This wedding was slightly different in a couple of aspects from the others I have shot this year. For one, it was back in the UK and second it was for some very close friends of mine, Joe and Claire, that I had grown up with in London. It was nice to be back in action as a London wedding photographer and even nicer that it was shooting for friends.
On the morning of the big day I started with Joe and his best man, one of our good friends (he was a witness at my wedding!) Darra. We got some photos of these guys getting ready and being back in England that obviously started with a wedding day cup of tea. It’s always nice to share a brew with your good friends, but even more so on a morning like this!
The guys scrubbed up nicely and it wasn’t long before I was heading off to catch up with Claire, who was getting ready in Bromley. Before leaving, I took the chance to capture some details of the rings and some other special jewelry. What made the jewelry and the rings so special was that Joe’s twin sister, Anna, had made them all. I can attest to Anna’s wonderful work, she made our wedding rings and Erin’s (my wife’s) engagement ring. You may notice a theme of origami paper cranes running through this wedding (more to come in a bit) and Anna continued this in the jewelry, with wonderful silver folded cranes as necklaces and tie clips.
It was great fun catching up with the girls round at Claire’s parents house and needless to say there were more cups of tea to be drunk, before moving quickly onto the Champers! It was nice to be able to get some shots of Claire and her parents and family and also Joe’s mum and Anna, who was also a bridesmaid, as they were all getting ready and leaving from here. I took the chance to grab a few shots of Claire when she was completely ready and think you’ll agree she looked stunning in her dress!
Being England in the summer, it was obviously raining, but that was never going to dampen spirits today! Running out to the VW Camper Van that was going to be taking the bridesmaids and then Claire to Oaks Farm in Surrey where they were getting married, involved numerous umbrellas but no one got too wet! The awesome old VW was the perfect choice for these guys and it was great fun riding with the girls over to the venue in it.
More brollies (umbrellas, for my American readers) at the ready once we were at the venue and a big thank you to Marco, Claire’s brother, for holding one over me while I shot.
Oaks Farm was a wonderful location and though they had told me lots about it beforehand, it was the first time I was photographing here and it was a wonderful venue from all aspects. Good choice guys!
With everything in the one location we were set to go for the day here once Claire showed up. It was nice being a part of a day that was shared by so many friends and family that I knew. Our close friends did the readings during the ceremony and Claire’s two nieces did a great job with their reading as well.
They had been engaged over a year and during that time had spent most of their spare time folding origami paper cranes. See if you can spot a few throughout the day, they pop up here and there. There were over a thousand altogether and on several occasions in the run up to the big day, Joe and Claire had people over for folding parties round at their house.
The sun finally came out for us and gave me the chance to take Joe and Claire out into the grounds around Oaks Farm to capture some portraits of just the two of them together. When I’m photographing weddings in Boston and New England I always like to take the bride and groom outside for some shots of the two of them together and I wanted to make sure that I could get some for Joe and Claire as well. There are some wonderful spots surrounding the main building at Oaks Farm so we didn’t have to venture to far to find some great photo ops.
Thank you Joe and Claire for letting me have the privilege of capturing your Oaks Farm wedding day photos! It was great fun and it’s been great going back through the shots to put this blog post together. Catch up with you both next month!!
If you are interested in wedding photography in London or coverage in New England then don’t hesitate to drop me a line and get in touch to discuss coverage options visiting my contact page here. Don’t forget to “Like” Roberto Farren photography on Facebook too.
Cheers,
Roberto | LONDON AND NEW ENGLAND WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER