We take a look at our latest highlights trailer of a wedding shot on the Suffolk Coast at the exquisite and charming Thorpeness Country Club. The day started off with the gentlemen prepping for the wedding by a round of golf with some great drone footage! We also wanted to capture the essence of the coast with some lovely shots of Julia & Ashton on the beach at Thorpeness beach right by the Country Club. Lets check out our latest wedding film and find out more about why you should get married at Thorpeness Country club surrounded by the rich history & heritage of this fairy tale village…

Wedding film Review

''Ben was the consummate professional from start to finish and all done with a wonderful sense of humour. Before the event he talked to us about what we wanted, made suggestions and worked with us to plan the day we wanted to capture.
On the day he couldn’t have been more charming and considerate. He knew how to blend in and yet be in the middle of things to get the best shots. We are delighted with the videos he has produced. They capture everything we remember of the day. Thank you. Book Ben!! ''  

- a Suffolk Wedding Film for Mr & Mrs Hunt

Thorpeness - the history behind this fairy tale location for a wedding film

If you haven’t been to Thorpeness or Aldeburgh you are certainly missing out! In the late 19th century, the Thorpeness we know today was a tiny fishing hamlet on the East Coast, buffeted by the merciless North Sea and home to only a few houses that had not been taken into the waves by erosion. A couple of decades later, it would be transformed into a fantastical holiday village, with a beautiful boating lake, complete with Peter Pan islands, a 70ft fairytale cottage on stilts, mock-tudor homes and a luxury country club.

Thorpe was renamed Thorpeness to distinguish it from the many ‘Thorpes’ in the country and Ogilvie’s plan, to create a fantasy, holiday haven for the upper middle classes, was put into action. Work began promptly and the new country club, known as The Kursaal, with an 18 hole golf course and tennis courts, opened in May 1912, the same year that the first properties were leased in the village. Development was interrupted by the First World War, but the construction of more accommodation and other planned facilities continued in the years afterwards. A concrete-brick-making machine was imported from Australia and used to make blocks out of shingle from the beach, making Thorpeness one of the first enterprises in Britain to utilise the potential of concrete. 

The village was hailed as ‘The New Suffolk Seaside Resort’.  An early brochure proclaimed “It will attract those who have no desire for promenades and cinemas. . . those who can appreciate a beautiful little hamlet situated between sea and lake”. But Thorpeness was more than a for-profit holiday resort; Ogilvie designed his haven with social idealism in mind. He wanted fresh air and room to move – the healthy places of Ebenezer Howard’s garden city principles – harmonious living between people and nature, and the sustainment of traditional family values. Despite the depression, development continued in the 1920s and by the 1930s, the village was thriving, with its ornate architecture, a successful country club, and even a Railway Station. It was regarded as a high class holiday resort.

A House in the Clouds

One of the most striking features of Thorpeness, one that can be seen sitting atop the horizon from the nearby beaches at Aldeburgh, is the 70ft house on stilts, commonly known as ‘The House in the Clouds’ which was included in the full wedding film for Julia & Ashton (we couldn’t leave out such an important local landmark in this film!)

When Ogilvie set about making his quaint, ornate village, the huge and unsightly water tower to the North of the Meare proved a problematic blemish in his idealistic vision. Originally intended to provide an adequate storage capacity for the village’s basic water supply, the tank at the top of the water tower was designed to look like a fairytale cottage, with accommodation in the stalk below. It had a capacity of 50,000 gallons and was capable of pumping 1800 gallons of water an hour from a well in the re-erected Aldringham Mill, with sufficient wind or a petrol engine used as an auxiliary power source in periods of calm.

An English Bofors shell, intended for a low-flying V1 flying bomb, passed through the tank in 1943, causing extensive damage. At the time, two Miss Humphreys were asleep below, but neither lady woke up. Due to careful and mindful preservation, Thorpeness is little changed today; the Meare remains just as magical, and the original postcard buildings still stand. In summer, the population swells, as visitors arrive to fill the holiday accommodation and day trippers join to take a boat out on the water, dip in the sea, or feed the swans. A unique place, it is one of only two purpose-built holiday villages in the UK, the other being Portmerion in Wales.