Oxfordshire Wedding Photographer - Village Hall Wedding

St Mary's Church in Aldworth & Letcombe Regis Village Hall Wedding

Click on the image above to go to Jess and Scott’s FULL WEDDING TRAILER!

So in early September this year I had the absolute pleasure of travelling down to South Oxfordshire to shoot Jess and Scott’s Wedding. It has been a wedding I’ve been looking forward to for a while as Jess and Scott are absolute sweethearts and I was so excited by Jess’s description the the beautiful 13th Century Church her and Scott were getting married in. I was also going to get to see some old faces at the wedding (Hey Kate and Tim) which always makes for a extra special day.

Jess wore a gorgeous dress from Rock the Frock Bridal Boutique in Berkshire on her wedding day teamed with a gorgeous silk flower crown her bridesmaids had bought her for her hen do, it ended up being so beautiful and going with Jess’s dress and make up so well that it was a main feature of her wedding outfit.

Jess and Scott rented out a local Village Hall in Wantage for a lovely, relaxed village hall reception. Anyway I’m giving away far too much… I’m going to let Jess and Scott take it from here in their own words.

If you would like to see the full wedding trailer click on the image above. ;)

Jess and Scott’s Story

“We met at a heavy metal nightclub! Scott was the DJ, and I went up and asked him to play a song by Polish death metal band Decapitated. We got chatting about death metal and had a bit of a flirt. He disappeared briefly to the loo and I left to get a kebab (I was a bit worse for wear). Fast forward a week and I spotted him loitering at another rock night - turns out he was trying to find me! We literally talked for about 5 hours, and then agreed on an official first date a few days later. I think he fancied me first, but I was the one who officially announced our relationship to all my friends at a party (with Scott standing next to me). I think that was the first he knew of it as well.” 

“Scott asked me to marry him underneath the liberty statue in Budapest on a very misty autumn day in November. We were sitting quietly together on a bench, and he asked me suddenly. It was one of the best moments of my whole life.” 

Jess on Scott: “He's kind, loyal, and is fiercely protective of the relationship we've built. He's the best man I've ever met.” 

Scott on Jess Jess: “Is loving and caring, emotionally strong, always positive, clever, very fun :)”

St Mary's Church in Aldworth, South Oxfordshire

“I did postgraduate work on medieval literature and culture, and St Mary's Church is a stunning example of Transitional Norman architecture, and the inside of the church contains these amazing 13th century stone effigies! It felt super intimate, very English and had a melancholic beauty (basically my dream aesthetic).”

Letcombe Regis Village Hall

“We had the reception at Letcombe because we wanted a proper old English knees-up. The cricket field outside and the amount of natural light in the venue just swung it for us. We were also planning on doing nearly all the decorating ourselves and a village hall gave us the freedom to do that.”

Wedding Suppliers

 “For my dress I went to Rock the Frock bridal boutique in Berkshire. I used RTF because I liked the idea of choosing from a small collection of thoughtfully curated dresses rather than a huge collection of dresses that all look basically the same. I also knew I wanted something a bit different, and something that would complement my body type. The wedding dress industry is often super focused on making brides look like a completely different person on their wedding day - I didn't want that. The atmosphere at RTF was completely relaxed, un-pressured and lots of fun. I ended up going for a dress I thought I would hate before I tried it on, and then fell in love with as soon as I walked out of the dressing room in it.”

“I used the artisan dried flower company for my bouquet and accessories. I get to keep my bouquet forever (well, almost...) and it was about a third of the price of fresh flowers. I cannot recommend dried flowers highly enough - they are much more cost effective, they look incredibly elegant and feminine, and you get to keep them after the wedding. Dried flower confetti is also muck kinder for the environment!”

“My best friend baked my wedding cake. This was one of the most special parts of my whole wedding. He made a three tier cake - chocolate and porter fruit cake, amaretto drizzle cake, and citrus gin drizzle cake  he decorated it with a thin layer of buttercream icing, gold leaf, dried rose petals and bee pollen. It was stunning.” 

