Sarah and Tom’s Lakeside Cotswolds Wedding Photography

Cotlswolds Tipi Wedding

For those of you that haven’t yet melted, I’ve got a beautiful Cotswolds wedding to tell you about today.

Sarah and Tom had a gorgeous teepee wedding in the lovely setting of Cotswold Water Park. It was a fitting venue, because the bride and groom run their own business doing paddleboarding and other watersports in the area, and Cotswold Water Park is, as you can imagine, a very beautiful landscape for a wedding. The area has got over 180 lakes, wetlands teeming with wildlife, and it’s handily located on the edge of the Cotswolds near Swindon and Cirencester,

Cotswolds Pre Wedding Shoot

I met Sarah and Tom a week before their wedding for a pre-wedding shoot. These shoots really help the bride and groom feel comfortable with me, give me the chance to get to know them a bit, and generally help the big day to run smoothly, so a pre-wedding shoot is always a big yes from me. Sarah and Tom had chosen a picturesque little spot in the Cotswolds that Tom knew from his childhood, and we’d got some lovely shots of them exploring the surrounding countryside.

Morning Wedding Prep/Party

On the morning of the wedding itself, I arrived at Sarah’s gorgeous house to meet her and her bridesmaids and the gang instantly set the tone for the day – they were full of chatter and banter, and it was clear how excited they were to see Sarah and Tom tie the knot.

As can often happen on occasions where the bridal prep is a party in its own right, time was flying by and it didn’t seem long before Sarah’s dad was nervously glancing at his watch, wanting to see his daughter in her wedding dress and get her on the road. He’d received a message to tell him that – wait for it – some escaped cows were causing an obstruction on the road to the church and a more cross-country route would have to be taken. The perils of a rural cotswolds wedding!

Off to the Church, nearly on time

Luckily the bovine interruption didn’t cause too much trouble, Sarah got her gorgeous dress on without any difficulty, and the bridal party made it to the church in the nick of time. The church looked beautiful bathed in the summer sunshine and, but the clouds broke as friends and family were leaving following the ceremony, and we enjoyed a refreshing little shower! This was actually the perfect opportunity to capture some pictures of wedding guests gathered under their brollies, talking and laughing whilst they tried to keep dry. Just goes to show that rain on your wedding day isn’t always a problem.

After the ceremony we took the short journey to the very picturesque Cotswold Water Park, where the most enormous teepee I have ever seen was waiting to welcome the wedding guests. Sarah and Tom had made sure that there would be enough space under cover in case there was a lot of rain, but fortunately we’d seen the last of the downpours for the day. 

Time to Party

Tom, Sarah, and their guests were able to enjoy the beautiful lakeside setting in the sun with some fizz, and we even managed to crack out the confetti that had been a bit of a damp squib at the church and get that all-important confetti picture.

Tom and Sarah had opted for an Argentinian style meat  feast for their wedding breakfast, and there were some glorious joints of meat being roasted over a barbecue – the smell was just divine! After everybody was well fed, it was time for some speeches. With Tom and Sarah being childhood sweethearts, it was lovely to hear the many years of stories and memories they had already made together, and some of the more embarrassing tales from their school years.

We headed out into the evening sun again and this was my chance for some couple shots with Tom and Sarah, who had got some smoke bombs to play with – they looked fantastic in the evening light. Before long, we were joined by some slightly worse-for-wear friends, and the mood shifted from romance to raucous! 

This was all in preparation, it seems, for the night ahead, because Tom and Sarah’s friends and family were some of the most dedicated dancers I have ever seen at a wedding. Usually there might be a few keen beans who stick on the dancefloor after the first dance is finished, and things pick up again a bit later on, but these wedding guests had the floor filled all night long and it was fantastic to see! Everyone was in a real celebratory mood and there were some extremely impressive shapes being thrown.

 

Huge congratulations Sarah and Tom!

IF YOUR LOOKING FOR A Cotswolds Wedding Photographer , THEN CONTACT ME TODAY TO DISCUSS.