Hey, we’re Jess & Matt!
It’s great to meet you.
We’re a husband and wife duo and founders of Ceremony: a unique wedding experience combining personal documentary photography and luxury hair and makeup, for modern couples who want a day that looks good and feels good too.
Ceremony is the culmination of our love for not only what we do, but who we do it with. Finding suppliers who can do the job is one thing; finding suppliers who will work their backsides off to ensure your day is the best it can possibly be is another. At Ceremony, we offer the latter: a perfect marriage (pun intended) of artistry and authenticity, resulting in a seamless, luxurious experience that’s devoid of any stress and full of all the love.
A BIT ABOUT HOW WE GOT HERE…
As a wedding hair and makeup artist (Jess) and a documentary wedding photographer (Matt) you might have already guessed that weddings play a huge part in our lives. But what you might not have guessed is how big a part they play in our story, and therefore Ceremony’s, too! Way back when, we actually met whilst working the same wedding (Laura and David, we owe you guys), then in November of the same year got the chance to work together again (Vicky and Chris, we owe you too). This time, Matt plucked up the courage to ask for Jess’s ‘card’...and where she was expecting to get some pro shots of her at work, she ended up with a date, and then a husband (bonus!)
3 years later, whilst planning our own nuptials, the idea of what is now Ceremony came about. One day, at another wedding where they shared a client, Jess stuck around after the beauty bit was done; as photography had always been a passion of hers, she swapped her compact case for her camera case and continued on. Later that day, when the client asked for a lipstick top up (so Kayleigh and Josh, we owe you as well), the lightbulb well and truly went off. Why not do this together?
Fast forward 11 years, 3 businesses, 7 years of marriage, 38 ecstatic Ceremony clients and 1 cat (Fergus), and here we are.*
Meet Jess…
A decent cup of coffee makes me very happy – make me a cup of coffee and I will love you forever… literally.
I devour books – it’s just a fact! The bigger the better. If it’s the same amount of pages as War and Peace then you’ll lose me for hours.
I regularly work commercially and, on a shoot with the England cricket team, I was asked to trim Johnny Bairstow’s beard in under 30 seconds before shooting (And I thought weddings were high pressure!)
When I was at school, I really wanted to become an archaeologist – I suppose either way I was destined to have a job working with tiny brushes.
A 5am run along Whitstable seafront is my version of decompression.
At the age of 16 I knew I wanted to train as a makeup artist, but my teachers weren’t impressed. I was stubborn and stuck it out…. It paid off.
I adore working with people. It sets my soul on fire! I love interacting and working with every single one of my clients. There is always a unique bond with each one and it is this that makes me the happiest.
Meet Matt…
If I’m not shooting a wedding or in the editing cave processing one, you’ll find me riding my bike to every coffee establishment in the local area.
In another life, I nearly played cricket for a living (that could have been me in that beard trimming story above, ahem…)
White carbs are my kryptonite! I mean, who doesn’t love eating their bodyweight in pasta, or bread, or roast potatoes?! (Especially when they’re Jess’ roasties!)
Have I mentioned I love my bike yet?!
I too, cannot function without caffeine. Make me a Cappuccino and I’m yours!
When I was at school I wanted to be Maverick from Top Gun (lads, you know what I’m talking about right?) then I did some research about how to become a fighter pilot that said “must be good at Maths” – goodbye dream…
On the morning of our wedding, I crashed my car… into my soon-to-be Uncle-in-law’s hire car! Yep! Not an ideal way to settle the nerves, but it got me a laugh in my speech when I announced it to Jess
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*Though Ceremony as a concept has been going for a good few years now, we’ve only just come upon the perfect name for it, thanks to the help of Sans Souci Creative. (Yep, this is a shameless plug for my sister’s branding studio, but that’s what we do round here: we build connections, and share the love.)
Anyway, unusually for a big sister, I’m going to let her have the last word:
“Here was a couple, (now married), who had met at a wedding, whilst both working said wedding, who then went into business together to create a personal experience for other couples looking to get married. It has been a unison of creative ideas, collaboration of skill sets and a partnership of two people on many levels. Perhaps it was a bit on the nose, perhaps it was just the one word that succinctly summarised the core principles of the business."