Claire and Re’s wedding at Two Woods

Morning at The Roundabout Hotel

I began documenting Claire and Re’s wedding at The Roundabout Hotel in the picturesque village of West Chiltington.

Claire and her bridesmaids were getting ready in the Bridal Suite. It was quite a dark and cloudy day outside, so light was a little tight. This wasn’t much of a problem as my recently acquired Fuji XT3’s were more than up for the challenge.

I settled into the background like I usually do and spent the morning snapping away, capturing the atmosphere and happenings as it all unfolded.

The Ceremony at Two Woods

As we left The Roundabout Hotel and headed towards the Two Woods Estate in Pulburough, the weather took a turn for the worse. What started as drizzle, very soon developed into rain. Not really ideal considering that the wedding was set in a lovely woodland location.

None the less, Claire and Re were not to be deterred by the typical British weather and the ceremony continued as planned. From the moment their friend played the Jurassic Park theme on acoustic guitar as they walked down the aisle, I knew that this was going to be a fun ceremony.

Taking place in the heart of the venue’s redwood and everyone was covered from the light rain. Well, I got wet of course as I was moving about, but that’s what kind of guy I am. I am happy to get soaked to get that perfect shot! 🙂

Reception and Evening

After the ceremony, everyone headed to the meadow. It was well and truly pouring down now, so the games that Claire and Re had planned, were abandoned in place of mingling in the tent. A few guests still braved the rain to head over to the camper van photobooth provided by Gecko Campers. David from Grove Cartoons also entertained guests with his stunning caricature work.

Once the delicious food by Epicatering was served and devoured, everyone headed back to the barn which was a lot dryer.

Around this time, I told Claire and Re that we had to get some shots of just them. While I don’t like to spend too long doing portraits, I do feel it is important.

On the happiest day of someones life, when they look as good as they do, it would be criminal not to capture that in a photo. And there was no way I could let the rain stop me from doing that. So I made the most of the bad weather, gave them some umbrellas and lit the rain up with some external flash-guns. I got this fantastic shot (even if I do say so myself)… and I also got wet.

Back in the barn, the live music was provided by Festival Folk, who were absolutely fantastic.

All in all, despite the wet weather it really was a fantastic wedding and it was an absolute pleasure to be a part of it.