“We made the majority of the decorations ourselves - I painted glass jars for candle holders, hemmed and sewed my own cloth napkins and painted my table plan by hand. It was a huge amount of hard work, but incredibly rewarding to see it all come together on the day. Seeing all of our nearest and dearest hanging bunting and ironing table cloths the day before was a very emotional experience and made us both feel so loved.”

”We had a South African braai! Scott was born and raised in South Africa so we wanted to keep the food super authentic, casual and just plain tasty. Everyone loved the food and we were both chuffed to see people up for seconds. I knew I didn't want a sit down meal, and queuing with my plate for boerewors and Mrs Balls chutney was one of my fave little moments of the day! Flame BBQ did an epic job.”

“Our pictures from the day are beyond what we expected - natural, intimate, stylish, and all suffused with a genuine warmth. Katie got some absolutely magical shots and provided a calming presence when I was getting ready in my bridal suite. I'm actually trying to think of excuses to book her again! Do you do 30th's Katie?”

Ha, ha the answer is yes I do. ;)

Is there anything you wish you could have done differently?

“I wish we hadn't allowed the stress of all the last minute organisation to get to us as much as it did. We were stressed out, exhausted from all the work and bickered a lot. When you spend so long planning a wedding, it becomes the biggest thing in your life and any little problem gets very easily blown out of proportion. I wish we'd have maintained a greater sense of perspective and not allowed the stress to impact us.”

Advice from Jess and Scott for other Couples

“No matter what goes wrong on the day, you will still be on cloud 9. Stop worrying about worst case scenarios, because on the day you absolutely won't care! You've just married the love of your life - congratulations!”

Thanks so much for having me Jess and Scott it was a bloody marvellous wedding indeed!

Lots of Love Katie xxxx

Dress was by https://www.rockthefrockbridal.co.uk/

Flowers by https://www.artisandriedflowers.co.uk/

Food by https://www.flamebbq.co.uk/

If you are looking to book your wedding photographer and would like a little bit more info get in touch with the form below. ;)

Liverpool Documentary Wedding Photographer - The Racquet Club - Becca and Sean

Urban Wedding

I love shooting urban weddings, so when Becca and Sean asked me to shoot their lovely chilled out wedding at The Racquet Club in Liverpool. I knew we were in for a treat! The Racquet Club is in a great little spot. It’s near enough to the Liver buildings for you to get a good couples portrait with one of Liverpool’s most iconic buildings in the background, the sun also sets just over the water making for some epic light at golden hour. Right next to the venue is Our Lady Saint Nicholas Church who are kind enough (with the little help of a donation) to let you use their gardens for group photos and getting a bit of greenery into your portraits. If greenery isn’t your thing, the area is bursting at the seams with beautiful architecture and street art to make for more modern portraits with cool Liverpudlian City Vibes. Luckily for me Becca and Sean were up for it all!  We even bumped into the Liverpool Ghost Tour on our escapades and Becca managed to grab a photo with them!

The Racquet Club Wedding Venue

Inside The Racquet Club is a real treat, with it’s huge rooms, tall ceilings and massive long window there is plenty of natural light around to make capturing those natural moments and fleeting interaction between guests a piece of cake. Becca and Sean had the super talented Sweet Pea and Ivy decorate the venue with a beautiful display of old books, candles, delicate roses and cascading foliage. The room looked amazing! Becca and Sean also added some personal touches themselves, Becca hand made some decorations attached to some huge white balloons and they brought Sean’s obsession with collecting Vinyl into the day by having guests sign records as a guest book and had a friends live band play music for their guests to dance to into the night. It turned into quite the party as you can see from the photos.

Thanks for having me Becca and Sean, you threw and beautiful, fun amazingly chilled out wedding and you were both up for anything! It was an absolute pleasure to photograph your day. Lots of Love xxxxxx

What Becca and Sean had to say...

