A Gooseberry House Wedding Photographer’s Day With Jade & Josh

If you followed along with Jade and Josh’s first day at Port Lympne, you’ll already know they don’t do things by halves. Two ceremonies, two settings, one incredible couple.

Day two took place at Spring Gardens Nursery in Washington, inside the orangery-style glasshouse known as Gooseberry House, and if the safari park was about scale and spectacle, this day was about something softer.

If you’re picturing your own day somewhere just as romantic, it’s worth knowing what that softness looked like in person, vine-covered glass on every side, a celebrant who knew their story inside out, and every single guest from Thursday plus a fresh batch of friends and family, bringing the total to around sixty.

It was, somehow, even hotter than the day before. Inside the glasshouse the heat pressed in properly, and more than a few guests were fanning themselves through the vows.

Nobody seemed to mind. There’s a particular kind of wedding heat that just becomes part of the story, and if your own day turns out hot, you’ll understand exactly why nobody here minded either.

As a Spring Gardens wedding photographer for the day, working across Sussex and the wider south coast more broadly, I don’t get to photograph inside a glasshouse full of grapevines and fairy lights.

Jade told me early on that the glasshouse and its garden setting was one of the biggest reasons they’d chosen Spring Gardens.

Walking in on the day, it wasn’t hard to see why, and if you’re weighing up somewhere similarly unexpected for your own wedding, I hope this gives you a proper feel for it.

Walking down the aisle

Josh was already waiting inside the glasshouse, standing a the front among the vines with the afternoon light pouring in through the glass roof. Guests were finding their seats either side of a long red rug, candles lit along the aisle despite the daylight outside.

Jade arrived on her grandad’s arm, the same green-suited grandad who’d walked with her at Port Lympne two days before. They couldn’t stop smiling and laughing as they walked down the aisle.

Jade’s bouquet was full of peonies, her favourite flower (the same flower tattooed on Josh’s arm, which he’d had done years before they met)!

It’s a small detail, but the kind of quiet symmetry that makes a couple’s story feel like it was always heading somewhere.

A Celebrant Ceremony Among the Vines

Thursday’s ceremony had been a registrar service, which follows a fixed script (couples typically pick from two or three set versions). Friday’s was a celebrant ceremony, and the difference showed in every line.

A celebrant spends real time with a couple before the wedding, getting to know them properly, hearing their story, understanding what actually matters to them, and then builds a ceremony that sounds like nobody else’s.

It’s a brilliant way to let two personalities come through, and Jade and Josh’s ceremony felt entirely theirs.

Their celebrant led the hand-fasting in the middle of the glasshouse, chandelier hanging overhead, guests smiling through the heat with paper fans going in every row. It was warm enough that even the most composed guests had given in and started fanning themselves by the time the vows began.

Vows, Rings, and a Very Good Prank

Josh read his vows first, then Jade read hers, both taking the microphone in turn while the celebrant stood close by. Then came the rings, and this is where Jade and Josh let me in on a secret.

The rings weren’t with the best man at all. Jade and Josh had planned it together beforehand, and the celebrant was in on it too…

Both rings had been hidden under two of the guest chairs, completely unknown to anyone else in the room, including the best man himself, and the two guests sitting in those seats found themselves turned into delighted, wholly unplanned ring bearers the moment the celebrant asked them to reach underneath.

When the celebrant turned to the best man mid-ceremony and asked him to bring up the rings, he had absolutely no idea what was going on and looked, for a moment, genuinely worried.

The second it clicked, the whole thing fell apart into laughter, Jade and Josh most of all. Not one guest had seen it coming.

It’s the kind of moment that only works because everyone involved trusted each other enough to pull it off, and it’s exactly the sort of surprise a celebrant ceremony has room for that a fixed script never would.

You May Kiss the Bride

With the rings exchanged and the laughter settled, it was down to the final words.

Josh and Jade kissed as husband and wife for the first time to applause from both sides of the aisle, then walked back out through the glasshouse together, guests reaching out to congratulate them as they passed.

Pompoms in Front of Gooseberry House

Confetti is lovely, but pompoms are one of my absolute favourites to photograph, and Jade had specifically asked for them in front of Gooseberry House itself when we spoke ahead of the day.

We gathered the whole crowd on the grass outside the glasshouse, green and white pompoms went up together, and for a moment the sky above the glasshouse roof was full of them.

Jade and Josh shared a kiss right in the middle of it, pompoms scattered across her train.

