Lechlade Wedding in the Cotswalds | London Wedding Photographer

Cotswolds Wedding in Lechlade

Faith and Leon asked me to be their photographer for their Cotswolds wedding in Lechlade after being introduced to me by a mutual friend. They’d been childhood friends for years before falling in love, and their whole day felt so personal it was a pleasure to be there for them.

Lechlade is a few hours away by train and car, and they were planning to do everything quite a bit earlier than many weddings, with a morning ceremony and their reception just until the early evening. So I decided to head up the night before and stay at a local hotel, and in fact I actually bumped into them both when I took an evening walk through the town to check out the locations we’d be at the next day. We’d only spoken by Facetime calls until then, so that was a lovely coincidence!

Faith and her bridesmaids and mum all got ready at a local farmhouse-cottage style B&B near the church, with lots of coming and going and coffee and hair dryers and champagne corks popping (spot the moment the pop makes Faith and her sister both jump at the same time). Then I got a car down to the church where Leon and his family were waiting – while he was waiting on the front pew I caught his mum’s hand coming in from behind Leon to fix his hair before Faith arrives!

They rounded off their Lechlade wedding with the reception at a local community hall, beautifully decorated by Faith, Leon and all their friends the night before. instead of the usual three course meal they went for a picnic vibe with plate after plate of fresh sandwiches, pork pies, dangerously moreish cakes, you name it! And every table was named after a gin, because why not! I love gin…

Which brings me neatly to today’s Wedding Tip Of The Day: gifts for your wedding party!

Faith had bought each of her bridesmaids a small necklace, wrapped in matching blue bags and presented towards the end of their prep in the morning. That’s a lovely thing to do, and ties every together with a shared memento to treasure – plus if you do it while I’m there I’ll be able to capture their reactions. It’s all about those natural moments for me, I love them.