Just before Christmas we photographed the wedding of Rosie & Gavin in Oxford. Now being in Oxford on a Saturday leading up to Christmas we set off very early to make sure we had assessed the venue before heading off to the getting ready locations. Becky & I drove to St Edward’s school in convoy & typically having allowed loads of extra time for traffic encountered very little! We met up with Samson & he & I checked out the beautiful chapel & reception venue. It was soon time for us to start our photographic coverage & Becky drove us to both locations. We would be travelling back to the venue with the Groom & the Bride so left our cars at the school. We always want to provide the best coverage we can so often travel with the bridal party, this leaves us free to photograph rather than worrying about parking our cars etc. As I always photograph the bride, I leave it to the last minute to head to the ceremony venue & it is often impossible to park when you arrive after the guests!
Gavin, his family, best man & ushers were all getting ready at a AirBnB in Jericho just a short hop from the school. We dropped Samson off & he captured images of Gavin & the guys getting ready. Gavin is in the Army & was wearing uniform, so there was some beautiful details to capture. Before long it was time for them to make their way to the venue.
Meanwhile, Becky had dropped me off with Rosie. It was lovely to catch up with the family; I photographed Rosie’s twin sister Emma’s wedding to Paul a couple of years ago. It is always lovely to be recommended by happy couples & always great to see my Brides & Grooms again. I captured some lovely images of Rosie getting ready & some family groups before we made our way to the school.
At the school the guests & an expectant groom awaited the arrival of the bride. Also waiting patiently for Rosie’s arrival was the happy couple’s beautiful dog Jess.


It was a lovely service & the happy couple exited the church into the late afternoon light. They made their way under the guard of honour & we then made our way back into the chapel to do some group shots.
It is always worth considering when you have a winter wedding where your group photos will be held. Often, after the service it will be too dark to do the shots outside & not all venues have additional space. The chapel was lovely & light so was a great space to capture these images.
We then took Rosie & Gavin away to do some shots of the two of them .The quandrant gave me some lovely opportunities for some stylish bride & groom shots & it was really interesting to use the architecture of the old building.
It was soon time for Rosie & Gavin to join their guests for the wedding breakfast. The reception room looked fantastic decorated for the season with a huge number of Christmas trees all strung with white lights. After some fabulous speeches it was soon time for the happy couple to take to the floor for the first dance before they were joined by their very enthusiastic guests!
It is not often that we provide coverage right to the end of the evening but Rosie & Gavin were keen on us capturing their departure lit by sparklers!

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