Ice Cream and Portraits in the Fields

The ice cream tricycle Jade and Josh had been looking forward to for months was a hit with all of the guests. Jade and Josh took a minute together under the macrame canopy to enjoy it properly, complete with little monogrammed wafer biscuits.

Shortly after, we slipped away to the field behind Gooseberry House, where young sunflower plants lined the rows in neat staked lines. Josh lifted Jade clean off the ground which made for a brilliant photo.

Further along, golden light caught them walking together between the crops as the afternoon began to soften.

Back at the glasshouse, Jade took a moment to sign a card at the guest table (a lovely pick-a-card, leave-a-message set-up).

Here’s Josh with his best man, Tim…

Speeches at the Glasshouse Door

As the toastmaster called everyone together outside the glasshouse doors, the Josh & Jade welcome sign visible just inside, speeches began in earnest.

Grandad went first, followed by Josh, then Emma, Jade’s Maid of Honour took the microphone holding up an old photo of Jade to plenty of laughter from the crowd, and Jade herself followed with her own speech, reading from a card simply titled Bride’s Speech.

Guests gathered on the lawn nearby, clearly enjoying every minute.

Cutting the Cake

Back inside the glasshouse, string lights glowing under the vines, Jade and Josh cut into their three-tier hexagonal cake together, decorated with fine green botanical line work and their initials.

Alongside the cake, Jade and Josh had put together a dessert table of cookies, brownies and what they’d nicknamed “cheer up trifles”, a nod to Jade’s grandma, who always made trifle whenever Jade needed cheering up.

It’s the kind of detail guests might not clock at the time, but it meant everything to Jade, and it’s exactly the sort of personal touch worth folding into your own day if there’s a memory worth honouring.

The First Dance

Here’s the part of the day I’d been quietly looking forward to hearing. Jade had secretly recorded herself singing over their first dance song, “That’s What Love Is” by Alexandra Kay, without telling Josh a thing.

She sounded fantastic, genuinely, and as they swayed together under the chandelier with guests filming on their phones from every side, you could see the exact moment it landed for him. Some of the guests had already worked it out before he had.

It took him until around halfway through the dance to realise it was Jade’s own voice he was hearing, and the look on his face when it finally clicked was one of my favourite moments of the whole day.

If you’re weighing up a first dance surprise of your own, this is exactly the kind of moment I love being trusted with.

Golden Sky

The sky had turned a deep, dramatic orange, and Josh popped a bottle of something bubbly into the air as Jade laughed beside him…

Dancing Into the Night

The band struck up not long after, and the glasshouse turned into a proper dancefloor, glow sticks and string lights and everyone, from the smallest guests to the toastmaster himself, joining in.

Jade and Josh found a quiet hug in the middle of it all, and by the time the band wrapped up, sixty guests had thoroughly danced their way through a second consecutive very hot day.

A Spring Gardens Wedding at Gooseberry House

As a Spring Gardens wedding photographer, days like this are exactly why I love this job. Two days, two ceremonies, one couple who somehow made both feel completely personal.

If Thursday was about safari park spectacle, Friday was about glasshouse warmth, in every sense, and a wedding that reflected exactly who Jade and Josh are.

Between the ring prank, the secret singing, and the guests fanning themselves through a celebrant ceremony in a Sussex heatwave, it’s not a day I’ll forget in a hurry, and if any part of it sounds like the day you’re picturing for yourself, I’d love to help you plan one just as personal.

Suppliers

Venue – Spring Gardens
Celebrant – Beth Kirkham Ceremonies
Hair & Makeup – Toni Todd
Cake Maker – Debbie at Naked Wedding Cakes
Videography – Alex at Mole Hill Media
Photo Booth – Dan at Demon Photo Booths
Toastmaster – Simon at The Pocket Toastie
Band – Rob at Murdoch’s Crazy Eyes
Bar – Ellie at Bower Events
Decor, Set Up & Food Truck – Liv at Feast and Flame
Illustrator – Charlotte Jones
Ice Cream Tricycle – Paula at Delicious Dreams
Florals – Blooming Roza

Looking for a Spring Gardens Wedding Photographer?

If you’re getting married at Spring Gardens or the Gooseberry House glasshouse and you’re looking for a photographer who already knows the orangery-style setting, the light and the garden well, I’d love to hear about your day.

For a look at a very different kind of real wedding day, from a grander country house celebration, have a browse of Karen and Andrew’s South Lodge wedding.