Le Petit Chateau wedding photography Otterburn Northumberland

Kate and Andy’s wedding at Le Petit Chateau, during the Beast from the East storm!

Remember when it snowed?

No, not that time. I mean when it SNOWED. And snowed and snowed and snowed. Yeah. That time. The “beast from the east” time. Well do you remember how one of the worst hit areas of the UK was Northumberland? Well it was. And Kate and Andy’s wedding at Le Petit Chateau in Otterburn was right in the middle of it. A couple of days before I had a message from my AirBNB host to say that there was no way of accessing it so I was stuck without accommodation and the best option I could find was in Newcastle. But the roads around Manchester weren’t in good shape either so it took me over 6 hours to get to Newcastle. But I got there. And the next morning I set off into the unknown to try to get to Kate and Andy’s wedding at Le Petit Chateau… I knew that Kate and Andy and many of their wedding guests had made it there the day before so that was a good sign, and I had found out that the wedding the day before had gone ahead, albeit with reduced guest attendance. It wasn’t long before I was hitting the ‘road closed ahead’ signs and had to head cross country. Let me tell you I’ve never been more worried behind the wheel of a car. The road was just snow, and I don’t have a particularly snow-friendly car. Slow and steady was all I could do, using my gears instead of brakes like I was taught age 17 by my step-dad. But I came around a bend on a hill and the car lost traction. I gritted my teeth and hoped, because I knew if the car came to a standstill I was stranded. But luckily at the last second it found some traction again and I made it up that hill… and every other hill, eventually pulling up outside Le Petit Chateau. Honestly I’ve NEVER been happier to arrive at a wedding!

All the guests had also made it apart from Kate’s brother and family who were stuck in Geneva. There was definitely an amazing spirit to the wedding because of the collective feeling that we’d fought the Beast from the East and won! Classic Brits! Le Petit Chateau is an amazingly cosy venue well suited to that sort of weather and it really suited the icicles and feet of snow as you’ll see from these photos! I’d never been to a wedding at Le Petit Chateau before – I’m really glad that this was my first, and I have a feeling it won’t be the last!