Woldingham Garden Wedding - Alex & Luke

I met Alex & Luke via Sarah & Tom who I shot for last year at Cripps Barn in the Cotswolds and a few weeks back I had the good fortune of photographing their gorgeous garden wedding.

Alex got ready at her parent’s house in Woldingham surrounded by her sisters and cousins. Alex is one of the warmest brides I’ve ever photographed and her good nature is completely infectious. Big emotion, heart-on-sleeve stuff was very much the order of the day. That’s always wonderful – I work that way myself – and it’s a real pleasure to photograph. The morning passed in a whirlwind of excitable and (mostly) controlled chaos before we headed off to Kenley All Saints Church, 15 mins down the road,  for the ceremony itself.  I have to make particular mention of Revd Chris Thomson who was simply fantastic in every way. Chris has a very can-do attitude and this made for a really lovely personalised service that included Alex’s students performing during the ceremony, and, from my point of view made life easy!

After the ceremony it was back to Woldingham and Alex’s parents’ house for the reception. I love a garden wedding reception. There’s something very special about celebrating such a massive day on home-turf and all the familiarity and heritage that comes with that. The garden has a great multi-tiered layout and this worked really well, with the marquee at the bottom, pool (and one of two bars) halfway up and the house at the top. With the exception of some light drizzle in the evening the weather largely behaved and everyone was able to spill out and enjoy summer in the proper way.

I always meet the most interesting and tremendous people on wedding days. Alex & Luke’s wedding was no exception. My thanks to Luke’s best men, his brother (a really quality guy), Lucianne of Lucianne Beauty who looked after Alex and her bridesmaids during the morning and to Alex & Luke themselves for being so awesome – it was an absolute pleasure.