Worcester College Wedding, Jenny & Tom
I love Oxford's Colleges and especially love photographing a Worcester College Wedding. It's such a beautiful place to get married and provides a great backdrop for the photos.Jenny and Tom met at Worcester whilst both studying there and got married in the chapel just yards away from where they first met. After the ceremony everyone lined up outside the college so I could take a fantastic Confetti photo. This was especially important because Jenny's mum had carefully hand dried all the petals. After a few drinks and some canapes, Tom, Jenny and myself went for a little wander around Worcester's stunning gardens so I could capture some natural photos of them. These moments will be cherished i'm sure.
Here's what Jenny had to say about their wedding
What was your favourite part of the wedding?Of course it's hard to choose looking back on such a wonderful day, but for me I think it was walking down the aisle with my dad towards Tom as he played one of our favourite pieces on the cello. I heard the first few bars as I was waiting to step into the chapel and was already in tears.
Please let me know about any personal or DIY touches you added to make the day a little more ‘you’.In retrospect maybe I took on a bit too much DIY - but it definitely made the day very personal to us! I love baking and had made lots of our friends' wedding cakes before we got married, so I made our cake as well as all the desserts for the wedding breakfast. I wanted the day to have a rustic, natural feel and made and decorated chalkboards for a 'welcome to our wedding' sign and table plan. I drew illustrations of native wildlife that I framed to use as table numbers, and illustrated our order of service, menu and wedding favours with pictures of Worcester College and wild flowers. We roped our friends in to help decorate the marquee the night before with flowers and a floral hoop. The music was also really important to us; Tom studied Music at Worcester and we were fortunate that his old friend and tutor were able to play the organ and sing during the ceremony while we signed the register, and our friend Andy played the piano for our drinks reception.
Why did you choose your venue?We changed our wedding plans during Covid, as we eventually opted for a smaller, intimate wedding that we could plan flexibly around changing restrictions (the original venue we had chosen in Yorkshire would only have made sense for bigger numbers). Once we fixed on Worcester, we couldn't believe we had ever contemplated holding our wedding anywhere else! It's where we met 13 years ago, were both lucky enough to call home for 3 years, and met so many of our lovely friends who shared the day with us. Exchanging our vows in the beautiful chapel just a few metres from where we had our first conversation was so special. Worcester also has beautiful grounds that we knew our friends and family would love. The whole team at Worcester, from the Chaplain Tess to the catering team and events co-ordinators, were absolutely amazing.
How did you find using Lee Dann Photography, were there any particular things about my approach that you liked, and how did you feel about the photos once you received them?Lee was brilliant and a wonderful person to have at our wedding. He was so kind and friendly and managed to take amazing photos whilst being unobtrusive and going with the flow of the day. He captured so many moments we had forgotten about in the blur on the day. We love the photos and would definitely recommend his work to our friends and family.
If you were doing it all again what would be the one bit of advice you’d give yourself at the start of the planning process?Planning a wedding during covid was certainly a challenge at times, but if anything this allowed us to strip back and focus on what was most important about the day. I had been worried that scaling down to a small wedding (by pre-pandemic standards at least) might make it feel less special but it wasn't the case at all, and actually if we were to do it again I don't think I'd change anything. So I would tell myself to relax and trust that as long as we could be together with our closest friends and family we would have an amazing day.
A selection of images of Jenny & Tom's Worcester College Wedding
The Reception was held in a marquee in the College's beautiful gardens. It was a fabulous day and I look forward to future weddings at Worcester College.
Worcester College Wedding Photography
I have photographed many weddings in Oxford's Colleges and i'm always blown away by the architecture and history that surrounds them. This was my first visit to Worcester College and I wasn't really prepared for what lies behind the gates. It really is a stunning mix of different styles of architecture with expansive lush gardens. It is a dream venue for a photographer, with so many fantastic options available.I really loved working with Jenny & Tom. It was such an intimate, heartwarming day.I hope you enjoy looking at the photos and if you are planning a wedding I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for looking.
Suppliers
Flowers: Hannah Brook at Aelisabet flowers - https://aelisabetflowers.co.uk/Marquee: Original Marquees - https://www.originalmarquees.co.uk(but with a massive shout to Wills Marquees who very very kindly worked with Original Marquees and transferred our balance from our initial cancelled booking when we changed venue to outside of their area).Band: Champagne Swing (Graham Hughes Jazz) - https://www.grahamhughesjazz.com/champagne-swingDress: Hermione de Paula - https://www.hermionedepaula.comThe catering etc was all provided by Worcester.