Heather and Rob married at Wootton Park in May, right in the middle of one of those spells where spring seems to decide it is going to have a go at being summer.
It was warm, bright and exactly the sort of weather that lets Wootton Park work the way it does best. The ceremony was outside beside the lake, guests spent most of the day drifting between the venue and the lawn, and everything felt properly relaxed.
Heather and Rob were very much my kind of couple. Family-focused, easy-going and considerably more interested in enjoying the wedding than spending the day being photographed.
Heather got ready in the Hayloft while Rob was around the corner in Wootton Park’s separate groom preparation area.
The Hayloft works particularly well on a wedding morning because everything does not have to happen in the same room. Hair and makeup can carry on in one area, dresses and details can live somewhere else, and there is a separate private room for getting dressed.
It means the morning can carry on normally without every photograph containing suitcases, breakfast wrappers and half the wedding party’s belongings.
Rob was getting ready separately with the groomsmen.
It was also important to Heather that her dad remained a big part of the day, and he was included throughout rather than everything simply happening around him.
There are several photographs I really like of him from this wedding, but one of the best little moments came just before the ceremony.
The weather meant Heather and Rob got the full outdoor version of a Wootton Park ceremony.
Everything happened beside the lake, with the guests outside and plenty of sunshine across the ceremony space.
They had also written personal vows for each other.
Rob’s were considerably longer than Heather’s, which is usually the opposite of how these things seem to go, and he got properly emotional during them.
That thumbs-up is exactly the kind of tiny moment I’m always looking for.
Nobody planned it. Nobody needed to recreate it afterwards. It happened, Rob saw it and I happened to be in the right place.
Once the ceremony was over, it was straight into confetti.
Wootton Park is also one of the venues where I can get the drone up, so after photographing the normal confetti sequence from the ground I could give them a completely different perspective from above.
The aerial confetti photograph has become something I do fairly regularly now. Weddings are full of moments everybody photographs from roughly eye level, so I like finding opportunities to show the same moment in a completely different way.
I normally need around ten or fifteen minutes for photographs of a couple together.
Because this was such a warm day, we split even that into two little sessions.
The first was before the wedding breakfast. A quick walk, a handful of photographs and then straight back to the guests.
I didn’t particularly fancy being responsible for sending Heather back to dinner with sunburn.
Later, once the temperature had dropped a bit, we went back out for another few minutes around the lake and island.
The boat has apparently been sitting down there for years.
It was also half full of water, so there was absolutely no chance I was suggesting Heather and Rob actually take it onto the lake.
They sat on the edge instead.
That gave us the photograph I used at the top of this page, with MAGIC written across the side of the boat.
Sometimes you do not need to manufacture much more than that.
The wedding breakfast stayed just as relaxed as the rest of the day.
I honestly couldn’t tell you every line of the speeches. I hear a lot of them.
What I can tell you is that Rob’s university years apparently left behind something considerably more permanent.
One of Rob’s groomsmen had also arrived armed with a pile of stickers containing a slightly questionable illustrated version of Rob and the words Tired Girly.
Apparently it came from a nickname somewhere in his university days.
By the wedding, the stickers were being distributed far and wide.
I’m told some have already made it overseas, which means somewhere outside the UK there is currently a tiny cartoon Rob stuck to something for reasons nobody else understands.
There was a first dance and a burst of activity on the dance floor, but this was also a very typical warm-weather Wootton Park wedding.
Once people had danced for a while, they gradually spilled back outside.
There were lawn games, drinks and groups of people sitting around talking to friends and family they probably had not seen for ages.
That is one of the reasons Wootton Park works so well for couples like Heather and Rob.
The wedding does not need to feel like a sequence of scheduled activities.
Sometimes everybody is perfectly happy sitting outside with a drink.
If you want your photos to feel like your day actually did.
No awkward posing. No staged moments. No turning your wedding into a photoshoot.
Most couples I work with want to spend the day with their people, not disappear for hours taking photographs. So I keep things simple. I document what’s happening, step in when you need me, and get you back to your wedding.
Big country house, registry office or somewhere in between, the job stays the same. Honest photographs of the people, atmosphere and moments that made the day yours.
Years from now, I want the photographs to take you straight back to it.