“Katie thank you so much for capturing our day.

We were so excited when our photo package arrived, we relived the whole day going through it you captured every moment perfectly it was lovley to look back at some of the bits we missed on the day.

We really couldn’t of ask for anything more you really got us and what we wanted from our day and from that captured some amazing memories for us to keep.”

A few wedding dates in 2018 are still available and I am now taking bookings for 2019. 

If you are looking for your Wedding Photographer and would like to get in touch, drop me a message! I have a few dates in 2018 still available and I am now taking bookings for 2019. 

Why I Love This Photo Series 1.3

 

This photograph might not look like much at first. A family sitting at a table together in an empty room… But this moment was more than that. This was the moment when June and Steve took time out with their daughter Rosie during their wedding day. Rosie was overwhelmed. She didn’t really understand what the wedding was about and somehow thought that Mummy and Daddy getting married meant that they didn’t love her anymore. She was inconsolable. So deeply upset, it was hard to watch. After the ceremony was over June and Steve took her to one side to make her feel loved and spend some time as a family unit without the busy commotion of their guests around them. It was a beautiful, private and tender moment between the 3 of them and as it happened I managed to capture this little photograph of the 3 of them being a family.

Documentary Wedding Photography

Part of being a documentary wedding photographer is looking out for the small moments in between the bigger more obvious ones. Rosie will grow up and probably forget most of this day, when June and Steve tell her that she was so upset she may not even believe them! When I look at this photo, I see Love. The unconditional love that June and Steve have for their daughter. One day she’ll be older, she wont need them to hold her hand any more, she’ll make friends, move out, travel, become independent, but there will always be this little moment frozen in time when all this little girl wanted was a cuddle from her mum and Dad and that’s beautiful…

To view my full Wedding Portfolio click here.

Katie Dervin is a Documentary Wedding Photographer based in Manchester.

Amy and Harry's Beautiful Church Wedding and Village Hall Reception. St Mary's All Saints Church and Aston Village Hall.

When I first met Amy, she said that Harry and her just wanted a really simple but elegant wedding. A small church wedding with their closest friends and family and then on to the village hall for the party, where they had hired some local food vans to put on a variety of yummy hand made food and deserts to stay the whole day, for their guests to dip into whenever they fancied. It was a beautifully relaxed affair. Amy’s decoration was top notch as she decorated the whole hall herself and it did look beautiful and elegant, but the loveliest thing about the whole day was the look of love on Amy and Harry’s faces whenever they looked at each other. xx 

Katie Dervin is a Documentary Photographer based in Manchester.

Festival Wedding Alert! Victoria and Steve's Awesome, DIY - Back Garden - Tipi - Farm Wedding.

Victoria and Steve’s wedding was as intimate as it comes, they got hitched on a beautiful sunny day at Holy Trinity Church, Tythby, Nottingham in the very same church where Victoria’s parent’s got married, from the church the guests walked just a few steps down the road to Victoria’s childhood home where an awesome teepee reception, lots of bubbly and plenty of surprises were eagerly awaiting them. It was very much a DIY wedding with everyone chipping in, metal sculptures made by Victoria’s Dad, beautiful flower arrangements came from the lady next doors own garden, while on the other side their neighbours lent their farms fields for friends and family to camp over night, one particular heroic local family took on the mammoth task of serving everyone food and even doing all the washing up by hand. Decorations were hand made and sourced by Victoria from local charity shops and entertainment ranged through the day from a staged puppet performance to Victoria getting up and blasting out some mammoth tunes with her band, even nailing down a Jimi Hendrix solo on her Clarinet. It was truly a wonderful day, jam packed fun and all the magical little details and hard work from everyone on involved made it even more special. I loved every minute of it. Thanks for having me Stix (Victoria) and Steve! ;) xx