful light and made the most of the gorgeous surroundings.

They had brought a wedding cake with them (which Sam had spent the morning re-icing(!)) so when Sam went off to find a knife, I grabbed a couple of bride only photos on the stairs. Stairs always make for great wedding photo angles. Beautiful bride!

Got to do some mutual wedding cake feeding photos!

After all our wedding fun and photos inside we suddenly realised it had actually stopped raining and was looking slightly brighter outside! Sam grabbed a champagne bottle and glasses and we headed out to a balcony area with stunning views of the North Yorkshire coast.

Since it was still not raining we were growing in confidence! And grabbing a couple of brollies just in case, headed off past The Spa Hotel down the road to Saltburn seafront.

We chatted, photographed, chatted, walked, photos, chatted…. You get the idea. Saltburn Pier is a bit of an iconic location and great for wedding photos. Although some people assume clouds equals bad for wedding photographs and dream of clear blue skies and sunshine, the reality is that clouds tend to give softer, more flattering lighting and can result in some really gorgeous wedding photos. Don’t get me wrong, sunny days can be perfectly lovely - they just require a different technique to get great looking photos.

Part of the chat was devoted to reaching a decision about when and how the newly weds were going to be breaking the news to friends and family as very few knew this elopement wedding was happening! This challenge only applies to elopement weddings! We figured they might guess if they saw the wedding photos!

After a tour of the pier, Sam said he wanted to visit the coloured beach huts - great idea! On the way we stopped off at the famous Saltburn lift - sadly not working that day….

.. and made it to the beach huts. WOW - colours!

We decided to round off with a walk on the beach. Not that there was too much of it as the tide was in. However, there was enough. And there’s always something wonderful about wedding photos on a beach.

After climbing the not inconsiderable hill back up to the apartment (no lift, remember?!), Sam decided to light a celebratory cigar. Helena decided it wasn’t for her!

After a couple of hours spent with Helena & Sam I left them to enjoy the evening. They had a meal planned for their first night of married life.

I thoroughly enjoyed my couple of hours spent in Saltburn photographing Helena & Sam’s elopement wedding. If you are planning a wedding (elopement or otherwise!) in North Yorkshire, York, Durham, Newcastle or Northumberland and you like these photos then please contact me. I’d love to hear your plans, explain how my work might fit in with them and offer you a personal quote.

And to conclude this little story, I sent Helena & Sam around 20 sneak peeks later that day as I had a feeling they might be sharing the good news with friend and family later that day and need the evidence! They received their full gallery of well over 200 edited hi res images from me within 5 days of their wedding.

It’s always so rewarding to receive feedback from couples after their wedding. Here’s what Helena posted on my Facebook page:

In addition to wedding packages I also offer family, couple and boudoir photography - contact me to find out more.