My first destination wedding of 2025. Well, not so much a destination wedding for myself seeing as the venue was Carlton Towers Estate in North Yorkshire. So how was this a destination wedding? Kaya and Gabriel live in Los Angeles in California and the majority of the guests who attended also live in California. So for pretty much everyone at the wedding aside from the suppliers, this was a destination wedding, swapping the glorious sun drenched Californian weather for the mizzle and cool March weather of northern England. You may well ask, why but there is an excellent reason. Kaya was born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, the home of her father Philip Day. Philip is a double Emmy Award winning documentary film maker and his work took him to Hollywood when Kaya was a child. Kaya then grew up in Los Angeles and even followed her father into TV and film production working on projects including Marriage Story with Adam Driver and Scarlett Johanssen for Netflix and The Last of Use with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey for HBO.

So there was a lot of Hollywood DNA in this wedding. Kaya found me online and loved my of wedding film, telling me it was my cinematic shooting and editing style that caught her eye. I will take as a huge compliment from someone who really knows what it’s like to work in ‘The Town’ and whose own father has won two Emmy’s and a Peabody award. With Kaya wanting to set her wedding in her home county the search for a venue led them to Carlton Towers. As Kaya said, there just isn’t anywhere like it in California. Having been lucky enough to visit L.A. myself, whilst it has many wonderful places, buildings and scenery, one thing it doesn’t have is an 800 year old castle!

Carlton Towers is family owned and operated, in fact the family who own it live in one of the wings and there is a real personal, warm friendly feel even though the venue is huge. But the family link doesn’t end there, as you’d expect from a documentary filmmaker, Philip Day did some research looking into the history of the Castle and found out that at one point in history, a few hundred years prior, ancestors of Kaya’s family owned the estate and he only found this out after the wedding had been booked!

With over sixty Americans, a handful of Yorkshire’s finest and their friends and family present, this was an wonderful day, from relaxed preparations, through to an emotional ceremony (I used the vows for the trailer, listen to them, just so good), hilarious and heartfelt speeches and an incredible party rounded off with fireworks, the edit really had to tell Kaya and Gabriels story. I’m always a little nervous when I deliver a film, I always want to exceed a clients expectations and with a bride who had worked in Hollywood I was a touch more nervous than usual, here’s waht Kaya said:

“James, these are SO stunning thank you so very much. We’re so happy with them and had such a lovely time revisiting the day! We really appreciate all of your hard work and for the beautiful edit. Was such a blessing to have you there with us on the day.”

The Creative Team 

Photographer: Dan Beall – Weddings By Dan
MUA – Janice Fan
Florist / Designer – Anna Boyes
Caterer – Carlton Towers
Dress – CHOSEN by Khya
Suit – The Grotto
String Quartet – Luna Strings
Magician – Martin Duffy
DJs – Harrison BDP, AYAKO, Jamie Jar, David Green
Fireworks – The Fireworkers Ltd
Digital Dance Floor – Elite Sound