The sun was smiling on Hephzi and Jonny on their wedding day - with not a cloud in the azure-blue sky, and sunlight glinting off the groomsmen's military dress, medals, ceremonial swords and all.
The reception was a beautiful finishing touch, taking place at the airfield where the couple met and fell in love, and from which many a daring mission had been undertaken. Both Louise and I went a little bit dotty over the incredible golden evening light, a beautiful end to a sun-drenched day in Oxfordshire.
The groomsmen donning their military dress
An angel walking up the aisle - Jonny's face says it all.
Every couple is very different, and the photos we take at weddings reflect that - often we take a step back, and aim for people to be at their most natural in front of the camera. There's another type of couple, however, who play in front of the camera with the kind of freedom that most professional models strive for. Andre and Laura got married at Malmaison in Oxford, an amazing converted prison, and we were lucky enough to be able to take them to the grand architecture of Radcliffe Square in the centre of Oxford for some photos during the afternoon. Letting Laura loose in front of our cameras was more like working with a model than anything - we raised our game and came up with some more interesting concepts to work with, and the results you can judge for yourself!
Nothing like perfect morning light...
Laura was an absolute natural in front of the camera
The fellows of All Souls must have been slightly taken aback...
As ardent readers of this blog may remember, back in May 2009 we photographed a beautiful wedding at Ardington House, one of Oxfordshire's most lovely venues (http://simplicityphoto.blogspot.com/2009/05/summer-is-here.html). Summer has come around again, and almost exactly one year later, we're back at Ardington House for the wedding of Robyn and Tim - two of the most photogenic people you could hope to meet.
The venue was still stunning, the staff friendly and beaming, the sun came out just at the right moments, and the blossom trees were in full bloom. Perfect.
Some of our most memorable shots from the day...
Robyn being beautified...
The dress!
There aren't many venues where you can take this shot...
Robyn
Enjoying the blossom!
Standing on chairs and kissing, is, apparently, a Dutch tradition. And it's very fun!
Every so often, the stars and planets come into line to form a wonderful combination that you just couldn't have bettered. Louise and I are privileged to have some amazing friends and two in particular feature quite a lot in this blog post - David and Rachel.
There's nothing better than doing what you love - unless you count doing what you love surrounded by friends. David and Rachel's wedding was exactly like that for us. Often our friends are hesitant to ask us to shoot at their weddings, because they're afraid we won't be able to enjoy the day as guests. On the contrary - we have a great time at weddings, and even more so when we're shooting people we know well.
So far in this blog I've only really included a few select favourites from each wedding - however, for this one I've decided to do something slightly different. We take so many photos at a typical wedding, and only a selection of these go through the post-processing/photoshopping that gives a lot of our images a trademark style. But that's not to say we don't like all the other photographs - there are often some corkers there as well!
So for Rachel and David's wedding, I've condensed every single one of the 5,669 photos into a 10-minute stream, so you can get a feel for the sheer number of photos we take, and how we see everything that goes on during the day! I hope you feel the same as we feel when we're there, in the midst of fun, families, and some great characters!
Every so often I have the exciting experience of discovering an amazing new wedding venue in Oxfordshire that I'd never heard of before. Ben and Beccy's wedding was one of those privileged occasions - even more, I'd driven, cycled or walked past this place for the last 5 years and never even knew it existed.
Headington Hill Hall is now part of Oxford Brookes but has a long and illustrious history (as do most old buildings in Oxford), only the briefest fraction of which stayed in my brain. But it was lovely nonetheless.
The wedding was even more special given Ben's expertise in photography - specialising in nature and landscape photography, I felt very privileged that he chose Simplicity to cover his wedding. He was wonderfully gracious about everything too, leaving us to work in our relaxed, candid style and as a result, we had a completely un-stressful day in blissful sunshine, surrounded by lush greenery, fantastic artitechture and beautifully photogenic people. Take a look.
Oxfordshire is well known for some incredible wedding venues, and Bradley and Sally chose (in my humble opinion) one of the best. Eynsham Hall near Witney is a fantastic manor house with, apparently, 3,000 acres of land. The house and its gorgeous gardens were enough for us, though - we had a great time snapping away at the couple and their wonderful guests and came away with some really relaxed and natural shots, which contrasted well with the grand architecture. Luckily, we get to shoot more at Eynsham Hall next year, with a couple more weddings booked in the diary... I'm looking forward to it already!
It's not every weekend you get to go through the centre of Reading with a parade of wedding guests, led by a man in a colourful skirt playing the bagpipes, taking photo after photo of smiling people. But this particular weekend was one of those occasions.
Married in Reading Minster by the groom's father, Tim and Elise walked out of the fabulous church with massive smiles which seemed never to go away for the rest of the day. Especially when being gawked at by the hundreds of Saturday shoppers who were somewhat stopped in their tracks by a line of guests, dressed in their finery and led by the happy couple and a tartan-adorned piper. I used up a good portion of a memory card during that.
A few of my favourites...
Getting ready...
The Shoes
The Ring
The Church
Reading High St. didn't know what had hit it...
We didn't really need to tell these guys what to do...
