Welcome to Chandima & Mark’s wedding ceremony at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons!

I’ll be honest here (aren’t I always?), I have never photographed an Anglo-Sri Lankan wedding before and consequently wasn’t as sure as I normally am about what was coming up next (or what it would look like through the viewfinder!) And the images I did have in my head didn’t even come close to predicting the beauty, energy, joy and emotion of this particular day!

I figured that Chandima and Mark’s families would be lovely – they are, after all, responsible for Chandima and Mark (you couldn’t wish for nicer clients) – and I figured that it would be a very vibrant and colourful affair (I, too, have access to Google so it didn’t take much to find some suitably enlightening pictures online) but I had no idea just how beautiful!

From the initial moments of Chandima getting ready to the Kandyan dancers to the ceremonial lighting of the lamp to the emotional speeches to the gentle but uplifting Budhist ceremony in Oxford… The list goes on.

And on top of that Kate, our new assistant, is proving to be every bit as skilled with the camera as we predicted and has captured some absolutely stunning images from alternative viewpoints!

Simply perfect.

Can’t wait to show everyone the full set of images but until then, here are a few.

Enjoy!

Take care
Cheers
P.

I love working the Crazy Bear. Not just because it’s an ultra-cool venue but also because the clients we have there are always some of the nicest you can imagine.

Nancy and Phill (their little lad, Oscar) are just perfect clients and their wedding was everything you could wish for – although half a dozen guests did sadly find themselves on the wrong end of ash-canceled flights which was a shame. Still, it didn’t appear to slow any of the guests down (including the partners of some of those absent I might add!)

A beautiful day at one of our ultimate venues, a lively crowd (more laughter and revelry than is, frankly, to be expected at a wedding – particularly during the fantastically well-written and presented speeches!), a lovely and photogenic couple and the Oxford Gospel Choir thrown in just for good measure. This, I feel, is the definition a photographer’s dream wedding.

We’re going to be showing the guys their images over the coming weekend and I’m hugely excited as we have an absolute bag-full to go through! Brilliant!

Let us know what you think.

Take care
Cheers
P.

Le Manoir is always a favourite of ours and this wedding was everything that this venue does so well. Admittedly, the weather was terrible (that cold, piercing damp that we do so well in this country at this time of year) but, with the possible exception of a few photos we couldn’t capture outside, it made little difference.

I hope Sarah and James had dreamed of a cosy, romantic wedding in one of the world’s most beautiful venues as this is exactly what they had. With an open fire roaring and spitting in the corner and the Christmas tree lights twinkling over their ceremony, this was a truly wonderful wedding.

And following that, there were 7 courses of undoubtedly the most delicious cuisine imaginable. But then, that’s what Le Manoir is all about. A total immersion of the senses into a world of tastes and smells and attention to detail.

Sarah and James picked their wedding venue well. And they deserved it. They and their family were absolutely lovely to work with and I think the pictures we’ve captured show a truly romantic day that they’ll all remember for a long time to come.

Ah, this has been a great season.

Cheers
P.

We do seem to be blessed with cool, classy venues around us with Le Manoir, The Crazy Bear and Notley Abbey all within a 10 minute drive from where we’re based!

Anyway, I was up at Raymond Blanc’s little pad again last week for Christina and Richard’s wedding. And it was wonderful. The weather was great, the guests were great, the food was great (according to the guests – I nipped home for lunch as I don’t really like to photograph people eating – seems rude somehow), the gardens were stunning (again, according to the guests, many of whom appeared to be incredibly knowledgeable gardeners!) and the service, as always, was exemplary.

And this extends to the guys up at the Bat & Ball pub in nearby Cuddesdon which is where I met the bridal party first thing in the morning (it felt like dawn as it was a pretty early start!) and was immediately offered a cup of coffee by the landlady which was hugely welcome!

So all in all, a fantastic day full of beautiful moments, plenty of emotion and an awful lot of affection all shot against the familiar sandstone backdrop that is Le Manoir. Beautiful.

