Novana and Kenny’s wedding at Oakley Court was an interesting change from my regular wedding coverage. For a start their day included a Chinese Tea Ceremony, a wedding tradition that I’ve never photographed before. Essentially the Bride and Groom take turns to serve tea to their respective parents and other important wedding guests and in exchange are presented with gifts. In practice however, the ceremony is full of subtleties and a symbolic language all its own - frankly it was fascinating! I know the traditional English wedding ceremony like the back of my hand, but trying to keep one step ahead of proceedings with the tea ceremony was an interesting reminder of life in my early days as a novice wedding photographer. Despite extensive research, I didn’t have the cumulative experience and muscle memory that I’ve developed over years of shooting western ceremonies and therefore it was an exciting challenge that had my senses fully alert in anticipation of the next element!

I cover a lot of small intimate weddings, but this wedding was particularly intimate, with only around 20 guests. Additionally the day didn’t feature an evening/dancing section which meant that instead we focused a little more heavily on creative portraiture than is typical in my photography. Oakley Court is a stunning setting right on the Thames and it lent itself fantastically to portraits. My thanks to Novana & Kenny for being fantastic to work with, I’m sure you’ll agree that Novana’s dress is something special, and also a big thank you to the staff at Oakley Court for being superb. It may not look it, but this was the hottest day of the year (at the time) and it was exceedingly humid all day. Still what an improvement on last year’s summer! As ever, below you’ll find a sequence of my favourites.