Let us know what you think

Cheers
P.

We spend a lot of time and effort keeping our website and blogs up to date (well, reasonably up to date) and it was great to know that it works – Elizabeth found us from her home in California through Google!

I knew this was going to be a great wedding the minute that we met Dave and Elizabeth at our studio and so it turned out to be. They were married at Penn St. Church and had there reception at Notley Abbey which is very close to us – and is utterly stunning.

The weather? Well, what can I say about the weather? Given our pretty dramatic summer, you’d be forgiven for thinking a couple from California were nuts for choosing an early autumn UK venue for their wedding! However, fortune favours the brave as they say and it couldn’t be more true. It was pretty funny to see a crowd of people used to very hot weather, sitting in an English church trying to keep cool by using the orders of service as makeshift fans!

I am not sure what our American guests made of it all (particularly the formality of an English wedding) but with two gorgeous (and very old) venues, glorious sunshine and a beautiful couple who could not be more in love, it was truly a wedding that Richard Curtis could write a film about! Stunning!

However, we are exceedingly fortunate in that our cameras can withstand pretty much any weather that is thrown at us – quite literally sometimes. Though that doesn’t always make it nice to be standing out in it!

One such wedding that we had the pleasure of photographing in torrential rain and thunderstorms earlier this year was at the Crazy Bear in Stadhampton. Now, to most brides and grooms this would appear to be an absolute disaster but to Claire and Iain (who are the ultimate chilled couple), it was quite the reverse – it simply added drama and excitement to the day! I love clients like that!

The Crazy Bear is one of the few venues where it is equally atmospheric inside as out and the Moroccan lounge felt welcoming and cozy as the heavens opened all around us. We did manage to squeeze in some of the family group shots outside – while dodging the downpours – but it made no difference to the day which was ultimately a huge celebration even with thunder growling away in the background!

I absolutely loved photographing this day!

This was a proper village affair as Bob & Rachel are one of the most popular couples I have ever had the pleasure to photograph. And, when you realise that their wedding fell on the same day as the Haddenham Real Ale Festival – an event of such magnitude that it typically results in the village and outlying area taking on the appearance of an apocryphal film where every man, woman and child has mysteriously and simultaneously disappeared, then it becomes clear just how popular they are! The crowd was huge!

I do love it when we get to work a proper local wedding – and this was almost the definition of such a term – as we know most of the guests which always makes it good fun! This was also a wonderfully family-orientated wedding with kids everywhere. We had to laugh as we spotted a crowd of small boys attempting – with a degree of success I believe – to break into a small, locked ornamental cage containing bags of sweets! I dunno. Kids these days huh?

Let us know what you think,

Cheers
P.

I’m stood in the familiar surroundings of Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons, camera in hand. And I have the nicest group of people to photograph. Oh, and the sun is shining – at least momentarily.

This was Rachel and Philip’s gorgeous and intimate wedding at Raymond Blanc’s famous venue. And it was everything you could wish to photograph in a wedding. Except for a little rain. Actually, quite a lot of rain, but it didn’t seem to matter too much. Besides, pictures of kids with umbrellas always look fantastic!

Rachel was particularly insistent that we captured a lot of images of the younger members of the wedding party and that the images overall were relaxed and informal. Given our approach, I suspect that’s exactly why she chose us to take the photos in the first place!

I reckon I have fulfilled the brief and I had a fantastic time doing it – and I suspect that Rachel, Philip and all of their guests did too judging by what I saw unfold in front of my camera. We have loads of images of the kids running around (with and without umbrellas!), a chilled groom, a stunning bride and a newly-married couple looking, well, like they’re unbelievably in love!

Is there more you can ask from a wedding day? If there is, I am not sure I know what it would be! Except, just maybe, a little less rain. But hey, that’s just nitpicking.

Let us know what you think of the images.

Cheers
P.